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.
Santa Barbara’s dashing and persistent restaurateur is back in town.
Warren Butler plans to open the Courthouse Tavern at 129 E. Anapamu St. on June 15.
“Things are opening up soon,” Butler told Noozhawk. “Now is the time to take a step forward and make something happen.”
Butler actually has been quietly helping to run The Chase, 1012 State St., for the past year or so. There’s a good chance that you’ve seen him holding court during the past year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, on the outside patio.
The Courthouse Tavern, however, is his latest endeavor, and like any good restaurant owner, he believes he’s got the secret recipe to make the business a success.
“In the past, they have tried to put a square peg in a round hole,” Butler said. “What you need to do is tie it into the courthouse. It’s one of the gems in Santa Barbara, California, and the world.”
Butler plans Happy Hour all day, with small plates, salads and sandwiches. He plans to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with a full bar.
“It’s a place to gather and hang out and eat a good steak, a good filet, a good salmon,” Butler said.
He has a full liquor license, and will serve craft cocktails, beer and Santa Barbara wines for all palates. Many of the drinks will cost less than $10, he said.
He said he’s looking to attract a regular crowd from the county administration building as well as the courthouse. The spot is also good for wedding rehearsal dinners, he said. In addition, he plans to offer catering to groups who dine on the courthouse lawn.
Butler is leasing the building, which has been home to a long list of other unsuccessful enterprises, including Elements and the French Table.
He plans to keep his alliance with The Chase and will probably go back and forth between the two locales.
For now, he’s looking forward to being part of the upper State Street scene.
“We are going to help set the tone and help celebrate,” Butler said. “Things are moving forward.”
Butler also said he plans wedding rehearsal dinners, along with Sunday champagne brunch.
“We put ourselves in a great position for the summer,” Butler said. “Things are going to be real exciting on State Street.”
FLIR Merger Closes
The deal has closed on a blockbuster tech merger, reported in Noozhawk in January.
Goleta tech giant FLIR Systems Inc. announced that it is being acquired by Teledyne Technologies Inc. in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $8 billion.
“We could not be more excited to join forces with Teledyne through this value-creating transaction,” said Jim Cannon, president and CEO of FLIR. “Together, we will offer a uniquely complementary end-to-end portfolio of sensory technologies for all key domains and applications across a well-balanced, global customer base.”
FLIR was founded in 1978 and is a global-leading industrial company that designs, develops, manufactures, markets and distributes technologies that enhance perception and awareness. It produces thermal imaging, visible-light imaging, video analytics and advanced threat-detection systems, among others.
Teledyne is a leading provider of digital imaging products and software, aerospace defense electronics and engineered systems.
Its products include digital imaging sensors, cameras and systems within the visible, infrared and X-ray spectra, electronic test and measurement equipment, and aircraft information management systems, among others.
Cuyama Buckhorn Announces New Chef
The Cuyama Buckhorn has hired a new executive chef and unveiled new outdoor dining options, new menus and future culinary experiences.
“Like the inns one finds throughout Europe where the food is as much a part of the experience as the stay, we have been committed to bringing these values to Cuyama Buckhorn,” co-owner Ferial Sadeghian said in a news release. “We have become entrenched in the food culture of the Cuyama Valley, and we value being able to share our relationships with local farmers and growers with our guests through our culinary program and offerings.”
New chef Daniel Horn has cooked in places such as Cambodia, Utah, and Turks and Caicos. He now brings his global culinary expertise to Cuyama Buckhorn, according to a news release. He combines both local and global flavors by “tapping into his unique worldview and culinary ideology, to showcase the region’s rich history, cultures and local farmland bounty.”
The resort, at 4923 Primero St. in New Cuyama, features a full-service, farm-to-table restaurant and bar, a craft coffee shop, and a market featuring housemade and local products, an outdoor dining deck, an outdoor barbecue kitchen and culinary education space, as well as a Garden Greenhouse private dining space.
Some of the new culinary spaces include an open-air cocktail bar and 40-foot-long dining table made from local, vintage oil pipes, as a nod to Cuyama’s history. There’s also a dining area adjacent to the restaurant, The Caliente Deck, that pays tribute to its views of the Caliente Mountain range.
The Garden is an outdoor dining space featuring a greenhouse for “intimate dining experiences,” a garden shop, sculptures, picnic tables, and raised planter beds with herbs and vegetables for the resort’s restaurant.
— 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.