The popular food and wine festival at the socially gridlocked Museum of Natural History was a sold-out affair. The 32nd annual fest, which had 1,173 guests and raised in excess of $115,000 for the museum’s programs, featured more than 70 premier Central Coast wineries and 30 food vendors on the 11-acre oak-shaded Mission Creek campus. […]
It was all a case of location, location, location as the Music Academy of the West’s 72nd annual summer festival entered its second week. Having staged all concerts at Hahn Hall on the Miraflores campus with the fest’s kickoff, the Lobero and Granada were added into the mix this week. The Festival Artists Series at […]
It was a first for the Santa Barbara Polo Club when the Lucchese USPA Intra-Circuit Tournament was played at the Carpinteria equestrian paradise with six teams competing for the much sought after trophy, as well as $50,000 in prize money. “This has certainly never happened before,” says club manager David Sigman. “The United States Polo […]
Michael DeVorzon, the son of Montecito dynamic duo Barry and Jelinda DeVorzon, is becoming quite the TV star. But you’d never know it. Michael, who attended MUS, Crane, Santa Barbara High and UCSB, appears in a ZipRecruiter commercial that has been airing regularly since October, 2017. There have been more than 23,000 national airings of […]
This week marks the first anniversary of the death of Montecito actor Tab Hunter, who left us for more heavenly pastures, aged 86, after making more than 40 films, becoming a ‘50s and ‘60s Hollywood heartthrob. To mark the occasion, Tab’s longtime companion of more than 35 years, Allan Glaser, will be premiering a retrospective […]
On a personal note, I remember Gloria Vanderbilt, the iconic New York socialite, whose first marriage was at the Santa Barbara Mission in 1941, who has died at her Big Apple home aged 95. I would often see the “poor little rich girl” heiress at the center of a scandalous custody battle in the 1930s […]
Former Montecito resident Jim Sokolove, who moved with his wife, Stephanie, to Boca Raton, Florida last year, has just attended his 50th reunion at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. Jim, who was in the class of 1969, founded his firm Sokolove Law in 1979. The tony twosome used to host the annual Table of […]
A Montecito listing represented by Riskin Partners real estate group of Village Properties has been selected as a finalist in the HGTV Ultimate House Hunt 2019 for its curb appeal. The competition is held annually on HGTV.com and features extraordinary homes in eight categories, including amazing kitchens, countryside retreats, waterfront homes, and modern masterpieces. The […]
Tech entrepreneur Sean Rad is selling his Montecito home for $12.67 million. The former Tinder CEO and co-founder purchased the estate for $11 million from TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. Rancho San Leandro boasts two main residences, totaling 6,764 sq. ft. Built in the 1800s, the main hacienda-style residence has […]
A ten-acre Montecito estate, with seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms, has just come on the market for $17 million. The 13,932 sq. ft. property is just a tiara’s toss or two from the homes of TV talk show titans Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres. The expansive grounds include terraced gardens, a pool, spa with a […]
Eight months after celebrating its first anniversary with a boffo bash at the Hotel Californian, Epicurean Santa Barbara was back at the tony hostelry for a Wine Down Wednesday at the Djinn cocktail bar in the Library Lounge. The third wine-oriented fest on the program, after events at the Rosewood Miramar and Mizza Pizza on […]
Fiesta Ranchera celebrated its 12th anniversary with a sold-out bash for more than 800 guests at the 147-year-old Rancho La Patera and Stow House in Goleta, raising around $60,000 split equally between Old Spanish Days and the 52-year-old Goleta Valley Historical Society. The colorful gala, co-chaired by Tim Aceves, Gaia Zellet, and Hatty Husband, featured […]
After more than two years and a $12 million budget, the 33-year-old 40,000 sq. ft. Rescue Mission is ready for its closeup. The extensive project represents five years of planning, permitting, fundraising and rebuilding the facility, which has served more than three million meals and provided 1.6 million stays for the homeless since 1986. The […]
Doug Margerum, a fixture on the Santa Barbara wine and restaurant scene for 35 years, was in party mode when he opened his eponymous tasting room at the Hotel Californian. The 3,000 sq. ft. two-level outlet, described as modern farmhouse meets couture boutique, was designed by Doug’s wife, Marni, with an expansive bar made of […]
Environmental pioneer Gay Browne, who founded Greenopia, a city guide to more than 110,000 sustainable businesses, has just launched her latest work, Living With a Green Heart: How To Keep Your Body, Your Home and the Planet Healthy in a Toxic World. “It took me 18 months to write and I’m planning two other books […]
Santa Barbara Polo Club patron Ben Soleimani is becoming quite the interior design entrepreneur. Iranian Ben, 44, has recently debuted a furnishing brand making rugs and accessories, with plans to expand into a complete line of furnishings by the end of the year, and is featured in the latest issue of Architectural Digest. The entrepreneurial […]
On a personal note, I remember actress Sylvia Miles, who has died in New York aged 94. The two-time Oscar-nominated camp icon’s notoriety grew when she joined Andy Warhol’s Manhattan social circle in the ‘70s becoming a legendary party girl and inspiring the famous jibe: “Sylvia Miles and Andy Warhol would attend the opening of […]
It was pores for thought when the Sense Spa at the Rosewood Miramar hosted a sunshine-drenched rooftop soirée when it introduced Anda, a new line of organic vegan products developed by Swedish Los Angeles-based cosmetologist Kerstin Florian and named after her late daughter. “We are the first ones to have it, which is quite a […]
