Lighthouse Coffee’s New Downtown Café Is Opening Soon

••• The Mesa’s Lighthouse Coffee posted that it’s now hiring for its “new downtown location that will be opening soon.” It’s in the former Breakfast Culture Club space on Chapala.

••• Good to see that Pearl Social got heaters for its patio.

••• If the wildfires in Australia got you down, you can always go order the delicious kabocha pizza at Bettina. The restaurant is donating $1 for every squash pie sold in January to the country’s World Wildlife Fund. (That might not sound like much, but what else are you doing about the situation?)

••• Speaking of Bettina, the 2020 lineup for the Ojai Valley Inn’s newish culinary center, The Farmhouse, includes a Pizza Event on August 23: “The culinary masterminds behind Bettina, Pizzana, Triple Beam Pizza and Appolonia’s join Nancy Silverton and Pizzeria Mozza for a festival-style celebration of all things pizza. Wine will be free-flowing as guests mingle with celebrity pizzaiolos and taste many styles of our favorite comfort food.” Tickets are $125 and go on sale January 10.

••• “The $375 million purchase of about 300 restaurants in the Habit Burger chain by Yum!—the company that owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC—will not affect the Habits of Santa Barbara County. That’s because, when the Reichard brothers initially sold their chain to KarpReilly in 2007, they retained ownership and control of this region’s restaurants.” —Independent

••• The Independent looks at culinary bright spots in Solvang: the breads at The Good Seed Coffee Boutique, cheese at Cailloux Cheese Shop, Japanese food at Ramen Kotori, and Mad & Vin restaurant in The Landsby hotel.