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Peter Lee has worked in upscale kitchens throughout the nation — Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas and Napa Valley. About five years ago, he found Santa Barbara, where he and his fiancée, Felicia Medina, worked as chefs at Loquita.
They decided it was time to start something of their own. After several pop-ups, Secret Bao will officially open next week at 1201 Anacapa St., at the corner with Anapamu Street.
It’s a fast-casual, modern Asian restaurant, but the dishes will include many flavors, with a blend of different styles.
“I just want to think about making food that tastes good,” Lee said. “My fiance and I have worked in a lot of different kitchens on purpose. We always wanted to be well-rounded chefs. We worked in American kitchens, Italian, French and Spanish.”
And there’s this fast fact: “Honestly, we’ve never worked in an Asian kitchen before,” he said.
Lee, who has Korean roots, said he grew up eating Asian food, but opening the restaurant is entirely different.
“We’re trying to bring a style of food that we don’t see much in Santa Barbara,” Lee said.
He plans a fluid menu, which includes special dinners. As an example, he said he might take a 24-ounce, Australian Tomahawk steak and do a whole dinner around it.
“Maybe introduce a local winemaker, and do a paired dinner, liked curated one-off dinners,” Lee said. “That’s kind of why we cook. It’s fun for us.”
He said the approach is designed to give people a reason to keep coming back to always try something new.
Among the current menu items are shrimp, pork belly and Maitake Baos, a bun packed with ingredients; bacon kimchi fried rice; miso black cod donburi; curry yakisoba; and kids meals, such as a chicken rice bowl and sticky noodles. The restaurant also offers a variety of cold brew, kombucha and rice lagers.
Lee grew up in the San Jose and Silicon Valley area. He took coding classes in junior high school and eventually learned how to build his own computers. He went to UC Davis out of high school, but left his junior year and moved to Los Angeles to be near his brother. He was going to attend a community college and then transfer to UCLA.
But that changed one evening when he was watching television and saw a commercial for a cooking school and signed up.
“I thought I would be cooking for like a year or two, thought it would get it out of my system,” he said, “but I kept on cooking and kind of fell in love with the craft.”
He enjoys working with his hands, which is one of the reasons he didn’t want an office-based computer job.
“I didn’t know if being in an office all day, sitting by my computer for eight to 10 hours a day, and then being at home for my own personal, and being on the computer for another six hours, I just didn’t want to be on the computer all day long,” Lee said. “I wanted to do something the complete opposite.”
The restaurant will be open from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. On Thursday, the Secret Bao sign was installed outside the former Coffee Cat and Cafe Ana site.
This week, Lee held a soft opening, by appointment only, for friends and family mostly. Most of the slots had already been taken by Thursday evening. After next Wednesday’s opening, Lee said he will start delivery in about another two weeks.
“We’re trying to make good food without being fussy,” Lee said.
Tough as a Mother Arrives at the Golden Globes
Santa Barbara mom and entrepreneur Jennifer Cervantes had her own big day at Sunday’s Golden Globes awards show.
She linked up with DPA Lounges to showcase her self-made jewelry under her Tough as a Mother brand. She made individualized pieces for Amy Poehler, Catherine O’Hara, Viola Davis, Andra Day, Sharon Stone and others.
In addition, the day before the Golden Globes, the celebrities participated in a drive-through event where they would come to Cervantes’ table and pick out a special piece.
“It felt amazing that I could be authentically me,” Cervantes told Noozhawk. “They would talk to me about jewelry and parenting and talk about motherhood.”
Actor Griffin Matthews tagged the necklace she made on his Instagram account, alongside brands such as Gucci.
Cervantes said that one of the best parts of the day was talking to Nathalie Dubois, founder of the DPA group, who has been holding gifting suites for decades.
“To me, the best part of this day was just learning the backstory of this amazing businesswoman,” Cervantes said. “That was freakin’ awesome.”
Cervantes, a junior high school teacher who took a leave of absence to focus on her business, launched her Tough as a Mother brand in 2020, and the brand has gone viral, with local and national media appearances.
“I am self-taught and have bootstrapped my businesses with pure determination and just learning from successful people,” Cervantes said.
All-Women Pop-Up Market
Paseo Nuevo mall in Santa Barbara will be home to an all-female pop-up market featuring more than 50 creators from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
In partnership with Blissful Boutiques and Women’s Economic Ventures, the mall will spotlight an array of vendors, including Anna Janelle Jewelry, Henna Island, Petite and Posh, Vanity Beauty Scrubs and others.
Paseo Nuevo also has its own women-owned stores, including Dylan Star, Evangelina Boutique, Bonika Boutique, Miss Behavin’ and Zitzilin Imports.
“Santa Barbara is home to so many talented individuals, many of them women entrepreneurs,” a news release states. “We wanted to take a day to highlight all the great products and businesses that women are involved with in our community. A day to celebrate the hard work, dedication, creativity, vision and economic empowerment of women.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
