••• (dim) Sama, the Sama Sama Kitchen offshoot at Babi’s Beer Emporium in Los Alamos, soft-opened last night (Thursday), “serving a specially created menu for Babi’s featuring dim sum, bao and other perfect items.” Nearby Bell’s posted a photo of the food that looked pretty good.
••• “The inaugural Taste of the Santa Ynez Valley, a four-day eating and drinking extravaganza that reaches from the public streets of Los Alamos to the private vineyards of Happy Canyon,” is October 17-20. Tickets here. —Independent
••• After lunch at Malibu Farm at the Rosewood Miramar Beach resort, when one’s thoughts turn to ice cream, my husband and I wandered over to check out the hotel’s Scoop Shop. We were surprised to see that it’s behind the pool gate. (We reached over and let ourselves in.) I asked the Scoop Shop staffer if the place is only open to guests. She said yes, then not really, then yes, then not really. “People just tend to come in through that gate,” she said, motioning toward a more discreet entrance. I guess I can understand why the hotel might not want riff-raff coming off Miramar Beach and into the pool area, but it would’ve been far more gracious to add a service window outside the fence.
••• “Visitors to the [Cachuma Lake] park may also enjoy a new restaurant at the marina recently approved by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Hook’d Bar & Grill, at 1 Lakeview Drive, is air-conditioned with indoor and outdoor seating and a shaded patio. The menu includes hot and cold beverages, breakfast burritos, prime top sirloin BBQ sandwiches, and beef hot dogs and burgers.” —Restaurant Guy
••• A sweet post from Pierre-Yves Henry of Bree’osh in Montecito, reminding us all how much effort goes into opening a business. (Pictured: the bakery’s new French “bagel.”)
Bree’osh is 4 years old!
4 years from now we were taking over the suite 4 at Villa Fontana (Montecito) and with the dream of turning it into a cozy French bakery. When I look back I have so many good things that come up. The pre-opening of a new shop is always very exiting especially, when you have to do it by yourself and with a low budget. I remember, Nelly painting the walls in the front, in yellow (with a pizza box) while I was running dozen of trials in the back, to get the sourdough brioche right.
Running the daily operation and maintaining the consistency is by far, the most challenging part of opening a bakery.
My journey used to start with a bike ride everyday to Bree’osh from la Mesa at 1am (means 45 degree F in late). Sometimes, get “attacked” by skunk while i needed to change a flat tire. It really happened actual y ;)). Today, this helps me to really enjoy commuting with my car. ;) Then baking, cooking, prepping, shopping (…) was my daily routine. This must have happened roughly 1000 times before being able to hire and build the team. Opening and running a Bree’osh was not a piece of cake.
For all these reasons, I feel very lucky and grateful to my wife Nelly and have such a great team to serve our community. Thank you all, for your hard work and be committed to Bree’Osh everyday. Now, let’s build up the 4 next years together!
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