••• Courthouse Tavern has closed after two years. That’s such a great location—here’s hoping someone good snaps it up.
••• Solvang’s Sear Steakhouse announced that on July 30* it will close “for a few months to undergo a transformation. When we reopen later this year, it’ll be with a new name, a whole new concept, and fairly extensive renovations. We’ll be bringing a more affordable ‘swank’ to the Santa Ynez Valley.” [Update: The restaurant walked back the date.]
••• Third Window Brewing Co. has introduced milkshakes to go with its popular burgers. There are three flavors, all made with McConnell’s ice cream: chocolate (with Oko Caribe cocoa from Twenty-Four Blackbirds), strawberry (with farmers’ market strawberries), and vanilla. I can vouch for the strawberry.
••• Sometime this month, “Terra will open inside the newly remodeled [Steward] hotel located at 5490 Hollister Ave.—formerly Pacifica Suites, just east of Highway 217.. […] Executive chef is Augusto Caudillo, the chef and co-owner of Lompoc’s popular Scratch Kitchen, which operated from May 2015 to August 2019.” The menus online don’t include prices. —Noozhawk
••• Noozhawk profiled the Epicurean Santa Barbara dining club.
••• The Independent profiled the Welcome Coffee Cart business.
••• Strange Beast, the Ventura collaboration between Good Lion and Sama Sama, now offers karaoke on Wednesdays (starting at 9 p.m.).
••• The news that Thomas Keller will oversee the food at the Coral Casino is still reverberating around here, with good reason. While there’s been no word about what to expect from Tydes (the main restaurant, which will be open to the public), I imagine the likely template isn’t Per Se or the French Laundry, but Keller’s restaurant at the Surf Club outside Miami Beach. Its menu, described as “continental cuisine interpreted for today’s contemporary guests,” is a safe bet for a club clientele. And it ain’t cheap. The meal pictured below, excluding wine, costs around $90.
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Too bad about the Courthouse Tavern, the only surprise is that they lasted this long. They never really seemed as if they got their act together with that place, in terms of food, service, or staffing.
Courthouse stiffed a bunch of local people when they closed. The owners both could’ve closed in good fashion but choose to not pay a lot of people, bad karma!
Another Warren Butler signature F-up? He was the managing partner.
Excellent prediction — the Coral Casino restaurant is TOTALLY going to be the Surf Club menu/style. When I read that it clicked (having been there), yes that’s what’s coming.
Hopefully the Coral Casino menu is NOT like The Surf Club. I’d like to see some of these restaurants in SB with more sophisticated PLANT-BASED options that take advantage of our close proximity to exceptional farm veggies. Tired of avocado toast or a salad being the only options or special request at a restaurant. Fingers crossed that Coral Casino (and many other restaurants) can take a more educated, inclusive, and healthier approach to their menu creations.
Jenna it sounds like you know so much about menu development and restaurants maybe you should open a restaurant and show all of us how it’s done?
@ SB Snob, not sure how you interpreted my comment as being a “know it all”. I was simply stating that I hope restaurants get with the times and include plant-based options that are creative and good, but also healthy. You sound just like so many restaurants who eyeroll, scoff at, and dismiss patrons who request vegan options/modifications. It’s unfortunate.
Does anyone know if the Coral Casino house started assembling their management team? I would love to get in touch. I worked at Four Seasons 10+ years and started and ran the FINS juice club — now I own a local marketing agency. I can’t wait for them to reopen and would love to see if they need help with PR and marketing content.
No cafe survives for long in that location, I think it might be cursed.