••• Seoulmate Kitchen has soft-opened at the Santa Barbara Public Market, with a grand opening—including three days of specials—planned for next weekend. To refresh your memory, the “café side of Seoulmate Kitchen offers an artisanal, small-batch approach to Korean-inspired café fare,” while the restaurant counter “showcases dishes heavily influenced by Korean flavors and traditional dishes.” And in other Seoulmate Kitchen news, the food menu it devised for Cooney’s bar (below) is now live.
••• “Siam Street Food recently opened its doors at 425 State Street [Gutierrez/Haley] in downtown Santa Barbara—the former location of Zen Yai Thai Cuisine.” —Edhat UPDATE: “Siam Street Food is nowhere near opening,” says Laurie. “It looks to be in very preliminary stages of renovation.” The comment made me check up on something I’ve suspected for a while: much of Edhat’s content these days appears to be written by a woman in Bangalore, India.
••• “Longtime local Japanese restaurant Shintori Sushi closed last month at 3001 State Street.” —Restaurant Guy
••• Odessa Lounge appears to have closed, reports M. Its website is no longer in operation, and Yelp says it’s permanently closed.
••• The Carpinteria branch of The Nugget has opened.
••• Stica, “fast-slow food” from the S.Y. Kitchen folks, opens tomorrow at 3563 Numancia Street in Santa Ynez.
••• Los Alamos now has a farmers’ market on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
••• A profile of Cody’s Cafe, with a timely reminder of the value of immigrants. —Independent
••• A profile of Pony Cocktails + Kitchen in Santa Ynez. —Independent
••• A profile of Cafe La Fonda, which has repositioned itself to include “means items like Mexican style turkey dogs and scooped Thrifty’s ice cream.” Also, the restaurant now closes at 3 p.m. so it can host private events. —Independent
••• A profile of High Seas Mead. —Noozhawk
••• Press release: “Husband-and-wife restaurateurs Perfecte and Alia Rocher—acclaimed for their imaginative dining concepts in Los Angeles and Seattle—proudly unveil The Rochers at the Ranch House, a reimagining of the legendary Ojai restaurant originally founded in the 1950s by Alan and Helen Hooker. The Rochers plan to open to the public on July 25. Over the past several months, the couple has lovingly restored and renovated the historic property, breathing new life into both the restaurant and its iconic gardens. […] The restaurant will offer a seasonal four-course tasting menu, priced at $120 or $140 per guest.” The Rochers’ previous restaurants include Tarsan i Jane in Seattle and Smoke.Oil.Salt in L.A.
••• Corazón Cocina‘s Ventura outpost has opened.
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We had lunch at Stica today – it was simply delicious. It’s located just up the street from the new Santa Ynez Chumash Museum two great reason to make your way to town!
Stica is located in the spot previously built for and used as The Baker’s Table, which moved to it’s Sagunto Street location
Siam Street Food is nowhere near opening – it looks to be in very preliminary stages of renovation. I don’t know how they have advertised that they are open.