I spent a good month planning our road trip....the dates; not only was the Missus and I burnt out from work, but also from all the toxic politics and hate being spewed. I knew it was going to boil over during election week. Since I had already voted by mail, we decided to leave on the Sunday right after Halloween. I had basically planned out all the dinners....we really don't eat lunch....just having croissants, fruits, nuts, and bars when travelling. We save our calories for dinner. I had decided to stop overnight in Santa Barbara, where we could pick-up wonderful looking bentos from our favorite restaurant on our previous visit to the city and eat on the patio of the motel we were staying in. Unfortunately, a week before our trip Yoichi's decided to stop take-out service and prepare to reopen for dining in and were going to be closed until further notice. I immediately did a bunch of research and picked out a couple of places and let the Missus decide. Which she did and I made reservations for an outdoor table at the earliest time available.
It was a wonderful morning when we left San Diego.
We got to Santa Barbara in record time and arrived early. Our motel was on State Street, but not on the portion to the South that was now a pedestrian only zone. I basically chose the place because of the location and this was the only stop where I actually went in and wiped down the room before we settled in.
Getting to SB early meant that we had time to kill, so we headed down State Street. The Trinity Episcopal Church was having services (this was a Sunday) when we passed.....outdoors.
And it was a pleasant walk as we passed very few people....everyone wearing a mask, along the way.
And State Street was closed from Sola Street to Haley Street, creating a pedestrian zone with outdoor dining areas created.
And with very few people, being able to walk in the street, really enabled one to distance.
I got a kick from the Earth without Art is just "EH" sign and also took note of the business below that sign.
After checking to see where we'd be eating that evening.....to also scope out the outdoor situation we headed back to the motel; we always include a medium sized ice chest when we do road trips and I grabbed some sparkling water, almonds, and an energy bar. We ate on the empty elevated patio of the motel and when we finished, our room was ready.
We freshened up and took a short nap.
We headed down to our dinner destination.
The place the Missus chose for dinner was the Black Sheep....She was fascinated by the rather eclectic menu and the cocktail list.
And got to chose our little table outside in the covered garage like area. Where we saw an amazing sunset......
Our Server was wonderful, very warm, friendly, gracious. While there were several "hiccups" with our meal, we really enjoyed our experience as a whole.
The menu had quite a collection of dishes; from Potato Tacos to Ramen to Duck Confit....I was quite surprised that the Missus had chosen this place.
We decided on what we were going to order and then took a look at the cocktail list....which, unfortunately only had 4-5 drinks on it. A far cry from the online cocktail menu. When we asked what was going on with this we were told that they just lost their mixologist....sad, there's nothing to be done about that, so we went off that list.
I decided on the Yuzu Margarita.
Which, while being a light on the Tequila and Triple-sec, was nice and refreshing. The Missus got the Black Sheep Manhattan which was passable, but could have used a large sized cocktail ice cube or two.
The first dish out was the Australian Wagyu Beef Carpaccio....we laughed when we were told it was "A7 Wagyu" and instantly knew it wasn't Japanese Wagyu.
The dish supposedly had uni and dashi; but we didn't see any on the plate. The beef was very good however; clean tasting, no hints of metallic-off flavors, the basil oil was wonderful and the Missus loved the potato puree
The Missus also really enjoyed the Bone Marrow Bruschetta.
This was wonderful play of textures, from the buttery, very beefy bone marrow, the panko, perfectly toasted baguette. The port sauce wasn't overly sweet....it was closer to a veal jus, the mustard greens added a pleasant bitterness, and the pear a pleasant tart-sweetness.
The potato tacos weren't bad either.
This version used a wonderfully dense, slightly sweeter-nutty purple potatoes, which was really highlited when combined with the pickled onions and tangy crema. Call it hipster tacos if you will; but this wasn't too bad.
While munching on the tacos and bruschetta, we asked the Server about the Uni and Dashi on the carpaccio.....he kindly asked us to hold on for a second while he checked with the kitchen. About ten minutes later he came back out with the chef who had a bowl in hand. Apparently, they'd forgotten the uni and dashi on our carpaccio and decided to give us a special dish using the wagyu beef, uni, and dashi.
Along with the sweet-spice from the sliced chilies; this was really good. In fact, the Missus and I think that had the uni and dashi been used with the carpaccio; it might have just been too much, clashing flavors. Here there was a nice oceany-beefy cleanness to the dish. Kudos to the staff for making things right.
At this point the Server told us he'd bring us our check....but.....we had also ordered the Boqorones. Which they'd kind of let slip. A few minutes later; things were corrected.
Perhaps we had pushed our luck a bit on this one....having had Boquerones in Spain and Portugal...this was a bit too "fishy" for the Missus and the crostini was too hard.
Regardless, in spite of the hiccups, we really loved the service, and the folks here were very warm and kind.....perhaps it had been so long since we'd actually had a meal out (232 days)? But I think not. We really did enjoy our experience and the carpaccio (both ways!) and the bruschetta were delicious.
The Black Sheep
26 E Ortega St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 965-1113
Current Hours:
Wed - Sat 5pm - 10pm
Sunday 5pm - 9pm
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays
On an interesting note; this wouldn't be our last food (or drinks) on this evening.
Stay tuned for that one!
beautiful sunset!
Posted by: kat | Saturday, 14 November 2020 at 11:00 PM
It was quite stunning Kat!
Posted by: Kirk | Sunday, 15 November 2020 at 01:56 PM
Lovely Santa Barbara photos! I love visiting Mconnel's ice cream when I'm in the area.
Posted by: Soo | Sunday, 15 November 2020 at 02:35 PM
Santa Barbara was a nice stop for us Soo.
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 16 November 2020 at 05:30 AM
Nice meal
Posted by: Som Tommy | Monday, 16 November 2020 at 06:09 AM
It was very nice ST!
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 16 November 2020 at 06:22 AM
A7 beef made me laugh.
Posted by: Junichi | Monday, 16 November 2020 at 03:46 PM
It cracked us up too Junichi!
Posted by: Kirk | Tuesday, 17 November 2020 at 05:33 AM