What makes dining at your establishment so special for groups?
We actually harvest from our Café patio, so the entire outdoor seating area is surrounded by vertical garden towers, large potted fruit trees, herbs, edible flowers, exotic greens and lettuces--even overhead planters with dangling berries—it's beautiful, intimate and experiential! Also, customers always exclaim on the layers of flavors and originality of our menu items. We make everything completely from scratch, making our own signature spice blends, using our own EVOOs and Balsamic Fruit Vinegars for everything! We even cook local organic meats in our vinegars which creates a flavor explosion that surprises everyone.
Do you have a favorite dish to prepare for a group?
I enjoy researching the group's demographics, psychographics, any sensitivities to foods or favorites—and then creating a signature menu specifically for that group, rather than pull something off the shelf. I work with only local, grass-fed beef, organic chicken, sustainable seafoods and hyper-local produce. It's a joy to live in an area where any food is so readily available, so it's easy for me to be creative! I get bored doing the same thing twice; but I do love creating recipes using phyllo—I guess that's my Macedonian/Greek heritage coming through.
How would you describe the current dining/food scene in your region?
People are very curious about eating healthfully and yet feeling satiated. Global flavors are especially popular because people have either travelled themselves, or they have watched the myriad of food shows available on television exposing them to worldly appetites. The openness of my audience to seek out and glean an education from what I share at the Café is inspiring to me.
Aside from your own establishment, what are a few of your other favorite dining spots in the area?
Los Alamos is a mecca of great food purveyors in the northern part of Santa Barbara wine country love Café Quackenbush for the freshest breakfast, Bell St Farm for rotisserie everything and Charlie's for fresh pig-out fast-food like their guacamole, house-fried chips & burgers. In Santa Barbara, my favorite hang-out joint is Santa Barbara Shellfish Co for the REAL thing; you can't get a burger there if you beg for it!
How has the culinary scene changed in the Santa Barbara area over the past decade or so?
At first, it changed gradually; however, in the last couple of years, there is an explosion of creativity for which I am grateful to be a part of. The other cool thing is that it feels collective to me, not competitive…and I think customers are appreciating that we live in one of the most agriculturally bountiful parts of the world.
