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Whoever said nothing good happens after midnight wasn’t sitting next to baker John Burnett in a truck on East Figueroa Street in Santa Barbara.
That’s because amid the darkness of night, shortly after 1 a.m. last week, Burnett stared at the front door of his donut shop processing a rush of feelings that had filled his brain.
“I was just in awe that my little, tiny home company, where I started making two dozen donuts at a time, just playing around, is now in a 3,000-square-foot space, with our own kitchen, with over 20 people on staff, with graphic designers and our own merchandise department, our own coffee blend, bakery consultants. It’s just been amazing,” Burnett told Noozhawk.
Burnett four years ago opened Hook & Press, a donut shop at the Mosaic Locale on State Street. This Saturday, Hook & Press will enter a new era, at 15 E. Figueroa St. inside La Arcada, at the site of the former Jeannine’s Bakery and Restaurant. The restaurant was closed for about eight months to prep the building and work with the city for permits to open. It’s currently open for a soft launch before officially opening at 8 a.m. Saturday.
It’s a primetime spot for Burnett, who abandoned a lucrative career as a mortgage broker to pursue his dream of making donuts.
“One of the things about banking was I wasn’t making anyone happy,” Burnett said. “Yeah, we’d get their loan closed and they would be happy for that moment. But then we would move quickly back into another loan. There was just no joy in that for me. But this, I am making hundreds of people happy every day.”
When he started, he was an experimental baker, just trying various recipes. He started cooking donuts in his kitchen for friends and family. Eventually his friends wanted the doughnuts at birthday parties, and then he started taking them to business meetings.
“I was working as a mortgage broker during the day and sometimes I would cook donuts all night and then bring them in in the morning to the sales office, and work as a mortgage broker all day again, and then go home and sleep for 12 hours,” he recalled.
He grew his business slowly, building his brand and creating social media. His mortgage brokerage company moved into the Impact Hub, now Kiva CoWork. The Impact Hub approached Burnett about moving into the Mosaic Locale, an experimental shared space at the site of the former Peet’s Coffee, that allow businesses to share the cost of rent, and only be open for a few hours a day. While corporate brands were fleeing State Street, the Mosaic Locale and the Impact Hub found a formula to help small businesses start and survive amid a changing environment.
“That was like my golden ticket to get in,” Burnett said. “I had no money. I had a small savings, but not enough to open a restaurant. I had no experience. I just had a dream. Banks weren’t going to touch me with a 10-foot pole. It was just a miracle that this ever happened.”
He joins a hotbed of successful businesses that have made La Arcada their home, including Crafter’s Library, Ace Rivington, Mizza and others.
He and wife, Denisse Salinas, are partners in the venture. With the new location, they also plan an expansion. They will have happy hours with beer, wine, champagne, kombuchas, and sparkling sakis.
“We put a lot of thought into every detail into this space,” Burnett said.
The donuts will always be the attraction, and he’s not through experimenting. He said he takes inspiration from other local restaurants and tries to modify food he likes into a doughnut.
“There’s just certain things I see and and I say, ‘I like that. I want that as a donut,’” Burnett said. “Donuts are like this perfect canvas for any flavor, any texture. You can just put it on a doughnut and it works.”
On Thursday morning, Burnett was working to shore up the final details for the big opening. The shop will be open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m, Tuesday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.
SevTap All Tapped Out
Sevtap Winery, 23 E. Canon Perdido St., inside the historic El Centro Building, has poured its final glass.
The tasting room opened in April 2021 and closed in late March.
Owner Ertugrul “Art” Sevtap moved his winery tasting room from Solvang to Santa Barbara and sold wine, bread and tapa appetizers.
Next to the Lobero Theatre and inside a local landmark building, Sevtap had big dreams.
“It is with deep sadness we have to say farewell to our bread and tapas, and close our doors at the Santa Barbara location,” the company wrote on Instagram. “We fought hard for this dream of the wine and tapas bar to happen. We moved our family to cut living expenses, only to have the pandemic hit and close our tasting room for months at a time due to mandates. To make up for some of the lost revenue during closures, Art turned our living room/kitchen into a bakery and sold bread to local farm stands. No one can ever accuse us of not being adaptable.”
The Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was the spot’s death blow.
“To all who dined with us, supported and have encouraged us this last year, thank you from the bottom to the top of our hearts. It truly means so much,” the company wrote. “It was a pleasure meeting so many great people, and getting to share some delicious food with you.”
The statement also said that the company won’t have a fixed tasting room location. The best way to support Sevtap, according to the statement, is to buy its wine and join the wine club.
“Just think, you can actually help a family simply by drinking wine,” the post said.
Sonos Acquires Netherlands Company
Santa Barbara-based company Sonos has acquired Mayht Holding BV (“Mayht”), a Netherlands-based company.
Mayht “invented a new, revolutionary approach to audio transducers,” according to a news release. The transducers are the foundational element within speakers that create sound, and Mayht has re-engineered them to enable smaller and lighter form factors without compromising on quality, according to the release.
“Mayht’s breakthrough in transducer technology will enable Sonos to take another leap forward in our product portfolio,” said Patrick Spence, Sonos CEO. “This strategic acquisition gives us more incredible people, technology and intellectual property that will further distinguish the Sonos experience, enhance our competitive advantage and accelerate our future roadmap.”
Sonos acquired Mayht for about $100 million in existing cash on hand.
“We are very excited and proud to become a part of Sonos,” said Mattias Scheek, CEO of Mayht. “Our dream has always been to set a new standard in the audio industry. The integration of our technology into Sonos products will further revolutionize high-quality sound.”
— 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.
