Welcome to the "805 Eats" dining blog where we'll keep you up-to-date on restaurant and food happenings in the 805. To send tips and comments, email edit@805Living.com.

Local ‘Taste’ for a national cause

Taste of the Nation Santa Barbara will benefit efforts to end childhood hunger

MAY 20
The setting is gorgeous and the pairing of food and wine gourmet. But the cause could not be more simple, or more necessary: When Taste of the Nation Santa Barbara takes place from 3-6 p.m. May 20 at the Montecito Country Club, proceeds will aid Share Our Strength’s efforts to combat childhood hunger.

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County also will benefit from the event, which will feature pours from more than 20 area wineries and breweries, food from more than 25 regional restaurants, and appearances by “Top Chef” star Fabio Viviani and mixologist Jacopo Falleni of Cafe Firenze in Moorpark.

Also participating as featured chefs will be Alessandro Cartumini of the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore, Mossin Sugich of Blush Restaurant + Lounge, Jessica Foster of Jessica Foster Confections and host chef Michael Blackwell of the Montecito Country Club. What’s on the menu? A sneak peek at the list of dishes reveals that chef Dario Furlati of Ca’Dario in Santa Barbara plans to serve spinach and ricotta ravioli with brown butter-sage sauce. And Brian and Cynthia Champlin of the newly opened Succulent Cafe & Trading Co. in Solvang will feature braised short ribs with Red Dragon sauce and jalapeno slaw on buttermilk biscuits.

Wineries will range, alphabetically, from Alma Rose Winery & Vineyards of Buellton to Vino V Wines of Ventura. Island Brewing Co. of Carpinteria and Firestone Walker Brewing Co. of Paso Robles will be there, too, fresh from winning top honors at the World Beer Cup Competition in San Diego.

Auction items will include a signed script and cast photos from the hit ABC series “Castle.”

General admission tickets are $65 in advance or $75 at the door. VIP tickets, which grant access to a special lounge area with its own servers and tasting opportunities, are $95 in advance and $125 at the door. For tickets and information, call 1-877-26TASTE or visit the event website. (920 Summit Road, Santa Barbara)

All a-titter about sparkling wine and Twitter

NOV. 9

Want to learn about sparkling wine from the experts, just in time for the holidays? Then follow the bouncing hashtag that is #FSWine.

During the second annual Taste & Tweet taking place on Nov. 9, a team of sommeliers and other experts from Four Seasons resorts located across the country will congregate via the online social media site Twitter to share pairing suggestions and tasting notes on several bottles of bubbly. Wine enthusiasts are invited to join in the virtual conversation by logging on to Twitter and following the #FSWine hashtag from 6:30 p.m.

But if you prefer in-person interaction to virtual reality, there’s a non-app for that. Four Seasons properties in Westlake Village, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and beyond will be pouring the featured sparkling wines for  “live” tastings. Attendees of these events are welcome — nay, encouraged — to join in the Twitter conversation by including the #FSWine hashtag in their posts.

At the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, the Taste & Tweet event from 6-9 p.m. in The Bar will include not only the featured sparklers (Domaine Chandon Brut Classic, Louis Roederer Brut Premier and Lunetta Prosecco) but also a local ringer: Saddlerock Sparkling Brut Rose from Malibu Family Wines. All are included in the $20 admission. Although not required, guests may RSVP by calling 818-575-1108 or by clicking on the hotel’s Facebook page. The hotel is at 2 Dole Drive in Westlake Village.

At the Four Seasons Resort the Biltmore in Santa Barbara, meanwhile, each Taste & Tweet attendee will be greeted with a complimentary Kumamoto oyster topped with pink grapefruit mousse to set the bubbly mood. Guests will then be able to taste the featured wines and follow along via the live tweets displayed on a flat-screen TV in Ty Lounge. Those who “check in” via Facebook or Foursquare will receive a voucher for a complimentary glass of wine, and will qualify to win special prizes throughout the event. In addition, guests who dine at Bella Vista that evening will receive a 20 percent discount. For reservations ($15 for the wine flight, or $25 for the wines and a selection of canapes), call 805-565-8232. The hotel is at 1260 Channel Drive in Santa Barbara.

Taste & Tweet events also will take place on Nov. 9 at the Beverly Wilshire,  the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles in Beverly Hills and other locations.

