Santa Barbara: Jane Restaurant

My meal at Jane: Penne Pasta with Shrimp and Bay Scallops, Chopped Tomato, Basil, Garlic and Olive Oil. Mmmm.

The best dining experience we had in Santa Barbara was probably at Jane. Their food was solidly good and the atmosphere seemed down to earth (for the most part). My family was still going strong with our strangeness, but unlike other experiences we had had in Santa Barbara, we didn’t feel too out of place.

            Let’s start with their food. I ordered their Penne Pasta with Shrimp, Clams, Bay Scallops, Chopped Tomato, Basil Garlic & Olive Oil, but decided to hold the clams (I’m not that adventurous, especially with shellfish). It was, as expected, very tasty and light and was exactly what I was in the mood for at the time. Though I’m usually not huge on scallops, these were probably the best I’ve ever tasted. The shrimp was just shrimp, nothing to write home about. My dish, however, was not the best one that I tried that night. My dad’s meal won that honor: the lamb chop special with a tomato sauce that he ordered was so hearty and delectable. Although it was a bit heavier than I was in the mood for at the time, I still lamented not ordering his dish. And, though Tolani’s lamb chop special was very different and certainly superior to Jane’s, it inevitably reminded me of that epic meal in New York. (It also led me to the superstitious and irrational conclusion that if there is a lamb chop special to be ordered, it is probably the best thing on the menu.)

Dad's Lamb Chop special. So hearty, sooooo good.

            After regretting not getting dessert after our last meal at the Boathouse at Hendry’s Beach, we decided that, though we were very full, we should try some dessert at Jane. The waitress was very nice and brought my littlest sister some soft-serve ice cream, which she thoroughly and messily enjoyed. She was a hilarious sight to behold; cackling with joy as she shoved the dessert into her face, pushing the soft-serve into precarious positions that posed a threat to the restaurant’s ‘children shouldn’t spill’ rule (which I’ll get into in a little bit). It was as if she had never tasted ice cream before and when we told her that, she emphatically replied in a very serious tone that she, in fact, had eaten ice cream before. But enough of her hilarity…

Bad photo of my dessert: Creme Brule, too big to finish, but so delicious.

            Dessert for the rest of us can mostly be described as overwhelmingly large but delicious. The portions for dessert were too much for us to handle, especially after a meal so large as well. I, the great lover of Crème Brule, was only able to get through about ¾ of mine before I stopped for fear that my stomach might actually burst open. I didn’t quit, however, before trying a bit of my dad’s Chocolate Marquise, which proved to me once and for all that my dad was making better culinary choices than I. Though I loved the Crème Brule (especially the crunchy top), the Chocolate Marquise was so rich that it had a slight cocoa bean flavor, and it was accompanied beautifully by a vanilla cream sauce. My brother and sister shared their Coconut Cake, for which Jane is known on Yelp, and that was also rather tasty, if you are a fan of coconut! It was a shame that they gave us so much dessert, as it was too good to let go to waste.

Chocolate Marquise with vanilla cream sauce.

Coconut Cake.

There was only one slight downside to Jane and that was their attitude towards children, as I alluded to above. With their children’s menu, the management left a little note for parents and the gist of it was this: we love kids, but we’re not going to clean up after them. For my parents, who deal with four to five messy children every day, this was a big turn off. Their reasoning, with which I totally agree, was that it is the restaurant’s job to clean up after its patrons and if you make a big mess, say because you have children, then you make it up to the staff by tipping big.

But this little negative quirk was not enough to make us dislike Jane in the least bit. The service was very friendly, the food was too enjoyable and, particularly when compared to the other experiences we had in Santa Barbara, Jane’s drawbacks were mild.

In the Kitchen: White Wine, Olive Oil, and Garlic Capellini, with Tomatoes and Basil, and Bruschetta

White Wine, Olive Oil and Garlic. Magic Combo!

Bruschetta. Mmmm.

Pasta is a lazy cook’s best friend. And as a lazy cook and an avid eater, I love pasta. Especially the combination of thin, long strand pasta with white wine, olive oil and garlic. Really delicious and hard to screw up, in other words, perfect. Over the weekend, Ben and I decided to make a permutation of this magical mixture, tossing in tomatoes, basil with some capellini pasta. I had also been craving Bruschetta all day, and it made the perfect side dish to our pasta.

We started having absolutely no idea what to cook for dinner, and went to Market Hall for inspiration. Being right around 6 on a Friday evening, it was crowded and the amount of cheeses in that place was completely overwhelming for people who love cheese as much as we do. So, we had to step outside for a little bit to decide and strategize our dinner plans. Melon and prosciutto sounded good, but it seemed like more of a snack than a meal, and in my mind, it didn’t mesh well with my stubborn bruschetta craving. So, we decided to keep it simple and go with pasta, and once we settled on something with the all-powerful combo of white wine, olive oil and garlic, the rest fell into place. We went to Market Hall Produce and got the best-smelling tomatoes and basil I’ve encountered yet, and also picked up an Acme Bread Co. Long Italian Baguette for the Bruschetta at the Pasta Shop.

After a successful shopping trip/decision-making process, we went back to Ben’s place to cook. (He has such a nice kitchen, I must admit, I’m jealous. It’s much bigger than mine, with a brand new stove/oven. Sure, it doesn’t have the same appeal as my cute and ancient stove/oven in terms of character, but trumps my kitchen any day in terms of cooking.) Anyways, it was a pretty quick and easy meal to cook, although we were so hungry by the time we got back that we fumbled with the timing a bit. After prepping the tomatoes, basil and garlic for both the pasta and the bruschetta, all the other steps were last minute, and famished, we had a hard time with it. Eventually, we got everything together, albeit with the pasta slightly cold and the bread slightly overdone (not burnt, but super crunchy), and it was delicious. Despite the problems, it was a yummy meal, with my favorite part of the meal being the Bruschetta I had craved all day, made with olive oil, garlic, basil and tomatoes. To accompany the meal, we had some of the Chardonnay that we used for the pasta sauce, which obviously went well with dinner.

Chardonnay, s'il vous plaît?

Overall, it was a meal that highlighted all the good things about the pasta, white wine, olive oil combo, especially the inability to mess it up, which is particularly good for the lazy (or hungry, in our case) cook.