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Coffee and food won in 2019.
BizHawk featured 21 restaurants that opened, from the quick and creative Dave’s Dog’s on Milpas Street to the well-known brand Jeannine’s in the Hollister Village Plaza in Goleta. We wrote about the opening of five new coffee shops in 2019, from the venerable, such as the drive-thru Starbucks off Turnpike Road and Krispy Kreme in Santa Maria, to the environmentally cutting edge, Caje.
And despite State Street’s much-talked-about woes, the strip was home to several new restaurants: Embermill, The Project — Corazon Cocina & Taproom, Oppi’z Italian Restaurant, and Apna Indian Cuisine,
Husband and wife team Dominic Shiach and Carmen Deforest opened The Daisy.
Institution Ale, which started in Camarillo, began serving beer in the old Pierre LaFond building. Onus Donuts opened, and Vive was rebranded to Eleven14 Craft Beer and Sports Bar.
Restaurants were also reborn on Cabrillo Boulevard.
The team behind Los Agaves opened Flor de Maiz, a Oaxacan-styled Mexican food restaurant that specializes in mole. The restaurant took over half of the old El Torito, which lived and died on its Sunday buffet back in the day. The other half of the old El Torito building is also now home to Oku, a California-Asian food restaurant, which is owned by Opal entrepreneur Tina Takaya.
“The goal is to create a locals’ place on the water where locals feel like family and visitors feel like locals,” Takaya said.
And while many foodies tend to think of Santa Barbara proper as the hot spot for cuisine, Goleta is gaining more prominence as a restaurant destination. With the city’s recent development burst, steady rise in tech companies, and the long-awaited, much-anticipated arrival of Target, Goleta is where the people are.
In addition to Jeannine’s, Mesa Burger replaced Kahuna Grill in the Camino Real Marketplace. (Mesa Burger, by the way, is planning an opening on Coast Village Road in 2020, to bring the growing burger empire to three spots).
Süp & Jüs, which sells soup and juice, was opened in Hollister Village by the team that owns Kyle’s Kitchen. In the Calle Real shopping center, San Francisco chef and Sri Lanka-native Rajesh Selvarathnam opened Masala Spice Indian cuisine. A few doors down, Woody’s Boba and Pizza Online jumped into the market. It sells ready-to-go customized pizzas through predominantly online orders.
Old Town continued its slow transition. Indiana-native and chef Owen Hanavan launched Lemon & Coriander.
“Over the past decade, Goleta is slowly coming around, so it’s a great location with all the businesses around here,” he told Noozhawk in December.
The Public Market in Santa Barbara continues to develop with restaurants Wabi Sabi Sushi and the vegan Middle Eastern Fala Bar opening.
Not everything, however, was about birth. Several businesses spotlighted in Noozhawk came to an end.
Sears, one of Santa Barbara’s few shopping destinations for working-class people, closed its doors in La Cumbre Plaza, a victim of the national retail chain’s larger problems. The nearby Auto Center also closed. Along with Macy’s, Sears was one of the anchors of La Cumbre Plaza. It’s unclear what the future holds for the spot, but the property has proposed building housing in the parking lot area of the site.
Jedlicka’s, a Western clothing and supply store that opened in 1932, surrendered in February 2019.
“Lack of volume, lack of sales,” owner Josiah Jenkins told Noozhawk. “And a lack of support by suppliers. We just can’t compete.” The Jedlicka’s in Los Olivos remains open.
Restaurants continued to depart from State Street. Santa Barbara clearly wasn’t having it Mike’s Way. Sandwich shop Jersey Mike‘s closed its doors quietly in April.
“The concept, their business plan, wasn’t working downtown,” said Adam Geeb, director of asset management for Sima Corporation, which manages the property.
Goa Taco and Brat Haus also left town, in June and August, respectively. Another longtime, prominent restaurant closed its doors in Goleta: Ming Dynasty, next to the new Target in Goleta, served lunch and dinner to countless people over the past 40 years.
Coffee continued to grow its footprint. Caje Coffee, makes original coffee drinks, and does not offer disposable cups. You have to drink at the restaurant or buy a to-go cup. Ryan Patronyk, Troy Yamasaki and Sean Sepulveda expanded from Isla Vista and opened a new restaurant on Haley Street.
“We’re trying to offer people an experiment that is not your traditional coffee shop,” Yamasaki said. “Our passion and desire is to create an other-worldly experience.”
Coffee shop Low Pigeon, a name derived from a combination of owners Rich Low, Matt Pigeon and Dennis Medina, opened across the street from Caje in the 400 block of East Haley Street. Caffe Luxxe opened in the Montecito Country Mart, and Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts in Santa Maria.
Perhaps the most interesting of all openings in 2019, however, was not a restaurant or coffee shop, but the unreal Surreal Virtual Reality.
Westmont graduate Alejandro Carvajal opened the unique experiential destination at 436 State St. Suite B in November and people haven’t stopped flooding his establishment since. Whether it’s the John Wick shooting game, Fruit Ninja, Beat Saber, SuperHot, or several other game options, the new business has helped silence the criticism that there’s nothing for young people to do downtown.
Carvajal actually has games for just about all ages, even the lower-key theBlu, which allows people to explore the ocean and visit sea life and creatures.
“Other than bars and breweries and restaurants, there’s not a lot people can do downtown,” Carvajal said. “If it can be imagined and coded, it can exist in virtual reality.”
— 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.
