Harborside Dining Finds a State of Gracie

“With a place like this, you don’t know what it will become,” says Dudley Michael, discussing his latest restaurateur adventure, Gracie, named after his partner, Grace Austin. “Your customers will tell you, and you will evolve with them.” 

This opening bears even more weight than many, as Gracie has reimagined what was the Breakwater Restaurant. “People are really nostalgic about this location at the Santa Barbara harbor,” Austin says. Michael adds, “Some of them have been coming here since they were kids.” 

The couple took over the location last fall, but they didn’t do the revamp — and it’s an impressive one, especially the jewel-box bar that classes up the joint — until this year, so they got a sense of possible complaints about change. Just shifting from frozen food to fresh freaked out some folks, let alone the F-bombs they received about the farm-fresh eggs they started serving — some were shocked by the bright-orange color of the yolks.

But a change has definitely come. The two bring a wealth of experience in the Santa Barbara food scene. Michael was a cofounder of the beloved Shop on Milpas and went on to create COVID blessing Wingman Rodeo. Austin ran Little Kitchen for six years alongside the Wildcat as pretty much a one-woman show. Michael saw all the hours she put into that business and hoped to work with her — that opportunity became the Rodeo Room.

The two became a personal as well as professional couple, and the narrow margins at the first two businesses drove them to look for another project. “Six things in a row fell through,” Michael laments, including a possible cool project at the old Metropulos location and deciding a Rodeo Room on the rooftop of Carpinteria’s Linden Square might not be for them. 

Michael’s conversation with David Dart when Dart opened its Maritime Museum location perked his interest in the area; as Michael puts it, “Nobody came down here for coffee until Dart gave them a place to go.”

Fortunately, the longtime owners of the Breakwater, the DeDeckers, were great to work with during the purchase of the restaurant. Gracie aims to be an all-day spot: “More casual at brunch/lunch, and then we will elevate it at dinner,” is Michael’s description. “We want to be a great spot for a sunset cocktail and a plate of crudo,” Austin adds, calling the cuisine California coastal — ceviche, fish tacos, “got to have a burger.”

Ah, but that burger is emblematic of the attention to detail Gracie cares to take. It’s a Binchō Burger, grilled over Japanese binchō-tan charcoal, a method famous for making grilled protein taste even more of itself. A kicky yuzu aioli and a soothing melt of white cheddar makes it something special, especially on the house-made sourdough bun (not brioche, so it keeps its integrity). Other clever little riffs: The Gracie Benedict offers mortadella as its meat; the fish tacos have a smoked chili aioli and gooseberries (and can come with cauliflower subbed in for a veggie option); and in addition to cocktails designed by workers from the Rodeo Room, there’s a delicious slate of cold-brew mocktails for those who want caffeine at 0 percent ABV.

But beyond quality food and drink, Gracie wants to impress with service. Part of that goal will be met by keeping on a host of regulars from the Breakwater days — Susan, Terry, Roger, Jenny. “Many people came for their favorite servers,” Austin says, “so we wanted to bring back those anchors.” 

And expect to see both partners on the floor. Michael mentions how he still busses tables and seats customers at The Shop, and he insists, “People have a good experience at restaurants when there’s ownership presence.” 

Austin, who is a fixture at Rodeo Room’s omakase Mondays, adds, “You can’t train someone to do a job unless you’ve figured it out yourself.”

Part of figuring it out will be settling on hours that a crowd wants. Most likely in the future: “the waterfront brunch scene Santa Barbara deserves,” Michael says. For now, the trick is becoming “a sexy cocktail bar,” as Austin puts it, while still, as Michael says, “We didn’t want a family from Minnesota to read the menu and not get it.” Gracie looks like it should be able to pull that off with grace.

Gracie (107 Harbor Wy.) is currently open Thursday-Monday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., with plans to be open daily soon. See @graciewaterfront for updates.