Months after Goleta lost its only seaside restaurant, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors has signed off on a new concessionaire for the former home of Beachside Bar-Café at Goleta Beach Park.
The Beachside — a popular destination for local celebrations and date nights, business lunches and sunset drinks — closed earlier this year, a victim of the COVID-19 crisis.
Last week, however, the supervisors approved a 10-year agreement with Huntington Beach-based PRJKT Restaurant Group, which plans to open SeaLegs Santa Barbara at the vacated restaurant at 5905 Sandspit Road in Summer 2022. The deal includes an option for three five-year extensions.
PRJKT — which operates seven restaurants in Huntington Beach, including SeaLegs at the Beach there — is not without Santa Barbara connections.
SeaLegs Santa Barbara will be owned by Omar Khashen, PRJKT’s vice president of operations, and Joe “Diggs” Dies, a UC Santa Barbara alumnus with more than 20 years of hospitality experience.
The two met while Dies was playing soccer at UCSB and Khashen, then a student at UCLA, would frequently visit friends in the area.
After college, they both pursued hospitality careers and grew their brands individually, both with the goal of returning to Santa Barbara with what they had learned. This is the first time Khashen and Dies have partnered together.
“It’s emotional and very humbling to have an opportunity like this,” Dies said.
SeaLegs at the Beach, at Bolsa Chica State Beach, features dishes like the SeaLegs smash burger and Korean asada tacos. Khashen described it as a “House of Blues on the beach,” referring to concerts that are hosted there.
At Goleta Beach, Khashen and Dies plan to incorporate local aspects to provide an upscale dining experience that is also price-point conscious and approachable.
“While SeaLegs is an established name … we’re just two normal guys,” Dies said. “This is a small business.
“We know the Santa Barbara vibe well; we know what Goleta wants.”
In the beginning, Khashen and Dies say, SeaLegs Santa Barbara will create about 100 to 125 jobs, with that number expanding as the restaurant also grows.
The Goleta Beach location, at the base of the Goleta Pier to the east of the UCSB campus, features an indoor dining restaurant, a walk-up snack bar and an outdoor patio area that was previously used for storage.
Khashen and Dies say they plan to renovate the snack bar and turn it into a milkshake shack modeled after the Crystal Cove Shake Shack in Orange County, formerly known as Ruby’s Shake Shack. They said they hope to partner with McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream for the milkshake shack.
According to Khashen and Dies, the main restaurant menu will offer California cuisine featuring locally sourced seafood and local produce. The beverage menu will focus on wineries, breweries and liquor distilleries from throughout Santa Barbara County.
“We always want to pay homage to the area we’re in,” Khashen said.
Since Goleta Beach is a county park, Khashen and Dies have partnered with the county for this restaurant location.
SeaLegs Santa Barbara will pay special use fees to the county that include the monthly base fee of 10% of gross sales and 15% of gross alcohol sales, or $8,000 per month, whichever is greater, according to the original concession agreement included in the staff report at the Board of Supervisors meeting.
To operate the previously vacant storage area, a special fee use applies that is the same percentages as the base fee, or $4,000 per month, whichever is greater.
If catering for special events take place, then there will be special use fees of 12.5% of gross sales and 15% of gross alcohol sales for each event.
In addition to these fees, Khashen and Dies have also negotiated with the county to create an account specifically for Goleta Beach Park maintenance and improvements, which will consist of 1% of monthly gross sales from the restaurant.
The two partners both expressed excitement about opening the restaurant and joining the local community, as well as “bringing a little life back into the park,” Khashen said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.