••• I finally made it to Broad Street Oyster Co., in the Kim’s Service Department space with Shaker Mill and Modern Times. The clam strips and fries were excellent, so kudos to whomever was working the fryer. My husband and I also ordered both styles of lobster roll—hot with butter and cold with mayo—and we were surprised that the bread was neither toasted nor buttered, which led to a somewhat dry chewing experience. At first, we just figured that was the house style, but later, I asked some friends who had raved about the rolls, and they said the bread should’ve been both toasted and buttered, which photos on Instagram bore out. As we seem to have been victims of a glitch—understandable for a new restaurant, especially during Covid—we will obviously have to return soon for a do-over. Broad Street is more of a lunch play for me, because I crave vegetables at dinner (and the menu is a vegetable desert), but night owls will want to know that Broad Street is open from 11: 30 a.m. “till late.”
••• Restaurant Guy posted “the Small Business Administration’s Restaurant Revitalization Fund distribution list from last August for local zip codes.” UPDATE 2/6: LMG commented that Restaurant Guy has taken the post down, which led OMG to posting a direct link to the data.
••• After looking all over for Diamond Crystal kosher salt—which is getting squeezed off supermarket shelves by Morton’s inferior variety—I found that Handlebar’s De La Vina café is still selling it. Just FYI in case, like me, you try not to order everything online. Update: R. says that Tri-County Produce often has Diamond Crystal kosher salt, too.
••• Is change coming to the Whiskey Richards dive bar on State Street between Haley and Gutierrez? A new liquor license is pending, but I was unable to dig up any further info.
••• Rory’s Place in Ojai set an opening date: February 10, with reservations opening the day before. The menu looks appealing. (P.S. Sunset magazine ran a feature on founders Rory and Maeve McAuliffe.)
••• I’m a big fan of the State Street Promenade, but it makes me nervous that cars can easily turn onto the street—undoubtedly, to allow access by emergency vehicles—because people have been known to drive into crowds both on purpose and by accident. Elsewhere on the promenade there are bollards. Why not everywhere?
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I was able to click on the restaurant guy s link above on the first day it was posted (“ the Small Business Administration’s Restaurant Revitalization Fund distribution list from last August for local zip codes.”).
Then, and this is so SB, the link was “not found” thereafter. Must have made some wealthy very uncomfortable, I guess. And now, I read a Noozhawk story about how local restaurants (Jeannine’s, specifically) are struggling financially. Well, on the list above, “the Small Business Administration’s Restaurant Revitalization Fund distribution list from last August for local zip codes.”, Jeannine’s was listed as having received $984k + from govt handouts. Nearly 1 million and they’re struggling?!?? WTAF.
Also, there’s got to be another way of getting this info, it’s “transparent “, right?
Below is the link to the data for all the restaurant loans. Many local restaurants were awarded loans, which is why most survived. It served its purpose.
https://data.sba.gov/dataset/8a57ad77-fcda-4272-8020-754f1cf3607b/resource/611f26df-0de0-427d-adb1-3bb91c8e8846/download/rrf_foia_210817.csv
Hey, thanks for the info. I highly doubt, though, that Jeannine’s if all places need almost 1 million dollars to “survive”. Give me a break.
How many restaurants have you operated?
“Diamond Crystal kosher salt—which is getting squeezed off supermarket shelves by Morton’s inferior variety”
I suppose I’m a kosher salt noob, only using it for brines. How is Diamond Crystal superior? Cheers!
There’s more than you ever wanted to know in this Food52 post: https://food52.com/blog/16824-you-re-not-crazy-there-is-a-difference-between-morton-s-and-diamond-crystal. For me, the main issue is that most recipes that call for kosher salt mean Diamond Crystal, and you can’t just substitute Morton’s, because it’s much denser. I’d be fine with both brands coexisting on shelves, but it seems like more and more, Diamond Crystal is harder to find, replaced by Morton’s.