For two indelible weeks in the fall of 2006, my husband Michael and I ate and drank our way through Italy.
We still reminisce about the marvelous locals-filled mozzarella bar in Rome; the exceptionally fresh seafood platters on the Cinque Terre coast; snacking on saffron gelato in San Gimignano; sipping Prosecco overlooking Venice’s Grand Canal, and a five-course feast at our five-star Florence hotel.
It was thrilling to experience such authentic Italian flavors again, at a restaurant much closer to home, the new S.Y. Kitchen Cucina Rustica in Santa Ynez.
Kathie and Mike Gordon, longtime restaurateurs and owners of Toscana restaurant and Bar Toscana in Brentwood, have lived in Santa Ynez for the last decade and decided the time was right to have a restaurant here.
They renovated a home on Faraday Street, just off of Sagunto Street in the heart of town, and opened for business on April 18.
The comfortably sophisticated restaurant gives off an informal, cool vibe. There are three dining areas; the front room with a bar; the spacious porch with comfy banquette seating and garden lighting; and the dining room, which works well for larger private parties.
The Gordons brought along some of their experienced restaurant staff from L.A.
Behind the counter in the restaurant’s open kitchen, executive chef Luca Crestanelli is visible to diners from the front room and bar.
Crestanelli was the executive chef who opened the sleek, lounge-style Bar Toscana for the Gordons years ago.
They convinced Crestanelli to move up to Santa Ynez to be a partner with them in S.Y. Kitchen, to create the menu, and oversee everything in the kitchen.
“He’s great,” Kathie exclaimed. “His food is modern northern Italian. I’ve been told by northern Italians that if you went to Milan today, the food you get here would be really similar to that.”
Crestanelli, a native of Verona, Italy, took time before the dinnertime rush to explain to me his philosophy and style of cooking.
“Italian food: simple tastes, simple flavors,” Crestanelli explained with his captivating Italian accent. “Flavorful, fresh, never heavy.”
“I want quality, I want it simple, and I want it now,” Crestanelli said with passion. “It’s simple food, really. Quality, quality, quality!”
The chef finds in-season local produce, preferring to buy directly from nearby farms where he enjoys visiting with the growers.
“I go out in the field,” Crestanelli said. “By being here, it helps me to stay focused on what’s available and what’s not.”
Whatever is fresh and catches his fancy makes it onto the specials menu that night.
“What I put on the [specials] board is what I feel that day,” he said.
Specials the day I visited included a summer bean salad; a smoky Italian roasted zucchini soup with burrata and mint; roasted quail with arugula and sautéed grapes; fresh home-made Maccheroncini pasta with baby artichokes, lamb, and truffle oil; seared ahi with peppers, tomatoes, and pesto; and mozzarella di bufala.
“I have a beautiful buffalo mozzarella,” he said. “It’s more on the chewy side, salty.”
The mozzarella is the real deal, handmade traditionally by an expert cheese maker in Italy.
“He makes the mozzarella on Wednesday in Naples, and on Thursday it is here,” Crestanelli explained.
Seated solo at S.Y. Kitchen’s sleek bar, I started with a refreshing glass of 2011 Girlan Pinot Grigio from Italy ($12). The wine menu offers a very good selection of wines from both Italy and California with an emphasis on boutique wines from Santa Barbara County.
A crudité bowl and locally baked Italian-style bread and olive oil were immediately placed in front of me.
Both a personable hostess and the masterful server highly recommended the warm octopus salad appetizer ($17), saying it was one of their favorites and already a popular dish at S.Y. Kitchen.
The steamed octopus, skinny green beans, petite red, yellow, and purple potatoes, taggiasca olives, and slow-roasted tomatoes, were perfectly prepared; so simple and flavorful.
For my next course I wanted to taste the homemade pasta, so I ordered the comforting Pappardelle Bianche ($22).
A generous portion of the broad, flat pasta noodles was tossed with Branzino (European sea bass), asparagus, fresh peas, porcini mushrooms, and vermouth, and then topped with fresh Parmesan cheese.
Other pastas on the menu include homemade Spaghetti Mare ($22); calamari, clams, mussels, shrimp, and crab; and Garganelli Anatra ($19); duck ragu, tomato, thyme, porcini mushrooms.
The chef also prepares entrees on his outdoor oak-fired barbecue pit, such as Pollo Mattone ($24) grilled organic chicken and roasted potatoes; Prime Natural Angus New York steak ($35) with spicy arugula, parmigiano, and balsamic; and Lamb Chop Scottadito ($28); baby lamb chops, grilled vegetables, and fresh herbs.
I perused the dessert menu: panne cotta, almond chocolate cake, chocolate and mascarpone, homemade gelato, among others. Crestanelli insisted that I try his unique “Not So Classic Tiramisu.”
He personally delivered the chilled preserving jar filled with the lightest, most delectable tiramisu I have ever tasted! This dessert is not to be trifled with.
That terrific tiramisu, like everything about S.Y. Kitchen, is still making me swoon.
Sun food and wine columnist Wendy Thies Sell is planning her return. Contact her at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 18-25, 2013.