This might soften the blow for those who are upset about RH (née Restoration Hardware) opening a store in Montecito’s Upper Village—it will include a restaurant. An anonymous tipster* sent the job postings for general manager and chef at RH Montecito Gallery and Restaurant; according to the descriptions, the restaurant will be “fine dining” (which I would assume simply means waiter service more than a level of fanciness), and the hours of operation will be from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The job posting says that RH plans on opening three to four restaurants a year, clearly an effort to create experiential retail—i.e., get people into the store even if they don’t think they need anything. The company’s website already lists 15 restaurants, most of which are described as serving “timeless classics,” which manages to be vague and redundant, for brunch and dinner. I’ve posted the brunch/lunch and dinner menus for the Yountville store below; the one for Marin was more or less the same.
Back in October 2019, when I interviewed Susan Keeney about her then-new Lucca store in the Old Firehouse building, we talked about how well-suited the space is to a restaurant, and she expressed an interest in hosting private dinners there on a regular basis. (If that happened, I never heard about it.) There’s a small bar and an appealing terrace, as seen in the photos I took back then. Even so, when Nicolas wondered whether the Montecito RH store might be a restaurant, I pooh-poohed the notion because of parking constraints. The Old Firehouse only has a handful of spaces, and it will presumably have to come to an agreement with the owner of a nearby lot. Could valet parking be coming to the Upper Village…?
*Thank you, tipster! Anonymity is always guaranteed: text 917-209-6473 or email [email protected].
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So happy about this!!! Visited the Yountville restaurant many times. Upper Montecito Village needs this.
This is wonderful news! I have been to restaurants in Marin & Yountville. The food and service were outstanding. Wish they were moving into the Sears building.
Restoration Hardware, the national furniture chain is not a fit amongst the local owned shops of Montecito’s upper village: it’s a complete violation of our lifestyle. We don’t need more traffic. We don’t need more tourist. And besides, what’s cool about dinning in a furniture store amongst furnishings, fabrics and accessories made by Chinese, Indonesian and East Indian laborers?
Hey, take a chill pill. Violation of your lifestyle? What does that mean?
The menu is sort of similar to Lucky’s, but I bet the quality will be 25x better. Might force Lucky’s to stop serving disgusting food that looks like it fell off a Sysco truck 3 weeks ago. Remember when Sly was the chef and it was actually good? My thoughts echo Bruce, but I also accept that the secret is out on Montecito and what we knew it as is already a distant memory. RIP. If we must submit to new overlords, at least we can hope they will bring fresh produce with them.
Sad. I agree, the secret of Montecito and SB for that matter is out…. and the “element” which has infiltrated is exactly what many long time residents of this area were escaping. It’s such a joke to now see women walking around with designer “status symbols “ all over their clothing announcing they have zero creativity other than wear someone else’s initials . This was never seen in SB previously. Sadly we are be infiltrated by those who don’t GET it about SB. Sad RH heading into the old Firehouse are more initials we don’t need to see.
I sure hope this doesn’t go the way RH’s introduction into Aspen has gone. First the restaurant gallery, then residences and Bathhouse and Spa. None of which are complete and just sitting and slowly progressing. The fact that this once furniture store offers private jet, yacht, hotel and home services — think an American version of what some luxury brands do in Dubai… feels deeply wrong for Montecito. I think people should very cautiously watch RH and question their acquisitions locally.