••• Sunstone Winery is taking over the former Folded Hills tasting room at 1294 Coast Village Road.
••• And Côtière now has a tasting room in Los Alamos, in the new building on the right as you drive into town.
••• Starting February 16, Little Mountain will be open for dinner on Mondays. And I was glad to see that you can now choose whether to sit outside on the uncovered terrace when booking online.
••• An update on Arnie’s Bar, coming to the roof of Linden Square this spring. —Noozhawk
••• Noozhawk compared coffee prices at Santa Barbara cafés.
••• Dom’s Taverna chef Dom Crisp is leading a seven-day trip to Barcelona and Basque country next month.
••• El Pollo Loco is opening in Goleta “in the Hollister Village Plaza in the current home of Sleep Number, next to Choppa Poke and Kyle’s Kitchen.” —Restaurant Guy
••• Another profile of Manifattura. —Noozhawk
••• More on The Copper Restaurant, as the establishment in the former L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele is now called. —Noozhawk
••• Closing a loop: during a visit to Santa Ynez, I noticed the frozen beef bolognese lasagna at Stica and vowed to return one day with a cooler. I did just that, and while I was surprised by the $85 price, it fed six easily (with leftovers), and we all quite enjoyed it. I’d happily pick up one up again.
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“The Copper” name was a smart move. No longer sounds like another breakfast spot. Well done.
85 bucks for lasagna? People with that kind of money have a health insurance plan that covers Zepbound, and definitely don’t have 6 mouths to feed. 🤣 If it were covered in edible gold (with its record highs), I could understand, but otherwise, a smaller portion might be in order? I’ll stick with Arnoldi’s or TJ’s in the meantime.
I make a fantastic lasagna. Using the best ingredients, it costs me around $40 to make for 8 large servings.
Knowing they get wholesale ingredients, it should probably be closer to $60.
Stica’s lasagna looks delicious! Always helpful to know about high quality To-Go catering options. Time, energy and cost of shopping, cooking, and managing dinners are not always enjoyable, especially after many years of doing it all. It’s great to have choices if your circumstances allow, rather than pushing one’s self to the brink of exhaustion. The cost of prepared food offered by a business often reflects taste, quality and creative care invested. Thanks for sharing your review!
You don’t need to drive all the way to SY to get excellent lasagna. Thario’s in Carp (Santa Claus Lane) has the best lasagna!! One lasagna feeds 2 easily especially if they are super hungry…and it doesn’t cost $85!! I buy 2 and freeze one for later.
That’s great to know, Carrie. I’ll have to look them up next time I’m in Carp. Stica is likely just catering to a wealthier class of frozen lasagna foodie folks. I genuinely wish them well.
It’s also true that wages and the cost of running a restaurant have risen considerably since COVID. Not to mention finding good people to staff it with.
All that being said, I think they’d be smart to offer a smaller portion at a lower price point. The market will eventually inform them what people are willing to pay, of course, but if they sell it frozen, how are you supposed to thaw a smaller portion and keep the rest frozen?
These things keep me up at night. 🙃
Thanks for the link to the Noozhawk story about the most affordable cup of coffee in town. But there is one they missed, perhaps because Happy Cat Eats, next to oku on Cabrillo Blvd and also owned by Tina Takaya, may not come readily to mind in the coffee shop category, but their Locals Dollar Coffee is exactly that, a 12 oz cup of great (Handlebar) coffee for $1 if you are a local. A lot of other great (and affordable) food and beverage items on their menu as well!
Any chance you could get an update for us on when Rudy’s will reopen in Carp? Thank you!
They said they have nothing to report yet.