Keeping It Simple

Chef Avery shines at Arts & Letters Café

Chef Avery hardin sits in the Arts & Letters Café’s sunny courtyard, rattling off his recipe for lamb with a Chimichurri sauce. There are complex instructions or even exact measurements, unless “a bunch” counts as one. But he’s exacting about one thing: use quality ingredients.

That philosophy permeates the food at this popular eatery, tucked away in a charming courtyard behind the Sullivan Goss Gallery. Just as an artist just knows when one brushstroke is just enough, hardin keeps his food simple. It’s driven by what is in season, prepared in a way that enhances natural flavors.

“It makes our job easier, and everyone leaves happier,” he says, in talking about finding just the right heirloom tomatoes to serve with fresh, creamy Burrata cheese, Blue Lake beans, opal basil and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar. “You don’t have to do much to a terrific tomato,” the Santa Barbara native adds. “We just cut it and serve it.” hardin’s anticipating the spring run of local seafood, particularly white seabass, steelhead trout, and rockfish. Their rock cod sandwich features the fish in light tempura, house-pickled fennel, pine nut relish and fresh arugula on a hoagie roll.

Arts & Letters’ salads are a kaleidoscope of colors and textures: local apples with dried sour cherries, celery, marcona almonds and red onion; roasted beets tossed with local tangerines, goat cheese, pistachios and romaine; and the mainstay “Tyler” (on the menu for over