American Farmhouse [RESTAURANT REVIEW]
American Farmhouse Tavern integrates regional cooking with high style American Farmhouse bartender Kevin Crawford and server Amanda Krick. Photo Until recently, unless you lived near Santa Maria you probably had no idea that this farm-oriented community on the road to San Francisco had its own cuisine. You’ve had it any time you ordered tri-tip at a steakhouse, since before Santa Marians started grilling this cut of meat it was usually ground into hamburger. In the central coast they learned to rub it with spices and cook it slow over oak, then serve it with bean and vegetable stew, a salad, and garlic bread. They do the same thing with other meats to good effect, but the tri-tip is their specialty. And so it was at American Farmhouse Grill, a cottage-like restaurant in a corner of Goat Hill mall in Manhattan Beach. The restaurant had some drawbacks; parking was difficult, the place was cramped, and they didn’t serve alcohol, but people kept coming back to eat anything that came from that red oak grill. The owners saw an opportunity and did something daring, closing for months while moving to a far bigger location a few blocks north. They reopened as American Farmhouse Tavern…
Read this story on easyreadernews.com