Manifattura’s Pastas Have Stories to Tell

The look and taste of the food at Manifattura speaks all for itself. 

Focaccia whose crunchy outside shines as much as the soft inside floats. Tiny eggs of burrata wearing floppy white berets, their creaminess cut by delicately bitter olive oil. Boats of eggplant roasted to silk, overflowing with a sweet-sour mash of tomato and pine-nut agrodolce. Crunchy meatballs, their innards wispy, their sauce a mustardy salsa verde. Silky cacio e pepe, slaked in a pungent pepper-parm that almost hurts your mouth. 

But aesthetic appeal is just the intro to each item’s tale. “I want to make sure every dish has a story behind it,” said Brian Dodero, the chef and co-owner of the new lower State Street restaurant. “Some you don’t see that often, and we’re bringing them back to the main stage.”

The focaccia, called “pizza” bianca, comes from a slow, cold ferment that’s baked daily. The “super, über-fresh” burrata is flown in from Puglia weekly, landing at LAX on Mondays and delivered on Tuesdays. The eggplant is inspired by Sicily’s caponata — in which poor villagers used affordable veggies rather than the fish preferred by aristocrats — while the meatballs are Roman, packed with beef shank that’s boiled then fried. “It’s a crispy little meatball with salsa verde that’s vibrant and bright,” he explained.

As for the peppery pasta? “There are some dishes that shouldn’t be touched, like cacio e pepe,” said Dodero of this ancient sustenance for wandering shepherds. “There’s nothing you can do to that.”

Though certainly modernized, the cuisine is an ode to Italy’s cucina povera, the peasant cooking that’s birthed a global fare found everywhere from Toronto to Tokyo. “These dishes really are the backbone to Italian cuisine,” said Dodero, who studied in Florence and returns to Italy to explore more every year. “But they started because the people only had these ingredients.”

Aperitivo Origins

Being constricted by external realities also defines the origins of Manifattura, which opened on the 400 block of State Street in October. Chapter one was set around the corner on West Haley Street at Aperitivo, where the Santa Barbara–raised Dodero and his business partner, Milan-born Andrea Girardello — they met years ago while working at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Montecito — first struck pasta-powered gold. 

Despite launching in the sliver of a space at the start of the pandemic, Aperitivo thrived due to a still-popular, prepare-at-home pasta club and continued packing its limited seats due to a small but constantly shifting menu that developed steady, somewhat rabid fans. “We’ve packed them in as much as possible,” said Dodero. “It’s a drive for people to feel like you’re part of something. That’s how Aperitivo became a lively place. People are happy to wait outside.”

Somehow, Dodero prepared everything in the most limited of kitchens, minus even the stove and oven that we take for granted at home. Girardello’s eye-opening wine list and racy range of spritzes certainly helped, supporting the original intent for Aperitivo to be a simple wine bar. 

“It took off way more than expected,” said Girardello, who worked for upscale hotels in London, Maine, and Florida before landing at the Biltmore in 2008. He’d always wanted to open his own enoteca, serving small bites and international pours, but never found the right community to appreciate the concept. 

“Because of the wealth and the world travelers and the general community here, I thought Santa Barbara was the best place to do it,” he said. “It’s very cultural compared to a lot of places in California and the United States.” 

But Aperitivo surged beyond basic-wine-bar right away, becoming a dinner hotspot thanks to constant creativity and consistent quality. “What we found through Aperitivo is that, one, people like fresh pasta and, two, they like a menu that’s small and specialized but also changes more frequently than most restaurants,” said Dodero. He quickly realized that they needed a second, bigger place with a proper kitchen, laughing, “Cooking with an induction burner and panini press is fun, but I was ready to move on.” 

Manufactured with Care

State Street wasn’t on their wish list until this location — which has been a parade of restaurants (Urkeb, Taza, Pace, Lettuce B. Frank, etc.) over the past couple of decades — popped up just a few steps from Aperitivo. The landlord was a fan, so when they made an offer, the lease was signed on the same day. Then came more than 20 months of remodeling, permitting, and staffing up before opening on October 23. They’ve been packed ever since, too busy even for restaurant writers to get a table without significant advanced planning.  

“The literal translation is ‘manufacturing,’” said Girardello of the name “Manifattura,” which recalls the Italian tradition of handmade clothing that’s praised for every fabric, stitch, and detail. A similar care goes into the restaurant’s menu, which is more than double the size of Aperitivo’s but will still shift seasonally, albeit at a slower pace than weekly. 

“With a full kitchen, we can offer more pasta,” said Dodero, whose team will occasionally run protein entrees as specials and is now also making desserts such as baba au rhum. “But we are still keeping the menu smaller so that people can really focus on the ingredients and the craft of what we’re doing.”

Girardello is the wine and numbers guy, the latter of which may be more important than ever today. “My goal, especially in this economy and climate, is really to stay affordable,” he said. “I see that as a winning recipe. Even wealthy people are not looking to spend hundreds of dollars on wine. I don’t want to be stingy on the pour. I don’t want it to feel like you’re being robbed if you order another glass of wine.”

As he floats across the dining room, saying hi to regulars and meeting new friends, Girardello’s gentle, welcoming manner is critical to Manifattura’s mood. “I don’t want this to be a transaction; I want it to be personal,” he said. “I want people to be recognized. I want to feel that they have an experience.”

Dodero, meanwhile, is polishing off more pasta biographies. The Tagliatelle degli Umarelles reflects the Emilio Romagna region’s wealth of meats and cheese, working beef, pork shoulder, pancetta, mortadella, prosciutto, parmesan rind, and trebbiano wine into a white ragù that takes more than five hours to come together. Umarelle is the word for a person who stands with their arms behind their back and watches the world go by all day — just like the cook who observes this sauce. 

Then there’s the Pasta di Pizzaioli, made from Grana Arso flour, which comes from what’s left after a wheat field is harvested and then burdened. “Workers would come back and pick up what burned and turn it into flour,” said Dodero, who tops the crust with stracciatella, ’nduja, and tomatoes. “If a pizzamaker came up with a pasta dish, this would be it. It’s the poor man’s food.”

Manifattura is open Tue.-Sat., 5-9 p.m.; 413 State St.; (805) 504-1405; manifatturasb.com; @manifattura_sb 

Aperitivo Evolves

Manifattura’s opening as a full-fledged restaurant is enabling Aperitivo to shine as a proper enoteca, whether you’re waiting for your dinner table there, enjoying a quick sip and bite, or making an entire evening of it. 

“We brought it back to its original intent,” said Girardello, who’s passed off daily management of the space to longtime wine professional Lindsey Reed. “She gives you a wine education when you come. It’s not just drinking a glass of wine.”

Reed serves mom-and-pop producers from Europe alongside a “Local for Locals” by-the-glass selection from Central Coast producers using lesser-known varieties, like Whitcraft’s 2016 lagrein, with proceeds going to the Santa Barbara Foodbank. There’s also now an “Aperitivo Hour” from 3:30 to 5 p.m. with free olives, truffle chips, and peanuts. 

Explained Reed, “Aperitivo now has the opportunity to grow into what it was always intended to be: a European wine bar with a warm atmosphere serving the same innovative dishes.”

Aperitivo is open Tue.-Sat., 3:30-7:30 p.m.; 7 W. Haley St., (805) 869-2937; aperitivosb.com; @aperitivo_sb