••• Opening today: Low Pigeon‘s handsome second café, on Anacapa just above Ortega. The hours are 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily.
••• Restaurant Guy reports that the Beans BBQ catering company is opening a restaurant in the storefront at 1230 State Street (Victoria/Anapamu), probably between Brasil Arts Café and Saigon Restaurant. According to an Instagram post from last month, the company is shooting for January, although the fundraising drive isn’t exactly taking off.
••• The popular new Bar Le Côte in Los Olivos got kneecapped by a kitchen fire a few days ago and expects to reopen in a matter of weeks.
••• Reunion Kitchen + Drink in the Cabrillo Pavilion appears to be deep into training mode, or even friends-and-family previews, so I’d expect an official opening soon.
••• The “for lease” sign is back up at 3052 De La Vina (at State), the former Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf space where Starbucks was going through permitting. Perhaps the chain backed out? —Restaurant Guy
••• The Independent profiled Centennial Beer Hall, in the old Mercury Lounge space in Goleta. For now, the focus is very much on drinking: Chef-owner Ron Batdorf “plans to use his culinary chops to create a menu of small bites in the future but isn’t going to rush the process. For now, they have such simple snacks as the New Orleans favorite Zapp’s potato chips. But Centennial also upgraded the classic Merc Lounge snack—popcorn—by selling the hometown gourmet brand Hippy Pop. Food trucks and vendors frequent the bar as well.”
••• Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant in Goleta is hoping to reopen in January after a fire last December. —Restaurant Guy
••• Three items of note in Hayes Commercial Group‘s third-quarter report: the price Bill Foley paid for the Hotel Californian was $130 million; as rumored, a “brewery concept” leased the 4,700-square-foot 102 E. Yanonali in the Funk Zone (below); and IHOP is indeed moving into Goleta’s Plaza Shopping Center (the one with Albertson’s, near Costco).
••• While walking around the greater East Beach area—more on that when I pull it together—I noticed High Seas Mead signage at the Railroad Square complex on S. Quarantina, but I wasn’t sure if it’s new. It is! Founder Austin Corrigan subsequently explained his big plans: “Dialing it in at High Seas Mead’s new production facility and taproom. We are excited to be a home base for all alternative craft beverages. This year we will be working diligently on expanding our session meads, beginning our Cider program, and hopefully by next harvest a High Seas wine label.”
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Drove all the way here from LA and Low Pigeon is closed. Someone said maybe for good? So confused!
It’s open today. Maybe it had staffing issues yesterday (the way so many places do these days)
The Anacapa location
Yes, that’s the one I went and checked on Sunday. It was open.