Via Maestra 42

A downside of growing up in the same city I reside in as an adult is that I still see areas of town as I saw them years ago. And the Loretto Plaza/San Roque Plaza areas I have never associated with anything classy or fancy. It’s the home of the Farmer Boy diner that crazy Mary Birdie ate at and Federal Drug that used to display all their best incontinence products and aluminum walkers in the window.

In the spot where Via Maestra 42 now resides, I knew as Swenson’s as a child. Then Rich’s ice cream. And it took me ages to come to Via Maestra, where I didn’t have high expectations. I mean, there’s a 7-11 across the street and the whole place is a strip mall.

But it’s now my third time – I have written about my first – and for each time I had a quality experience. The place is small, you can’t really do anything about that. But bistro style eating and lounging I recall in Europe is much the same. It’s probably us that’s too fat. Anyway, I really can’t fault them for anything. My service has always been really good, genuine. Usually 3-4 people look after me, and just to be clear, I’m an average person. I respect the waitstaff like they respect me. The service I get here rocks.

On order for the evening:

Bread – char grilled, drizzled with olive oil and sliced into little pieces.
Bruschetta – thin ciabatta-like pieces covered with nicely flavored tomato and garlic. I’ve had enough bad experiences with thick bruschetta that’s so crunchy it makes the roof of my mouth sore, and then the tomato comes tumbling all over the plate and lap that I was pretty shy about ordering this. But they are wide, flat triangles of bread evenly covered with the tomato. Easy to eat, and really delicious. It seemed super fresh.
Ravioli Zuccotto – pumpkin ravioli with crispy sage and butter sauce. No salt, no pepper, it’s just good to go. It was yummy, nicely presented. Maybe could have been better if the butter was more browned, but I had no qualms with what I ate. The snacking bread was great for dipping into this sauce.
Chocolate hazelnut gelato – got this in a to-go cup so I could walk home with it.

Dining companion had a glass of Toscolo chianti and the pollo valdostana, which was a chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto alongside truffled mash and veg. Think of it like a chicken kiev but cured ham instead of the butter sauce. And my dining friend, we’ve known each other since kindergarten in SB, he lives maybe 2 blocks from here, he worked at Rich’s at a teen, and he hasn’t been to Via Maestra either. It’s not just me that’d mostly written off San Roque.

Nice note: sitting outside, even for being along the side walk of the strip mall, is pleasant! Because they have lined it with planter boxes of flowering hedges. It’s not big and beautiful, but it’s so much nicer to look at those vines than crazy soccer mom crookedly backing her dinged up dirty minivan into the parking space 4 feet away from your table. (some parts of San Roque will never change)

If we keep heading in the same direction, with Gelson’s, Renaud’s, Via Maestra 42, even Jeanine’s a little further up the mall, San Roque’s soon going to be better than the sum of its parts.

Via Maestra 42
3343 State St
Santa Barbara, CA 93105