Next month, Chef Ricardo Zarate and business partner Stephane Bombet of Chef Zarate Restaurant Group will open Blue Tavern (121 State St Santa Barbara, CA 93105) on Santa Barbara’s State Street and feature Cali fare, like pizza, pasta, and grilled meats that have inspiration from Zarate’s heritage.
The menu includes a beet, tomato, and burrata salad tossed in a huacatay-pesto dressing; seafood medley risotto with a tomato-aji panca base and salsa verde; and the lomo saltado has housemade tagliatelle with filet of beef, tomato-onion stew, and pecorino. The modern, intimate, space has a wood-burning oven as it’s central focus, which produces hand-tossed pizzas (prosciutto, goat cheese, and burrata, and huacatay pesto); seafood (steamed mussels, chorizo, aji amarillo butter, and lime juice); and meat (anticucho-marinated grilled rib eye and potato tarte tatin).
Mixologist, Deysi Alvarez, has created a cocktail menu, which features classic drinks made with house made tinctures and small-batch spirits. The Margarita features Espolón tequila, house orange reduction, fresh lime juice, agave nectar, and Gusano salt; the Mojito de Martinique has Clement Rhum VSOP and clement cane sirop; and the Old Fashioned replaces bourbon with mezcal. Blue Tavern’s wine list will focus on local vintners.
Hours will be: daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner beginning at 7 am.
