Hey, guess where I am!

Yep, on the road again.  And to where?  My favourite US city:  Chicago! 

I made it here yesterday about mid-afternoon.  I spent much of the rest of the afternoon unpacking and ironing.  Fun times.  This morning, though, I had no conference activities, and I had a nice little walk around near my hotel.

And oh, what views from my hotel room!

The days ahead may be quiet while I am deep in conference stuff, but have no fear, more content will land on this blog!  For all two or three of you out there who read it, that is!

last day in Santa Barbara

Sheesh, Peter - two weeks behind?  Bad.

Actually, this blog will go through some wonky posting schedules because of a slew of upcoming travel.  I'll update it as I can.  Stay tuned!

But for now, let's wrap up Santa Barbara.

Another June Gloom morning, so much so that we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel as we set out.  An Uber ride to breakfast, but on foot for much of the rest of the day until it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  Our first meal of the day was at Scarlet Begonia.  Van had done some searching online and found the place.  It turned out to be a good choice.  Soft scrambled eggs for me with creamed spinach, a decaf latte. 

We also shared a cinnamon roll made with Yukon gold potato - tender, not overly iced.  A good start to the day!

And then it was walking down State Street to poke in shops.  In truth, it wasn't all that successful at first - a lot of the stores were ones that we could find here easily, and it seems that some shops were closed on a Monday morning.  Ah well.  We did buy a few things here and there, though.  We continued on into the Funk Zone.

Yes, that's what they call the neighbourhood between the train tracks and the waterfront by the train station.  The Funk Zone.  Van had originally proposed that we shop on State Street, then go to the hotel, then wine taste closer to dinner - dinner was going to be in the Funk Zone, and there are wineries there as well.  We agreed, however, that it would be smart to wine taste earlier, then relax and let the wine wear off at the hotel, and then come back for dinner.  The hotel concierge had suggested a few wineries, and we found ourselves as the only customers at the first one on our list, Paradise Springs.

Well, for a goodly while, at least - other people did come in - but there was a long stretch where we were the only one there with the winery owner and two of his staff.  So we got to chat a lot and taste slowly.  Good wines.  Funnily, every one that I loved Van was so-so on, and the reverse was true.  We had a laugh about that.  And we ended up nibbling on some charcuterie and cheese and buying four bottles each.  A successful time of it, and perhaps about two hours spent enjoyably on a very grey, damp day.

After that we wandered into a few shops, finding a nice shirt for Van, a sweatshirt for Conrad, and some shoes for me among other things.  We came home in an Uber laden down with our finds, happy with the day so far.

After a nice, long break at the hotel, we got ready and went back down to the Funk Zone for dinner at The Lark. 

I'll just say it:  easily the best meal we had in Santa Barbara.  We loved the space, and it clearly has a great bar program.  On top of that, though, I would have ordered anything on the many.  I liked every option.  So what did we have?  Texas toast with pimento cheese to start,

then a wedge salad. 

Fried chicken on grits for our dinner. 

Everything shared.  The only thing that didn't utterly impress?  The little bombolini, which promised rhubarb but delivered too little. 

No worries.  We enjoyed it all otherwise, lingering over a nightcap at our table before coming home for a last night of sleep at the hotel.

Our last full day in Santa Barbara was a real delight, start to finish.  I am so grateful to Van.

Sunday afternoon and evening at El Encanto

After a jaunt to the Santa Barbara Mission, Van and I spent the rest of the day at our beautiful hotel, the El Encanto.  We didn't have lunch, per se, but we did have an adult beverage

on the lounge deck along with a flatbread that was really a pizza of some size.  Then it was on to massage.  Not a couple's massage, alas.  That's always nice.  No, each of us getting a massage in a different room, then enjoying prosecco and the steam room before heading back to the room to get ready for dinner.

I'll be honest.  The hotel was fantastic, but the food and the food service did not live up to the hotel.  Trying to get service on the lounge deck took far longer than it should have (and really, I shouldn't have essentially had to flag someone down to ask).  The flatbread was alright, and it took some time to reach us, to the point where we thought we might be late for massage.  Dinner was a little similar.  The service was better, but there was a long gap between the appetizer (a bowl of artichoke soup for each of us) and the main course.  I noticed that at other tables, and I also noticed other tables sending back food to be cooked more or differently.  Years since I worked in restaurants, and yet I am sometimes more attuned to that sort of thing than I would like.  Ah well.  

The other odd thing was that the restaurant had a set menu.  In fact, it looked more interesting than the a la carte menu.  It was vegetarian, three course, $115.  Not the cheapest, but it's a set menu at a fine hotel restaurant.  Except that when you looked at the choices that were also available on the a la carte menu, you would have seen that you could have three of the set menu courses for, oh, $85 instead.  We were curious, so we asked the waiter if the $115 included wine.  No, was his response.  So we pointed out that the price was a little odd given the prices on the a la carte.  He shrugged and said that he didn't control the prices.  Fair enough, but wow.  Just weird.

I'll say this:  we really liked the squid ink bread in the bread basket and the vegan berry ice cream in the ice cream sandwich dessert (though the cookies were far too hard and frozen to eat enjoyably). 

The crudites served as an amuse were a lovely idea, too. 

The soup was fine enough.  My scallops were a little too heavily dusted with blackening seasoning,

perhaps, and the shared plate of vegetables for the table were alright but maybe not what I would have paired with my scallops (also, mushrooms on a veggie plate?  Why?).

We didn't dine at the hotel on the Monday or Tuesday, finding breakfast and coffees elsewhere in the morning, and not going for drinks in the lounge.  It's a shame - the lounge and the deck are fantastic settings.  But I think the hotel needs to look a little more at its food service and step it up.

Friday at a corner of the bar

A welcome return in so many ways.  Oh, it hadn't been so long since last I was at Maestro - just a week ago with Van and my friend Richard.  But Conrad got home on Thursday (yay!) after a week away, and so it was nice to have the three of us together at the bar at our favourite place.

Nothing extraordinary to report.  I started with the drink of the week,

which somehow involved Aperol and pineapple and I am not sure what else.  The other two had their drinks.  We started out by munching on plantain chips with guacamole

and then moved on to other things that included the mole chicken. 

And all was good.

Travel ahead.  I won't grumble.  But I will be happy to be home and back at Maestro when I can be!

the mission

Dialing back to the Santa Barbara weekend again (and more to come)...

The day we arrived in Santa Barbara, the weather was gorgeous.  Sunny, mildly warm.  Fantastic.  My ideal spring in SoCal.  The next day?  June Gloom. 

We joked about it a bunch with any of the locals we talked with, but in truth, we're fine with it.  I can happily avoid hot weather as long as possible, and the June Gloom has actually brought ever so slight precipitation.  California needs it!  Keep it going, please.

Our Sunday was meant to be a relaxing day, and it was.  Afternoon massages were booked at the hotel, plus dinner later on.  That left time after brunch (also at the hotel) to venture out a little, but not too far.  So, we walked down to the Santa Barbara Mission.

I won't get into the history of the California missions here because 1) I don't know it at all, and 2) it merits deeper discuss of conquest and colonialism.  Let's not glamourize the missions, but let's admire the structures and understand the history at least a little.  Van

and I managed some of the former and very little of the latter, I confess.  We simply walked down, took some photos of the building

in among the moderate crowd, looked at some of the examples for the chalk art festival,

and shopped in the store.  We decided against paying the frankly not cheap ticket to check out the complex and opted instead to stay mostly outside, visiting the rose garden nearby,

and then wandering through the neighbourhood between the mission and the hotel up the hill.

A shame.  A wasted opportunity to learn, I think.  I still didn't want to pay for the ticket, but the missions have been an important part of early colonial California history.  Maybe we should have explored further.

Ah well, at least the flowers we encountered were interesting and lovely!

this little girl

I've been neglecting the blog lately, I know, but worry not.  I shall carry on as best I can.  It's just busy days of conference prep (oh man, the number of slide decks and scripts I have to write!), and quiet evenings with Van while Conrad was out of town.  I'll try to squeeze more in this weekend.

For now, however, your semi-regular reminder that this little girl is darn cute.

And she very much loves her daddy!

Gala

Our first evening in Santa Barbara, we headed downtown for dinner, to a newer restaurant that Van's friend Jennifer had suggested.  It was a rare break in the June Gloom that day, so we sat outside and felt comfortable in the cool evening.

I liked Gala.  It had an interesting menu that genuinely felt seasonal.  It also had a good bar program, from what I could tell - and goodness knows we like our cocktails.  I started with the Clover Club, which I haven't made in ages, and it was a nice choice.

Van and I shared two starters.  One was a salad that featured morels (see?  seasonal!) and an asparagus puree. 

It was modest in size, but beautifully plated and tasty.  Van was a little surprised that I asked to have the mushroom dish, but come on.  Morels are a far cry from the satanic turds that are button mushrooms!  We also shared the cornbread, and that was delicious.

I didn't get photos after that.  The light was getting low, and I decided to just eat and enjoy what we were having.  Duck confit for my dinner.  The mashed potatoes were glorious, the pile of salad on the plate was fine but maybe a bit much.  The dessert was a slice of cheesecake.  I appreciate all the fresh berries on the plate, but the cheesecake itself didn't need them.  It was smooth and rich and tangy, and the berry sauce it came with was enough for it.

But please.  These are not bad things, not missteps.  It was a fine choice for our first dinner, and I would be keen to go back to see what seasonal items they were working with at another time.

And, as a nice bonus, we encountered the owner - she had been at the host stand at dinner - after brunch at our hotel the next day.  She remembered us, and we had a nice chat about our dinner and the hotel.  It was really sweet to be remembered.