If you eat out only one week this year, make it January 22 to 28. At least 16 restaurants will serve up the deal of the year during Santa Ynez Valley Restaurant Week.
To kick off 2012, local restaurants will offer three-course special tasting menus for just $20.12, delighting both taste buds and wallets.
Here’s your opportunity to visit your favorite eatery, dig in at the newest restaurants that you’ve been dying to try, or savor the gourmet creations at the pricier dining establishments you thought were out of reach.
January is California Restaurant Month. The first month of the year is traditionally a slow tourist time for restaurants, wineries, and hotels, so the theme was brainstormed as a way to bring in business.
Kady Fleckenstein, executive director at Visit the Santa Ynez Valley, dined at 10 different restaurants last year during the inaugural restaurant week. She has this suggestion: Plan lunch meetings, catch up with friends over a meal, and do a date night dinner at different restaurants to taste as many special menus as possible.
“From my experience, portions are substantial. I always left satisfied, and you can’t beat $20 for a three-course meal. This is your chance, without breaking the bank, to try a restaurant so you know what it’s like,” Fleckenstein said.
For example, there’s a fabulous deal from the upscale restaurant at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez. The Willows begins the $20 bargain feast with The Willows salad, made up of mixed field greens tossed with sunflower seeds, toasted almonds, golden raisins, chopped tomatoes, Spanish cabrales cheese, and local Syrah vinaigrette.
The three main course choices are pan-seared Scottish salmon with buttermilk whipped potatoes, grilled baby fennel, and asparagus finished with a chive beurre blanc; roasted chicken breast poached with a Santa Ynez Valley Chardonnay, butter, and garlic, served with a pork belly hash, broccolini, and thyme-infused au jus; or filet mignon served on a crostini and topped with sautéed spinach, grilled tomato, gorgonzola, and crispy shallots.
Dessert is orange-scented crème brûlée.
Acclaimed chef Bradley Ogden is participating. Here’s your chance to try the creative cuisine at his sophisticated Solvang restaurant. Root 246’s $20.12 tasting menu is as follows:
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Course 1: Iceberg wedge lettuce salad, blue cheese vinaigrette, tomato, cucumber.
Course 2: Grilled fresh ranch steak burger, Parmesan roll, house made pear mustard, aged cheddar cheese.
Course 3: Butterscotch pudding taster with brown butter cookie.
The personable people at the charming Bell Street Farm Eatery in Los Alamos serve up gourmet lunches with a smile. Hospitable owner Jamie Gluck promises something special for Restaurant Week.
Lunch-goers paying $20.12 will start with the mixed olive plate with lemon zest and herbs. The choice of entrée includes rotisserie pork salad (hot and crispy pork belly-wrapped shoulder with butter leaf, roasted potatoes, roasted squash with mustard vinaigrette); rotisserie pork sandwich (hot and crispy pork belly-wrapped shoulder on ciabatta, apple and jicama slaw, and pickled onions); and half-rotisserie chicken (Huntsinger free-range chicken, butter leaf, torn bread crouton, house vinaigrette, and white bean spread). For dessert, choose a fresh-baked cookie. The special includes a glass of wine from Bell Street Farm’s list of fine Central Coast wines. (Bell Street Farm is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Monday.)
Restaurant Week participating restaurants are Ballard Inn Restaurant, Avant Tapas & Wine, Starting Gate Restaurant at the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott, Bell Street Farm Eatery, Los Olivos Wine Merchant and Café, Petros at Fess Parker’s Wine Country Inn, Dos Carlitos Restaurant & Tequila Bar, Red Barn, Trattoria Grappolo (lunch only), The Willows, Fresco Valley Café, Hadsten House Inn Restaurant, Mirabelle Inn & Restaurant, River Grill at the Alisal, Root 246, and Succulent Café & Trading Post.
The $20.12 price excludes, tax, tip, and beverages.
Reservations are recommended. Contact specific restaurants for dining hours and menus. For more information, go to visitthesantaynezvalley.com.
Who’s a fungi?
Mark your calendar for Mushroom Mania! The sixth annual Mushrooms Gone Wild event is Jan. 28 at Bedford Winery tasting room in Los Alamos. Event organizer Katie O’Hara calls the all-encompassing celebration of the venerated ’shroom “part education and part fun.”
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O’Hara and husband Stephan Bedford, winemaker at Bedford Winery, are mushroom devotees. They’ll have many types of mushrooms on hand, including chanterelle, porcini, morel, portobello, crimini, shitake, and about two-dozen varieties of oyster mushrooms. They’re even flying in hedgehog and black trumpet mushrooms from Oregon.
It’s also a chance for novice mushroom hunters to learn how to identify the safe, edible ones.
“We’ll show what they look like. You want to be careful. One might be a delicious addition to your pizza, and the other will kill you,” O’Hara said.
Bedford Winery will display and discuss the mushrooms, which attendees will ultimately digest. Using recipes from around the world, O’Hara and Bedford will prepare a wide array of mushroom appetizers, some simple and some exotic. O’Hara serves up a mushroom paté that takes her 12 hours to concoct. They’ll pair Bedford Winery Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon with the hors d’oeuvres.
Bedford will have on hand his extensive collection of mushroom books, and guests are encouraged to bring their favorite mushroom cookbook or field guide, along with a friend, to 448 Bell St. in Los Alamos for the event.
The fungus fun runs from 2 to 5 p.m. Admission costs $25 per person. The popular event sells out, so call the winery for reservations at 344-2107.
Sun wine and food writer Wendy Thies Sell appreciates the quirky things in life. Contact her at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 19-26, 2012.
