••• Rori’s Artisanal Creamery is celebrating its 10th anniversary by giving away scoops of the winning entry—sour cream coffee cake—in its recent submit-a-flavor contest at the Montecito Country Mart shop December 8-11. (Next time I’m going to suggest one of my own: caramel Frito.) The flavor will be available all month for purchase at the Montecito location.
••• In other ice cream news, the owner of the Cold Stone Creamery franchise on State Street (Cota/Haley) announced in a letter to the Independent that the store has closed after 26 years. The street, he said, “has become ugly with store closures, homeless people, lack of police protection, a very difficult city to operate in, a County Health Department that actually threatens to close you down for minor infractions on Day One, electric bicycles that speed up and down the middle of closed-to-traffic State Street, extremely high rents that put long-term business out of business, and so on.”
••• Proof came in that Montecito resident Graham Duncan is indeed opening a restaurant in the former Montecito Wine Bistro space: he’s on the liquor-license application, which also says the company is called East Valley Kitchen LLC—of course, that may or may not end up being the DBA name.
••• Congratulations to Caruso’s for earning a Michelin star.
••• “I stopped in to the Ballard Inn yesterday after a visit to Bob’s to learn from the desk attendant that the restaurant was closed and she didn’t know when it would re-open,” reports A. Indeed, the restaurant has closed for dinner service, with no plans to restart it anytime soon. Instead, beginning in early 2023, it’ll shift to a breakfast/brunch concept for hotel guests, with a relaxed bar menu following in the spring.
••• Peasants Deli in Solvang has signed a lease for the space behind the restaurant, with plans to open an arcade there.
••• This Saturday, December 10, Organic Soup Kitchen will host its first Holiday SouperMarket and Soup Tasting Party: “The event will take place at 608 Anacapa Street, next to the Farmer’s Market, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. This free event will feature a lively bazaar with 35 local artisans selling handmade goods and festive musical performances. Tickets can be purchased at the event for soup tasting and raffle items.”
••• The Dutch Garden is still only open for lunch (Wednesday through Sunday), and there’s no website, but the menu did get posted on Instagram. Liverwurst!
················
Sign up for the Siteline email newsletter for the freshest food news in town.
I hope Dutch Garden will bring back the Herring salad soon! Yum!
We had the most wonderful lunch at the Counter at Dutch Gardens: everything was fantastic including the service.