The Lark, Les Marchands & Lucky Penny Open in the Funk Zone

The long awaited Anacapa Project has officially opened for business! We headed down to the Funk Zone last night to check out the new restaurant, wine bar and bakery/pizza/coffee shop to sample their offerings and were blown away! The decor, menus and service are a fantastic addition to the Santa Barbara restaurant scene.

The Lark

First things first: food! We didn’t have a reservation but there was plenty of open seating at the communal table, where we sat and were delightfully welcomed with a bowl of popcorn. The decor is very European/big city and I loved it! A welcome change to the Spanish-tiled everything. We ordered a glass of Tyler Chardonnay and The Mule (Moscow Mule) with a cheese plate and the Pork Belly Sliders. The cheese plate introduced us to Buellton Bleu Cheese and it’s a new favorite! The sliders had peaches and pickled onions that tasted really fresh and made the slider extra delicious. The service was outstanding – most other restaurants have trouble getting their teams to work well together in the opening week but everything flowed smoothly. Definitely recommended! We’ll be back soon.

Les Marchands Wine Bar & Merchants

Behind The Lark is Les Marchands, a wine bar where you can order a glass or bottle of wine and sit in their amazingly chic space and imbibe with friends. They also sell bottles of wine and spirits for the on-the-go visitor. This is probably my favorite place – it’s so beautifully decorated and there is nothing like it anywhere else in Santa Barbara!

Lucky Penny

Lucky Penny is serving baked goods, coffee, juices and woodfired pizza to go – we didn’t sample anything there yet, but it will be a fun new place to walk to for morning treats.