This past weekend, we had friends in town that were staying near the Funk Zone. We decided to take advantage of the fact that they were staying there to try new spot Finney’s Crafthouse & Kitchen. It was pretty packed, but we didn’t mind waiting as it was a perfect Santa Barbara night. After talking with our waitress, I learned that they use Udi’s buns for their burgers and prepare them on a safe surface when told that it is for an allergy or Celiac. I had the Finney Burger which had a house spread that was also GF. The fries are made in a contaminated fryer, so I had the burger with their side salad. I was pretty pleasantly surprised with the quality of the burger and salad as it was a notch above your typical bar/pub fare. I only wish that they used Canyon Bakehouse hamburger buns as those tend to stay together better and taste better in my opinion. The burger went well with my spicy margarita. 
The restaurant was also accommodating for children as we had two 4-year olds and 2 young babies. They provided crayons and an activity booklet along with a nice kid’s menu.
Finney’s Crafthouse & Kitchen
24 AprFood Harmonics
19 Apr
I drove to Ojai this morning to have a much needed haircut since my hair stylist of 10 years is currently living there. This was my first time driving on 150 since the Thomas Fire, and I was amazed at the regrowth you can already see. It is a beautiful drive that is worth it just for the change in scenery. After my hair was done, I stopped at Food Harmonics in Ojai for lunch since the “Find Me GF” app showed me that it was an entirely gluten-free restaurant. The website describes the restaurant as offering food that is “real, organic, gluten-free, nutritionally dense and amazingly delicious”. I ordered a Dosa with goat cheese, butternut squash and tamari sautéed mushrooms. It came with a mixed greens and sauerkraut. I also had their Turmeric Matcha Latte. I enjoyed my uber healthy meal on their back patio where there was the perfect breeze. I am already planning a return trip to Ojai for the entire family in the near future.
Oliver’s
12 Apr
Monday was a record-breaking warm day, so the idea of having an al fresco dinner as the day cooled off sounded really appealing. We decided to try Oliver’s since their outside patio always looked so nice when we would drive by. The entirely vegan menu has gluten-free items noted, but I made sure to check about cross contamination as we ordered our food. I was excited to find out that they use GF tamari rather than soy sauce.
We ordered three things from the sides menu which happened to come out first: The Kung Pao Broccolini, Long Beans and Shishito Peppers. My favorite of those three were the shishito peppers which were perfectly cooked.
We also ordered the artichoke “crab cakes” from the small plates menu since they sounded unlike anything we had tried before.
The hearts of palm closely resembled the consistency of crab. I especially enjoyed the corn and the spicy aioli. For our main dishes, we ordered the veggie burger and the pad thai. The gluten-free option for the veggie burger is for it to be served with lettuce to wrap the burger in. However, once we saw the dish, it was clear that we would be fork and knifing the burger instead of attempting to pick it up.
The burger was good, but I might try something different next time to mix things up. The pad thai was a generous portion.
You might think that after ordering (and eating) so much food, there is no way that we would order dessert. You would be wrong. Both of the desserts they offered that night were gluten-free, so we went with the one that sounded more interesting to us – an apple crisp topped with coconut ice cream.
As this was made with oats, I made sure to confirm that the oats were certified gluten-free. Our overall experience at Oliver’s was really good – the staff was helpful, the outdoor patio was beautiful and the food and drinks were tasty. I’m already looking forward to returning to the patio to have another Johnny’s Alive cocktail and a small plate or two.
gluten-free in sb 