••• Goleta’s Mercury Lounge is closing its doors for good at the end of March. […] It’s Goleta’s oldest bar, at 5871 Hollister Ave., and has been operating continuously as a bar since 1957, when it was formed as Gus’s Cocktail Lounge. It became the Mercury Lounge in 1995.” —Noozhawk
••• Vaquero Bar, part one of the ambitious Coast Range complex in Solvang (right), announced an opening date of April 8. The preliminary menu came out last week. And the rest is now shooting to open in early summer.
••• “The Magic Castle Cabaret is closing and for sale.” —KEYT’s John Palminteri
••• Sanders & Sons hopes to open its Ojai gelateria a week from today.
••• “Longtime vintners Stephen and Cathy Pepe have listed their 41-acre Clos Pepe Vineyards in Lompoc for $9.75 million.” —Santa Ynez Valley News
••• Edible Santa Barbara tweeted a reminder that Pico in Los Alamos has a one-bedroom vacation rental behind the restaurant. Book for the right Friday night and you can follow dinner at Pico with Priedite Barbecue‘s fortnightly breakfast hootenanny outside Bell’s….
••• The Independent ran a profile/review of Little Dom’s Seafood in Carpinteria. A favorite line: “My plans to bring some of the panna cotta dessert home for my family were squashed when I inhaled its silky essence.”
••• More on the new Eye on I in Lompoc, which I hadn’t realized is related to Industrial Eats. —Santa Ynez Valley News
••• Another home bakery to keep in mind: Baked by the Hoods, founded by Santa Barbara sisters Alex and Chelsie (Hood, one assumes). Below: vanilla bean lemon pound cake.
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