Maggie’s restaurant at 1201 State St. will open in August, according to co-owner Margaret Shulman.
It took her and Barry Shulman nine months to get the building permit, but they have renovated the entire restaurant and added 500 square feet of storage space.
“We will offer the American classics like fried chicken, gourmet hamburgers, mashed potatoes and meatloaf,” said Margaret Shulman, who added that the disability compliance was the most difficult part of the process.
The Shulmans purchased the former State and A Bar & Grill last February after Gary Lynd ran the restaurant for more than 28 years.
While it was never close to shutting down, Lynd said the grill faced some difficult times when Paseo Nuevo opened in 1990 and when The Granada Theatre temporarily closed.
“I could tell you it’s bittersweet,” Lynd told Noozhawk last March. “Nothing is forever in this life, and we do what we do. I’ve been through that, but now I’m feeling more euphoria and the ease of being done with it.”
Going Once, Going Twice …
The City of Santa Barbara is selling the 10,890-square-foot parcel that once served as a parking lot at 20 S. Milpas St.
The former U.S. Post Office parking lot will be sold in a sealed bid auction at 10 a.m. July 19. The post office closed in 2007 and consolidated with the facility at 107 Nopal St.
“With split C-2 and M-1 zoning, the property could be developed for a variety of commercial and even residential uses,” said Christos Celmayster of Hayes Commercial Group, which will represent the city. “However, given the location, it’s better suited for a purely commercial development.”
The minimum bid is $500,000, and sealed bids can be delivered to the Hayes Commercial Group office until 5 p.m. July 18 or submitted at the bid reading at the Santa Barbara Purchasing Office.
Fiesta
Santa Barbara Tamales-To-Go recently opened at 1139 Alameda Padre Sierra.
The idea came from owner Richard Lambert’s family, he said.
“I remember those occasions from childhood where tamales were a fun part of the celebration,” Lambert said. “Our company goal is to deliver traditional handmade tamales that reflect those special events in everyone’s life. I’m a fifth-generation Santa Barbaran, so we have lots of tamale-making experience. I also worked with Mexico City’s Tamale Queen, Beatriz Ramirez, who helped us refine our preparation techniques.”
Santa Barbara Tamales-To-Go offers six tamale varieties that will be available July 14 at the Annual Silver Screen Bash and on July 19 at the “Old Spanish Nights” pre-Fiesta party at the Casa De la Guerra Courtyard.
Scaling Up
Local Market Launch, a Santa Barbara-based search engine optimization company, recently expanded into 118 E. Ortega St., but chief marketing officer Gideon Rubin said it might not be for long.
ValueClick and LML founder Bryan Coryat moved his company into about 1,500 square feet at the former Ergomotion building. Rubin said Local Market Launch has added 15 employees in about seven weeks and will hire about six more.
“If someone is searching for a haircut in Santa Barbara or a burger in Montecito, we want our clients to come up first whether people are searching from their desktop, phone, GPS in their car or an app,” he said. “Right now, the big thing is apps, which pull from very specific databases. We take our clients and make sure their description is well-written and accurate, and we distribute their information to 150 directories throughout the Internet.”
A reputation management dashboard where clients can view and respond to more than 80 forums is on its way, Rubin added.
In terms of Ergomotion, the adjustable bed retailer still uses the adjoining warehouse space and expanded into 203 Chapala St. in May.
Recharge
The Science and Engineering Council will feature the energy-efficiency firm Transphorm at noon July 12 at the Elephant Bar.
Most converters, such as the ones in batteries and motors, are made out of silicon and are about 90 percent efficient while the rest gets converted into waste heat. The Goleta-based startup Transphorm claims it can improve that number to the upper 90s using gallium nitride.
SEC members can pay $15 and nonmembers $25 to listen to the presentation by Yifeng Wu, Transphorm’s product development vice president. The event will be held at Elephant Bar, 521 Firestone Road.
Doctor, Doctor, Mr. M.D.
InTouch Health received a new Food and Drug Administration clearance that will allow the use of its remote devices in acute-care applications such as neurological and critical care assessments.
The FDA announced additional regulations in February in regard to medical data device systems. For instance, MDDS class II devices such as InTouch technology are only allowed to transfer, store, convert or display medical device data and not relay real time online patient monitoring.
An InTouch representative said the new clearance represents InTouch Health’s commitment to ongoing compliance with FDA regulations regarding acute care telemedicine.
Tech Talk
Jim Semick will discuss market validation on July 12 at the University Club of Santa Barbara.
Semick, who helped grow ExpertCity/Citrix and AppFolio, will talk about selling a product while it’s still in development and how to build a business that clients want to pay for.
Catalyst for Thought will host the “Market Validation — Knowing Whether You Have a Viable Business Before Spending Millions” event at 12:15 p.m. Thursday at 1332 Santa Barbara St. Admission is $35.
— Noozhawk staff writer Alex Kacik can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @NoozhawkBiz, @noozhawk and @NoozhawkNews. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
