Found It. Discovering Eureka!

I’m typically not a fan of chain restaurants because as food writer for the last decade (Santa Barbara News Press, Gayot.com) there are plenty of individual restaurants that are worthy of your dollars. Also typically, chain restaurants are either so homogenized, bland and tedious or, like the Planet Hollywood concept, it’s all about a barrage of stimulation, a perfect place to eat if you have ADHD. But Eureka! elevates food and drink creating a more local experience while still crafting creative, consistent food. The Santa Barbara location uses reclaimed wood walls to encompass the interior, and the indoor and outdoor seating and open windows expand the look and casual vibe. One of Eureka’s selling points is that they feature American made craft beers and whiskies, not mainstream ones like Jack Daniels or Sam Adams, but small batch stuff. In fact they carry 58 whiskies at their brown spirits bar and 30 craft beers, which are constantly rotating. And each restaurant utilizes local ingredients and, if possible as is the case here in Santa Barbara, offers local brews and whiskies – we have AscendantSpirits in Buellton and Eureka carries some of their very good spirits.

Fried Chicken Sliders and Scarves and Yoga Pants

I stopped in recently (I’ve been several times) to sample a new seasonal dish - Fried Chicken Sliders ($11.50), and cocktail - Scarves and Yoga Pants ($12, see recipe below). The two sliders served with hand cut fries is crispy pieces of chicken, herb mashed potatoes, what they call confetti slaw and their spicy reaper chili sauce with plenty of heat and spice. The lightly toasted but is a counterpoint to the crisp chicken and crunchy slaw and the reaper, while not deadly, is a spicy-hot concoction. The cocktail (you need not wear lululemon to drink this) uses rye whiskey, a pumpkin spiced simple syrup and cream among other ingredients to make a near milk shake-like drink which is mild on the rye, offering that coveted pumpkin note with a creamy viscosity –perfect to warm you up and the fall temperatures drop. 

Pearl Street Blues Burger

Of course Eureka! has a terrific menu including a Jalapeño Egg Burger ($12) that uses a fried egg atop a burger with cheddar cheese, bacon, and a spicy chipotle sauce. Rich and moist, sloppy and spicy this meets every expectation. The egg gives a creamy gooiness to the burger and the spiciness from the jalapeno is potent but not overwhelming.

There are small plates, and appetizers like the Lollipop Corn Dogs ($7.50) which are five small round Polish sausages breaded in sweet corn batter, deep fried and served with three dipping sauces including a porter mustard sauce, a house made ketchup, and a cheddar cheese IPA dip which, for my tastes is delightfully rich and savory and the better sauce. The Bruschetta ($7) is five toasted baguette slices topped with ripe diced tomato, basil goat cheese, lemon zest and balsamic vinaigrette. This is fairly typical of bruschetta however the spreadable goat cheese adds a savory element and creamy texture.

The Cobb Salad ($12) is a mix of grilled chicken, crumbled blue cheese, hardboiled egg, avocado, bacon, onion and a spicy ranch dressing. There is spicy heat on the dressing and the ingredients are fresh and clean with definable flavors. It's the totality of the various components which make this work. The dressing too, minimally applied, provides an extra dimension of flavor. If you haven’t tried Eureka! Yet, now is the time.

601 Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara

(805) 618-3388, eurekarestaurantgroup.com

Scarves and Yoga Pants

1 1/2 oz Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey 1 oz Pumpkin Spiced Simple Syrup 1/2 oz Orange Juice 1/2 oz Lemon Juice 1/4 oz Heavy Cream 3/4 oz Egg Whites 2 dash Herbal Bitters

A Santa Barbara Beer Dinner

I am a beer advocate. I am not, however, an insatiable beer lover, a hop-head, a fanatic. I’m more of a wine guy so when a beer pairing dinner, one of Santa Barbara’s first, was announced with Firestone Walker Brewing Company, and Chef Budi Kazali of The Ballard Inn, well, that was a no-brainer. I had never been to a beer pairing dinner before, but have certainly been to my share of winemaker dinners over the years.

Wine pairing dinners are so common these days that here on the Central Coast you can find one everywhere you go, be that Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Pismo Beach, Paso Robles and Cambria. But surprisingly beer paired dinners are less common, though if you’re in micro-brew hot spots like San Diego or Seattle you can find a number of them. But they are starting to catch on in Santa Barbara. 

 

With over a dozen microbreweries in the region there should be several to choose from every year, but sadly, that hasn’t happened yet. More often beer dinners tend to be paired with pub and tavern food and that’s not a bad thing, but this beer dinner helmed by Budi Kazali meant that the food, and therefore the beers were elevated to fine dining – though still rambunctious what with a total of six beers.

The dinner was not created from a vacuum, actually the idea was prompted by American Craft Beer Week, a nationwide event celebrating the 2,800 small craft breweries who participated in events across the U.S. Budi choose the beers he wanted to work with, choosing less hoppy brew since bitter overly hopped beers don't pair well with most foods.

A brief run down of the menu is as follows:

1^st Course: Tempura shrimp in a green papaya sauce, seared scallop in a saffron sauce, and seared tuna in a yuzu vinaigrette, served with a glass of Firestone Pivo Hoppy Pilsner, a classic Czech pilsner with only 40 IBU, so it’s actually not over hoppy. What was surprising was to see this beer work across such diverse flavors as these three bites that Budi created.
2^nd: Crispy skin sea bass with the Firestone Lil Opal Barrel Fermented Saison which uses wild yeast aged in Opus One (a high-end Napa winery) barrels which has a light sour finish paralleling the crispy sea bass and the lemony tart sauce Budi crafted for the fish.
 

David Walker discusses his beers with guests

3rd: Kalua Duck, jicama salad with a Chinese black bean sauce with Firestone Unfiltered DBA, an English pale ale just slight hoppy which registered most obviously to me with the earthy mushrooms in the crisp jicama salad.
4^th: Kobe beef short ribs (and stunningly tender) with a coconut sauce with the Firestone Rufus Wild Ale, a brew aged in 23 year old bourbon barrels. And here the almost sweet sense of the bourbon coaxed out the richness of the ribs.

Chef Budi Kazali

5^th: Coffee pot de crème with bourbon whipped cream paired with one of Firestone’s best brews, the Parabola Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout. Long ago the Russian royal family seemed to love stouts but they wanted a kind of turbocharged version as David Walker put it. So, more hops, more alcohol and the Imperial was born. The Parabol was aged 9 to 13 months in barrel and it that kind of deep, rich earthy beer that completely stands on its own. Having been at this dinner it begins to ignite thoughts about experimenting at home. Beer and wine are food products and therefore should be an integral part of mealtimes (sure, breakfast works too) and what is exciting is realizing the endless possibilities to find flavors, textures and viscosities what work together to make a meal memorable.
 

So if you live in Santa Barbara or are planning a visit check out the brews of Firestone Walker – they have taprooms in Buellton in Santa Barbara, and one in Paso Robles – and make reservations for dinner at the Ballard Inn for some of the best food in the county – you can stay here too for a wine country, er, beer country getaway.

THE BALLARD INN 

FIRESTONE WALKER BEERS