There was no scarcity of followers for the Asian-street-food-inspired menu that Tyger Tyger served throughout its authentic incarnation within the fall of 2018. The crowds had been regular, and one alleged curry hater even told me that she needed to pour their khao soi throughout her physique.
However then the Funk Zone restaurant’s opening chef left lower than a yr later, and the pandemic got here swinging with successive shutdowns. By the autumn of 2021, there simply wasn’t sufficient employees round to maintain the colourful, informal eatery working on the degree anticipated by proprietor Sherry Villanueva.
As a substitute, her Acme Hospitality group targeted on protecting the lights on at The Lark, Loquita, La Paloma, and the opposite institutions of their portfolio, which now consists of resorts within the Sierra Foothills and Palm Springs. The constructing didn’t shutter fully, surviving to this present day because the headquarters of Dart Coffee Co., whose patrons sometimes take their drinks throughout East Yanonali Avenue to take a seat within the grassy, tree-shaded backyard.
When the Acme group was again to full energy and able to revive the house final summer season, they determined to maintain with Tyger Tyger in identify and relative Asian road meals theme. This time, nonetheless, the idea would embrace sustainability in a broad sense, providing principally vegan dishes and progressive-minded beverage manufacturers served with hyper-compostable flatware, cups, and utensils that change into soil in simply 90 days. (Additionally, the intense pink balloons are actually white, however the playfulness lives on in fanciful wallpaper and a neon signal by the register.)
“This has been my child,” defined Daniel Bendett, the group’s director of eating places who got here to Santa Barbara a yr in the past, after getting a hospitality MBA from Switzerland and dealing for a decade round Los Angeles, Hawai‘i, and Toronto. “It’s the primary one I’ve opened for Acme.”
To take action, he enlisted two cooks with regional roots: Jasmine Shimoda, a Santa Barbara native of Japanese descent with massive metropolis expertise who led menu improvement, and Trevor Laymance, the Ojai-raised son of a industrial fisherman who’s in command of the kitchen. Beginning final August, the three of them labored collectively in a frenzy to decide on a couple of half-dozen breakfast gadgets, a half-dozen lunch dishes, and a trio of dinner choices. Whereas 13 of the 16 gadgets on the common menu are vegan (or vegan optionally available), diners can add meat in the event that they need, from bacon within the morning to coconut hen and grilled fish within the afternoon.
“The inclusivity of the menu is nice,” mentioned Bendett, however he’s proud that the menu isn’t simply throwing one or two dishes to vegan and gluten-free diners. “Persons are excited to have a large number of things.”
My tour by means of these multitudes started with two nonalcoholic drinks, the plum-shiso soda and hibiscus-verbena lemonade, simply as Bendett confirmed me the boxed sake they’re serving and instructed me the goodwill initiatives behind every of the wines on the listing. “All of them have that give-back story,” he mentioned.
The parade of dishes started with the breakfast tacos, the place tiny rolled omelets, black beans, and pickles are handled to house-fermented habanero, black vinegar Szechuan, and chili crisp sauces. The Burmese-inspired tea leaf salad was a textural symphony: crunch from the peanuts and fried shallots; snappy crispness from the lunchbox peppers, micro-amaranth, and lettuces; and satisfying chew from the gluten-free kelp noodles. Laden with pickled mustard greens, the khao soi hen’s distinctive smoky taste comes from roasting and hand-grinding the curry substances. On the addictive entrance, the daigaku imo — a Japanese street-food staple of candied, crispy-sweet potatoes — nailed the savory-sweet combo, because of a tamari-maple glaze and floor black sesame mud sprinkle.
Shimoda realized about these throughout in depth travels round Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia that she’s taken throughout her greater than twenty years as a chef. After graduating from Santa Barbara Excessive, she labored the strains of New York Metropolis for about 15 years and Los Angeles for the previous seven, the place she opened the dairy- and meat-free Silver Lake hotspot Jewel in 2018.
“My dad and mom had been old-school Santa Barbara hippies,” laughed Shimoda, who grew up consuming a routine of brown rice and steamed veggies. “With all of my superb eating coaching, I attempt to take that concept and make it scrumptious.”
Her most progressive success in that regard is what she launched as “our soon-to-be-world-famous crispy yuba sandwich.” Constructed round a pile of fried yuba — that are skinny sheets of tofu pores and skin — this doesn’t go away fried hen fanatics like myself behind, delivering crispy chunk after crispy chunk with none moist flesh getting in the way in which. Braised out of its dehydrated origins, soaked in a vegan buttermilk, after which dredged in gluten-free flour, Tyger Tyger’s fried yuba is all about that crunch. Served on a vegan brioche bun with pickled Fresno chiles, chili-maple sauce, and yuzu ranch dressing, it satisfies on the required comfort-with-spice fronts, whether or not you’re a meat eater or not.
As soon as Shimoda finalized the menu, she bowed out to make approach for Laymance. The 2 met about 5 years in the past whereas catering an occasion for Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, recalled Shimoda, who then employed Laymance at Jewel. When an try to start out his personal restaurant with a companion in Meiners Oaks didn’t pan out, Laymance was pulled into the Acme orbit. “They’re supportive,” he mentioned of his expertise thus far. “They’re right here for us as cooks and as folks basically. That’s uncommon.”
The ethic of Tyger Tyger suits his philosophy as properly. “I grew up with an amazing appreciation for the arduous work it took to get our meals earlier than we obtained it to the market and on the desk,” mentioned Laymance, who spent his teen years fishing for sockeye salmon along with his dad in Alaska after which spent three months working a farm close to Boulder, Colorado, as a part of his culinary coaching. “That was a giant basis for me.”
Simply as a lot as mastering every dish, together with dinners of crispy pork stomach lechon, turmeric-dill black cod, and mushroom carbonara, Laymance sees his function as ensuring Tyger Tyger’s prospects really feel welcome. He grew up with a “powerful household dynamic,” however his mother’s cooking introduced “concord” to the day. “Every time we sat on the dinner desk to be a household, we forgot about every thing else — there was no combating; every thing was simply in sync,” he recalled. “My focus has been reciprocating that have.”
121 East Yanonali St.; (805) 880-4227; tygertygersb.com
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