Today we have a little bedtime story for you that involves our favorite restaurant in Santa Barbara, Julienne, and a famous person. As we’ve explained before, Julienne recently opened two doors down from Drishti on our beloved little corner of Santa Barbara and E. Canon Perdido Streets. The restaurant is owned by an extremely sweet and gracious young couple named Emma and Justin, and they strive to create delicious food that fits their inspiring motto of “local, seasonal, and sustainable”.
This is where the famous person comes in. A couple of Friday evenings ago, Anthony Bourdain, super legendary chef extraordinaire who hosts a culinary and cultural adventure TV show called “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel, was scheduled to speak to a packed audience at the historic Arlington Theatre in downtown Santa Barbara. Mr. Bourdain is a culinary hero to countless chefs and restaurant owners across the world, including, not coincidentally, the protagonists of our story, Emma and Justin.
When Mr. Bourdain arrived at his hotel that afternoon, he was greeted by a gift from a (pretentious…?) Santa Barbara restaurant: an invitation to Mr. Bourdain to dine at said restaurant, accompanied by a fancy bottle of wine. (As a side note: for a restaurant, the idea of Anthony Bourdain dining in your establishment is akin to, say, the idea of, Shiva Rea, an extremely seasoned and famous yoga-teacher-star, showing up in your yoga class at the local yoga studio in town.)
Anywho, upon receiving this restaurant’s invitation, Mr. Bourdain told the hotel that he wasn’t interested in accepting this invitation. Known for his laid-back personality on his TV show, Mr. Bourdain claimed that he was tired and simply wanted to eat somewhere that he could easily walk. As destiny would have it, Mr. Bourdain’s hotel was located a scant two blocks from the Drishti corner, and the hotel therefore recommended that he dine at Julienne!
When the hotel called Julienne to give the heads up that Mr. Bourdain was on his way over, Emma and Justin were stunned. In fact, Justin didn’t believe Emma when she relayed the message to him – he thought she was joking until he looked outside and saw Mr. Bourdain crossing the street, heading for the entrance to Julienne.
Needless to say, it was a spectular, yet completely unexpected evening for Julienne. Mr. Bourdain sat at a table right next to the kitchen, and he engaged in friendly chatter with Justin as the young restaurant owner nervously prepared food for his hero.
After his meal at Julienne, Mr. Bourdain left for his speaking engagement at the Arlington. (Emma and Justin were unable to attend the event because they had to work at their restaurant.) A Q&A session took place at the end of his talk. An audience member asked Mr. Bourdain where he had dined in Santa Barbara, and Mr. Bourdain answered that he had eaten at a restaurant called Julienne, and he proceeded to launch into a lengthy rave about his experience there. Talk about generating serious buzz for our favorite little restaurant on the corner!
We can’t think of a story that better the captures the feeling of simply going about one’s business without expectation or efforting toward a goal, and suddenly having one’s ultimate, ideal dream cross the street and enter your restaurant. Wowza!
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