Toast to (and shop for) a cure

NOV. 5
“Toast to a Cure” will benefit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network  when it takes place from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 5 at 71 Palm restaurant in downtown Ventura.

The event will include tastings of Ventura Limoncello Originale, wines donated by Young’s Market and appetizers by Didier Poirier, co-owner and executive chef of 71 Palm.

Admission is free. Funds will be raised via a donation box and from a percentage of on-site sales of cases of wine, MidiQueen Handbags and works by local artists Gina Niebergall and Dahlia Riley.

The restaurant is at 71 N. Palm St. For information, call 805-653-7222.

Sip, sample … and stock up

NOV. 1-30

Here’s one passport you don’t have to pose for an unflattering photo to get: The Harvest Passport offered by the Ventura County Winery Association instead focuses on six wineries and/or tasting rooms that during the month of November will each offer special flights to ticketholders. Those same tickets grant a 10 percent discount on day-of-visit wine purchases – just in time to encourage stocking up for holiday gifts and festivities. (The purchase of a ticket also enters you in a drawing for prizes that range from bottles of wine to a two-night stay in an area hotel. Any re-gifting of those items is left entirely up to you.)

Participants include the county’s newest winery, and the only one like it in the city of Ventura. Owned by six Simi Valley residents, Four Brix Winery started life at a custom-crush facility in Paso Robles but in September moved to a winemaking facility and tasting room to call its own in an industrial park space on Eastman Avenue.

Also on the passport are Cantara Cellars and Bella Victorian Vineyard & Winery of Camarillo, Herzog Wine Cellars and Magnavino Cellars of Oxnard and Old Creek Ranch Winery of Oak View. Individually, members of the winery association produce fewer than 1,000 cases to more than 200,000 cases per year. Combined, they turn California-grown grapes into some 250 kinds of wine — so you’re bound to find something to your liking. (Tickets, $35 per person, are available via the association’s website and at participating wineries.)

Sun rises on The Sunset Room in Agoura Hills

OCT. 22
Months in the making (and after several gala fundraisers and other soirees), The Sunset Room will make its official public debut at 8 p.m. Oct. 22 in the Agoura Hills space that used to be Chapter 8 Steak House & Dance Lounge. The new lounge/supper club/Mediterranean restaurant hybrid is the handiwork of James Ashford and Chris Breed, whose previous projects have included the Hollywood hot spots Green Door , the Roxbury Supper Club and Pig N Whistle.

Opening night promises to be a high-energy affair, with entertainment by DJ Fashen and Sunset Room’s resident DJ Ricky Jay. But, as you know, we’re all about the food — and the menu looks to be as fashionable as The Sunset Room crowd itself. You’ll find flatbreads, salads, small plates (think Channel Islands calamari with saffron-smoked tomato coulis) and, under the heading “fork and knife,” such entrees as a double-cut Snake River pork rib chop with pearl barley risotto and a Scotch ale demi glace.

The menu will be available in not one but two elegantly appointed dining rooms, as well as on the patio furnished with curtained cabanas and curvaceous banquette seatings, till 1 a.m. nightly. That should give us plenty of time to try one of everything. (29020 Agoura Road; 818-991-4007).

Let the good times roll

Don't breathe in while eating the beignets at Rabalais' in Santa Paula.

For a taste of New Orleans without the hassle of booking a flight, look no further than … Santa Paula?

Yep, that’s right. Open and serving everything from baguettes to beignets (the latter topped with mountainous drifts of powdered sugar) since late August, the combination bakery and coffee house Rabalais’ on Oct. 11 is expanding its offerings to include breakfast and lunch.

Available from 7-11 a.m., the breakfast menu starts with beignets (don’t be surprised if staff members warn you against breathing while eating same, lest all that powdered sugar go down your wind pipe), then adds such dishes as the Bayou Benedict (topped with Creole Hollandaise) and biscuits smothered in gravy.

Lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. includes po’boys, croque monsieurs and red beans and rice.

Coming soon: Dinner, y’all! (861 E. Main St., Santa Paula. 805-525-2109)

Changing seasons, changing menus

 OCT. 3-7

Seen the weather report lately? (Or just looked out the window?) Summer has left the building — and that means chefs are takin’ care of business by making the most of the fall harvest.

