Sherry Villanueva and Acme Hospitality have proven to be unrivaled culinary hitmakers in Santa Barbara‘s red-hot Funk Zone. Her group’s restaurants include The Lark, Lucky Penny and Helena Avenue Bakery. Loquita is their modern Spanish restaurant that combines classic and atypical influences in an inviting setting that includes an ivy-lined patio, dining room with floral chandeliers, and tile floors. A counter faces an open kitchen, home to a red oak grill and chef Peter Lee, who delivers a fresh take on the time-honored cuisine. Considering my wife and I took our honeymoon to Barcelona, Madrid, and San Sebastian in 2014, we were feeling nostalgic for those flavors.

I enjoyed versions of traditional Spanish dishes like pan con tomate and patatas bravas, but left Loquita most impressed with a fish special. Whole roasted Branzino ($33) featured crispy skin, beautifully flaky white meat that was mostly deboned, and a bevy of accompaniments that weren’t recognizable as Spanish, but sure tasted great. The fish hosted tangy pickled squash coins, crunchy watercress, and a fragrant dusting of fennel pollen. The rest of the set included a bed of crispy farro and sticky sweet Medjool dates, with the plate painted with judiciously sweet squash puree.