BizHawk is published weekly, and includes items of interest to the business community. Share your business news, including employee announcements and personnel moves, by emailing news@noozhawk.com.
Big Daddy’s is coming to The Big Yellow House.
The owner of Summerland’s The Well, a lifestyle home and garden store at 2350 Lillie Ave., has leased the iconic Big Yellow House, 102 Pierpont Ave. Owner Shane Brown said the new place will be called Big Daddy’s, a chain with locations in Los Angeles and Texas.
“Summerland is becoming the destination for design in California,” Brown told Noozhawk.
Big Daddy’s will feature art, rugs and vintage furniture inside The Big Yellow House, a showcase, three-story Victorian building that for decades was home to one of the most popular breakfast and lunch restaurants in the region.
The Big Yellow House was built by H.L. William in 1884. The house was purchased in the early 1970s by John and June Young, who painted the house yellow. Today, the house is white, but its majestic, mysterious charm remains.
The new spot has plenty of parking and great visibility, Brown said.
Brown has been busy with installations in Hope Ranch and Ojai in recent days, but expects to have a soft opening of Big Daddy’s in about two weeks.
The home furnishings business ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Summerland has become the hotbed. The pandemic ushered in a return to the focus on home life and pleasant spaces.
“People are appreciating how important it is to have a place and home you are comfortable in,” Brown said. “People realize how nice it is to be able to come home to a special, unique property. They want it to be unique. They want it to be a home.”
As for The Well, business is booming and the company, which has a focus on garden supplies, will celebrate a two-year anniversary in June.
“I want people to know how super grateful I am,” Brown said.
Office Space
Santa Barbara’s available office space has a surplus inventory, with about 90 spaces available and a vacancy rate above 9% for five consecutive quarters, according to Hayes Commercial Group. Seven years ago, Santa Barbara had 45 available office spaces.
Among the largest available spaces are at the former Nordstrom building and the Ortega building in Paseo Nuevo. The mall is expected to start marketing the Nordstrom spaces, which will consist of remodeled floor plans for larger tenants, according to Hayes. The Ortega building has been marketed for more than a year.
“Given current sparse demand in the market, finding tenants for these buildings is likely to take considerable time,” Hayes reports.
In Goleta, however, the vacancy rate is less than 5% for the first time since before the pandemic and is near the historical low, according to Hayes. Most of the occupancy is from new lease renewals, not new companies.
In downtown Santa Barbara, the retail vacancy rate is 14.7% between the 400 and 1300 blocks of State Street.
“This ‘storefront vacancy’ has been in double digits for four years, which has to be accepted now as the new normal,” according to Hayes.
Figueroa Mountain Brewing Wins Top Beer Awards
Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co. took home medals on Thursday at the World Beer Cup, the world’s largest international beer festival.
The company won the gold for its Mosaic Pale Ale and the silver for its Figuerosé. It’s the fourth straight year that the brewery has been recognized.
The brewery’s total medal count is now eight after it previously earned one bronze, three silvers and two gold medals in past World Beer Cup competitions, according to a news release.
Figueroa Mountain also has won 29 medals from the Great American Beer Festival, the country’s other most prominent nationwide competition, according to a news release.
“We could not be more excited by these wins,” said Kevin Ashford, brewmaster and creative director at Figueroa Mountain. “Ultimately, we brew our beer for our fans here in California. But to be recognized by these world beer experts shows that we’re doing something right here.”
Ashford accepted the award in Minneapolis along with Jaime Dietenhofer, owner of Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co.
The World Beer Cup attracted 10,542 beers this year from 2,493 breweries in 57 countries. Mosaic Pale Ale won in the American-Style Pale Ale category, beating out 159 other beers to be crowned as best pale ale in the world. Figuerosé competed against 147 other beers to win the silver prize. Figuerosé has been rebranded as Santa Barbara Hibiscus Lime, according to a news release.
David Hernandez Joins Santa Maria Chamber
David Hernandez is the new Hispanic business outreach and service representative for the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Hernandez will assist the chamber in improving engagement with Hispanic-owned businesses.
He will split his time between direct Hispanic business outreach and supporting the Economic Development Collaborative’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in expanding services to businesses in northern Santa Barbara County, according to the chamber.
Buffet Is Back in Santa Maria
The Santa Maria Golden Corral is now offering its traditional self-serve buffet.
The buffet and grill opened in April 2021, but because of COVID-19 mandates, the restaurant offered a modified service model where team members would serve guests food from behind the buffet.
Now, with the mandates lifted, guests can enjoy the traditional buffet experience and serve themselves “endless helpings,” according to a news release.
The 11,000-square-foot restaurant, at 2104 S. Bradley Road, features a modern design with a stone fireplace, contemporary décor, comfortable and varied seating options, as well as an all-new buffet area with an enhanced carvery and tiled walls that look much like a residential kitchen, according to a news release.
Old Town Restaurant Opens
After announcing plans to open in January, Marisco Titas at 5892 Hollister Ave. in Old Town Goleta is now open for business.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.