Chief among them is Todd Aarons, executive chef at  Tierra Sur, the restaurant inside Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard. A veteran of Zuni Cafe in San Francisco and of Savoy in Manhattan, Aarons already is known for his local, seasonal approach to food: Under his guidance, Tierra Sur participates in the Growers Collaborative Program via the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. (Aarons also is known for offering diners such artisanal treats as housemade lamb sausages. But we digress.) 

 Chef Aarons will again focus on locally grown produce as he creates Farmers’ Tasting Menus every night from Oct. 3-7. The set-price meals, $65 per person, include four courses paired to wines made on the premises. For reservations, call 805-983-1560.

Seen at a Ventura County Wine Trail event this summer: Todd Aarons, executive chef at Tierra Sur restaurant at Herzog Wine Cellars

Time to go to Hugo’s

SEPT. 22-24

A piled-high breakfast dish at Hugo's Restaurant

Friendly to vegetarians and carnivores alike, the menu at Hugo’s Restaurants in Studio City and West Hollywood just become even more accessible, thanks to the opening  of a third location.

It debuts this week in the Whizin Market Square in Agoura Hills, where the days leading up to the Sept. 26 grand opening are being used  both as final training sessions for the staff and as a fundraiser for docent programs at Malibu Creek State Park.

During by-reservation seatings from 8-10 a.m., noon to 2 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. on Sept. 22-24, Hugo’s Restaurant will donate 75 cents from every dollar patrons spend on meals to aid programs at the park, which offers hiking, fishing, bird watching and horseback riding opportunities.  (Tax and tip are excluded.) For required reservations, call 818-483-0167.

Stomp on it!

Grape stomp at Cantara Cellars in Camarillo

SEPT. 19, OCT. 21-22
Two area wineries are celebrating harvest season with some good old-fashioned grape stomps.

At Cantara Cellars in Camarillo, the party will start at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 19 with a blessing of the harvest by Father Leon Hutton of St. John’s Seminary. Volunteers are asked to wear old shorts and to wash their feet before jumping into bins packed with 4 tons of Lodi zinfandel destined for such blends as The Bride and Franknvein. Or, just stand by the sidelines while sipping wines by the glass, $5 each (126 Wood Road, Suite 104; 805-484-9600).

At Opolo Vineyards in Paso Robles, grape-stomping is part of a two-day harvest event that has become so well known the winery’s website refers to it as the “famous” harvest party. It includes a full spread — pork tenderloin, barbecue chicken, whole roasted lamb — for pairing with assorted Opolo wines on Oct. 21 and 22. For required reservations, $85-$95, call 805-238-9593).

Aw, shucks!

Planning to visit San Buenaventura State Beach over the long holiday weekend? Don’t forget to bring an oyster knife.
The unusual addition to your beach bag will come in handy should you find yourself at The Jolly Oyster, a newly opened food trailer that sells fresh manila clams and Pacific and Kumamoto oysters that patrons shuck or grill themselves, in the park or at home.  

The shellfish are farmed in two remote bays in Baja California, Mexico and then delivered via refrigerated truck to Ventura, where Jolly Oyster co-owner Mark Reynolds is often on hand to demonstrate proper shucking technique. Knives are available for purchase if you forget to bring your own; otherwise, it’s up to you to supply the charcoal, cooking utensils, beverages and other fixin’s that go into creating a proper beachside picnic. Or a real nice clam bake.  

(Summer hours for The Jolly Oyster are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Call 805-798-4944. If driving, enter the park through the gate at San Pedro Street and Pierpont Boulevard and follow the road as it curves through the park and ends in the paved parking lot near the concrete “silo” style restrooms. All-day parking is $10; three free 20-minute spaces are available for Jolly Oyster patrons who are picking up shellfish to take home. Entry to the park is free for pedestrians and bicyclists.)

Gourmet food trucks on a roll in Oxnard

SEPT. 1 and OCT. 6,

6-9 p.m.
Mix gourmet food trucks with restored farmhouses, and what do you get? The inaugural Downtown Gourmet Food Trucks event, which will feature eight L.A.-based food trucks parked in and around Oxnard’s Heritage Square when it takes place from 6-9 p.m. Sept. 1.

 Originally slated to debut this spring, the event organized by the Oxnard Downtown Management District hit the proverbial speed bumps and road blocks but is now expected to go full throttle.

