Hollister Bags a Cooking Cat

While the ever with the scoop Restaurant Guy points out today that Chef John Pettitt, formerly of the Wine Cask, is now the chef at Santa Barbara's Hungry Cat, that's only half the story. For what happened to former Hungry Cat chef Dylan Fultineer? He's starting at, and I hope you're sitting down, Hollister Brewing Company.

What does this mean for Hollister, which after a bit of a rocky start got into a groove of solid beer-friendly typical brew pub food favorites, from good fries to tasty pizzas? Only time will tell (and more reporting, soon, at the Indy, I promise). Head brewer Eric Rose did confess that there will be beer dinners as a way to start the shift at Hollister; Rose wrote in an email "we are both committed to throw down some serious stuff. Barrel-aged imperial stout, short ribs, etc." Those who have had the good fortune to eat Fultineer's meatier creations at events like The Winehound's high end "wines you never tasted" tastings know his culinary skills are not limited to seafood.

This could be a marriage made in culinary heaven, two young talented men pushing each other with what they can do. Clearly Rose is a restless brewer, offering countless styles of beer in the brewery's almost two years of operation, from bier de tables (let's see Stone try to pull one of those off) to huge hop and alcohol bombs like Hip Hop Double IPA (there's no more pleasant bomb to blow oneself up with, btw). Matching him with a talented chef could make Hollister something special like Father's Office in LA. In fact, Fultineer, who came from Chicago's acclaimed Blackbird to work at Hungry Cat, almost had this opportunity before--he was slated to work at executive chef Paul Kahan's now flourishing Chicago gastropub Publican. Check that menu out, but beware of drooling.