AMAR SANTANA
PARTNER/CHEF
VACA GROUP
WHY: Heads Laguna Beach’s Broadway restaurant and Costa Mesa’s Vaca with business partner Ahmed Labbate and is arguably OC’s best-known culinary figure. Has starred in Bravo’s “Top Chef” series three times.
IN THE NEWS: Plotting restaurant expansion outside OC, considering San Diego, Las Vegas or San Francisco. Opening another Vaca restaurant at the new Beaudry, a luxe residential high-rise located in the heart of downtown LA, near 7th and Wilshire.
NOTABLE: Featured in Time magazine among list of Latino Leaders for 2024. Business Journal’s Restaurateur of the Year in 2020 along with Labbate.
