••• Yetz’s Bagels has signed a lease in Goleta (thanks to G. for the tip). Owner Dan Dunietz says he’ll take around 1,000 square feet of what is now laundromat (next to Rusty’s and Chipotle in the southeast corner of Storke and Hollister) and convert it into a bagel shop. (The end unit will remain a laundromat.) Production will happen in the new location, with bagels delivered daily to the original Isla Vista shop. But wait, there’s more: “I’m planning on installing a large, traditional ‘ferris wheel’ rotating deck oven along with a large mixer, kettle, and other specialized bagel baking equipment,” says Dunietz. “I want to bring a slice of New York here to Santa Barbara in the form of a classic, N.Y. bagel shop—selling lox and other smoked fish by the pound, deli salads, etc. I’m very much in the planning stages, currently working with my kitchen designer to lay out the space. The hope is to get open within eight months.”
••• With Bar Lou, Lion’s Tale, Clark’s, and RH Firehouse Grill opening in a six-week period, all anyone in Montecito can talk about these days is restaurants. It’s natural that people rush to try them out, but I get dismayed when I hear someone write off a restaurant in the first week or two—restaurants need time to find their groove. To wit, the best meal I’ve had in recent memory was at the four-month-old Alma Fonda Fina. We sat inside, which I found preferable (especially this time of year), and everything was excellent: the endive salad, the guacamole, the tuna tartare, the branzino, the tortillas, and the service…. Best of all were suadero tacos with beef that had been cooked to crispy, savory perfection.
••• Mission City Sandwich Shop, in the former Sweetie’s ice cream shop on the Mesa, has begun revealing itself. (Thanks to G. for the photo.) An Instagram post says to expect “fun, creative, and quality sandwiches,” and the shop hopes to open in late January or early February.
••• After Bell’s included a recipe for tomato risotto in a recent email, I encouraged the restaurant to post it (and hopefully more) online. Et voilà! (Update 12/29: See Kay Wilson’s comment before attempting it.)
••• The Loubud Wines tasting room has opened in El Paseo’s main courtyard.
••• “The campaign to create a 1 percent tax on Santa Barbara County winery sales to support regional marketing efforts crossed a critical hurdle on Tuesday afternoon, when the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to advance the proposed business improvement district onto its next stage. The Santa Barbara County Association of Vintners must now seek backing for the idea from every city in the county and then return to the Board of Supervisors for a public hearing on January 14. If all goes according to plan, the Wine BID, as it’s known, would then be created during the February 11 meeting.” —Independent
••• An outpost of Mercado El Rey is coming to 101 N. Milpas Street (at E. Mason), formerly a Wells Fargo branch. —John Palminteri
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Wish we had a greater array of ethnic restaurants other than Mexican and Italian. Yes, there are a few. A friend of mine some in jest says “Santa Barbara has the prettiest mediocre restaurants.” Monterey has far better restaurants than SB – why?
The jest is perfect, prettiest mediocre restaurants. It surprises me often how much money we spend on average food with all the ingredients we have available. I just don’t see much imagination. We recently had dinner at Bar Lou and the food was expensive and very good but, like Rare Society, the music was too loud to have a conversation. Maybe people drink more when they can’t talk or the tables turn over more quickly.
Agreed on the loud music. Many restaurants think they are a disco. Ruins the meal. 🤣🤣
Bibi Ji has consistently refused to turn down their blasting music citing “the managment’s rules”. Grating on multiple levels.
Many thanks to you and Bell’s for sharing the risotto recipe. I believe amount of tomatoes is not 10 lbs. but a #10 can. A #10 can (commonly used in restaurant food service) refers to the cans volume, not the weight of its contents. A #10 can of Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes label reads “NET WT 105 OZ (6 LBS 9 OZ) “ This would be especially important detail for someone trying to scale back the recipe to fewer portions.
The recipe clearly says a 10 pound CAN OF TOMATOES, not a #10 can
Thanks for this. Bell’s is going to fix it (and may have already).
I admire you and your writing a great deal but disagree about a new restaurant: if they open and charge full freight, one should expect it to be good and right…otherwise, don’t open or offer a reasonable discount for a few weeks…
Happy New Year
Bill
My son—born and bred SB boy—turned 21 this month and researched restaurants upon his return home for the Xmas holidays. Alma Fonda Fina came up as one of the highest-rated, so he took his girlfriend there about a week ago.
I didn’t think much about it, but they returned, and all they could do was talk about how incredible each dish was. Brandon was fantastic, Chef was superb, and everything they had was uniquely delicious. My girlfriend and I wanted to take them both out last night.
One guess where they wanted to return. 🤣
Alma Fonda Fina is part of the Corazon group, who seem to be opening new restaurants every season. We all loved the guacamole, which was uniquely seasoned but not pretentious. The ceviche with coconut milk was delicious, but we wished they’d given us small bowls to eat it from rather than plates. We ate everything family-style and shared a duck carnitas tamale, Camarones A La Diabla (outstanding prawn dish!), Carne Asada, and even went for the Arroz Con Leche (rice pudding) at the end of the meal. Other than the duck carnitas which seemed a bit dry and uninspired, all of the food and service was outstanding. We shall return!
I agree that (despite what one commenter here said—someone who has never likely worked in the restaurant biz) new joints need a few weeks to really find their groove. It’s not unlike being a recording artist or stand-up comic and trying out new material in concert before you hit “Record.”
Some inspired flavor for sure and I wish them well!