Monte’s Brings Rincon Hill Farm Freshness to Montecito

A rare pairing of precision and speed is at play in a culinary project that reaches from the sea-breezed flats of Carpinteria to the posh tables of Montecito, where an ambitious hospitality group is already growing, making, and selling food just two years after setting up shop in Santa Barbara.

After fostering a similar farm-to-table loop in New York City, Endwell Hospitality planted its Santa Barbara County flag at Rincon Hill Farm at the end of 2024, instantly turning a simple avocado orchard less than a mile from the coast into a showcase of regenerative, restaurant-intended farming. Even quicker to go from notion to now-open was Monte’s, the Coast Village Road restaurant that debuted in March after only a few months of plotting.

“We like to call it Californian New American with Korean flair,” explained chef Daniel Kim, who was raised in Orange County and worked for leading kitchens in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Napa before moving here last year to spearhead Endwell’s culinary efforts. “It’s the perfect opportunity to introduce Santa Barbara to Korean food that’s more modern in style.” That includes roasted cabbage slathered in a smoked shiitake XO sauce, crunchy pork katsu chops topped with nose-tingling wasabina, and a fascinating prawn toast with a texture somewhere between crispy rice and creamy cloud.

Doing such things both fast and well is almost always thanks, at least in part, to considerable financial backing, here provided by Endwell founders Mark Armenante and Young Sohn. The Silicon Valley couple sold their software company to Salesforce for $1.8 billion in 2020 and then started buying Montecito properties while opening Manhattan’s One White Street, which quickly earned a Michelin star. That restaurant and its next-door market is fueled by a Hudson Valley property they own called Rigor Hill Farm — exactly like how Rincon Hill powers Monte’s and a soon-to-be-opened market on Linden Avenue in Carpinteria.

Downtown Carp is also home to Endwell’s grandest dream: reopening The Palms into a three-story dining destination, with casual, Korean-influenced DIY grilling concept on the ground floor (à la The Palms’ DIY steak model); a fine-dining, Michelin star–aimed restaurant on the second; and then an ocean-view rooftop bar to cap it off. These wishes are currently crawling through the endurance race known as permitting and planning, likely to require at least another year or so of patience before any hammers start swinging.

Anticipating that wait is why the Endwell team — led by GM Ryan Sohn, who is a nephew of the owners and a partner in the biz with more than a decade of fine-dining experience — jumped at the chance to do something in the location briefly occupied by Bar Lou. (It was also home to the veggie restaurant Oliver’s and, way back, the neighborhood joint Peabody’s.) When he texted Kim about the idea a few months ago, they agreed to jump on it.

“When this came up, we could not miss the opportunity,” said Kim. “We wanted to make a casual space where people can come two to three times a week.” And it’s working, as he explained, “We’re a lot busier than we initially expected.”

Kim’s fascination with food starts with his mother, who constantly cooked Korean cuisine during his upbringing in Fullerton. “The way she shows her love to friends and family is through food,” said Kim, whose childhood friends loved coming over. “She’s always making sure that everyone is fed and no one is hungry.”

While Kim was unsure of what to do after high school, a TV commercial lured him to Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in L.A. “I had zero restaurant experience,” he laughed. “I didn’t even know what thyme or rosemary was.”

While in school from 2007 to 2009, he worked for Wolfgang Puck’s catering company and became transfixed by Michelin stars. “Something inside of me wanted to chase that,” said Kim.

After an errant stint in Downtown Disney, he joined Scarpetta at the Montage Beverly Hills before moving to Las Vegas on a whim, finding roles in the kitchens of Jaleo and Le Cirque, his first Michelin-starred spot. Back in Los Angeles, he settled in for three years at Providence — his first two-star — and then went north to Napa to work at Meadowood, then just one of seven California restaurants with three Michelin stars. That was the hardest thing he’d ever done.

“It’s very cutthroat, long hours, extremely high pressure,” remembered Kim, who befriended Sohn at the Napa Valley institution. “I almost got fired countless times. I was just not up to their standards. But I’m a fighter, so you can kick me out of the kitchen, but I’ll come back the next day stronger.”

He left Meadowood during COVID and popped around San Francisco and Los Angeles for a couple years, but his attraction to meticulous kitchens never wavered. “I think it’s just like the perfection of everything,” said Kim of what attracts him to fine dining. “Every slice of fish or beef that you cook is to perfection. If not, then you don’t serve it. Something inside me needs everything to be a certain way.”

After reconnecting with Sohn, Kim joined the Rincon Hill Farm team in early 2025. Together, they’re constantly exploring what grows well in Carp and what is useful for the kitchen — their mushroom program is incredibly impressive, as evidenced in Monte’s maitake bulgogi. Meanwhile, Kim methodically develops distinct dishes to feed the farm’s numerous special events, so had a pocketful of potential restaurant recipes when the Coast Village Road opportunity came knocking.

That includes the prawn toast, where he even turns the roasted shells into a furikake, and the Mount Lassen trout, which he treats simply with just a chimichurri of wasabina, which grows well on the farm. The smashburger — popular at happy hour — is boosted by a kimchi special sauce, and the roasted snap peas get a blast of Korean vegetable extract called Yondu. Even the cocktails benefit from farm-fresh produce, like the basil that graces the Agave e Pepe, a tequila-meets-black-pepper concoction.

“I try to incorporate at least one thing into each dish from the farm and also something Korean,” explained Kim, who’ll employ similar strategies when The Palms concepts open. “We’re connecting the farm to every single dish that’s going out.”

Monte’s, 1198 Coast Village Rd., Montecito; (805) 330-4590; montessb.com