Taqueria La Unica Has Finally Opened

••• Taqueria La Unica, in the former Dunkin’ space next to Whole Foods, is now open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (10 p.m. on and Friday and Saturday). There’s still no menu online, except for the one I posted last week, which has no prices. Service is fast-casual, and there’s beer and wine but no hard liquor.

••• Three Pickles has opened in the former South Coast Deli space on Chapala (at Micheltorena). —John Palminteri

••• After a months-long hiatus, pop-up Dang Burger announced that it’ll be taking up residence at Sunburst wine bar in Carpinteria. No word yet on when.

••• Press release: “The Santa Barbara Culinary Experience, in partnership with The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, is pleased to announce the much-anticipated return of Taste of Santa Barbara, May 15-21, 2023. The Taste of Santa Barbara is a countywide celebration of all things food and drink across Santa Barbara County. Through the SBCE’s partnership with the Foundation, a portion of the proceeds from the Taste of Santa Barbara is used to make grants to local organizations making a difference in Santa Barbara County’s food system.” Here’s the schedule of events and ticket info.

••• Rincon Brewery‘s Funk Zone outpost has reopened after installing a full kitchen, which means the menu more closely matches the one in Carp. And it’s now serving breakfast on weekends from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

••• Brass Bear Uptown has started serving brunch on weekends (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), and you can reserve. Also, the restaurant now opens at 11:30 a.m. on weekdays.

••• I drove by Na Na Thai‘s forthcoming restaurant in Buellton hoping for a peek inside, but the windows are still papered. (The planters certainly give off a Bell’s vibe.) I understand they’re just waiting for the go-ahead from the health department.

••• An update on the report that Satellite is planning an, um, satellite location in the Haley Corridor: “Reading about Satellite’s new festival, they dropped a hint that they’ll have an event space on Haley,” emailed L. “They also recommend wearing sunscreen so it must include outdoor space.” I thought of the former Simple Feast space in the Mill complex, but the listing is still live on the Hayes website, and Peter thinks it’s the former Pure Order space at 410 N. Quarantina (Reddick/Gutierrez), which is no longer being listed.

••• The Daisy is now open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, with Sunday night service starting April 16.

••• Bristol Farms has introduced self-checkout, but the system is pretty wiggy (if not as bad as at CVS). I received several error messages during my interaction with the machine, but the first time the staffer came over, there wasn’t actually a problem with the machine—he heard me gasp and assumed as much, but I was really just astonished at how much I was about to pay for scallops.

••• Edible Santa Barbara ran the recipe (online here) for Bettina‘s popular passion fruit pavlova. Even if you don’t want to make the whole thing, you might find uses for the delicious sweetened-then-fried coriander seeds.

················

Sign up for the Siteline email newsletter for the freshest food news in town.