Bennett: It’s time to Savor Santa Ana

Though the motto was adopted a decade ago, it’s only been in the last few years that Santa Ana has finally started to truly feel like “downtown Orange County.”

The few square blocks of art galleries, jewelers, fruit carts and Latin clothing stores — which have long made up historic downtown Santa Ana and its vibrant community — are today bolstered by diverse new businesses, many of them restaurants, that are drawing in visitors from across the region.

To properly eat your way through all the tacos and cookies and hand rolls that constitute old- and new-school downtown SanTana, it might take more than a few month’s worth of coffee runs, lunch meetings and dinner dates. But if you bring all your cravings for food and drink from around the world to the city’s brick-lined streets from 5 to 9 p.m. next Friday, you just might get through some of it when Savor Santa Ana returns with bite-sized tastes of Orange County’s downtown.

Stock up on $2 tickets and use them for food and drinks at nearly 40 participating businesses throughout the downtown area, where mariachi music and a grito contest will celebrate Mexican Independence Day, and a free shuttle will take you wherever your legs won’t. Here are four new restaurants and one brewery to get you started exploring:

Alta Baja Market

We first wrote about Alta Baja Market in May, on the eve of the shop’s grand opening, when owners Delilah Snell and Natasha Monnereau were still stocking shelves with New Mexican chiles and beans and working out the specifics of their now-legendary michelada program.

Today, the culture-bridging venture is much more than just another boutique grocer. Beyond the bulk and specialty goods all at attainable prices, Alta Baja encourages community lingering with a rotating deli menu of freshly prepared lunches and dinners, much of it made with ingredients sold at the store. During Savor Santa Ana, try Snell and Monnereau’s take on adovada tacos and Frito pie, two can’t-miss Southwestern specialties.

Eqeko

Fall is creeping up on us, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still ceviche weather. And if you’ve never tried the Peruvian version of the citrus-marinated seafood snack, Santa Ana’s Eqeko is the perfect place to start.

Unlike the reliable chopped-shrimp-and-avocado ceviches found at every Mexican mariscos restaurant in the county, the typical Peruvian kind (like the one served at the 2-year-old, tapas-focused Eqeko) is a texturally complex ode to the country where it was created.

Topped by boiled sweet potato and two kinds of puffed corn, Peruvian ceviche’s circus of flavors and delicate approach to seafood also packs a searing spicy punch. Can’t handle the heat wrought by the native aji amarillo pepper (or just want to taste both ends of the ceviche spectrum at once)? Taqueria Guadalajara will also be serving its mild and sturdy shrimp ceviche, Mexico style.

Irenia

The modern Filipino food movement is in full swing across the country, and Irenia is Orange County’s most ambitious entry. The one-time pop-up dinner series is now its own DTSA brick-and-mortar, where chef Ryan Garlitos pays homage to his grandma (the restaurant is named after her) with a California twist.

Pancit is made with local Santa Barbara prawns, a dish of coconut milk and corn is served esquite-style, and the pork adobo sauce is rich and chocolatey like a good mole. Everything has an accompanying cocktail, lovingly crafted with South Pacific spirits and fresh herbs and spices.

Get an introduction to Filipino cuisine — where citrus and spice go hand in hand and where the battle between sweet and salty reflect the dualities present in everyday life — during Savor Santa Ana with Garlitos’ take on manis, a Filipino street snack of roasted peanuts tossed in vinegar, salt and harissa.

East End Kitchen

The East End Kitchens might not be a restaurant — in fact, its doors are never open to the public — but the industrial rental kitchens inside 4th Street Market are still where dozens of budding culinary businesses call home.

Everything from kombucha to hot sauce to pastries are prepared inside the shiny silver room with windows facing the bustling food hall. But since the East End Kitchens are merely production (not retail) space, you usually have to seek elsewhere to actually purchase the products created within.

Not so on Friday night, when three of the food startups will have their own Savor Santa Ana stations for the first time, allowing customers the rare opportunity to down samples and meet the makers behind Sweet Mission Cookie Company, 3 Pugs Bakery and Big O Bacon in full view of the kitchens where it all goes down.

Good Beer Company

The Good Beer Company’s name might come across as arrogant if the beer wasn’t so, well, good. Sure, the tart, funky, wild, farmhouse-style ales churned out here regularly aren’t for every palate (hop heads seek shelter elsewhere), but when you build your brewery into a 100-year-old building and start barrel-aging some beers in oak barrels, infections are bound to happen.

On the bright side, infected beers (unlike food or wine) can be divine, full of complexity and natural nuance that’s unparalleled in so-called clean beers. Couple that with Good Beer Company’s penchant to amp up its downtown Santa Ana terroir by adding to its blends things like distinctive grains (like spelt), uncommon fruits (like pomegranate) and aromatic adjuncts (lavender beer, anyone?), and you have one of O.C.’s most underrated breweries right in the heart of the county.

Try one of the latest creations as a palate cleanser between courses.

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SARAH BENNETT is a freelance journalist covering food, drink, music, culture and more. She is the former food editor at L.A. Weekly and a founding editor of Beer Paper L.A. Follow her on Twitter @thesarahbennett.