The Sept. 1 gathering will include two trucks with connections to the Food Network: The Chinese-Mexican fusion Don Chow Tacos, which was featured on “Diners, Drive-ins & Dives,” and Ahn-Joo, a Korean snack bar on wheels operated by “The Next Food Network Star” finalist Debbie Lee.

Also expected to make an appearance are Dosa Truck, known for its South Indian street food; Pinoy Jeepney, which serves lumpiang sariwa and other Filipino fare; the Vietnamese-themed Mandoline Grill and FrySmith, which offers up fries smothered in all manner of toppings. (Free-range chicken in tomatillo/tamarind sauce over sweet potato fries, anyone?)

Adding to the festivities will be music by DJ Apple Juice, appearances by the Roller Derby Girls and wine and cocktails served (indoors only, please) at the on-site La Dolce Vita restaurant and Rancho Ventavo Cellars tasting room.

A second Downtown Gourmet Food Trucks event has been slated for 6-9 p.m. Oct. 6. After that, it could become a  first-Thursday-of-the-month fixture on the foodie calendar.

Thanks for shopping …

AUG. 27, 3-6 p.m.

Cheers to 15 years

New awning in action at Intermezzo

 

NOW THROUGH AUG. 31
One reason to visit Intermezzo at the Wine Cask in Santa Barbara this summer? The newly installed awning that stretches over the courtyard. By day, it provides much needed shade for dining alfresco next to the water fountain. By night, it helps hold in the heat should the coastal fog roll in.

 Another reason to stop by? Intermezzo is marking its 15th anniversary this month. And to celebrate that fact, a 15 percent discount is in effect through the end of August for all wines on tap. With selections ranging from a Verdad albarino to a Melville Vineyards and Winery syrah, you’re sure to find something to pair with chef Brandon Hughes’ informal menu of burgers, flatbreads and farmers market-sourced salads. Dine on the patio or slip inside for a seat at the bar or on one of the comfy couches. (Intermezzo at the Wine Cask, 4 p.m. to closing daily, 813 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara. 805-966-9463.)

Time flies when you’re drinking wine

Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyards tasting room manager (and "Sideways" star) Chris Burroughs

 

 

AUG. 12-14
Located on 100 square miles between the Santa Barbara County towns of Buellton and Lompoc, the winemaking region known as the Sta. Rita Hills is small but mighty. Remember how its vineyards, winding roads and local restaurants served as backdrops for the Oscar-winning movie “Sideways”? ‘nuf said.
But the American Viticultural Area that helped launch a thousand merlot jokes has new reason to celebrate: This is the year that the Sta. Rita Hills AVA hits the Big 1-0. And to mark the occasion, members of the Sta. Rita Hills Winegrowers Alliance are presenting Wine and Fire, a weekend-long event packed with open houses, barrel tastings and winemaker dinners. Participants range from Ampelos Cellars to Zotovich Cellars.

The party starts at 6 p.m. Aug. 12, when Avant Tapas & Wine in Buellton is the setting for a tasting of library and large-format wines. A grand tasting is planned  from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 13 on the grounds of La Purisima Mission near Lompoc. On Aug. 14, highlights include an Alma Rosa Winery & Vineyard  library tasting led by Chris Burroughs — yep, the same hat-wearin’ dude who played himself in a tasting-room scene in “Sideways.”

Individual-event tickets ($10 and up) and weekend passports ($60-$175) are available.

Get your goat

August 3-7, from 5 to 10 p.m.

In the spirit of Old Spanish Days Fiesta, the Santa Barbara restaurant Julienne is planning its second annual Fiesta Goat.  At the center of the limited-time-only menu is Goat Bandito, a dish pairing braised goat with a housemade potato quesadilla, guacamole, pico de gallo, queso fresco and creme fraiche. Reservations are recommended, or you can take a chance and angle for one of the spots at the five-person bar.

Goat not your thing? The field-to-fork restaurant owned by the husband-and-wife team of chef Justin West and Emma West also is serving baby abalone from The Cultured Abalone in nearby Goleta. “They are a little smaller than a silver dollar and so tender that they don’t even need to be pounded,” Emma says of the 1-year-old abalone, which Justin is serving grilled with housemade bacon jam, olive oil-poached tomatoes and a sprinkling of bread crumbs.

Restaurant Julienne is at 138 E. Canon Perdido in Santa Barbara