Brothers Geno, John and Julio Petrini founded their old school Italian spot in 1958. A green and white striped awning gives way to red and white checked tablecloths, green booths, and both cream and wood paneled walls featuring faded photos of Italy. Hearty sandwiches, pizza, pasta dishes and plates predominate. Flaky whitefish piccata comes blanketed with white wine, lemon, and caper sauce I’d also recommend citrus-brined pork chops with serious sears, topped with balsamic reduction. People also swear by the capocollo sandwich.

Trust Restaurant Group’s modern steakhouse expanded from San Diego in 2022. Associate or Executive boards, aka combo platters, warrant a detour. Our Associate board paired delectable Wagyu Denver and tri-tip with pork chop “al pastor,” bone marrow, beef fat butter and sauces. Butter cake with sour cream ice cream is devastatingly flavorful on another frequency for dessert.

This modern, seasonal Indonesian restaurant with a progressive cocktail program combines the talents of Ryan Simorankir and Tyler Peek. Sama Sama, slang for “You’re welcome,” underwent a revamp. During my visit, I found a glass front framed by red wood, decorative sticks wrapped with twine, booths and L-shaped bar, and a blackboard menu promoting This Week’s Farms. That could mean Norma’s Sprouts, Milliken Farm, or SB Organics. Sama Sama resides right on State Street, but they don’t play it safe with spice. They even spike their desserts, including a rum soaked tres leches and whiskey focused milkshake.

Tuesday evenings, the city closes State Street for a farmers market that’s popular with chefs and locals. However, the market that draws more people occupies the corner of Santa Barbara & Cota Streets on Saturdays from 8:30 AM – 1 PM and touts some of the best farmers in California. Highlights include Harry’s Berries, McGrath Farm, Pudwill Berry Farm, and Drake’s Family Farm (goat cheese). There’s also the occasional rarity like Rancho Santa Cecilia’s agave flowers, which have a texture that falls between asparagus and okra. De La Cruz Farm, located in Morro Bay, grows delectable produce like whole-pod fava beans. San Marcos Farms sells honey from sage blossoms. Mud Creek Farms grows unique citrus, Tutti Frutti Farms sells heirloom tomatoes, and Herfamy Farms sells sugar cane and brassicas. Creekside Apple Ranch in Arroyo Grande is notable for Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Mutsu apples and is also home to Solvang Pie Company. Friend’s Ranches in Ojai sells bags of sweet W. Murcotts citrus and more exotic fruits like Mexican guava and small, bitter pineapple guava (feijoa). Piedrasassi bread sells out fast, so show up early if you want sesame durum, rye, or deluxe rosemary olive oil sea salt focaccia. Stepladder Creamery in Cambria is a recent favorite, selling cheeses like Rioly Run, a cow’s milk cheese washed in Libertine saison from SLO. Fat Uncle Farms from Wasco specializes in nuts and nut butters like flavorful, nutrient rich sprouted almond butter.

Seafood gets no fresher than at harborside Santa Barbara Fish Market. Owner Brian Colgate has dispensed fresh catch since 2000. They source globally, which explains options like marinated white anchovies, but you’ll always find local fish like black cod, mako shark and skate in the display case, and if you’re lucky, delicacies like white bass and spot prawns. Santa Barbara sea urchin is creamy, sweet, and some of the planet’s best, and SBFM sells 40-gram boxes. In season, they’ll also crack stone crab claws, which you can enjoy on outdoor benches with a complimentary sea breeze.

Rachel Greenspan from Bettina Pizzeria recommended this bustling seafood shack at the end of Stearns Wharf, aka the pier. Santa Barbara Shellfish Company dates to 1980, when Tom White started selling bounty from local waters, and son Adam White now runs the oceanic show. The small, charming seafood restaurant features a wraparound counter, open kitchen, and four booths overlooking the water. For people who can’t stand waits, Santa Barbara Shellfish Company also houses a takeout window that feeds diners at first come, first take picnic tables shaded with red umbrellas, which my family shared with a fleet of cyclists. Crab varietals vary by season, and I scored a sweet, spiky box crab served with drawn butter and crispy onion rings. Cooks are also skilled with a deep-fryer, as my calamari, oyster, shrimp, and scallop platter proved.

