New-edge comfort food

On an unexpectedly rainy late spring evening in Santa Barbara, Aldo’s new owner, Brad Sherman, stands in the doorway between the patio and the dining room, waiting to welcome diners. He is eager, thoughtful, neatly dressed in plaid shirt and slacks, at ease as he guides a family from Minnesota to a table and answers questions from a retired fellow about the discount for people with tickets to local cultural events. He recommends a good wine, jokes with the servers, one of whom is his daughter, Geneva, and always keeps an eye on the door.

Until November, Sherman, who is also the drummer in a popular local funk band, was managing the iconic Sojourner Café frequented by health-conscious Santa Barbara locals and seeing his daughter through her final year of high school. When Aldo’s owner, Mike Sherman (no relation), offered him the opportunity to take over a different kind of local icon, a restaurant specializing in Italian comfort food, in a historic building in the heart of town, he decided to take on the challenge.

Although he hasn’t given up the band, Area 51, he is putting most of his considerable energy into making Aldo’s, already a popular destination, his own. 

“I just don’t sleep,” he says with a grin.

The dining room is a beautiful space, intimate without feeling crowded. The exposed-brick heated patio is perfect for watching the constant stream of activity on State Street on sunny days or listening to the fountain on summer evenings. Its historic Mission Revival-style building was built in 1927 by the Orella family, in the place where the family’s adobe townhome had welcomed guests for almost 100 years. 

With Mexican and Indian roots, a history as a Gold Rush town and Victorian resort, Santa Barbara today is a unique little city with a big, complex culture that includes old-money families, celebrities, tourists, college students and locals who, like Sherman, just love living in this spectacular beachside community.

Sherman, whose father was also a musician — and a traveling cantor and a full-time baker — first moved from his native Pennsylvania to Hollywood, but hated Los Angeles. “The worst year of my life,” he says. He found paradise a few miles north, and he has been here ever since — more than 20 years.

From a young age, he has made a life for himself in hospitality, both as a musician and in food service. “Bands are how I survived high school,” he said. At the same time, he started working in a Jewish deli in Philadelphia. Although his mother swears he ate home-cooked meals as a child, and his daughter loves his wild, home-made salads, what seems to interest Sherman more than specific recipes is the pleasure of people coming together, whether through music or at a good restaurant. 

Aldo’s menu offers rich, flavorful Italian classic dishes, as well as pizza and pasta. There are vegetarian and vegan choices. A chalkboard on golden orange walls offers fish specials, the fish either wild caught or locally sourced. The question we discuss with Sherman over a delicious meal of chicken Marsala and red wine is: How do diners define an ideal dining experience? Do they want rich taste, a rare treat, local sourcing to please their conscience, fair pricing, familiar comfort food or experimenting with tempeh meatballs? 

Sherman — who rejected an unstable life on the road to raise his daughter here — is used to thinking about the good-for-you questions, the ones we all struggle with: imported organic or local but conventional? Purified water that requires energy or bottled that creates trash? What about gluten-free pasta made with quinoa?

And now, he also has to ponder good-for-business questions: How do you accommodate the countless special dietary needs? Can this traditional Italian lunch and dinner spot become the go-to Italian restaurant in town without giving up its comfort food base? How can he appeal to the varied residents of his favorite city and make Aldo’s a place they consider their own? 

Perhaps the answer is in a footnote at the bottom of the restaurant’s menu: “Aldo’s likes the food pyramid; like mama, we believe in everything in moderation.” 

Aldo’s Italian Restaurant, 1031 State St., Santa Barbara. (805) 963-6687. sbaldos.com.