Evoking a sense of place in the American Riviera
With tables practically at the ocean’s edge and the sound of waves lapping the sandy shore, dining at Caruso’s jettisons the notion of time.
Located within the Rosewood Miramar Beach resort in Montecito, California, just south of Santa Barbara, Caruso’s has built its own identity separate from the resort. The trifecta of luxury retreat, culinary destination and neighborhood restaurant is a manifestation of all the things that embody Santa Barbara.
“We don’t want it to be pretentious. We want people to feel welcome and come back,” explains Caruso’s wine director, Rob Smits. “We’ve put a lot of time into having an identity around Santa Barbara.”
“You can taste every single thing about Santa Barbara—the seasonality, the wine. It’s all here,” adds head sommelier Alfie Wang. Caruso’s four-course menu ($195) is distinctly coastal California through a subtle Italian lens, with a high-level commitment to sustainability. Chef and partner Massimo Falsini, who hails from Trastevere in Rome, fuses his Italian culinary prowess, which includes stints at Campania’s Don Alfonso 1890 and Rome’s Harry’s Bar, with the bounty of California’s Central Coast. In addition to an estate farm in Buellton in the nearby Santa Ynez Valley, Falsini and his team support more than two dozen local farmers, ranchers, fishers and purveyors to obtain the freshest seasonal ingredients, including berries, avocados, heritage grains, sustainable seafood and more.
“The rule is often terrible food, but a great view. It’s very, very difficult to get both,” chuckles Smits, referring to the many beachside restaurants that offer convenience to patrons yet serve uninspiring meals.
Not Caruso’s. A recent dish of rich yolk gnocchetti sardi risottati with caviar, local uni and abalone, balanced by vibrant yuzu and pops of Calabrian chile, showcased the seafood-forward, Italian/seasonal nature of the menu. Similarly, the Baja kanpachi crudo nimbly mixed sweet notes from Gaviota and Seascape strawberries with garden cucumber and avocado in a bright, citrusy aguachile.
Despite an enforced dress code and the potential for celebrity spotting, there’s a decidedly unstuffy quality to the al fresco dining room, which shifts from sun-drenched white tables to cozy, semi-circle navy-blue leather banquettes inside. The service is equally relaxed, unhurried and affable. Each time Wang arrived to pour the next wine, she gushed about the label’s history and provenance, showing sincere pride in delivering an authentic experience. And by the time the entrée course arrived, the sky was painted with layers of indigo, peach and coral.
Accompanying the culinary program is a 3,600-selection (and growing) wine list. “When we arrived, there was a commitment to keep building something really special,” says Smits.
Smits and Wang joined in 2024, just five years after the resort’s debut, marking a complete overhaul of the former Miramar Hotel, which had occupied the treasured oceanfront property since 1889. After closing in 2000 for renovations that were never completed, the property sat half-demolished for many years until owner and developer Rick Caruso, along with the Rosewood Hotel Group, revived it.
Caruso’s, which is one of six dining options at the resort, notched a Best of Award of Excellence in 2020, its first year of operation, with a list of 750 selections and 7,000 bottles in the cellar. In the years before Smits and Wang arrived, the list had grown to 2,850 selections, and it has since swelled to 3,600, with an inventory of around 20,000 bottles.
Perhaps most impressive is the depth of local offerings. “It’s kind of a love letter to Santa Barbara,” says Smits.
Even though Santa Barbara is a relatively young wine region, Smits and Wang feature up-and-coming labels like Racines and Âmevive alongside extensive library selections from pioneers such as Au Bon Climat and Qupé. They are just two of many producers who appear on the list’s offerings of wines from historic vineyards, including Sanford & Benedict, La Rinconada and Bien Nacido, among others.
“It’s a never-ending treasure hunt. There are a few more vineyards that we would like to add to continue the storytelling of Santa Barbara,” says Smits. “These are the wines that we love, which also match the location and the food.”
For example, a perfect foil for the menu’s Santa Barbara Channel halibut with asparagus and Vin Santo burro fuso (a sauce made by blending Tuscan Vin Santo dessert wine with melted butter) was a succulent but still vibrant 2011 bottling of Qupé Roussanne from Bien Nacido Vineyard.
Wang notes that many of the wines have been procured directly from the winery, making the collection particularly well cared for and special. “That’s why we have the Jonata 2006 magnum by the glass; a lot of good relationships,” she says of the pour of the winery’s El Desafio de Jonata Santa Ynez Valley ($135).
The 175-page binder is a lot to thumb through, but in addition to local offerings, there’s equally impressive depth from the rest of the world to explore, including Burgundy, Bordeaux, Napa, Champagne, Italy and more.
“We are very proud to be a wine restaurant,” says Smits. “We want to continue to build this program to bring in wine-focused guests. Our goal is to get wine in the glass and let people have an incredible night at Caruso’s.”
Caruso’s
Address: 1759 S. Jameson Lane, Montecito, California 93108
Telephone: (805) 900-8388
Website: rosewoodhotels.com/en/miramar-beach-montecito/dining/carusos