••• The Starbucks at 1235 State Street (at Victoria) is on the market, “representing another example of a national brand potentially vacating a State Street location,” according to Hayes Commercial Group’s third-quarter report. The listing online says it’s available starting September 1.
••• Drippin Chicken, serving Nashville-style hot chicken in the back of the Kim’s Service Department complex on lower State Street, is soft-open daily from 4 p.m. till it sells out.
••• It’s weird how businesses will use your email once they get hold of it: many of them email right after you bought something (too soon, leave me alone), or, in the case of restaurants, you receive an email years after you went there (who are you again?). I received one like the latter recently for S’Aranella, a “Spanish tapas restaurant and cocktail bar” in Paso Robles, which I had no recollection of ever visiting. It turns out that it’s a sister of Les Petites Canailles, which I like quite a bit. The menu looks good—it’s officially on the list.
••• More change at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara‘s food-and-beverage outlets: The Bistro will become Lulios* Mediterranean Cuisine, with a new menu, in coming weeks. (*No apostrophe?)—Restaurant Guy
••• Those of you who only pay attention to the food roundups may have missed that Bettina spinoff Tina’s Pizza isn’t the only restaurant opening at Carpinteria’s Linden Square complex on May 22. Corazón Cocina Sur and Third Window Brewing Co. say they’ll be ready, too. (“The front-of-house/beer team should be ready to operate seven days per week fairly quickly,” says Third Window. “We have a draft ‘opening menu’ and are working on developing our kitchen teams and maintaining our focus on how best to use ingredients from the ranch/farm.”) And Dart Coffee Co. will debut in June.
••• I finally made it to Motley Crew Marketplace in Buellton. I couldn’t take many photos because there were other people, like us, milling around waiting for Na Na Thai next door to open. The store looks great and has many tempting things—not just excellent meat, but also dried pasta, tinned fish, produce, and more. Next time we’ll bring a cooler and stock up.
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I’ve been in several times now. Everything is great and the service is amazing. The chickens are particularly good and on Saturday they have freshly caught fish which is not to be missed!
Not surprised Starbucks is leaving State Street. We’ve lost all of our good stores: Saks, Nordstrom especially, RH, and most of Paseo Nuevo. Thanks to the City Council that insists on keeping the street closed, this is probably a permanent situation. I haven’t stepped into Street since 2020 and don’t plan to. There is nothing any longer there to attract shopping and there aren’t even many restaurants any longer. Very sad.
You haven’t set foot on State St in 5 years and you put the blame the hapless city council for the demise of local retail? User name certainly checks out…
Maybe just maybe it’s people like you who are responsible for State St.’s demise. Local people who do not shop there, do not go there and do not nothing but complain about how it used to be better. All because they’re scared. Be the change you want Karen and maybe, just maybe you can claim your name back.
Perfectly said!