Santa Barbara Food Gets Its Own Sideways Moment
Exhibits: The Dawning of Asian Pacific America • Art: Donna Huanca at Marciano •
Books: Deep River and The Unpassing • Screens: The Last Black Man •
Picks: Shakespeare and The Murder Squad • Tools: Deering Banjo
Preparing for a full day of wine tasting and dining in Santa Barbara, I stopped at the front desk of the Santa Barbara Inn to get quarters in case some parking meters didn’t take credit cards. As the desk clerk doled out change, he seemed perplexed.
It didn’t take long to understand his reaction, as there’s not a parking meter to be found and the municipal garages are free for the first 75 minutes, with reasonable rates thereafter.
In other wine regions, visitors drive considerable distances to taste the offerings. In Santa Barbara, more than 30 tasting rooms are clustered within walking distance of one another, interspersed with excellent restaurants, markets, and bakeries. Once you park your car, you’re set for the day.
This is only one of the anomalies that make Santa Barbara one of the fastest-growing and most exciting wine destinations in the United States. A manicured town of about 90,000, the city looks like it was lifted from a fairy tale, offering a mellow environment for celebrated winemaker-restaurateurs like Rajat Parr. Formerly the wine director of the San Francisco–based Mina Group, Parr has coauthored a book on sommeliers and a field guide to European wines and co-owns three wineries: Evening
