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Just talking about the roll out of The Creekside Restaurant & Bar makes Dave Burkholder, Kyle Jones and Rich Hollowell excited.
The owner, executive chef and general manager, respectively, of the revamped establishment between Goleta and Santa Barbara described their hopes of making the stand-alone building near the upper terminus of State Street a legendary restaurant.
They were off to an encouraging start last weekend when a quiet soft opening still managed to attract some 500-600 patrons.
After nearly three decades as The Creekside, the restaurant was renamed Boondocks a little over a year ago and then closed soon after.
“The idea behind opening this place is I live about 30 seconds away,” said Burkholder, who also owns The Neighborhood Bar in the Funk Zone. “My wife and I have said over the last five or six years, ‘If that place ever became available, we should look at it.’”
He brought on Jones, a Neighborhood veteran, and Hollowell, a mixologist who has most recently managed Santa Barbara’s Olio e Limone and restaurants at the Bacara Resort & Spa and Chumash Casino Resort.
The Creekside, at 4444 Holister Ave., has some of the most extensive outdoor seating in the Goleta-Santa Barbara area, with two patio levels where fire pits can be rolled out after dark, and children’s games can be put out to keep kids busy while their parents eat and drink.
Plans to revive the establishment’s music nights are in the works.
“This is sort of our restaurant and bar’s motto: We’re family till 8, and we’re fun till close,” Burkholder said.
Jones’ menu revolves around what he called California barbecue, with tri-tip instead of brisket, for instance, or Brussels sprouts instead of collard greens.
“This is what we barbecue around here,” the Santa Barbara native said. “This is the kind of food we’re used to eating — the kind of food we feed our families.”
Hollowell, a lifelong Goleta resident, characterized the craft cocktail menu he’s writing up as “fun, simple and approachable” and intended to pair well with Jones’ food and the restaurant’s country-western vibe.
During April, The Creekside opens at 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and noon on weekends.
Bucatini closes
Bucatini, the trattoria and pizzeria at 436 State St. in Santa Barbara, closed last weekend as its owners search for a new location.
Soemi Caramel, who founded the restaurant 21 years ago with business partner Gene Montesano, said that noise from nearby clubs, drunk passersby, sirens and Lower State Street’s homeless situation have made patrons hesitant about coming out to eat at its mostly outdoor venue.
“It’s not as pleasant an environment as it used to be,” he said.
Caramel said he and Montesano, who also run Tre Lune Ristorante & Bar at 1151 Coast Village Road, decided not to renew their lease, and have their eye on a couple Santa Barbara-area locations.
He added that they hope to re-open in a new spot before the end of summer.
Blush revamps as events venue
Two blocks up, Blush Restaurant & Lounge has revamped as Blush Patio, closing its restaurant to become an events venue.
Its comestibles component closed April 3, said creative director Amanda Drapes, and the establishment is already booking events, which can range from family picnics to corporate events.
“It’s really kind of an open conversation,” Drapes said of what will be hosted at the 640 State St. establishment.
Miramar Rosewood names manager
The long-anticipated Rosewood Miramar Beach Montecito, an oceanside luxury resort under construction at 1555 S. Jameson Lane, now has a hospitality asset manager in Ali Kasikci.
The 16-acre, $185 million resort, developed by Los Angeles-based Caruso and to be run by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, will feature 161 guestrooms in the form of one-story cottages and bungalows, an oceanfront bar and restaurant, two swimming pools, event space, a spa, a fitness center, a beach club and a 6,000-square-foot ballroom.
Kasikci’s hospitality résumé includes Belmond Hotels’ regional managing director for North America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Brazil, and Montage Hotels & Resorts’ vice president of strategic planning and development.
The Rosewood Miramar Beach Montecito will sit on the spot of the original Miramar Beach Hotel, the first resort hotel in Montecito dating to the 1880s, which closed in 2000.
The resort is slated to open over the summer of 2018.
— 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.