Roll ’Em Up, Chow ’Em Down — It’s Burrito Week 2025

It's 2025 Burrito Week at the Independent, so go read about the two that I wrote about and eat a whole lot more. There are nearly 50 to choose from this time! (Can you tell from my write-ups which one of these I liked better?)

Baked with Love: A Mother Lode of Delicious at Mother Dough Bagels

 

Jennifer Gonzalez-Neely comes to her love of bagels honestly. She grew up in New York, and recalls, “Having a bagel was part of my weekly, if not daily, diet.” But that doesn’t mean she won’t give them a twist at Mother Dough Bagels, open for a very successful eight months now in the former Recipes Bakery spot on Santa Barbara Street.

For while she rightfully asserts, “They are New York–inspired, and you will taste the malt, and it will be boiled,” the sourdough (her starter is named Rocky, which her daughter came up with) makes her bagels more Californian. Then there’s one more way Mother Dough distinguishes itself — “I incorporate Asian-inspired flavors close to my heart, as I was born in the Philippines,” she says.

Care to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

Harborside Dining Finds a State of Gracie

 

“With a place like this, you don’t know what it will become,” says Dudley Michael, discussing his latest restaurateur adventure, Gracie, named after his partner, Grace Austin. “Your customers will tell you, and you will evolve with them.”

This opening bears even more weight than many, as Gracie has reimagined what was the Breakwater Restaurant. “People are really nostalgic about this location at the Santa Barbara harbor,” Austin says. Michael adds, “Some of them have been coming here since they were kids.”

The couple took over the location last fall, but they didn’t do the revamp — and it’s an impressive one, especially the jewel-box bar that classes up the joint — until this year, so they got a sense of possible complaints about change. Just shifting from frozen food to fresh freaked out some folks, let alone the F-bombs they received about the farm-fresh eggs they started serving — some were shocked by the bright-orange color of the yolks.

Care to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

A Review of "Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson" by Claire Hoffman

 

Why and how masses of people fall under the thrall of a magnetic person are the kinds of questions that sadly keep poking their, in the most recent case, oddly orange-tinged heads up far too often in history. That makes Clarie Hoffman’s steady, insightful biography Sister, Sinner, an examination of the fantastic and tragic life of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, all the more timely. An early 20th century powerhouse, McPherson arguably created the first megachurch (what became the Foursquare Church, which still has over 6500 congregations globally today) and was wise enough to be the first woman to preach on the radio, too. Her style of Pentecostal ceremonies featured staged spectacle, from camels to faux police motorcycles, big choirs, some speaking in tongues.

But the most important voice was always Aimee’s. Her goal was to make one’s relationship with the lord more personal—her original magazine from her church was the Song of Solomon inspired The Bridal Call. As Hoffman puts it, “Aimee’s words were a sort of heavenly come-hither, a promise of intimacy with the divine, a lifting up away from all the darkness that was gathering in the world.” But, often drawing her sermons from her life—and what a life it was—“She emphasized her fallibility, always,” Hoffman further explains, “She was prideful and prone to make foolish mistakes, but all of this made her more adorable and magnetic.”

Care to read the rest then do so at the California Review of Books.

Review also posted at the Santa Barbara Independent on September 5, 2025.

Cocina de Community

(Photo by Ingrid Bostrom)

When Jacqui Karlsen learned that Café La Fonda, operating on Anapamu Street across from the Courthouse Sunken Garden since late 2023, was in danger of shutting down, she was compelled to step in. That’s why, as of June 16, the prime location which has somehow run through many iterations since the beloved, sorely missed The Bakery left (The Courthouse Tavern, The Little Door, Piano Riviera Lounge, The French Table, and Elements Restaurant & Bar), is now officially La Fonda Smash Burger & Pancake House. Bet you can guess some of the menu.

Care to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

Loquita Takes You on a Taste Tour of Spain

So Loquita has a new executive chef, and while it seems they sort of post someone new in that position as often as a TACO changes his mind on tariffs, we need to hope this one sticks. For Cristian Granada comes to Santa Barbara with a wealth of international experience--born in Colombia, he trained and worked in Spain, has been part of Michelin-starred kitchens in D.C.--and even better, he has the nuanced ability to understand and honor tradition while also eyeing the culinary future.

Take his take on gazpacho. Sure it kicks with tomato-power, then the richness olive oil brings, and enough spice to make it all sing. But his also comes, as the menu puts it, "spherified." That is, your adorable wooden spoon holds a flattened globe of gazpacho that you suck into your mouth like a mini-egg yolk, where it bursts with all its brightness. It's a revelation, a moment of flavorful joy.

That spherified tomato gazpacho is currently on feature as part of one of Chef Granada's new additions to the menu, a Pintxo Experience: A Taste Tour across Spain. As the placemat you'd get when ordering it claims, "Discover the rich culinary heritage of five iconic Spanish regions through a curated selection of pintxo--small bites with big stories." (One big problem with the bite-sized delights that are the apps pintxos--auto-correct likes to kill the "x" every time you type the word.) The tastes will change some over the course of the year based on what's seasonal, but for now include compressed peach with jamón bellota from the Basque Country; from Catalonia, an uni-prawn mousse in a mini cone, cute as a button, and maybe pointing to a French Laundry classic, if with a smaller cone; from Madrid, a showy "transparent" bread--kuzu is involved--with a rich tomato atop; and from Valencia, jamón inbérico tartare on a pork cracker. The handy placemat offers a map of Spain so you can get a lay of the culinary land and also offers a quick description of each region's food roots.

Chef Granada is certainly one to watch, ready to burnish the already bright reputation of Loquita.

Sandwich Week '25: Gala, Goat Tree, SB Fish Market

As the Indy slowly moves to 52 Weeks of Fill-in-the-Blank Food per year, try to digest them all (and really, it has nothing to do with ad sales, look away), welcome to the first Sandwich Week. Over 40 to choose from. I got to preview three. See images below or....

Read the rest at the Independent's site.