A recent shocking announcement for us locals:
Sly’s will be closing on September 23rd . The building has been sold and Sly’s lease was up for renewal at the end of September. The new owner has decided to go a different direction. Sly’s had just celebrated his 10 years at that location. With the closing and the effort in trying to open at a different location, Sly has decided to retire.
One Bio: A Chef/owner with fifty-years experience and a passion for the restaurant business.
Long a Santa Barbara Chef, James is proud to be a “dinosaur” of traditional, even old-fashioned cooking. James created Lucky’s in Montecito, and built it into a premiere steak house during its first seven years. He departed from Lucky’s in June of 2007, hatched plans for Sly’s and has been busy on the project ever since.
James’ training is strictly classical; his attitude 100% California. After an apprenticeship in California, James began his formal training in Europe, at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris, the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo, and continued working with Michel Guèrard at Règine’s in both Paris and New York.
James also spent several years working in private homes, cooking for among others, Her Imperial Highness, Princess Shams Pahlavi, the sister of the Shah of Iran in both Beverly Hills and in Cuernavaca, Mexico. James refined his craft at restaurants like the Summer House on Nantucket, in Washington, DC, at the 1789 and The Watergate Hotel, and in Palm Springs at the Princess in the Desert Princess and at Charlies’ in Grand Champions before coming to Santa Barbara, where he spent four years as Chef for the El Encanto Hotel before pursuing catering, restaurant consulting, and serving as a private chef in Montecito for Herb Simon. Mr. Simon was a partner in Lucky’s, a restaurant that took an often-failed location and made it into a profitable operation.
More now than ever, the value of simplicity in cooking plays an important part in James Sly’s style. As a dinosaur, James’ approach to food features a strong classical base, frankness, and above all integrity. The cuisine is marked by both the use of top-quality ingredients — aged USDA prime steaks, fresh abalone, live Maine lobster and a slew of Farmer’s Market vegetables top the list — and more importantly, an intense respect for those ingredients. Sauces reflect James’ classic training, and bring a dimension to food that more simple approaches simply can’t compete with. An entertaining teacher, James comfortably shares his wealth of knowledge and experience with students and his employees, and concentrates on the basics that make such a big difference in quality food and a quality restaurant experience.
James has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics from California State University at Fullerton, is now reluctantly 65 years old, and is delighted to live — and work — in the sleepy beach town of Carpinteria, California.