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Pure food. Understated. Immersive. A sense of Yang. I came here with my friend Brad, and this was my “big dinner” of the week. Big, meaning the one meal that would require reservations and cost over $200/person. No regrets on this count, the meal was splendid and I came away feeling very pleased. Favorite dishes of the night: the pasta with mushrooms and toasted buckwheat, and the shaved foie over chilled lychees. The latter is not a surprise – I’m still bitter that California banned the sale of foie, but the pasta dish surprised both of us which made it the underdog winner of the night. It’s not a meal for documentarians. No photos allowed, no cell phones, and there’s no menu to reference – the good folks working in front of you simply tell you what they’re serving as they lay the dish in front of you. They might repeat it upon request, but at this point it’s best to put the pen down and enjoy the moment. Or maybe I need to learn shorthand. I particularly enjoyed the intimacy of the restaurant. It’s so tiny, the prep area is out in front, and with just 12 or so people sitting at the counter, it’s small enough to feel like a community, but big enough to allow each group their sense of privacy when they need it. Let’s see, the names I can recall of the people working that night: Troy, Adam, Hugh. Thanks, guys. Momofuku Ko (East Village)
Yay! More food trucks in Santa Barbara! I know our food and food truck scene is totally podunk compared to Portland and Los Angeles, but that’s okay, it’s not a big town plus I know we have a zillion restrictions and guidelines that make these kind of small start-ups difficult. O Street appears to have been in business for about two weeks now, and I got some feedback from a friend here and there that managed to get to the truck before I did. They gave a thumbs up. And I visited the truck recently on one of its Goleta days. It was a gorgeous day in Santa Barbara (is it redundant to say that?), the truck’s brightly colored and difficult to miss. We also beat the rush. The menu’s clearly posted outside, offering a simple range of bahn mi, Vietnamese flavored tacos, soup and salad, and drinks. The bahn mi is the most expensive item on the menu, but is still just $5.
I had a beef bahn mi first. It had a decent amount of flavorful meat, and a delightful portion of crunchy goodies like cucumber, carrot and cilantro, then was drizzled with a tangy sauce. I really liked that the baguette was slightly toasted and warm, giving it a light crispness when I first bit in. The filling in the sandwich was not as packed full like the photos on their website, but whose promo pictures are truly representative of the actual item in hand. Yeah, like nobody’s. They were fine, and need I point this out again? Just $5.
The bahn mi comes wrapped in paper and I suggest you use that paper. The juicy meat, the watery cucumber and the sauce all contribute to a drippy mess. But that’s not as drippy as the tacos! Those don’t have any soft bread to soak up the good stuff. They are $2 for chicken taco and $2.50 for beef taco, I had one of each. They are essentially the same as the sandwich, but served on two small corn tortillas. The tortillas as spaced out slightly to hold the filling and fall apart quite quickly, so I recommend grabbing a fork from the truck to tuck in. Plus, more napkins.
There’s also little single serve pastry pizza available. I believe this is a carry-over specialty of the truck’s owner before she went into the food truck business. The crust is a flaky pastry, which can go from crisp and buttery to soft and oily quickly if you let the pizza sit around too long. There’s a red sauce and white version available, I had the white one with goat cheese and onions. $4. It’s good, but definitely more delicate. If you want the bigger bang for the buck or be full faster, the bahn mi is the way to go.
So I had one sandwich, two tacos and one pizza. It cost $13.50 and fed two. That’s a good deal. Another thing that impressed me about O Street was its marketing. I automatically turn off of aggressive marketing that occurs before a business opens because it hypes up the business without any substance yet to back it up. And we all know that the theory of how a company first opens for business can be far different to its execution. O Street got close to borderline over-marketing with media articles before opening, but never quite crossed it. They were on twitter early talking up their launch, but it was more on a level of engagement rather than trumpeting without listening. O Street also knows its audience. This is cheap eats, easy to grab and go, very tasty for someone with the munchies. It will be very good for a hungry crowd outside a club, but sensible enough for the daytime office types. Just grab lots of napkins so the tangy sauce doesn’t drip over your pressed shirt.
