••• As promised, here’s more info on the food-and-beverage situation at the 14-room hotel under construction/conversion at 801 State Street (De La Guerra), from Brandon Ristaino of Good Lion Hospitality. N.B. The property is adjacent to the mall, but not part of it.
801 State Street is a collaboration between the Miramar Group, the Hughes family (Kim and Tammy Hughes), and Good Lion Hospitality. While we’re not giving away too much of the concept yet, we will have three separate food-and-beverage amenities provided onsite, including a full-service ground-floor restaurant, rooftop deck cocktail bar (for bird’s-eye views of the oh-so-missed holiday and Fiesta parades), and subterranean cocktail lounge. That’s right, we’ll be hosting Santa Barbara’s only basement cocktail spot! Our collaborating team is working with the Cearnal Collective and MN Studio on design. We have put together a fantastic operations team we’re really excited about, and can’t wait to tell you who the chef is going to be—but we’ll hold here for now.
••• There were two updates to the last Food Stuff post. First, this from the folks behind We Want the Funk: “We are Ted Ellis & Greer Ellis, former owner & creators of Oku, and this is our second venture in the Funk Zone. Wine & beer on tap, wood burning oven with seasonal flatbreads & bbq oysters will be the mainstays on the menu. Great music, and great service. Our neighbor who is sharing half of the space with us is the tasting room for La Lieff Wines. An exciting female-owned wine (Gretchen Lieff of Montecito) and female wine maker.” It’ll be at 210 Gray Ave., near Mollusk, and they hope to open soon.
••• Second, from Stacy of Goleta Coffee Company: “Goleta Coffee Co. is indeed closing on February 15, but Loca Vivant Kitchen will continue in a new wholesale location. We will still be making all of our gluten-free and vegan baked goods and breads, and we will continue to offer healthy prepared foods made from locally-sourced seasonal ingredients. There will be pick-up and delivery options during the couple of months that it takes for our transition to wholesale, and then we will be collaborating small business retail partners to offer our items in many more places around town. We will be hosting a party on our last day in business (Feb 15) and will be using all proceeds from that day toward severance pay for all of our amazing employees. Please stop by and pay us a visit on Feb 15, and as many times as you can between now and then!”
••• Sama Sama Kitchen is now serving lunch Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 3 p.m.
••• A third outpost of Lighthouse Coffee is among the new food-related tenants at Turnpike Center in Noleta. —Restaurant Guy
••• A reader in Carpinteria commented that “the owners of Omni Catering and Teddy’s by the Sea are planning on opening a full-on coffee house with lots of patio seating according to Carpinteria city permits that were submitted and approved.” It’s at 4835 Carpinteria Avenue (Holly/Elm), the former home of Omni Catering, which moved to the old Stone Age space on Milpas, and it’s called Brass Bird Coffee. The reader hoped to know when it might open, but I’m afraid I have no idea. N.B. Omni Catering owner Sarah Dandona was also the buyer of the Mackenzie Market building on Upper State.
••• And a couple of folks noted that Dutch Garden wasn’t on the list of forthcoming restaurants, which is because I forgot about it. I’ve reached out; the last time it posted on social media was in October.
••• The opening of the bakery component of the Dutchess in Ojai has been delayed till January 26.
••• If you order the huevos rancheros at the Jeannine’s across from Stearns Wharf, you may find yourself wondering—as I did—why the plate has “Jeannine’s Gourmet Food Hall” written on it. Such an establishment existed in Westlake Village from 2014 to 2017.
················
Sign up for the Siteline email newsletter for the freshest food news in town.
Comment: