We have been wanting to go to Cafe Luck on Cota Street in downtown Santa Barbara for sometime now. It is the latest from Lucky Jeans founder, Gene Montasano, who also has built Lucky's and Tre Lune in Montecito and Ca Dario, Bucatini, Ca Dario, Joes Cafe and D'Angelo (Bakery) in Santa Barbara. An article in the local paper was enough motivation for us to call and make Friday night reservations - an hour later we heard from good friends that they were back in town, so we suggested we all meet for dinner that night.
Cafe Luck is a French Bistro style place built on the site of the former Mousse Odile, a charming French restaurant run by a pair of sisters. Old time Santa Barbarans will remember it as the place to stop for a light breakfast after shopping at the Farmers' Market on Saturday. I used to have lunch there all the time when I was with Wavefront (around the corner).
The menu has a lot of seafood on it, Oysters, Mussels, Crab, Lobsters, Sardines, Salmon as well as some classic French preparations, Daubes, Bouillabaisse, French Onion Soup, and apparently the Chef's favorite, called the Lucky Plateau - a three plate tower overflowing with seafood (for 4 it looks like.) I wish that there was a website to point you to, so you could see the menu.
The video captures the lively ambience of the cafe as well as some shots of our appetizers. I just received a new Mino HD (Flip) camera from Kymberlee and this was my first chance to use it. It is small, lightwieight and easy to use - I need to work on framing, editing and will be integrating it more into my blogging.
I started with the Sardines, amazing flavor and texture, two beet salads were enjoyed by the others, the small beets were perfectly cooked and the greens dressed lightly.
Our entrees arrived right on time, we had the Mussels with Frites (perfectly crisp french fires, served French/Belgian style with a side of homemade mayonaisse), Tuna ala Niscoise (a seared piece of Ahi in the style of Nice), and the ladies had the Lobster, served with buttery steamed leeks and grilled baby artichokes.
Everyone cleaned thier plates and commneted that the portions were just the right size, I actually used a couple of slices of the fresh bread to soak up the fennel enfused broth that the Mussels had been steamed in.
We passed on dessert, but made note to come back soon and work our way through the menu with some more friends. This will be a great place to catch a bite before the Santa Barbara Film Festival which begins at the end of January and has it's main theater right around the corner.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
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