It’s a quiet evening in downtown Santa Maria when we enter The Garden Mediterranean Restaurant and Cafe. Owner Reda Kchik comes out to warmly greet us and joins us as we sip red wine and talk about the newly opened venue.
He is eagerly sharing stories of the work he has put into the stunning new venue, housed in the former location of Ambrosia, which shuttered a few years ago. For nearly three years, Kchik, who owns several other local businesses, has put countless hours of work into renovating the space and preparing it to open.
Kchik’s dream is to bring the kind of Mediterranean homestyle comfort food he grew up eating with his family in Syria to local diners. Kchik, who has lived in Santa Maria for the past 13 years after relocating from Denver, Colorado, pours over every detail, from the ornately painted murals to the carefully prepared dishes that are born from simplicity yet feel complex and layered on the palate.
For starters, Kchik brings out a huge sampling of traditional Mediterranean fare including hummus, baba ganoush, and tabbouleh. The baba ganoush feels silky and elegant; the smoked eggplant shines through each bite. I instantly recognize it to be the best baba ganoush I have ever had in my life. Kchik has a brand new pita oven, which churns out warm fresh bites of the bread to sop up every last bit on your plate.
Everything at the cafe is fresh, made from scratch, and the tireless nature of that fastidiousness radiates in every plate.
As we sit and talk, I lament how my homemade hummus has never tasted anywhere this good. I get a recipe tip on how to improve my version (I’ll keep that tidbit to myself for now).
Next up, Kchik brings us a plate of chicken and beef kebobs served with basmati rice and onions with fresh herbs. The beef kebobs disappear first because they’ve always been among my favorites. The meat is juicy and flavored with a warm spice that pops in your mouth without overpowering you with heat.
The chicken kebobs are meant to be eaten with a garlic dipping sauce that we were still transfixed by the next day. It’s so good and garlicy and creamy; it would probably work on a lot of other dishes (slather that on a hamburger sometime and thank me for it later). It’s an impressive dollop of food that shows the intense attention to detail the family puts into every aspect of the meal.
For dessert, we are served delicate bites of baklava that were especially stunning. The bite is crisp all the way through, sticky, and sweet. Like the baba ganoush, it stands apart as an example of the best of a particular variety of food that I’ve ever sampled in my life.
We pick apart several plates of food, sharing and passing along what we enjoy and comparing notes on the flavors. This is the heart of true Mediterranean dining. You don’t just get a plate of food you keep to yourself; it’s all about sharing and tasting everything at least once. It’s about the conversation around the food. How was your day, isn’t this delicious, how are the kids, I wonder how they make the sauce for the meat. This is the heart and soul of food, where communion meets consumption.
Though it won’t be open until January, The Garden Mediterranean Restaurant and Cafe is a celebration of community and family, not a stodgy meal where you’re meant to keep your pinky in the air when you sip your tea or worry about which fork to use for the fish course. Break off pieces of warm pita bread and dip and taste and share and dip again and share and ooh and aah because this is what you’re meant to do.
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose is ruminating over a plate of hummus somewhere. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
• This week I recommend taking a vacation. I haven’t had one in years, and we’re hitting the road before Christmas to do some clubbing/lounging down in Palm Springs and some camping in Joshua Tree. I’m taking a bottle of Dascomb Cellars‘ Riserva wine, a blend of sangiovese, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon, which will be a great way to kick off our holiday escape. Get one for yourself at 1659 Copenhagen Drive, Solvang.
• Although, looking at the shitake soup that Plenty on Bell just rolled out last week (pictured), I’m starting to regret not sticking around for Christmas in the Santa Ynez Valley. The restaurant is located at 508 Bell St., Los Alamos.
This article appears in Dec 21-28, 2017.