••• We had a rather good meal at Aperitivo the other night. While I would recommend it to anyone as a wine bar, as a restaurant, it warrants a caveat. The menu is small, which means that you’ll be happier if you’re open to ordering dishes you might avoid on a larger menu. Indeed, we almost never have tuna, and yet chef Brian Dodero’s crudo was luscious. (I overheard the owner of the Santa Barbara Fish Market say it was caught that morning.) What I hadn’t known until recently was that co-owners Dodero and Andrea Girardello met while working at the Four Seasons Biltmore—respectively, as a chef at the Coral Casino and the Director of Restaurants/Wine Director. Girardello is the primary server, and he brings a real polish to the role. All in all, Aperitivo is the kind of intimate, chef-owned restaurant that Santa Barbara could use more of.
••• Julie points out that La Paloma Cafe would make sense as the new name for the Paradise Cafe space, since that was the name before it was Paradise. The question now: Will the new restaurant serve Mexican food, as the old one did back in the day?
••• Third Window Brewing has been embracing pop-ups: besides Kultura’s birria on Tuesdays, Wednesdays will alternate between Pita Riá (pita sandwiches with vegetables or lamb) and, this coming Wednesday, Coco Loco (fish tacos and ceviche).
••• Blackbird at the Hotel Californian sent over the new food menu—it’s a downshift from what the restaurant used to offer.
••• The outpost of Everytable in Amazon’s offices on State Street says it hopes to open in very early 2021. (Only three of its nine locations in greater L.A. are currently open.) The chain is known for charging less in food deserts than in affluent areas.
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Does anyone know what Dennis and Carrie from Low Pigeon are up to?
An announcement is coming this Friday.
Thanks!