The Shop debuted in 2012 next to a tire shop. Order at the window and proceed to a sun-soaked patio with picnic tables or dining room with painted whisks, skillets, ladles and silverware. Chris Vigilante, his wife Amy, Dudley Michael and Scott Manser have turned this grass roots cafe into a neighborhood favorite. A versatile menu includes breakfast items, sandwiches, salads and “shopmade” pastries, aka tantalizing impulse buys when you reach the window. Nobody’s from the South, but Southern influences seep into dishes like the General Sanders fried chicken sandwich, served on a house-made waffle batter bun. Apparently the Colonel got a promotion. Salads and the signature Shop Burger, an 80/20 beef blend from Santa Barbara’s Shalhoob Meat Company, are also popular.

Taqueria Cuernavaca started in Ventura and expanded to Santa Barbara in 2012. Joaquin Solorzano named his taqueria and tortilleria for the largest city in the central Mexican state of Morelos. Wall murals depict Mexican icons sitting at tables flanking a scenic “window,” including revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata and art legend Frida Kahlo. The restaurant’s best known for alambres, griddled meats melded with molten cheese, bell peppers and onions. My souped up El Fortachon combined with thin-sliced steak, marinated pork, chorizo, ham, cheese, onions, and bell pepper, plated with a creamy avocado fan and soft house-made corn tortillas. Build your own tacos, but first, swing by the salsa bar for flavorful slurries like hot, tangy habanero-tomatillo and spicy habanero-tomato.

Kris Parker continues to dial up the culinary excitement at Third Window. To complement some of Santa Barbara’s best beers, they serve decadent Wagyu smash burgers. I suggest adding cheese, jalapeños and avocado. They also excel at little gem salads dressed with buttermilk ranch and bust out oak smoked chicken wings. Third Window serves oak-fired pizzas after 4 p.m. For Oktoberfest, they serve satisfying specials like pork schnitzel with lager-braised red cabbage and German potato salad.

Yoichi’s is a traditional kaiseki-style restaurant from chef Yoichi Kawabata and wife-partner Mogi Kawabata that’s reasonably priced, with flair to spare. Kawabata’s resume includes stints at Kenchō-ji temple in Kamamura, a ryokan near Yokohama, and Nobu Tokyo. The couple debuted Yoichi’s in 2015 in a stone-fronted space with 10 tables and a peaked roof on a Santa Barbara side street. Weekend dinner costs $100 per person and involves seven courses, some of which include multiple elements. The menu changes seasonally and 90% of their seafood comes from Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market, which arrives within 24 hours. Choose your own adventure, with options at nearly every turn. Highlights included baby ice fish with ginger, green onion, plum, and ponzu; grilled Northern California lobster with red miso, dressed with yuzu and young ginger pickled in rice wine vinegar; and grilled sazae no tsuboyaki (top shell) minced with vegetables and mushrooms, sake and soy, served with plump, squiggly liver. Their Mokouzuke (sashimi) course alone is destination worthy, presented in a blue glass bowl on a black ceramic pedestal in a bamboo basket. The night’s impressive haul included silky salmon (fatty belly up front, back in back), striped jack (belly and back), and scored, sliced, snow-white sumi ika (Hokkaido squid). Chef’s sushi selection might consist of Hokkaido scallop, Santa Barbara uni, and Hokkaido sweet shrimp. Kanmi (dessert) involves a choice of pudding. I’d recommend creamy green tea or nutty black sesame, both topped with yamamomo (mountain peach).

Jamie McLeod founded this Summerland nonprofit in 2004 to rescue and habilitate displaced parrots. A pink house boards birds inside and features over 40 rescues outdoors, including Sansa the rose breasted cockatoo, Goffin’s cockatoos named Darby and Benny, a pretty pink Rosey Bowtse named Lillikoi, and my favorite duo: Roscoe and Hazel. Listen for “Hello” and “I love you.”

The Sea Center has preached ecology on Stearns Wharf pier since 1986. Highlights recently included baby sharks in egg cases, an 80-year-old lobster, moon jellies, vivid starfish, and a projected, rainbow colored, topographical sandbox that depicts the sea floor.

Santa Barbara Zoo debuted in 1963 and displays over 500 animals, including a red panda named Raj, five Masai giraffes, giant anteaters called Ridley and Anara, and local island foxes named Lewis and Clark. Ride the zoo train for a different perspective.