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An iconic restaurant is returning to western Goleta.
Timbers Restaurant is set to reopen in August after a 15-year hiatus.
New owners Kim and Gino Stabile, along with business partner Sandy Boyd, have been restoring the site at 10 Winchester Canyon Road. Eventually, one side of the restaurant will open after 4 p.m. and serve dinner, with the other side more of a casual atmosphere open during the day. The patio will include cornhole, billiards and a fire pit.
“It has such an amazing history,” Kim Stabile said. “It was a shame to see it not open for so many years.”
The restaurant has seen several iterations over the years and has been mostly empty since 2005.
Timbers was built in 1953 with oil-streaked timbers brought from the nearby Ellwood Pier, where a Japanese submarine shelled the oil platform a decade earlier during World War II. H.C. “Tex” Blankenship bought 20 acres of Ellwood land in 1953 with the intention of building a restaurant. Oil companies were leaving the area and giving away timber from the nearby platform, so Blankenship bought the wood.
The new team plans to meet with the Blankenship family to place some historical pictures and artifacts, including silverware and cutware originally used inside the restaurant.
“We think the history of it is really important and remembering the history of it,” Kim Stabile said.
She grew up a few blocks from Timbers and has good memories.
“I grew up very close to here,” Kim Stabile said. “I remember coming here as a kid, and it was an amazing restaurant. It was beautiful.
Gino Stable moved to Goleta from Missouri when he was 15 years old.
The Stabiles are not strangers to the restaurant business. They also own Woody’s BBQ in the Magnolia Shopping Center. They said they are looking forward to kickstarting Timbers.
“We spent the past six months restoring it, remodeling it, kind of bringing it back to what it really was,” Kim Stabile said.
Montecito Estate for Sale
A 10-acre estate in Montecito is on the market for $74 million.
The 20,000-square-foot home has seven bedrooms and 14 bathrooms. It is listed by Joyce Rey and Timothy Di Prizito, Coldwell Banker Global Luxury property specialists affiliated with the Beverly Hills office of Coldwell Banker Realty.
“A rare and extraordinary piece of art and antiquity,” Rey said. “Far Afield is one of two significant historic estates remaining in the prime Montecito ‘Golden Quadrangle.’ Far Afield is truly a legacy estate for the ages, embodying success, class and sophistication.”
In 1916, Far Afield was parceled off from the original Las Tejas Estate by early South Carolina settler William Alston Hayne and sold to famed American writer Hobart C. Chatfield-Taylor and his wife, Rose Farwell, daughter of U.S. Sen. Charlie Farwell, according to a news release.
Far Afield was named in part after Farwell (Far) and Chatfield (Field), combining their last names but with the symbolism that the estate was their vacation home “far away” from their primary home in Lake Forest, Ill.
According to a news release, in 1917, architect Francis Underhill, the builder of The Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara, designed this “gorgeous” Mediterranean Revival (Villa) estate and gardens inspired by his other noted masterpieces such as Villa Solana and La Chiquita.
“Offered for the first time since 2002, this property is a trophy asset to be cherished by children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren for decades to come,” Di Prizito said. “A once in a lifetime opportunity with an A-plus location, acreage, gardens and pedigree architecture, Far Afield would be impossible to replicate today. The elegance of the villa’s architecture, facade and finishes are enhanced by the estate’s unparalleled and completely updated infrastructure including a structural and mechanical engineering overhaul with added subterranean levels and state of the art systems rivaling modern hotel resorts of today.”
To view the home, contact Rey at 310.285.7529 or joyce@joycerey.com and Di Prizito at 310.266.2777 or tdipri@gmail.com.
Hotel Bed Taxes Continue to Rise
Santa Barbara’s hotel bed tax continued to rise above levels from a year ago.
The City of Santa Barbara collected $2.2 million in transient occupancy taxes for June, about $1.4 million above June collections last year, which were down from COVID-19 restrictions and travel advisories.
Compared with June 2019, this June’s revenues were higher by 17%. The revenue increase is largely because of increased average daily rates, which are 20% higher than June 2019, with occupancy only slightly higher by 1%, according to a City of Santa Barbara news release.
The local travel industry is now seeing increases in demand for rooms relative to recent months that is likely to continue throughout the summer months as the state has lifted travel advisories and as access to vaccinations has become more available, according to Jennifer Tomaszewski, the city’s finance and treasury manager.
The city has collected $15.5 million in fiscal year 2021, which is about 10% below the city’s adopted TOT budget of $17.2 million.
Rio Vista Chevrolet Awarded
General Motors recently recognized Rio Vista Chevrolet in Buellton with the Mark of Excellence Award for 2020, for Business Elite commercial vehicle sales.
This award is presented to Chevrolet dealers from across the country who achieve outstanding sales performance and customer satisfaction.
“The commitments that our Chevrolet Commercial dealers have made to deliver world-class customer service have, without a doubt, contributed directly to the overall success and continued growth of General Motors’ fleet business,” Ed Peper, U.S. vice president, General Motors Fleet, said in a news release. “The Mark of Excellence Award is recognition for dealers who have gone above and beyond to ensure that fleet customers, large and small, have the product and service they need to keep their vehicles working for them. I truly appreciate and applaud the efforts of these outstanding Business Elite dealers.”
— 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.