O Street Truck Yeah, it was alright. I snagged the grand tour reservation with 3 days notice, dining 2 days later. Don’t give up on the wait list, baby. I probably enjoyed the chicken liver pate with bacon, caramelized onion paper, and vin santo in terms of tastiness. I probably enjoyed the duck, foie gras and mole flavors surrounded by the warm fragrance of heady nuts and spices in terms of interestingness. Environment and food seemed “yang” to me. So I had to balance that out by making constant references to licking beef curtains with the wagyu beef presentation. The dinner, maybe it could use a course called “promenade,” where a favorite server would take us for a walk around the block to break up the pace of four and a half hours of gastronomic self-indulgence. The wine pairings were excellent with fine verbose explanations. The menu composition, Edward Tufte would be proud. Alinea
Hey, yeah, it’s good stuff! A friend suggested I try this place out, upon learning on short notice that I’d be visiting Chicago. We snapped up a Sunday reservation with 3 days notice, no problem. Love the door, it’s like a secret entrance. Can’t find it, then NO L20 FOR YOU. Hanging out in the little lounge area is also nice. Like a little calm moment of zen before the culinary explosion blows up in your face. I happened to like the white pod chairs, but my uber tall dining companion didn’t. We secretly prayed for seats on the wall sofa section…and got them. Sweet. Opted for the four course menu, so we could divide up the options. I adored everything I got, in fact, I felt quite the smug winner that the stuff I ordered was really cool and yummy and delicious and awesome. Amuse buche: something really small and salty. More on that later.     Warm: hamachi and foie gras. *TUD* like I fainted and went to heaven. Three fat slices of pure foie gras, seared on one side. Perhaps my favorite dish of the evening. Main: lobster with peach, tarragon and cauliflower fritters. Lobster with tarragon was rocking my world. So delicious. The cauliflower fritters were also crumbed with these crunchy little beads, which was a great contrast to the smooth puree of the cauliflower. Intermission: melon sorbet with lime. Unexpected and very tasty. It was half like granita and half like sorbet. Nice texture. No photo. :( Dessert: chocolate and raspberries. It was more like 5 or 6 desserts with all the various ways the chocolate and raspberries were presented. Frozen, smooth, dark, milk, foam, COTTON CANDY, gells, polka dots. The server did not have to ask me if I enjoyed it. Surprise: a button of chocolate fizzy something. It just popped and fizzed in a pleasant and surprising way. Rich person’s version of pop rocks. Extra surprise: pistachio macaroon. They took care of us until near 1 am, then sent us home in a nice car that was even less expensive than the gnarly cab that got us there. They also sent us home with a beautiful sealed envelope containing our menus for the evening. I would give it 5 stars even though: * Janky cab totally took us to the wrong address. Not L20′s fault, of course, but it was a crap way to start the evening. * The amuse buche kinda sucked. My spoon tasted of rotten metallic eggs, it was super gross. It was the tinest morsel of food, but it did make me really nervous how the rest of the meal was going to turn out. * The bathroom locks. Really cool restrooms, but for some reason none of the patrons who used the restrooms thought they locked. I visited there twice and both times pushed right in on someone else doing their business. What is up with that? I could see and use the locks, why couldn’t anyone else? Really embarrassing. I had to sit in there and watch the lone guppy potter around his little aquatic garden tank for several minutes to mull over this confusing situation. Other quirk of the evening: the little rolling boxes that contain extra napkins and silverware and trays. The staff there push them around, constantly pulling odds and bobs out of them. I called them cabooses because they simply followed people around. Are there midgets in there handing goodies out? L20 I took a little peek at the pastry menu last night during a downtown stroll and even though I’d had ample and delicious nibbles elsewhere that evening, I knew I couldn’t pass up a small plate of something here. The peach tart tempted me, but the chef recommended his dessert special. Dessert special it was, at the bar, please. But first, a surprise dish of a slice of pate on a little toast with a citrus sauce. The toast must have been cooked over high heat, because it was crisp on the outside and soft inside, which was easy to cut with a fork and lovely to eat. And then, the dessert. Local butternut squash in a fine mash rolled up in a crisp pastry shell with pecans on top, served with fig coulis and pecan ice cream. I loved the textures of everything. The pastry was warm with the crunch, the ice cream was cold and smooth, the pecans brought it together with its organic bumps and ridges. The owners were great and talked to lonely little me at the bar. Over an hour later, I’m presented with the bill of $8. Mouthfulls of art for $8. That’s a better deal than any piece on a wall or pedestal I saw at First Thursday. Update: 5 March 2009   Left: butternut squash bread pudding. Right: pot de creme with pistachio. Another successful dessert evening after First Thursday. Who can deny this is a fabulous way to end the night? Desserts are still a paltry $8 each. Past entries: Square One |
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