••• Ospi, the Italian restaurant at The Post, has begun taking reservations starting this Friday, May 2. The dinner menu is below; and here are the menus for breakfast, weekday lunch, and brunch. I’ll say it again, and again, and again: if you go to a restaurant right after it opens, you have to expect that there might be a glitch or two.
••• An Eater LA roundup of forthcoming restaurants in this area confirmed the report from February that the former Angel Oak space at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara is being taken over by Chicago-based Maple Hospitality, which plans to open an Italian establishment called Marisella there this summer.
••• Eater’s writers have a blind spot regarding Aperitivo—the local favorite is never included on the site’s lists of where to eat in town, which is weird (especially when you factor in that Chad’s makes the cut), and the spinoff from Andrea Girardello and Brian Dodero is not in the aforementioned roundup, either. Their loss! Anyway, the new restaurant now has a name: Manifattura, which means “manufacturing” in Italian, but with the root of “made by hand,” a nod to the fact that the pastas are being made in house. If the restaurant gods are willing, look for Manifattura to open by summer.
••• Here’s hoping the gods will also smile on Little Mountain, the much-anticipated restaurant coming to the former Montecito Wine Bistro space in the Upper Village, which is shooting for early July.
••• “The Goleta Spot has agreed to a yearlong lease with the City of Santa Barbara to take over 521 Norman Firestone Road, the former site of the Elephant Bar and High Sierra Grill [near the airport]. One of the owners, Ben Schroeder [of Goleta’s Santa Barbara Cider Company], plans to partner with food trucks, but people will order and eat inside the restaurant. He envisions about five businesses at the site, in somewhat of a public market fashion.” —Noozhawk
••• Starting May 5, Merci is going takeout only—via a side window—while it undergoes an interior revamp. It shouldn’t be longer than a week.
••• Highly Likely chef-owner Kat Turner clarified that the Ojai outpost is actually slated to soft-open May 7 (and not on Mother’s Day, as I had heard).
••• Amada Cellars has opened a tasting room at 490 Bell Street in Los Alamos.
••• Revolver is now serving lunch (square slices, square pies, and salads) from noon to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
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Wow!
Maple & Ash in Chi is a fabulous reataurant!!!! Hard to get a res there. Hope their concept in Bacara is as good!!!!
I agree that Apperivo is often overlooked. It’s a gem! So excited about their new offering and can’t wait for it to open.
Relax everyone if a restaurant is overlooked. You can’t complain about it just support them and stop complaining.
Is that a complaint?
I have a lot of faith in Ospi. I’ve dined at Jemma Hollywood a handful of times — it shares the same ownership — and I can confidently say from personal experience that the team behind these restaurants is doing an exceptional job. The food is consistently excellent (fresh, hot, delicious), and the servers are clearly well-trained to meet the company’s high standards.
Ospi is delicious and staff and design are great. Only flaw is the opening from dining room and bar I to kitchen and storage. It doesn’t seem like kitchen was designed to be open to dining area.