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Burgers, chicken sandwiches, tacos and more can now be paired with Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co. beer at the brewery’s flagship taproom in Buellton.
Last weekend, Figueroa Mountain celebrated the grand opening of The Kitchen on the bottom floor of the two-story taproom at 45 Industrial Way.
Featuring gastropub fare, The Kitchen’s menu includes breakfast burgers, tacos, fried chicken sandwiches, salads and desserts. In the open-seating set-up, patrons order directly from the kitchen counter before their food is brought out to them.
“This has been years in the making,” said Buellton general manager Jeff Hawxhurst, who is a chef by trade. Figueroa Mountain has “always needed food as part of the puzzle.”
He said that after a lengthy battle with the powers that be, restaurant building began last year. The brewery brought on as executive chef Brian Champlin, who co-founded Solvang’s Succulent Café around the time father and son duo Jim and Jaime Dietenhofer opened the first Figueroa Mountain in town.
From the get-go, the Dietenhofers “used to come in all the time, they enjoyed my food, and they enjoyed my palate of southern cooking with a French flair,” Champlin said.
The Kitchen takes the popular farm-to-table concept one step further with what Champlin called brewery-to-farm-to-table — extra grain from the brewing process is sent to the cattle farmers in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties who provide the restaurant with their beef.
Aside from a core menu, Champlin and Hawxhurst said, much of the food — fast casual “with a little bit more finesse” — will be specials driven by a small budget and local ingredients.
The Kitchen is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Figueroa Mountain was founded in 2010 and has five other locations along the Central Coast, including taprooms in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and Los Olivos.
Sea Landing reopens at Santa Barbara Harbor
The Santa Barbara Harbor’s go-to place for water excursions is back open after an extensive interior remodel.
“We just felt it was time to update the building,” said Sea Landing owner Glen Fritzler, who leases the facility from the city and owns Truth Aquatics, the scuba diving and island excursion business at Sea Landing.
Aside from a couple dive boats here and there, most operations were shut down since the work began at the start of the year.
Subleasing the facility are whale-watching line Condor Express and sport-fishing company Stardust. Sea Landing also has kayaks, stand-up paddleboards and jet skis.
Sea Landing, at 301 W. Cabrillo Blvd., is celebrating its reopening on Feb. 24 with a party on site from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
CompuVision and Sagewood Systems combine
Santa Barbara technology companies CompuVision and Sagewood Systems, Inc. are combining under the CompuVision brand.
“This partnership is the result of CompuVision and Sagewood’s joint vision to be a single source of technology, management, and communications solutions for its clients,” the companies said in a statement.
Sagewood Systems founder and CEO Bill Wood will become CompuVision’s senior vice president of engineering, and former Cottage Health chief information officer Alberto Kywi will serve as the company’s senior healthcare management consultant.
Renee M. Fairbanks opens new law firm
Renee M. Fairbanks, a former principal of Ehlers & Fairbanks, has opened a new law firm.
Fairbanks represents Central Coast clients in divorce, custody, support and domestic partnerships proceedings.
The Law Office of Renee M. Fairbanks is located at 226 E. Canon Perdido St., Suite F.
— 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.