The Funk Zone Doesn't Care If You've Heard of It
Santa Barbara's most interesting neighborhood was once an industrial district. Now it's where the city actually lives.
Every city worth visiting has a neighborhood that the guidebooks haven't quite caught up to. Santa Barbara has the Funk Zone — and the Funk Zone, to its great credit, has never particularly needed the guidebooks.
Once an industrial, blue-collar district, it has quietly become the center for eating, drinking, and creative culture in Santa Barbara. Wood-fired kitchens sit alongside wine tasting rooms. Art galleries share walls with cocktail bars. The whole thing unfolds across a compact grid of streets between downtown and the waterfront, walkable in twenty minutes if you don't stop anywhere, which you absolutely will.
The Urban Wine Trail stretches across the Funk Zone and a neighboring district with more than 20 tasting rooms — meaning you can work your way through Santa Barbara's celebrated wine country without getting in a car or leaving the neighborhood. Au Bon Climat, Whitcraft Winery, and The Valley Project are all here, pouring wines from vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley just over the hills.
The food has kept pace with the wine. Split a wood-fired pizza here and you understand why the neighborhood has become what it is — casual enough to feel like a local, serious enough to deserve the attention. The Lark anchors the dining scene with its handsome room and its commitment to the kind of cooking that makes a neighborhood feel like a destination.
Come in the evening. The light at that hour, filtered through the eucalyptus and reflecting off the white walls, is the specific Santa Barbara light that people move here to be near. The Funk Zone catches it perfectly.
Where: The Funk Zone, Santa Barbara | Bounded by State St., Garden St., Yanonali St., and the waterfront Urban Wine Trail: urbanwinetrailsb.com The Lark: 131 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara | thelarksb.com