Live Culture Lounge review - The whole is definitely not equal to its parts

I recently returned from seeing my lovely girlfriend in Santa Barbara and while there we went out with some friends to Live Culture Lounge. Live Culture is located in the Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center off State Street. I was at a presentation earlier that day that featured an interview with Live Culture’s owners and was looking forward to going there for some food and drink with friends.

Dinner

Live Culture is kind of a conglomeration of a high-end yogurt shop meets wine bar meets wannabe art gallery meets coffee shop meets open mic night. If you were thinking this is an establishment with a fairly serious identity crisis, you’d be correct. When you walk in, there is a glass case to your left that basically looks like one you’d expect see in a shop selling frozen yogurt. Perpendicular that is the bar, a traditional wood looking thing, so you immediately have a dichotomy between the two motifs. There is seating along the walls by both the yogurt counter and the bar. Also, there is an open balcony that sits above the bar at the back wall. This is the place where musicians set up and provide the live entertainment.

Speaking of the entertainment, it seemed like it was an open mic night. The musicians swapped out after a few songs and there was a variety of music. It appeared that a lot of patrons were actually musicians either waiting their turn to play or supporting local bands (or both). The mix of music ranged from not so good to pretty decent. The acoustics aren’t the best and the sound kind of bounces around the high-ceilinged establishment. At times it was pretty loud, thus hard to talk to people, but it is live music.

There were several of us in our party and some wanted wine and others beer. The wine list offered a pretty decent selection and prices seemed about 2x retail for the bottles I saw. Someone else at the table ordered the wine (a $48 Cab Sav). I asked to see the label, but the name now eludes me (sorry, senior moment). It was a good, fruit forward Cab from Sonoma that the four of us enjoyed.

Some others at the table ordered “Real Beer Floats”. It’s exactly what you think: vanilla yogurt in a glass with beer poured on top of it. They opted for a porter brewed by Telegraph. I tried some of it and felt it was OK, but I’d be sick of it after several sips/bites, as the combo was just not doing it for me. They enjoyed it, however, so that’s all that really matters.

The food menu consists of small plates (mainly cheeses and salads) and sandwiches. We ordered a couple cheese plates, a caprese salad, and a grilled cheese with prosciutto sandwich to share amongst ourselves. The cost was a bit on the pricey side based upon the food descriptions and when the food arrived, I really felt it was overpriced for what we received: especially the cheese plates. The food was decent, but nothing special or noteworthy. Here is a rundown of my foodie thoughts:

• The salad was delivered as a stack of the ingredients, which made for a nice presentation. I didn’t have any of it, but the people eating it said it was good.
• My girlfriend had some of the grilled cheese and found the prosciutto so fatty that she removed it and ate the grilled cheese by itself. She is not a picky eater and said the grilled cheese was just OK, so that said a lot to me.
• Cheese plate #1 was brie with a baguette and roasted garlic oil. The plate arrived with three small slices of brie, a ramekin with olive oil and some bloated (not roasted) garlic cloves in it that looked like they came straight out of a jar, and half of a very small baguette. A handful of dried cranberries were scattered around the plate as well. Neither the bread nor the brie was warm. Again, it tasted ok and the olive oil by itself was good on the bread, but it looked like something I could throw together in 2 minutes to snack on in front of the TV…
• Cheese plate #2 said it had 5 cheeses and we let the chef choose them. Well, the plate did have 5 cheeses (3 soft, 2 hard), but barely any of each (it was not even an ounce of cheese). It came with 4 small pieces of crostini that tasted kind of stale and a few dried apricots. It was almost laughable how little we got for $17. My girlfriend said it looked like a sampler plate from Trader Joe’s and that basically summed up my feelings on the dish: very tired and uninspired.

The Dessert menu was calling to me because I was still hungry. They have assorted frozen yogurt themed desserts and other sweet offerings. We were given samples of both their ‘tart’ yogurt and bread pudding. The tart yogurt almost tasted like it was mixed with sorbet and it was not what I expected nor particularly liked, but other people in the group dug it. The bread pudding had a very grainy texture to it and one bite was enough for me. No one at the table seemed impressed with it. I opted for vanilla frozen yogurt over a brownie with chocolate sauce and shot of espresso (yeah, no calories at all in this). It sounded amazing and this was one dish that delivered on the hype. The vanilla yogurt was rich, creamy, and decadent and it just worked perfectly with all the other ingredients. As opposed to the small food plates, this dessert was HUGE. We passed it around the table a couple times and everyone got a few bites of it.

I have commented before on the spotty service you can sometimes get in Santa Barbara and Live Culture is no exception to this. Our server was either way overworked or just really bad. The place was busy, but not packed. I had to ask more than once for a glass of water and when I saw how few crostini came with the cheese plate, I immediately asked for a few more as we had 6 people at the table. He said he’d get them right away. I guess ‘right away’ is relative. When he appeared at the table a few minutes later sans bread, I asked again. Still nothing arrived. I asked a third time and he copped a bit of an attitude saying, “I'm working on it”. Sorry, but it’s not rocket science, it’s toasted bread…and waiting almost 25 minutes and having to ask over and over is completely inexcusable.

Final Take

Live Culture has yet to figure out what exactly it wants to be. I liken it to the saying “jack of all trades, master of none”. Live Culture is the master of none, but it has some strengths it could focus on. However, I’m not sure if good yogurt and live music is gonna pay the rent in that location. The food options were lackluster and our service was subpar, which is enough to kill most establishments. It was a somewhat disappointing experience for us and Santa Barbara has many foodie options, so there is not any compelling reason to go back. I always want places to succeed, so hopefully the owners will take feedback like this to heart.

Overall Grade = C+ (Average)

The EV Foodie