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Beachside Bites The latest hot spot to open its doors: CONVIVO . A partnership of epicurean minds Larry Mindel (owner of Il Fornaio restaurants), and award-winning Bay Area chef Peter McNee, Convivo offers seasonal menus of “nomad Italian” food with a broader Mediterranean influence—think artfully arranged farm-fresh cicchetti (small plates), house-made pasta, wood-fired pizza, and family-style platters of seafood and meats. The restaurant’s atmosphere comes alive inside as well as on the patio where guests can dine alfresco amid the palm trees. Or, grab a drink and sit by the brick fireplace with stunning views of the Pacific. 901 E. Cabrillo Blvd., Santa Barbara, 805-845-6789. H A N N A H N E L S O N CO N V I V O RE S TA U RA N T.C O M
Left to right: PESCE MISTO of seafood, Roman artichokes, and salsa verde; a LA PALOMA cocktail; SPAGHETTI with head-on prawns,
shellfish brodo, and Santa Barbara SEA URCHIN BUTTER .
Aging wine under water is a trend Italian-born Emanuele Azzaretto has been following since learning of a 2010 discovery of 162 bottles of champagne in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea. Since then, a handful of European wineries have sunk wines off of Spain, Italy, and France, and one Napa Valley winery has done so off South Carolina. “I tried to buy some of these wines and it was never available. I thought, Why not do my own?” says the Santa Barbara resident who, along with Section winemaker Marco Lucchesi, conceptualized the 50 FATHOMS WINE CLUB about two years ago. After building crates in his own garage, Azzaretto, an avid diver, filled them with 900 bottles of Il Bianco—a Central Coast white blend of Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, and Viognier—a rosé, a Napa Valley Pinot Noir, cognac, and rum. Then he and his pal Danny Castagnola took them out on Castagnola’s tugboat and dropped them 70 feet into the middle of the Santa Barbara Channel. There, they aged for 12 months before Azzaretto pulled them out at the beginning of July. “I was surprised—and happy—that they survived El Niño and that we got the pressure right for the bottles,” he says. Now, wine club members (memberships start at $350) can obtain access to purchasing the bottles, and a portion of the sales from the rosé is being donated to the Channel Island Marine and Wildlife Institute rescue. G I N A Z . T E R L I N D E N
Top to bottom: 50 FATHOMS
Pinot Noir; lifting the wines from the sea floor.
50FATHOMS WINECLUB.C O M S A N TA B A R B A R A
PHOTOGRAPHS: 50 FATHOMS, AMY BUCHANAN
VINO Del Mare
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