Alessia Guehr is a homegrown talent who has created something remarkable in Santa Barbara – the perfect combination of a French patisserie and a luxurious boutique café.  Alessia is the owner of Alessia, and the visionary who created this space unlike any other in chic Santa Barbara/Montecito.

Alessia is the daughter of two German restauranteurs who over the years have made their own marks on Santa Barbara.  She was born and grew up in Santa Barbara, and was destined for a career in food and hospitality from childhood.  Beyond working in her parents’ restaurants, she worked for years at the Four Seasons Biltmore Resort in Montecito, where she worked her way up to assistant pastry chef, created fine-dining dessert menus at The Coral Casino, made bread at Thomas  Keller’s Bouchon Bakery, served as assistant pastry chef at Le Marais Bakery in San Francisco, and studied at the Melissa Coppel Chocolate & Pastry School in Las Vegas, all the while refining her remarkable technique which is now on full display in her beautiful shop in Santa Barbara.

Alessia takes an artisanal approach to her pastries.  The elements of her creations include sweet, salty, bitter, texture, and crunch.  “When you build a dessert, you want to have different textures and break it up a little bit so it’s more enjoyable.”  With her classic French pastries, Alessia is “always looking for a new way to do an old-school thing.”

But above all, “everything has to be beautiful.”  And it is.  The pastries and desserts displayed behind glass when you enter are gorgeous, and the café’s neo-classic interior design is bright, elegant, and inviting.

Alessia’s staff is uniformly welcoming, friendly, and attentive.  Her care for her staff is apparent in their attitude toward their work and their eagerness to make guests share their enjoyment of being in this lovely space that Alessia has created.

Alessia Patisserie & Café is proof that you don’t have to travel or study or work far from home when culinary magic is in your genes.