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.
Summerland — population 1,500 — has sun, sand, its own TV show…and now its own coffee shop.
On Nov. 26, Red Kettle Coffee opened its doors at 2275 Ortega Hill Road.
The coffeehouse is the only one of its kind in the community, according to owner Megan Tingstrom.
“That was kind of the idea, that there wasn’t one in town because Café Luna closed,” she said. “And that’s where we kind of thought, ‘Hey, the community really needs one’, and I really wanted to open a business.”
The tall-ceilinged, 500-square-foot establishment was the perfect size for her first business, she said, “and that way I could really concentrate on doing really great coffee and tea.”
Tingstrom grew up in Summerland and Santa Maria before living in San Francisco. The seed for Red Kettle was originally planted by her father, who owned Tinker’s, a burger joint two doors down.
“He actually called me up and said, ‘Hey, I heard you want to open your own business, and we don’t have a coffee shop in town. What do you think?’”
In addition to the standard coffee, tea and bagels, Tingstrom is thinking of bringing in smoothies and pastries.
Her establishment and its brewed beverages, she added, have received enthusiastic feedback from customers.
“It’s mostly locals, which is awesome. Everyone who walks in has had the reaction of, ‘We’re so happy you’re open — we’ve been needing a coffee shop!’”
The goal now, she said, is to wrangle in folks on their morning commute.
Red Kettle Coffee is open weekdays from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and weekends from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and will hold its grand opening this Saturday, Tingstrom said.
Patriotic Corks Shows Off Its Flags
Once relegated to the disposal bin, Santa Barbara corks have a new use in life with the art works of Patriotic Corks.
Created by sisters Dina Wilson and Christine Kozak, Patriotic Corks refashions dyed bottle stoppers into American flags.
“We meet a lot of people by collecting corks,” Kozak said. “And we love to drink wine, so that helps.”
The concept originated while the sisters were looking for an arts-and-crafts idea during a kids’ camp Wilson was running.
The small-sized flags take about two hours to put together, Wilson said, and run between $215 and $255. The large ones, which can take more than six hours and more than 500 corks, run between $499 and $581.
The flags’ corks come from the sisters’ friends, who have helped collect them, and from a weekly collection trip through Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone.
Half the work, Wilson said, comes from sorting the corks to ensure they fit together perfectly. The biggest factor guiding the prices are the hand-made frames that come with the flags.
The sisters have begun showing off and selling their work at select shops that display them on consignment, and at craft fairs, including a Montecito trunk show from this past Tuesday.
“It’s just been really positive, bringing people together in a good, fun way,” Kozak said.
Next Tuesday, their work will be available at the Women’s Advent & Bazaar at Cavalry Chapel Santa Barbara, 1 N. Calle Cesar Chavez, at 5:30 p.m.
Part of Patriotic Corks’ proceeds go to a program of His Island Outreach, a Christian ministry that feeds children on Roatán, an island off the Caribbean coast of Honduras that Wilson and Kozak have visited on charitable missions.
Noozhawk readers can receive a 20-percent discount on Patriotic Corks’ flags until noon Dec. 9 by applying the code “Noozhawk20” on the Patriotic Corks website.
Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners Offers New Delivery App
Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners & Launderers is offering a new app for its dry-cleaning services at 14 W. Gutierrez St. in Santa Barbara.
The app allows users to quickly schedule services, contact their delivery concierge and estimate their costs.
It’s the only app developed for the industry by someone in the industry, said owner Sasha Ablitt.
Laundry apps created by the tech industry typically struggle or fail, she said, because the costs associated with their models are untenable.
Ablitt’s drivers — known as delivery concierges — make a loop through the city to pick up and drop off dry cleaning, saving the time, emissions and costs that otherwise plague other apps, Ablitt said.
“People don’t need their clothes back that quickly. They just need it taken care of so they get peace of mind — that they know it’s being taken care of well.”
Ablitt, who comes from several generations of dry cleaners and is trained in aerospace engineering and business, took over the 31-year-old business from her father.
Right now, about 30 of Ablitt’s 10,000 clients have taken up the free app, which is only available for the iPhone.
About 65 percent of the company’s business is from its delivery arm, as opposed to customers dropping by themselves, Ablitt said. The app, she hopes, will help boost that share toward 100 percent.
Nurture Cottage Opens on Coast Village Road
Nurture Cottage, a kids’ clothing and home décor store, opened Monday at 1213 Coast Village Road in Santa Barbara, in the former home of Gaspar Jewelers.
Though technically open, the new business is still putting up signage and finalizing details and logistics, like its hours, said owner Kathy McCarthy.
The final details, she said, will be determined by what the community wants to see in such a business.
Nurture Cottage will, however, have the homiest of atmospheres, McCarthy added.
— 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.