Mesa Memories

25 Years Of Great Comfort Food

The mesa Cafe’s walls are filled with photos. Printed primarily in black and white, they trace 25 years of memories, 25 years of customers, family and employees, 25 years that this popular eatery has served home style food to Santa Barbara residents in the area that boasts its name. owners david and Vicki Kellams look at the oversized portraits covering one wall and reminisce.

“Remember that day, Vicki? It was your birthday and a customer brought you flowers,” recalls david. A younger Vicki sporting a huge smile, is just visible behind a huge bouquet.

“oh, look at him,” sighs Vicki, gazing at an image of a bald man sitting in a convertible, cigar in hand. “This guy was just wonderful…a regular. he lived to be maybe 93 years old.”

“Check out the fishermen,” dave adds, leaning in to see better. “Back then, the mesa was filled with carpenters, craftsmen, and fishermen. They’d arrive when we opened at 6:30 a.m. and be back in the bar in the afternoon.”

The Kellams met when david owned fred C. dobbs restaurant in montecito. “he bought the restaurant and I was there,” laughs Vicki.

The mesa Cafe opened in 1985 in a former fish store in the mesa Shopping Center. “It was a tiny little place, just the size of our current bar,” says Vicki, gazing at the restaurant, packed with lunch diners on a Tuesday afternoon.

Soon they expanded into an empty Radio Shack next door and could serve dinner and offer bar service.

(continued)

“my dad Bill and I built the bar together,” notes david, looking down the long wooden bar that runs the restaurant’s length. he’s quiet for a minute, remembering.

The menu is “unique to the mesa,” says Vicki. “We wanted a place people could come eat every day, with a nice family feel.”

Speaking of family, the Kellams have seven children between them. The youngest was in grade school when the restaurant opened. They now have four grandkids with two more on the way. family pictures over the cash register show smiling kids and grinning grandchildren at various ages.

Dreams Come True Two years ago, Jan Saisut and Hollis Boss drove up from Los Angeles to visit Santa Barbara for the day. Eating lunch at Ichiban, Jan gazed out the window and spotted a Thai restaurant across Cliff Drive. “What a nice little place,” she remarked to Hollis. Five months later, they owned it.

“Meun Fan means ‘like a dream,” says Jan, who came to the U.S. twenty years ago. “That describes what this has been like!” many staff are like family— manager Romero eldalde recently celebrated 18 years here. “We are so grateful for our longtime staff,” says Vicki.

The pair are proud to present “traditional home cooked” Thai cuisine, which Jan learned from her mother. “The focus is on good quality, good food,” she says, sitting in the newly redecorated dining room. Another thing you’ll notice is how fresh the smells are and how impeccably clean the dining room is.

Two staples prove her right. Meun Fan’s Pad Thai, which can make or break any Thai eatery, is fragrant and flavorful, with just the right amount of peanuts for crunch. Try the Shrimp Rolls or Chicken Satay as an appetizer, and for dinner get Spicy Eggplant w/tofu and brown rice and Drunken Noodles with shrimp. Don’t forget Mango Sticky Rice for dessert. The Pa-nang Curry is velvety smooth, complex, and, living up to the restaurant’s name, dream-like. Count me in as a regular! —By Julia McHugh. Photos by Ashley Rene.

The Kellams also own Cody’s in Goleta, featuring the mesa Cafe menu. But that menu evolves, according to david, based on diners’ requests. “We just added spaghetti and meatballs,” he reports.

It always comes back to the locals, the customers.

“We want to make each one of them feel like they are the most important person who has come in today,” says david.

“Hole in the wall” that’s Worth a stop

Its location and décor don’t do much to bring crowds to Palapa, and I must have driven by and ignored it a hundred times. But I finally walked in a couple of months ago, and it is now on my short list of “hole in the wall” restaurants. Co-owned by Genaro Avila, Leonardo Jimenez, and mary Weeks, who all worked at Pierre Lafond for 25 years before opening Palapa in 2005, the restau- rant offers an excellent Caldo de mariscos – mexican seafood soup. other favorites include the Tostada Campechana - topped with shrimp, octopus, and abalone, the Sole Tacos, and filet of Sole con mojo de Ajo, a rich sauce of garlic and chipotle simmered with olive oil. There is a generously portioned shrimp cocktail for starters, or share the quesadilla de carnitas, or the chorizo quesadilla, sinfully rich but deliciously so. The chicken mole is also very good as is the shrimp quesadilla. I am always too full for dessert, but if you have room, the flan is homemade.—Laurence Hauben.

PALAPA: 4123 State Street Santa Barbara, (805) 683-3074 Open Daily 8am-8pm.

Julia McHugh

That’s what makes the mesa Cafe memorable. —

Photos by Lindsey Eltinge

mesa CaFe, 1972 Cliff Drive, is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. www.mesacafesb.com (805) 966-5303.

Sip and Sail One of the pure treats of living in wine country is being able to have a tasting just about everywhere. How about the Pacific? Every Sunday until winter, the Sunset Kidd Sailing Cruises offers free wine tasting on the water with every sunset cruise. The wines are from local wineries and are hand picked by the Captain. Cheese, crackers and other well paired hors d’oeuvres are also offered as well as special rate packages for corporate groups. To book a reservation call 805-962-8222.