••• Santa Ynez’s Pony Espresso is now just Pony, the better to reflect that it offers breakfast, lunch, and brunch (as well as coffee). The space next door will be a new restaurant, name TBA, focusing on cocktails and dinner. The chef at both is Jonny McDermott, who opened Local in Montecito; he took the photo above of eggs “in Purgatorio” (with Calabrian chili, pesto crema, Pecorino, and basil). UPDATE: Apparently, the plan has changed; dinner and cocktails will be at the current Pony space, not next door.
••• And in Solvang, the downstairs half of chef Cullen Campbell’s two-restaurant endeavor in the former Pho 805 space will be called Crudo. (He used to have establishments called Crudo and Bar Crudo in Phoenix.)
••• From an explanation of why Nick Bodden pulled the plug on Linden Hall in Carpinteria: “The building permits came to the city in September,” said Carpinteria community development director Nick Bobroff, “at a time when the city’s longtime contract plans examiner had just retired. After a three-month delay, the plans finally were checked in December. The situation was further complicated when the city found out the property owner had started some work without permits and the city issued a stop-work order. […] Bobroff estimated that the building permits could be issued as early as next week [….] ‘They’ve been saying that for a while,’ Bodden said. ‘It’s a little too convenient. I’ll believe it when I see it.'” —Independent
••• Goleta’s Pattaya Thai Restaurant has rebranded as Yummy Thai. —Restaurant Guy
••• A profile of Cookie Plug, now open on State Street. “Councilman [Alejandra] Gutierrez noted that Plug is street slang for ‘dealer.'” —Noozhawk
••• A profile of Bouchon on the occasion of its 25th anniversary. —Independent
••• “A Planet of Pinot Noir Descends on Santa Barbara […] More Than 200 of the World’s Foremost Producers Gather February 29 to March 2 at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara.” —Independent
••• The Los Alamos Market building across from Bell’s sold for $3.1 million. The buyer was Alpha Alamos Property LLC, which I think is related to Pinon Hills Market in San Bernadino County.
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We holiday in Santa Barbara twice a year from the UK and no holiday is complete without several visits to the outstanding Bouchon.
Linden Hall. No shortage of blame on both sides.
The city is to blame. They make Everything 100 times more complicated than it needs to be. There needs to be an overhaul of city employees in carpinteria. Should only allow people with business experience to serve. I don’t think Nick has worked in a regular job that is not for the city . Ever!!
Carp local out!
The loss of Linden Hall is SO disappointing.
Carp is small, and we should be TRYING to get new businesses and cool ideas into our empty spaces. The council needs to stop dragging their feet and putting up red tape, and start bringing life back into our closed and shuttered spaces. Red tape is strangling Carp and soon Linden will be empty like State St.
Yummy Thai is open and serves good stuff. Don’t be mislead by the large sign atop the building that say “Pattaya, Bar and Restaurant”. The building is now two entities, Yummy Thai and Pattaya Bar (the latter is being remodeled and not open). New “Yummy Sign” for the front is coming soon. All according to our server, when we had late lunch on Sunday. The place was empty.