Cadiz opened in March 2011, bringing a gentle tsunami of great Mediterranean taste to the 500 block of State Street. With its southern-Spanish and Moroccan elements, the architecture is right at home in Santa Barbara. Brick walls, graceful arches, tile floors, linen chairs and a lively bar combine in an ambiance that is at once casual and relaxed, yet romantic and elegant, too.

Both the style and the food take their lead from the sunny coastal towns of the Mediterranean, from Spain and Italy to France and Morocco, with even a hint of Asia where it makes sense. Executive chef John Pettitt uses market-fresh local produce and just-caught local seafood to create a tantalizing, seasonally changing menu.

Start with one of the unique specialty cocktails, intended, according to part-owner Dante DeRose, “to transport customers to a sunny summer day on the European coast of the Mediterranean Sea.”

Once you’re feeling “sunny,” it’s time to move on to tapas, seafood, pastas, flatbreads, and entrées. The homemade flatbreads are thin, perfectly cooked and topped with such unique offerings as grilled radicchio, Spanish anchovies and dried pears. The pasta is homemade, too. Try the classic (but unusual for Santa Barbara) wild-boar Bolognese. Tapas include beautifully presented diver scallops with endive, celery root, pears and vanilla. And when did you last have a kobe flatiron steak?
Cadiz is fun, progressive, and hip, and weekend nights it transforms into an upscale lounge-nightclub, with DJ’s playing Euro-centric sounds that make for a singular-in-SB late-night experience.

509 STATE STREET • 805.770.2760 • CADIZSB.COM