Thursday, February 21, 2008

Coast Restaurant and Bar at The Canary Hotel, Santa Barbara

This review is way overdue but here it finally is. Two weeks ago when I visited Santa Barbara during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, my cousin, Anki, and I went to a newly opened restaurant, Coast Restaurant and Bar at The Canary Hotel. Formerly Andalucia Hotel, the property was purchased last year by the owner of Shutter Hotel On The Beach in Santa Monica, where they also have a Coast.
I have stayed several times in the past at the Andalucia hotel, and we've always enjoyed our stay, although the restaurant was never a hit. Now being the Canary Hotel the whole property including the restaurant has been remodeled and redecorated. Peeking in through the windows during the renovation I certainly liked what I saw for the restaurant.

As we entered the restaurant a great ambiance greeted us (along with the pleasant hostess) with dimmed lights, leather and wood furniture, rich fabrics, wood shutters, and a spacious bar in wood and leather, crowded with people visiting the film festival. A happening night I would say. We were both excited about the sophisticated but still casual and relaxed atmosphere, and the reasonably priced menu. A future favorite we were sure of as we discussed the menu.

We started of by sharing the Dungeness Crab Cakes ($12). Very tasty, packed with fresh crab meat, lightly seasoned and not to much of anything else to take away from the crab. Since it's been over two weeks ago I can't remember what the little salsa/salad on the side was but I do know that I thought it made a great addition.
For entree I ordered the Rigatoni with Beef

Ragout and Parmesan ($15), and my cousin the Arugula Salad with Rock Shrimp and Crispy Pancetta ($12). My pasta was tasty but the meat should have been better cleaned of fat. Flavor would some say but I would prefer it without finding pieces of almost all fat/no meat in my pasta. Otherwise good flavors. The salad was a disaster. Sure looked pretty and tasty on the plate but as Anki bit into the shrimp she got a weird look on her face and had to force herself

to swallow. Cold, tasteless, and of jelly-like texture, as if they had been frozen and not given enough time to thaw. Would definitely expect fresh shrimp at a place like this. Our waiter sensed the problem and came over, and when hearing about the food, offered to bring in something else. The halibut was highly recommended and so she ordered the Broiled Halibut with Asparagus ($22). I was just a couple of bites into my dish and they whisked that away to keep warm as well. A while later a new plate of pasta arrived for me (bonus points) and the new entree for Anki. The plate consisted of a long narrow piece of halibut and steamed asparagus spears. Looked plain and boring but not to say it couldn't be delicious. Two bites into the fish she looked at me and declared "I can't eat this. It is horribly over cooked and dry". I reached over for a bite to confirm, and sure enough, she was not exaggerating. It was one of the worst pieces of fish I'd had in a long time. By this time our table was swarmed by waiters and managers approaching us every other minute asking how everything was. When finding out about her second bad dish, they apologized, assuring us that this is not usual how it's prepared, was there anything else from the menu she would like. At this time she had eaten half of my pasta, was no longer hungry, and we decided to move on to the dessert.
A Warm Chocolate Lava Cake ($6) with vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate sauce arrived on the table and it was as good as it looked. Warm, molten, chocolaty, what else could you possibly want at the end of a meal?

We ordered wine by the glass with the meal and I really appreciated their selection of mostly wines from local wineries, offered by the glass at a reasonable price. A big plus for them in this section.

The staff made a real effort throughout the whole meal to correct the mishap with the two bad entrees, which certainly made us feel a little better about the experience. The restaurant is beautiful and we expected so much more from the food, and I would be lying if I didn't say that I walked out of there disappointed at the end of the night. Our starter and dessert were really good but they have to be able to serve up better main courses. It is a new restaurant and hopefully they will be able to pull their act together as the get a little warmer in their clothes. Could also be that we just had horribly bad luck with the food. I will return at some point to give it a second try and hope to find the same tentative, hard working to please staff, this time serving up a great meal.
This place certainly have everything else going for it...

