gutfud – the food, es ist gut

We met up for happy hour cocktails with Wayne, our old tiki friend from the Mai Tai throwdown during EpicureSB in 2009. I had work, and was running a little late, but the boys kept the seat warm for me, and were plenty warmed up themselves on the first round of cocktails.

Arch Rock Fish is an interesting place. First, the god awful name. The attempt to shibboleth a channel islands landmark results in everyone sounding like they have a lisp, it’s not intuitive to say, and I’ll guess that their target audience does not know anything about Arch Rock or cares. I could abbreviate it. ARF. Okay, dogs. Actually, if someone said “arf arf arf” I’d guess they were trying to say Arch Rock Fish.
When they were first building up towards their grand opening, they were branding themselves as a “neighborhood bar.” That’s really the last place I’d consider a neighborhood bar. More like doucheville on par with Blush…oh yes, it’s all owned by the same folks. Plus, during development of the place, they produced all these really cheesy webisodes about how awesome they were going to be, complete with smarmy “hey, don’t you trust this face before I put a ruffie in your drink?” stills and angled shots. Laaaaame. Take those videos back to LA, I hear the space where the Must was is now available. Plus, I hate websites dominated by flash, and the menu listing isn’t text, it’s a gif. SEO fail.

But if they can turn a bad feng shui space into something productive while the Melting Pot fell by the wayside, then cool. I’d walked by a few times and had trouble counting the fauxhawks, too many of them.

But the Blush/Marquee folks do have some interesting signature cocktails and that’s enough to get me to poke my head in.

My one and only cocktail that night was the Red Rocks. I wish I could tell you what’s in it, but since the menu online is a gif, it’s impossible to cut and paste.
Beechcomber, this is under the martini menu. And a ginger julep.

Next round: Tangerine Falls (named after the hiking spot, not because there’s tangerine in it, because there isn’t), the Lolita Rita, and the Buena Vista otherwise known as an Irish coffee, but I think it’s called the Buena Vista because it’s served in a glass they nicked from the Buena Vista in SF.

Favorites: Red Rocks, the Irish Coffee, and the Tangerine Falls.

We’d picked coming to Arch Rock Fish over its bar partner because it had a better selection of appetizers, which are essential to keep us from getting too loopy. The boys had ordered something before I arrived, so I missed that. But we did get three other nibbles, all offered at reasonable prices from the happy hour menu.

Ted had tried the salmon deviled eggs before and liked them, so we got a set of those, $3. We also got a little bowl of peel and eat shrimp, $5. They are a little messy, but they keep your hands busy, and the shrimp tasted just right.

Finally, we had a sushi roll and I couldn’t tell you at the time what it is, because there is so little fish in it that it’s just not possible to taste any fish. Do you see that odd sliver that might look like light or shadow on one side of the roll? That is the fish! I do recall that these slices were quite big and if you ate one you had to forgo conversation for several minutes because it took a while to chew it all down. It wasn’t that good. Now that I’m at home and can see the menu online clearly, I see that it’s a spicy tuna and salmon roll, $6. Hmm, next time I would try items like the grilled cheese, grilled artichoke and fish tacos.

Arch Rock Fish
608 Anacapa St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
www.archrockfish.com