RH Firehouse Grill Has Opened in the Upper Village

••• RH Firehouse Grill opened yesterday. The lunch/dinner menu is below, and as expected, it’s nearly identical to what you’d find at the other two dozen RH restaurants. (Weekday lunch features a few breakfast items, too, and on weekends, there’s a brunch menu.) Nonetheless, the lack of at least one vegetarian sandwich or entrée is a surprise, and in what I imagine is a wider trend—it’s also the case at Clark’s—there appears to be steakhouse-style pricing of entrées, with accompaniments costing extra. At $22, the burger has to be a loss leader, but of course most people will get it with a $10 order of fries. P.S. The restaurant offers beer and wine, but no hard liquor.

••• Bossie’s Kitchen, which had been closed since early October, posted an update: “It has certainly taken us longer than anticipated, but we are (finally!) up on our feet and ready to reopen Bossie’s! we’ll have modified dinner hours through the end of the year, and will remain temporarily closed for lunch until early to mid-January.”

••• Starting this weekend, Little King Coffee is operating a coffee cart at The Post while its space at the shopping center gets completed. Hours today (Sunday, December 15) are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and beyond that still TBD.

••• And Buellton’s Zaca Coffee has a trailer at 220 Anacapa Street (across from Mony’s) in the Funk Zone. It’s open Thursday through Monday, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.

••• The Independent‘s cover story is a long look at how three restaurant/bar groups—Acme Hospitality, Good Lion Hospitality, and Companion Hospitality—”changed our dining culture.”

••• H. spotted construction crews at the former Derf’s (De La Vina and Mission): the owner is making improvements in advance of a new tenant moving in. They’re in talks, but nothing has been finalized.

••• The buyers of Palace Grill are Georges and Nicole Bitar of the Bitar Group, who also own Via Maestra, Chase Restaurant, and Milk & Honey. —Restaurant Guy

••• The expansion of the ground-floor Brophy Bros. Clam Bar into the retail store next door goes in front of the city Planning Commission on December 19. Here are the existing (left) and proposed floor plans. And according to the agenda description, there will be “new outdoor dining.”

••• Outer-borough chicken news: The Dave’s Drip House ice cream shop at Turnpike Center is now doubling as J’s Hot Chicken, and the Wingstop fast-food outpost at Goleta’s Fairview Center has opened.

••• Marley Confections is open in Montecito’s Upper Village, in the sliver of a space next to the Montecito Village Grocery. It’s filled with treats such as chocolate-dipped Ojai Pixie slices, chocolate-covered pretzels, addictive pistachio-orange brittle made with local nuts, turndown chocolates for your better houseguests, and more. I bought a little of this and a little of that for the folks on my nice list (and then ate the brittle myself).

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