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As part of the continuous opening of business after business in Goleta’s newly finished Hollister Village apartment and shopping complex, Santa Barbara’s Pickles & Swiss restaurant has achieved a longtime goal: expansion into a second location.
The sandwich shop, whose original location is in downtown Santa Barbara’s Paseo Nuevo shopping center, opened its Goleta store last week at 7060 Hollister Ave.
“We’ve always had in mind that we wanted to open up more than one location,” said the new place’s manager, Blake Hayashi, who has been with Pickles & Swiss since its inception in 2012.
“It was never our goal just to have one” shop, Hayashi told Noozhawk. “It was just about securing the first location first, getting it settled in and everything right, and then working on it and opening up more locations.”
The prospect of opening in a brand-new space alongside numerous other brand-new businesses in Hollister Village, he said, made the location an enticing choice for restaurant No. 2.
Pickles & Swiss offers a wide variety of hot and cold sandwiches, build-your-own sandwiches, paninis, wraps, soups and salads.
The restaurant emphasizes its use of fresh, local and homemade ingredients; aside from its sliced deli meats and cheeses, everything is made on-site, Hayashi said.
“We always tell the customers and people how much love and effort we put into everything, because that’s what sets us apart,” he said. “It’s a gourmet sandwich shop — everything’s made in-house.”
“The whole atmosphere inside is an upbeat, fun atmosphere,” he added. “Everybody’s having a good time. It’s positive energy, and it’s going above and beyond, as far as customer service goes.
“We cater it a lot towards customers, and we’re about letting people try things. When you come in, we usually give you sample cups of our homemade soups.”
The new Pickles & Swiss is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, though management is still settling Sunday’s hours.
Petrini’s Italian Restaurant closes its Goleta location
Petrini’s Italian Restaurant is down to just its original Santa Barbara location after its restaurant at 5711 Calle Real in Goleta closed on Aug. 28.
The larger Goleta location was established five years ago, and had previously been a Petrini’s until the 1980s, said owner Jerome Bohnett.
Bohnett’s brother, the previous owner, had opened that latest Goleta Petrini’s, and the original restaurant is at 14 W. Calle Laureles in Santa Barbara.
“Our revenue structure never let us stay in business; our expense structure was too great,” Bohnett told Noozhawk. “It’s difficult to sustain red ink for as long as we did — which was well into three years.”
In order to stay competitive, he added, his business needs to revitalize after decades of operating under the same model, while sticking to its values.
“Our challenge here, at the 60-year-old Petrini’s, is to try and move sales up, bring in new customers and still adhere to the old principles of family values and a good place to eat,” he said.
CIO Solutions in Goleta moves its HQ
CIO Solutions, a Goleta-based computer-consulting and network-management company, has moved its headquarters from 150 Castilian Dr. to 5425 Hollister Ave., a few miles east, near Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital.
CIO Solutions primarily serves the Central Coast, and over 50 of its 60-plus employees are senior computer engineers living in the tri-county region, according to the company.
The move is due to the company’s continued growth, CIO said in a statement. An office in San Luis Obispo was opened last year as the company gained more clients in that county.
On Thursday afternoon, CIO held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new headquarters.
The Santa Barbara Group at Morgan Stanley welcomes a new partner
Morgan Stanley’s Santa Barbara Group, located at 1014 Santa Barbara St., welcomed a new partner this month in Howard Jay Smith, vice president, wealth advisor.
Smith, who has come over from the multinational financial services giant’s Oxnard office, joins four other partners in Santa Barbara: Emma Bridges, Matthew Rowe, Christian Marx and Caroline Harrah.
“Over the past several decades, Howard has earned the trust of successful families and foundations seeking proficiency in complex wealth and estate planning strategies,” Bridges, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “His experience bolsters our current capability and will allow us to strategically grow our practice.”
Smith, who lives in Santa Barbara, has been with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management since 1995.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.