Since 2012, “The Restaurant Guy” has been a staple food column, keeping Santa Barbara up to date on all the latest openings, closings, and happenings in the restaurant scene in town. But John Dickson, our very own Restaurant Guy, actually started out as a software engineer who wanted to create local guides about our biggest local attractions in town back in 1994, originally buying SantaBarbara.com. Restaurant guides were a natural next step, and so Dickson’s documentation of the local scene continued with food this time. In late 2006, those guides made way for a blog, and Dickson has been keeping Santa Barbara in the know for the restaurant scene ever since.
How did you first get into restaurants in the mid-’90s? What prompted you to start SantaBarbara.com?
To answer that, I need to give you a little history because the online world was very different back then.
The first widely available web browser had just been introduced in 1993. As a software engineer, I subscribed to several technical journals and became fascinated by the World Wide Web. I realized there was virtually no information about Santa Barbara online — no photos, no visitor information, nothing. So, I bought one of the earliest digital cameras and started photographing local attractions while writing about things to see and do around town.
I launched the site in early 1994 at rain.org/~santabarbara, using an account with the area’s only Internet provider. It attracted virtually no visitors because Google was still four years away and there was no easy way for people to discover websites. Thinking visitors might naturally type “SantaBarbara.com” into their browser, I registered the domain. Almost immediately, traffic exploded.
As the audience grew, I realized there was also no online restaurant guide. At the time, the Yellow Pages were the primary source of restaurant information — Yelp was still a decade away. I created the SantaBarbara.com Restaurant Guide with photos and a review system (that I built from scratch) to help people decide where to eat. I had no food background; I simply wanted to build the kind of restaurant guide I wished existed. The Restaurant Guide became one of the site’s most popular features and helped establish SantaBarbara.com as a local resource.
What inspired you to create “The Restaurant Guy” blog? What was the transition like to writing a column for print for the Independent?
Even though SantaBarbara.com had guides covering everything from beaches to parks, the Restaurant Guide quickly became the site’s most popular feature. For more than a decade, I operated it anonymously and regularly received tips from readers about restaurant openings, closings, “coming soon” signs, chef changes, and other food news. I kept all of those tips in a text file on my computer because I found them fascinating. Then, one random day — December 19, 2006 — I decided to launch a blog to share them. Choosing a name was easy. Since nobody knew my real name, people simply referred to me online as “the restaurant guy.”
When the Independent approached me about turning the blog into a weekly print column, I was genuinely surprised. I wasn’t a writer or a chef — I was a software engineer who happened to build a popular restaurant website. It felt a little surreal to suddenly be introduced as a food columnist, but I was honored to join the Independent.
The biggest adjustment was moving from the web to print. Online, if I spotted a typo or made a mistake, I could correct it immediately. In print, once the paper is published, there’s no delete button. Fortunately, the Independent’s editors have saved me from more than a few mistakes over the years.
What are some of the recent food trends you’ve noticed in town?
I’d say regional Italian has really stood out recently. We’re seeing more restaurants move beyond traditional red-sauce Italian into Roman-style pizza, handmade pasta, and more specialized regional concepts. At the same time, Santa Barbara continues to broaden its international offerings with more Korean-inspired and Mediterranean restaurants. The Montecito area has also seen a surge of new restaurant openings, with more on the way.
Another trend I’ve noticed is that restaurants are constantly looking for ways to broaden their customer base. Many are adding brunch, breakfast, or expanded hours rather than relying on a single meal period. Operators also continue to reinvent existing restaurant spaces instead of building from the ground up, giving familiar locations entirely new identities.
What kind of restaurants is Santa Barbara missing? What would you like to see open here?
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that Santa Barbara has an incredible restaurant scene for a city of its size. I don’t think we’re missing one particular cuisine. If I had a wish list, I’d love to see more authentic regional restaurants that really specialize in a particular style of cooking rather than trying to appeal to everyone. I’d especially like to see more high-end Chinese restaurants (including dim sum and regional cuisines like Sichuan), authentic Filipino cuisine (my wife is from the Philippines), and true Southern barbecue beyond the tri-tip and chicken that’s common on the Central Coast.
I’d also love to see more late-night dining. Santa Barbara has plenty of great places to eat, but after 9 or 10 p.m., the options become pretty limited. A few more quality late-night spots would be a welcome addition for both locals and visitors.
What are some of your favorite restaurants in town right now?
I hesitate to name favorites because I visit so many restaurants, but a few places I’ve recently enjoyed include The Blue Owl, Silvergreens, Oku Sushi, Chuck’s of Hawaii, Siam Elephant Thai Restaurant in Carpinteria, and Zapp Thai, the food truck outside Draughtsmen Aleworks in Goleta.
What do you like to do for fun outside of writing and covering restaurants? What are some of your favorite things to do in Santa Barbara in general?
I’ve been skateboarding my whole life and still love carving it up with my 11-year-old son and the other groms at Skater’s Point and the Carpinteria Skatepark. I also enjoy playing basketball and golf. We recently adopted a puppy from Santa Barbara Humane, so we’ve been discovering dog-friendly places that I had mostly overlooked before, like Douglas Family Preserve. I also enjoy riding a traditional bicycle along Cabrillo Boulevard. Spending time with my family is really what ties all of those activities together.
