Santa Barbara Part II: Exploring the Beaches, Restaurants & Wineries

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(Psst! If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a link to Santa Barbara Part I)

Now on to Santa Barbara Part II:

A Beach, Food and Wine Paradise

We were amazed by the incredible variety and beauty of everything in Santa Barbara. It’s the kind of place that seems to have the best of everything without being pretentious. Great restaurants, wineries, beaches and mountains offer so much to explore. It’s hard to know where to start…

Beautiful Public Beaches

The beaches are both cliffy and dramatic, as well as sandy and soft on the toes. The best part is that the access is easy and open to the public. I’ve never understood how beaches could be private with much of their shoreline reserved for resorts and extravagant beachfront houses. In such places, the limited public beaches are crowded, dirty, and full of vendors. This is not the case in Santa Barbara. The beaches are clean and accessible to everyone. They never feel crowded and I didn’t encounter a single vendor. They are simply beautiful and peaceful. I especially love the jagged cliffs and contours of the shoreline.

 

Santa Barbara’s Innovative Food Scene

There are a vast array of restaurants ranging from casual counter service to fine dining. You can find every type of cuisine to satisfy any craving. Trained chefs put together mouth-watering combinations of bold yet delicate flavors using fresh and local ingredients.  Below is a list of some of our favorites that we tried:

The Funk Zone

This old industrial part of the city received quite the face lift and is now filled with hip restaurants, bars, shops and wine tasting rooms. Parking is easy and it’s just across the road from the beach. (Perfect for walking off the abundance of calories consumed!)

We loved the casual, funky atmosphere and delicious food at the Nook. It’s the food hub of a huge warehouse that also contains several drinking establishments: Topa Topa Brewery, Lama Dog Tap Room, Blair Fox Cellars and The Guilded Table, a community art gallery/studio. The big open space with open garage doors provides ample seating options ranging from high top tables to cozy couches at the wine bar and even a patio. We ordered gourmet burgers from the window of the kitchen and sat at the Topa Topa bar to wash down our meal with local brews. It may have been the best burger I’ve ever tasted. I love when master chefs go casual.

We heard that The Lark was a great spot to eat for seasonal family-style fare and craft cocktails. Unfortunately they were closed for a private event so we drooled over their menu and added it to our list of places to go back to when we return to Santa Barbara. Instead, we enjoyed an incredible dinner at their sister restaurant, Les Marchands Wine Bar. It was jam packed on a Friday night and we felt lucky to squeeze into a table, especially once the food and wine started coming. I was impressed by the number of things made in house, including cheeses, porchetta, pasta, and lamb bacon. All other ingredients were sourced locally and they came together in interesting and flavorful combinations. We ordered several small plates to share, which is a great way to taste a variety of things from the menu.

Our top restaurant pick in Santa Barbara is actually located in the small town of Buellton, just outside of Santa Barbara (that still counts, right?) Industrial Eats Restaurant & Butcher Shop is a must stop if you are touring the wine country. The menu was written on butcher paper and changes daily. It was possibly the most eclectic and innovative we’ve ever seen. We had a hard time narrowing it down to the smoked pheasant salad and truffle quesadilla. I’ve never enjoyed a salad so much. The food demands your full attention. It definitely attracted our dog’s full attention!

I should also probably mention that we went on a hunt for the perfect strawberry & cream cheese danish in the Dutch town of Solvang. We found it at Birkholm’s Bakery. Their traditionally made danishes have 27 light and flaky layers…It is absolutely heavenly!

Santa Barbara Wine

The Urban Wine Trail

There are more than 25 wine tasting rooms in downtown Santa Barbara, featuring wines exclusively made in Santa Barbara County.  Walking along the Urban Wine Trail was tons of fun and also the perfect activity for a rainy day!

In downtown Santa Barbara, we enjoyed bold reds from Grassini Family Vineyards, where wines hail from the warm Happy Canyon region. Their tasting room has a cozy atmosphere that makes you want to stay for a while. August Ridge Vineyards was a fun diversion with Italian varietals like Sangiovese, Barbera and Nebbiolo. Every tasting room and winery that we visited was very dog friendly and had water bowls and even treats for four-legged friends.

As I mentioned in Santa Barbara Part I, wine tasting rooms are also clustered in the Funk Zone. We enjoyed the Pinot Noir at Pali Wine Co and the French varietals from Kunin Wines.

Wine Tasting in the Country

If you have more time, visiting the surrounding wine country is totally worth it. Wineries with welcoming tasting rooms are scattered among gently rolling hillsides dotted with cows, horses and oak trees. It’s nice to see a balance like this where land is used for more than just grapes.

The valleys from the coastline are aligned east to west, so they channel in cool ocean breezes that cool the grapes. The areas closer to the ocean are cooler and as you move inland, toward the San Rafael Mountains, it gets quite a bit warmer. This, along with the varied soil types, creates a broad spectrum of growing conditions for almost every grape varietal. This means that there is something to please every palate!

Closer to the ocean, the cooler Santa Rita Hills is perfect for growing cool-weather grapes like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. I found them to be much lighter and more delicate than their Napa/Sonoma counterparts. We enjoyed the bright and silky wines from Sandford and La Fond Winery.

Further inland, the warm temperatures of Happy Canyon create rich and robust Bordeaux and Rhone varietals, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, Grenache and Syrah. This is where the vineyard of our favorite Urban Tasting room, Grassini Vineyards, is from.

Santa Maria Valley is the northernmost wine region in the area and it also has a cooler climate, perfect for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

We enjoyed tasting at Riverbench so much that we bought a bottle of their Pinot Noir to enjoy with a picnic lunch on their property.  Pro tip: Always pack a picnic when wine tasting! Most wineries have picnic tables outside by the vines that make for a picture perfect setting.  They’ll even uncork your wine and give you wine glasses to use, adding extra class to your pack lunch. Also,  packing along quick and easy snacks can assuage hangry husbands!

Santa Barbara more than delivered with great beaches, food and wine. There are countless other places to explore in and around the city, but only so much time!

For now it’s time to get back on the road…Big Sur is calling!