Commercial Changes Underfoot on Eastside’s Milpas Street
By Ray Estrada, Noozhawk Business Columnist | 
| Published on 09.08.2010
Milpas Street on Santa Barbara’s Eastside may be less than a mile from bustling State Street, but it boasts a commercial life of its own.
The recession has prompted some changes, but other recent factors also have created some highly visible alterations to the Milpas landscape, including:
» Impending departure of Whitefoot Meat Market, whose space at 336 N. Milpas St. is being acquired by British grocery company Fresh and Easy.
» Ongoing renovation of the barbecue restaurant on Milpas and Canon Perdido streets where a cow statue is being repainted apparently by high school students.
» Vacant East Beach Wine shop, whose owner moved to La Arcada off State Street because if he had stayed, the freeway overpass construction would have shut him down.
Dave Whitefoot, 61, said he’s ready for a vacation after Whitefoot Meat Market, the butcher shop his father started 42 years ago, closes down Sept. 25.
“After 39 years of working here, I’m ready for a vacation,” Whitefoot said, adding that it would be difficult to find another location because of the cost involved. “I’m going to think about that after the first of the year.”
Whitefoot said he was surprised to hear he had so many fans after he announced the shop’s closure last week.
“When you’re the last butcher shop in town, you’re the last butcher shop,” he said.
At the north end of Milpas on the corner of Canon Perdido Street, visitors may wonder why a statue of a cow — atop what used to be a barbecue joint — keeps changing color. This week it was green and gold, the colors of the Santa Barbara High School Dons.
While the cow’s color keeps changing, the former restaurant’s renovation appears to be stagnant. Reconstruction of an outdoor deck at the eatery has been under way for nearly a year. Windows are covered with brown paper, but little renovation can be seen inside or outside the building.
After operating for a decade on lower Milpas Street, the East Beach Wine Co. moved last September to downtown Santa Barbara just in time to beat the pile-driving construction work at the Highway 101 overpass.
For the past year, shop owners David and Linda Gable have operated East Beach Wine Co. out of La Arcada Mall, 1114 State St., Suite 24, next to the back door of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and by the turtle fountain.
The shop’s former location is surrounded by detour signs and Caltrans equipment. Several businesses, including a vehicle towing service, continue to operate near what used to be East Beach Wine Co.
Milpas Street has its share of vacant buildings, but not as many as State Street. Most notably, the former Wescom Credit Union building at the corner of Milpas and Gutierrez streets has been vacant for about a year since the company moved its offices out of Santa Barbara.
— Noozhawk business writer Ray Estrada can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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» on 09.08.10 @ 08:30 PM
Don’t really know how Montecito Motors factors into this story. It’s located on Chapala Street. On the whole, these are all projects that have been planned or vacant for a while. No real news on Milpas then.
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» on 09.09.10 @ 07:44 AM
Too bad about Whitefoot! Seems to me, living in the general area, that Milpas is slowly changing—- that’s not a bad thing except for the bulbouts planned! What will be a major change and definitely noticed is an increase in traffic if the city planners’ wishes for increased density along Milpas, in the proposed General Plan Update gets voted for by the City Council.
That will cause a huge change (think upper State Street and apartments along San Remo Drive) and it’s been quite under the radar so far. There’s not the park land OR the school capacity for the changes proposed. As for traffic, already backed up during the school year, it’s already often at capacity.
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