Alma Fonda Fina to Become More Casual

••• Alma Fonda Fina will introduce a new, more casual menu—and possibly a name change—sometime next month. (Here’s hoping the suadero taco, above, makes the cut.) There will still be table service, though.

••• My understanding is that the plan for Skyfield, at the southwest corner of Anacapa Street and Ortega Street, no longer includes a restaurant. But that’s all I’ve heard.

••• If you’d like a sneak peek at The Grand on State (1218 State Street), it’s having a New Year’s Eve party; tickets are $75 per person and include music and hors d’oeuvres (but the party is BYOB).

••• Jamie Slone Wines has opened a sparkling wine bar, Santa Barbara Bubbly Lounge, at 23 E. De La Guerra Street. (Enter via Jamie Slone Wines or the Street in Spain paseo.) And both venues have hot mulled wine.

••• The inaugural Coffee Culture Fest—”where caffeine meets creativity”—will be March 28 at the Marjorie Luke Theatre and Santa Barbara Junior High School.

••• I did a little recon in Ventura the other morning. First stop: Room Service Coffee, with coffee from Coastal Coffee Collective and pastries by Skylar Bryce. It’s in the Gasworks adaptive-reuse project by Becker Group that calls to mind The Mill here in Santa Barbara. Everything was great, and I’ll have to return for the biscuit, which looked remarkable. Also, there’s plentiful outdoor seating (not shown). P.S. Type “Room Service” into Google Maps and it serves up actual hotels. How is that remotely helpful? (Adding “Coffee” will get you to the café.)

••• Second stop: Buena Bodega, Tessa Bigtree’s fun addition to Midtown Ventura. It’s a shop-restaurant hybrid, with a menu of breakfast and lunch items (with more to come) and a lot of intriguing products on the shelves. I had the bodega chopped bagel—the bacon was a welcome, if rather treif, addition—and a donut, for research purposes. And then I picked out a bunch of things to give my family for Christmas and forgot to actually buy them. P.S. A restaurant called Luke’s on Main (“mostly sandwiches”) is opening next door.

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