••• Belching Dragon Tavern, the restaurant long in the works at the corner of State Street and De La Guerra Street, is “on hold pending some clarity on the direction of State Street and De La Guerra Plaza,” says owner Mike Sheldon. “With so much vacancy and the department stores closing and State Street in flux, I’m waiting to see what the right remnant is for that space. Could be the Belching Dragon, could be retail….”
••• Broad Street Oyster Co. has reverted to its initial layout in the Kim’s Service Department building (418 State Street), inhabiting the former Cubaneo window but not the Modern Times space in the rear (which appears not to have a new tenant yet).
••• Nook Pizzeria, an offshoot of (and adjacent to) The Nook, is up and running.
••• Both outposts of Handlebar Coffee Roasters will be closed through January 4.
••• The Independent got an update about—and tour of—The Ellwood, the forthcoming restaurant at Goleta Beach Park. It’s shooting to open in the spring. Of note: “The former storage yard […] will become the concert venue and more casual outdoor eatery […] which will be able to accommodate up to 1,000 people standing and about 325 or so seated. […] It will probably take another three or four months to finish it after the main spot opens.” Also, FYI, “the adjacent public restroom, precariously hanging off the beach bluff, will be removed any day now. (New public restrooms will be located on the opposite side of the former yard, facing the parking lot.)”
••• Sorry, bagel fans: The Bagel Boiz‘ hiatus is permanent: founder Bryan Foehl and his family have moved to Alabama.
••• Na Na Thai is now delivering to Los Alamos and Los Olivos.
••• Noozhawk profiled the new Mister Softee shop at State and Carrillo. The franchisees are “Eden Piszczek and Angelina Rodriguez, both 21 and bursting with confidence” [….] They also have partnered with Jeff Hiller, the franchise owner in Camarillo, who they consider a mentor and who owns ice cream trucks. He eventually will bring them to Santa Barbara, they said, to support the Santa Barbara Mister Softee.”
••• “The interior downstairs space of the Anchor Rose Lounge is closed for major renovations.” —Noozhawk
••• A Montecito Journal profile of Local hits notes I haven’t heard since “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” was on the air. Seriously, read it aloud à la Robin Leach: “Local is a gently roaring rendezvous, a conversation pit with a kitchen. Think Renoir’s Bal du Moulin de la Gazette, minus the straw hats and petticoats. There is a big round bar, palate-seducing cuisine, and a patio whose feng shui eddies around and embraces the gathered guests as they sip libations and lean into each other in warm fits of laughter. This is Local: a lamplit divot right in the middle of the world’s coziest main street; the suspiciously marvelous Coast Village Road.”
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Goleta Beach “soon to open restaurant” will have a concert venue? WHAT A JOKE- like when will THE RESTAURANT part of the space open?
PS- you may be tugging the same string the writer, at MJ, who you are roasting- is tugging.
Sent you the link about RORYS in Ojai burning down- hope for insurance purposes they find the cause!
It was electrical in the wall where walk in frig was. It did NOT burn down
I heard Shalhoob’s in Goleta ran out of funding and won’t be opening their doors.
I was at Shalhoob’s in Magnolia Shopping Center on December 29th, doors were open and contractors were there. They look like they are very close to finishing.