Full Belly Files | Do We Need Big City Validation?

This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on September 1, 2023. To receive Matt Kettmann’s food newsletter in your inbox each Friday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

Like smaller towns located near mega-cities across the world, Santa Barbara endures a complicated relationship with our neighborhood metropolis of Los Angeles. Stay out, we say, and keep your traffic and crime and consumerism away.

And yet, since it is the capital of so much modern culture, especially the epicurean kind, we simultaneously covet certain stamps of approval from our Angeleno amigos. Whether you’re a celebrated chef or a proud hometown foodie, it’s natural to yearn for recognition that — despite, or perhaps because of, our certainly slower, often simpler ways — Santa Barbara is excelling in ways that compete with the best that bigger, faster cities can offer.

That brand of validation was in full-force last Thursday night at The Lark’s 10th anniversary dinner, where two of L.A.’s biggest food and drink stars — Nancy Silverton and Caroline Styne — as well as Izabela Wojcik of the James Beard Foundation came to toast the restaurant’s founder-owner Sherry Villanueva and its loyal chef, Jason Paluska.

[Click to enlarge] The Lark’s 10th anniversary menu showcases regional farms, ranches, and fishers. | Credit: Matt Kettmann

Over a menu of mostly Paluska dishes — bluefin crudo with cantaloupe and urchin; squash and its blossoms with walnut pesto; smoked short rib with corn polenta and tomato bone-marrow jam — a couple of Silverton classics (her famous Caesar and butterscotch budino), and Santa Barbara wine country selections by Styne (Habit sauv blanc, Tatomer grüner, Storm pinot, Joy Fantastic syrah, and Ojai Vineyard riesling), the evening was a visceral celebration of how integral Santa Barbara is to the culinary conversation of 2023.

While a deserved nod to talented restaurateurs and chefs such as Villanueva and Paluska, the broader recognition — which has been growing steadily for years, but feels near-peaking right now — is even more directed toward the farmers, ranchers, and fishers of Santa Barbara County and the greater Central Coast. Indeed, that plethora of sources is what the smartest Santa Barbara chefs have always embraced, and our best restaurants are direct reflections of how fresh and flavorful this region’s fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats can be.

That’s exactly what Chef Massimo Falsini wanted to talk about during the Lark dinner, when he sat across the table from me and right next to Villanueva. He’d taken a night off from his job running Caruso’s at the Rosewood Miramar, where he’d come after years of working in Italy, Hawai‘i, and Napa, and was trying to convince me how special the sourcing was in Santa Barbara.

I didn’t need any convincing: I’ve been writing about our evolving food scene and cooking fresh from our farms at home for nearly a quarter-century now. But hearing the Michelin-starred Massimo — who must be considered one of the hotter chefs on the planet right now — so passionately extol the region’s glories was, well, rather validating, especially in a situation that was already all about validation.

And I can’t remember how this came up, but we briefly talked about my fettuccine alfredo experience prior to my first colonoscopy. Massimo pledged to make me an authentic alfredo one of these days. I’ll report back.

L.A. Getaway

The afternoon after the dinner at The Lark, I headed down to Los Angeles, primarily to attend a fantasy football draft on Saturday, but also to hang with friends I hadn’t seen in awhile. (The destination fantasy football draft is a fast-accelerating trend deserving of its own article, but this is not that.)

The hands-down highlight of our Friday evening was a behind-the-scenes tour of the Hollyhock House. Perched dramatically atop a prominent hill and surrounded by Barnsdall Art Park in the middle of the Hollywood–Los Feliz borderlands, Hollyhock was the first home built in L.A. by Frank Lloyd Wright. But because Aline Barnsdall, who commissioned the building in 1919, never really liked the concrete creation, which Wright never really finished, the home was given to the city in 1927 and quickly fell into various stages of disrepair.

Since 2015, the landmark has been under the care of my good friend Abbey Chamberlain Brach, whose museum-curating career, which includes time at the Smithsonian and LACMA, began at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. I’m not sure why it took me so long to visit, but even my other friends who’ve lived in Hollywood for more than a decade had yet to check it out.

It’s not your usual fancy home tour. Wright’s interpretation of what Californian architecture should be comes off as slightly Mayan, somewhat institutional, and a little oppressive, with low ceilings, lots of cold yet gold concrete, and geometric designs cast into stone. The period furniture gives a better sense of what living there would have been like, if anyone ever did, and the fireplace’s moat, which failed almost immediately, stokes plenty of imaginative scenes. That our backstage access featured snacks from Kismet and wines that I brought only made the epic sunset views sweeter. Official tours are just $7 (reservations recommended), so you have no excuse not to check it out.

Dinners at Messhall and Superba were solid enough, but the weekend’s other highlight was my first visit to Connie & Ted’s, a seafood showcase that’s been on my list for years. While most of the post-draft crew stuck to fish and chips and sandos — well, we all did oysters — my buddy (from 5th grade onward) Dr. Pepper and I went deep: Santa Barbara urchin with cheesy toasts (his first uni, actually); albacore crudo fresh from Oregon; bready, stomach-stuffing clam cakes (an economical alt to the crab); a shockingly fresh tomato salad; and soft-shell clam steamers, with clam broth and drawn butter for dipping.

Lunch at Connie & Ted’s in West Hollywood, including Dr. Pepper’s first urchin. | Credit: Matt Kettmann

Breakfast at Clark Street Diner on Sunday morning was also recommendable. The former 101 Coffee Shop, the diner has played a set for Swingers, among other big- and small-screen scenes, and made a great base for the trek home

From Our Table

Here are some food and drink stories you may have missed:

• Jamie Knee filed this report on the recent Wine & Fire event in the Sta. Rita Hills.

• Leslie Dinaberg runs down the Labor Day parties happening at the Kimpton Canary this weekend.

• Leslie also previews the upcoming barbecue series at Alisal in Solvang.

• I stopped by We Want the Funk to check out their “Fro-Sidro,” a slushie version of the Ysidro sake spritz.

• I spoke with veteran winemaker Steve Fennell about launching his own line of wines. I had a great time reading all about his grandfather, but was only able to sneak a tiny bit about him in the story. At least it’s the lead!