Coast Restaurant and Bar at Canary Hotel
31 West Carillo St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 879-9100


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Friday, February 15, 2008

Ramey 2005 Larkmead Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon


The Ramey Jericho Canyon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon has been a favorite of mine for years, and for Valentine's dinner it was time to try the Larkmead Vineyard.
The Ramey 2005 Larkmead Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon consists of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc, 7% Petite Verdot, and 1% Malbec.
It has a beautiful dark red/purple garnet color in the glass.
The nose shows dark fruit and berries, spice, oak, and toasted brioche.
On the palate cherry, plum, black currant, and oak, with earthy mushrooms and elegant fruit on the finish. The tannins are well integrated, but still has that tart edge that you would expect for its youth.

We really enjoyed this fruity, earthy cab with good spice and oak, showing of its elegant side on the finish. Jericho Canyon Vineyard is still a noch up for me but this one was truly great as well. For a few less dollars I would say they both match their quality with price point.

I paired this wine with a Stilton topped filet mignon, served with a red wine reduction, luxurious mushroom laced "grown up" mac and cheese, and asparagus. For dessert a dark chocolate souffle with vanilla bean ice cream, sprinkled with vanilla salt. The food and wine paired beautifully.

Find it at Wine-Searcher.com from $64.99. Normally retails for around $80-90. Retailing in my local store for $74 I know I will stock up on a couple of bottles...



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Monday, February 04, 2008

Seagrass Restaurant, Santa Barbara

Saturday night me and my cousin went to dinner at Seagrass Restaurant, a newly opened restaurant located in the old spot for Sage and Onion (that I miss so much!). Seagrass' chef and owner team is the same as that of Bouchon, a highly regarded restaurant in Santa Barbara. As the name suggest this newest venture has extensive seafood options on the menu, but also beef, chicken, etc.

A small remodeling has been done to the space, with new colors, wall coverings, light fixtures and removal of the bar. It certianly got a face lift even if I did not quite agree with everything in the decor.

We had reservations and were promptly seated upon arrival. Fresh warm bread was served shortly after menus were presented, as I decided on a bottle of Roar 2005 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir with dinner. I have had this pinot before and is was as lush in red fruit and berries with, raspberry, cherry, and earthy notes, as I remembered it to be. Great supporting acidity and tannins, and developed a great smoothness in the glass as it got a chance to breath for a while.

We started our meal with sharing the Seared Gigant Sea Scallop. It comes with a choice of three preperations. We chose the coconut black rice with green curry and spiced apricot chutney. The scallop was perfectly cooked and the curry gave the dish a slight bite countered by the sweet chutney, fragrant from ginger. Very nice dish!

For entree I had the Buffalo Tenderloin with Demiglace, Creamed Corn and Potatoes au gratin. The chef recommended the tenderloin medium rare and it was perfectly prepared and tender. The creamed corn and potaoes au gratin made wonderful side dishes, the corn sweet and flavorful, the potatoes creamy and rich. A very satisfying dish.


My cousin had the Crispy Skin-on Pacific Wild Salmon on Sauteed Kale (or was it spinach?), with Saffron-Salsify Israeli Couscous, Gingered Carrots Julienne, and Beurre Noisette. I tried the dish which was light and delicate compared to mine, but also packed with flavor. Delicious.


The dessert choice was easy as soon as we saw the Warm Chocolate Molten Lava Cake with Cardemom, served with coconut ice cream. The hint of cardemom was very subtle and added a little twist to the chocolate cake. Altough I am not usually a huge fan of coconut, the flavor in the ice cream was so delicate that it only played a supporting role and married perfect with the chocolate and faint cardemom. A great ending to a delicous meal.

Service throughout the night was very attentive but never to much. I assume they have brought over staff from Bouchon or hired experienced staff as the whole evening ran very smoothly. That is unfortunately not always the case for a newly opened restaurant.
The clientel was definitely more mature and we felt slightly out of place to start with. But we soon forgot about that as we indulged in the food. I don't know if this was just a coincidence for the night, or if it is the normal case for this spot. Could perhaps use a little bit more "young and hip" influence to attract an extended clientel.
"Well done" would be my comment for this new spot in the Santa Barbara dining scene.

