••• Rusack Vineyards in Solvang has renovated its tasting areas (above) and is now only accepting guests who make reservations in advance. —Wine Industry Advisor (via Edible Santa Barbara)
••• The Santa Barbara Culinary Experience announced the dates (May 16-22) for its first Taste of Santa Barbara event: “Through dedicated panels, pop-ups, screenings, and farm tours, we’ll create meaningful ways for our community to connect and celebrate the best of Santa Barbara County.”
••• The Starbucks at De La Vina and State Street, in the former Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf space, has opened. —Restaurant Guy
••• Goodland BBQ, on Hollister Avenue in Old Town Goleta, opens March 1. Here’s the menu.
••• Lennon Silvers Lee, former chef at Sushi by Scratch Restaurants (a.k.a. Sushi Bar Montecito) on Coast Village Road, revealed the name of his forthcoming restaurant: Silvers Omakase. It’ll be in Santa Barbara, but the location is TBA.
••• At some point, Reunion Kitchen + Drink on East Beach started offering breakfast from 9 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The breakfast menu is available all day long.
••• Signs of life at Something’s Fishy Japanese Steak House & Sushi Bar, coming (back) to the corner of State and E. Haley: it has been posted a help-wanted ad on Instagram.
••• When Claire M. (@a.food.revue) posted the menu online for Bedda Mia, the new Sicilian restaurant run by the Olio folks in the old Mollie’s space on State Street, I asked if I could run it here. As you may have seen, Rachel had a rough dinner there the other night—a reminder that restaurants often need time to work out kinks—but Claire’s experience was different: “We were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the ingredients and delicacy of the dishes. We started with a beautiful globe artichoke soup (on special), followed by an escarole salad with imported cheese. We each had pasta dishes, both of which were refreshingly light, in the Sicilian style. The ricotta ravioli sat atop a delicate and unique lamb consommé. My broccoflower gemelli was loaded with flavor, and I couldn’t get enough of it.”
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Had dinner last night at Bedda Mia (after seeing the Van Gogh Exhibition @SBMA). Sat outside in the “street patio” – – good waiter but waited a long time, as mess up with the order, so they smartly provided a second glass of wine since we waited so long for our escarole salad (very good); pasta with a lamb ragu (very nice) and veal scallopini with mushrooms (tasty but probably wouldn’t order again). Need to explore more of the menu, as a half Sicilian – esp the more typical dishes with raisans, breadcrumbs… and of course seafood is very typical of Sicily…did it transport me back to Sicily? No – but it was fun watching the state street action and SAT night in downtown SB was crazy ! A mardi gras parade… etc. What covid???