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OUR STORY

Welcome to Ca'Dario

Northern Italian Cuisine for Santa Barbara

If you’re searching for Santa Barbara Italian restaurants, then search no more. Ca’Dario Italian restaurants conveniently offer 4 locations in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Montecito. Opened in 1997, the first Ca’Dario was one of the few downtown Santa Barbara restaurants offering authentic Northern Italian food. Over twenty years later, even though many other Italian restaurants have opened up, Ca’Dario restaurants have consistently been among the best Italian restaurants in Santa Barbara. Chef Dario Furlati combines authentic imported pasta, cheese, tomatoes, flour, and olive oil with fresh local ingredients in order to offer the consistency in food quality that brings customers back year after year, making Ca’Dario restaurants among the best Italian restaurants Santa Barbara has to offer. The wine list includes a good selection of Italian wines from Sicily to Tuscany. Italian beers are also served.

Buon Appetito!

Palatial villa on Lake Como, Italy, Image by Lewis J Goetz

Dario Furlati

Executive Chef & Owner

"Pasta makes you smile"

I was born in Italy and had the opportunity to have had loving parents and grandparents. Growing up, I was very shy and introverted and I struggled to understand what I would like to do when I grew up. Having time off from school during the summers and having the opportunity to spend time in the kitchen with my grandmothers (one was living in Lake Como, the other close to Venice by the mountain side), I started to have an understanding and a passion for food. By watching and helping with food tasks, I developed a love for it and learned very quickly. I slowly learned all the aspects of cooking, like making pasta, potato gnocchi, sauces, braising and roasting meat, fish, poultry, cutting, shaping…. And all that learning was going on in an Italian family kitchen, the fun of cooking and the screaming if something went wrong.

As an adult, it took plenty of training in many kitchens to get to where I am today. Some were great for learning, while others I wanted to walk away on the same day. After being an apprentice in several kitchens in Italy, England and Switzerland, I made my first jump to U.S.A. where I started to get a feeling about the restaurant business. I have to say that it was a great experience: not only was I in charge of a brigade in the kitchen (after being trained) but also, I learned all the aspects of how to run a restaurant, from food cost, payroll, stocking, etc. Basically, all the administrative procedures of having a successful restaurant.

After working in Prego, Beverly Hills and Chianti Cucina on Melrose, I helped open Prego in Irvine, Ca’Brea, Farfalla in Aspen and L.A. I finally ended up in beautiful Santa Barbara where I was executive chef at Pane e Vino in Montecito and later became a partner at Trattoria Via Vai, Bucatini, Ca’Dario Ristorante, Enoteca Primo and Tre Lune in Montecito. I have retained Ca’Dario as my own and am able to enjoy working with my other ‘family’ where we bring enjoyment and good food to our customers.