Seagrass Restaurant
30 E. Ortega St
Santa Barbara
(805) 963-1012


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Sunday, February 03, 2008

Crushcake Cupcakery, Santa Barbara

Finally Santa Barbara has it's own cupcakery like so many other cities. One can wonder what took Santa Barbara so long...
I had the privilege to step into Crushcake Cupcakery yesterday afternoon, their very first day open. As to not overeat I had already decided that I could only get two cupcakes for myself, so imagine my thrill when discovering that they offer mini cupcakes. That meant that I could get four of them instead, perfect for trying multiple flavors. I headed home with bag in hand and decided that I had to try all four of them so I could blog them right away. Needless to say I could not limit myself to one bite out of each and after a few minutes there was only a few crumbs left where a moment earlier four pretty cupcakes had been.


These are the four flavors I tried.
First one to disappear from the plate was the Chococlate Chocolate. A moist dark chocolate cake topped with chocolate frosting with a note of coffee. Very nice indeed.
Second up was the Chocolate Bliss, the same moist chocolate cake, but this time topped with a delicious vanilla frosting. Perfect if chocolate on chocolate is to heavy for you...
The Strawberry Blush was surprisingly enough my favorite of them all. I am as you know a full blown chocoholic and expected the two previous ones to be on the top of my list. The cake in this one was amazingly moist with a light, sweet, taste of strawberry. The pink frosting was out of this world, with a delicous, more intense, strawberry flavor. I can only imagine how popular this one will be for bridal and baby showers...
Last but not least I had their signature cupcake, the Crushcake. A red velvet cake topped with a white sourcream frosting. Crowned with a chocolate heart (made a perfect little treat at the end) and a rain of red sprinkles. The perfect little treat for Valentines Day.

Delicious cakes, friendly staff and a good location (right on the corner of Anacapa St and Arlington Ave). I know I will return for more of the same in the near future.

Crushcake Cupcakery
1315 Anacapa St
Santa Barbara
(805) 963-9353


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Saturday, February 02, 2008

Alma Rosa Winery and Vineyards wine tasting

Spending the weekend in Santa Barbara I decided to go to the Alma Rosa wine tasting at East Beach Wine Company last night. Stepping into the shop the place was packed and it took a minute before we reached the counter and could pay for two tastings and get our glasses. To our delight the owners, Thekla and Richard Sanford was there themselves, with their daughter Blakeney, to pour and talk to the customers. Nothing beats the opportunity to talk to either the owners or wine maker as you taste a winery's wine. Both Thekla and Richard where very nice and pleasant, and spent quite a bit of time with us. It was a true pleasure to talk to them, and you could tell how passionate and excited they are about their wines.

A short bio: Richard Sanford was the first to plant Pinot Noir in Santa Rita Hills in 1970. 1981 him and Thekla started Sanford Winery, and after parting with it in 2005, they founded Alma Rosa Winery and Vineyards at the location of their old winery. All grapes are grown organically with sustainable agricultural methods.

The tasting started of with the Alma Rosa 2006 Santa Barbara County Pinot Gris. A light crisp white with pear, citrus and notes of honeysuckle. Nice acidity and minerals on the finish.
Next up was the Alma Rosa 2006 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Blanc. This wine showing creamy citrus in a dry, still very crisp wine.
The Alma Rosa 2006 Santa Barbara County Chardonnay was fermented in partially new French Oak and then aged in stainless steel tanks, not undergoing malolactic fermentation. I really enjoyed this clean, crisp chardonnay, with notes of tropical fruit. Perfect poured chilled a warm spring or summer day.
The Alama Rosa 2005 El Jabali Santa Rita Hills Chardonnay went through a different process. It was fermented in stainless steel tanks and then aged in 20% new French Oak. The grapes comes from a older vineyard then the 2006 Santa Barbara County Chardonnay and you can tell the difference. This wine is heavier/denser in the fruit on the palate, with ripe tropical fruit, white fragrant floral, and round oaky vanilla notes. Still on the lighter side and with good fresh acidity, but the first Chard was my favorite.
On to Pinot Noir, which is what I really came for.
The Alma Rosa 2005 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir has light bright fruit with raspberry, red cherry, and notes of oak/vanilla. All wrapped in good acidity and integrated, but slightly woody, tannins.
The Alma Rosa 2005 La Encantada Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir shows darker, deeper fruit with black raspberry, cherry, blueberry, herbs, and spice. While the 2005 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir is made from all six clones in La Encantada vineyard this is only made from two of them. In this case resulting in a more concentrated Pinot.

Find all these wines at Alma Rosa's website.

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