Not your usual Elements

After spending an afternoon on the Santa Barbara shore and hopping from tasting room to bar room, J and I were ready for dinner and knew where to go thanks to a friend back home AND the fine folks over at Carr Winery. We were headed to Elements Restaurant and Bar, home of the Firetini. Elements has about a dozen signature martinis and a half dozen more Elementinis. One of their most talked about Elementinis is the Firetini, also known as "The Inferno". The Firetini is a habanero infused Skyy vodka martini shaken with passionfruit puree and simple syrup and served with a sugared rim. It is spicy and sweet, and amazing!

Elements entire menu has the elements theme mixed in. For example, J and I started our meal with a piece of the earth. That is, we started with a Wild Arugula Salad with heirloom tomato carpaccio, Humboldt fog, pickled shallots, and golden watermelon. Until J and I discovered Truffle Tremor last November, Humboldt fog may have been our favorite cheese. Humboldt fog is a soft, ripened goat cheese with an edible ribbon of vegetable ash along its center made by my favorite cheese maker, Cypress Grove Chevre. Needless to say when we saw this salad on the menu our decision to order it was an easy one, and we were not disappointed. The combination of the ripened cheese, the peppery arugula and the slightly sweet and tart pickled shallots was just perfect.

Wild Arugula Salad - earth

For our entrees, J and I both ordered something from the water. I ordered a lemongrass-panko crusted seabass with thai green coconut curry, ginger and saffron basmati rice, stir-fried vegetables, and chili oil, and J ordered the bacon wrapped Alaskan halibut with pancetta, clams, Spanish sofrito, lobster fumet, and grilled crostini. Both of our entrees were cooked perfectly, constructed masterfully, and tasted wonderfully. Take a look at my pictures then book your trip to Santa Barbara as soon as possible. Help support the economy - eat good food!

Lemongrass-Panko Crusted Seabass - water

Bacon Wrapped Alaskan Halibut - water

Finally, the perfect ending to a perfect day. My notes are fuzzy and so was my head at this point in the day after micheladas, wine, beer, martinis, and lots of amazing food, so forgive me for not remembering exactly what this dessert was other than it was delicious - I think it was a dark chocolate mousse. Chef Matthew Webster Reddy at Elements, if you read this, please let me know the name of this dessert so I can appropriately give credit! Thanks for a fantastic experience.

Food, Wine, Sand and Sun = Santa Barbara

A trip to southern California wouldn't be complete without a stop in Santa Barbara, home of many things beautiful including amazing Pinot Noir and incredible food.

With just a day in Santa Barbara, J and I wanted to make the most of our time once we arrived but we didn't know where to begin. We decided to start at the only place we knew in Santa Barbara, The Shoreline Beach Cafe, right on the water.

The Shoreline Beach Cafe is the only restaurant in all of Santa Barbara that you can actually dine with your feet in the sand and that's just what we did. We started off with one of our favorite warm weather drinks, a michelada. A michelada is like a bloody mary with beer instead of vodka and it is incredibly refreshing. It's salty, spicy, and very fresh. It's basically some tomato juice, some worcestershire sauce, some maggi or soy sauce, a dash of hot sauce, and squeeze of lime with a good light Mexican beer like Corona or Tecate. A peppered rim gives the drink a nice little kick.

And what's better with a fine Mexican cocktail than fish tacos? If you've been reading One Food Guy for a while then you know I love tacos, so when I saw these catch-of-the-day fish tacos my ordering decision was a no-brainer. Soft corn tortillas stuffed with freshly fried fish covered in fresh cabbage and cilantro with a side of pico, smokey, spicy black beans and a slightly spicy sauce. With the sun setting in front of us (we got a late start on the day,) an ice cold michelada in hand, delicious fish tacos in my stomach and a big ass pelican staring at us - what a perfect beginning to our day.

Our next stop in Santa Barbara took a little work. We were in Pinot country and wanted to taste some wines so I fired up Google Maps on my Crlackberry and before long we found ourselves at Carr Winery in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara. They produce some seriously good pinot noir as well as syrah, grenache, pinto gris and cabernet franc. Tastings are available for $10 from 11am to 5pm everyday and Friday nights from 5pm to 11pm in the barrel room they have live music to go along with wines by the glass and bottle service. This place is worth checking out, trust me! If you like pinot noir you will really enjoy the pinot that Carr produces. J and I brought a few bottles home with us and are looking forward to uncorking them soon.

We made a couple more stops around Santa Barbara before heading to dinner. One at the Santa Barbara Winery, nice enough folks and decent wines but this place had TOURIST written all over it. It reminded me of the Newport Vineyards tasting room in Newport, RI where busloads of people are dropped off for tours and tastings - no thanks!!

Our last stop before dinner was at The Brewhouse, home of some fantastic Belgian style ales and an outstanding Habanero Pilsner! Yes, it's HOT but also very clean and crisp and well balanced. All this drinking certainly loosened us up and prepared us for a great dinner. Not only did my friend Gina tell us about Elements but the nice people at Carr Winery also recommended it, so that's we were headed. Stay tuned for my review of Elements Restaurant and Bar.