Lotusland, the late opera singer Ganna Walska’s 37-acre botanical paradise, has just completed the biggest project in its history with the $6 million two and a half year renovation of the one and a half acre Japanese Garden. The massive project, designed in conjunction with Lotusland CEO Gwen Stauffer, Derrik Eichelberger of Arcadia Studio, and […]
UCSB Arts & Lectures 61st season promises to be a cracker! With 60 world class events, including 11 Santa Barbara debuts, two world premieres of new works commissioned by the popular program, a U.S. premiere, and a West Coast debut, Miller McCune executive director Celesta Billeci described it as events for the “intellectually curious, the […]
Santa Barbara chef Edie Robertson has been inducted into the Skateboard Hall of Fame. Edie, 57, is one of the most accomplished skateboarders of the ‘70s with a world championship in slalom and a lengthy list of competition first places. She started the sport in 1975 as the first female skater on the locally based […]
Rod Lathim, Santa Barbara director and producer, has been celebrating an 18-year motorcycling tradition, The Paradise Pit, an all-volunteer event supporting nearly 3,000 riders and crew of the California AIDS Lifecycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The annual ride came through our Eden by the Beach last week and the Paradise Pit, which […]
The amazons were out in force when Santa Barbara stock broker Monica Timpe threw a bustling bash at her Anacapa Street home for English author friend Deborah Richards, who debuted her first book, Shift & Shine, which took her ten years to complete. The memoir, a mixture of pathos and humor, chronicles dealing with trials […]
Santa Barbara Polo Club is in safe hands! Sergei Onishenko, 52, who served with the Soviet Army in the special forces unit in the ‘80s, dealing with extreme situations like prison riots and other mayhem, is the new head of security at the Carpinteria equestrian paradise. The Montecito-based former bodyguard, responding to and neutralizing threats […]
Piano legend Jerome Lowenthal was honored for his half century of teaching at the Music Academy of the West and the launch of the institution’s 72nd annual summer school and festival at a record-breaking gala, which netted $475,000 towards scholarships and other funding. New York-based Lowenthal, 87, who is also chair of the prestigious Juilliard […]
The Farmers & Merchants Trust Company office on Santa Barbara Street is fast becoming an art gallery of note. Since opening two years ago manager Frank Tabar has made the company’s conference room available for art students from the city’s various schools to hang their works to be viewed by the public. Frank’s wife, Marika, […]
Social gridlock reigned when 620 guests packed the Hilton’s ballroom for the 25th annual South Coast Business and Technology Awards which raised around $300,000 for the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, its most successful event to date. The fun fête, co-chaired by Arnold Brier, general counsel of Yardi Systems and uber realtor Renee Grubb, featured […]
Santa Barbara author Myra Mossman, a federal criminal appeals attorney, has debuted her first book, My Random Death: A Memoir, a riveting true crime story with courage triumphing over evil, after rewriting it three times over the past 21 years. Mossman, who has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, took writing courses at City College […]
President Donald Trump‘s three-day state visit to the U.K. to meet with Queen Elizabeth and other members of the Royal Family, as well as celebrating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, brought KEYT-TV anchor Beth Farnsworth to Maison Mineards Montecito for an interview in my cottage garden. The visit by Trump and his willowy wife Melania […]
Having launched her official Santa Barbara Polo Club ring to reflect the long history of the Pacific Coast Open last year, the Carpinteria organization’s official jeweler Tara Gray, a former Miss Alabama, has designed a completely new ring for the 2019 season. The latest bling has a new round face featuring 110 natural fancy black […]
PATH – People Assisting the Homeless – hosted its third annual Making It Home tour, with a sell-out event for 200 guests taking a tour in trolleys of four of our rarefied enclave’s toniest properties and raising around $75,000 for the nonprofit formed four years ago when Casa Esperanza, started in 1998, joined the 35-year-old […]
Actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s 29-year-old author daughter, Katherine, tied the knot with actor Chris Pratt, 39, at the San Ysidro Ranch, where her great uncle John Kennedy and wife, Jackie, honeymooned in 1953, over the weekend. Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner‘s hostelry was under heavy security for the event, with a large […]
Santa Barbara’s University Club allowed the public to have a rare glimpse of the charming property, built in 1880 as a private estate and purchased by the club founders in 1923, for its lavish centennial gala, which welcomed more than 130 guests. “It’s a celebration of not only the club, but the community it’s in, […]
The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County has launched a new logo to reflect its focus on community and education in addition to its mission of providing healthy food for all who need it. As part of a three-year strategic planning process that has been underway with full-staff and board of trustees’ participation since last summer, […]
How ironic that rain impacted on a tournament at the Santa Barbara Polo Club sponsored by a water company. But that was the case when it staged the KOPU Lisle Nixon Memorial match, underwritten by KOPU Sparkling Water, a New Zealand company owned by Montecito twosome Justin and Mindy Mahy. Dire weather predictions meant the […]
Cinephiles were out in force when mayor Cathy Murillo opened the Barbakow Family Center for Film Studies, just a tiara’s toss from the Arlington Theatre. The 3,600 sq. ft. space, formerly the administrative offices of the Granada Theatre, now relocated to the theatre building a block or two down State Street, consists of seven classrooms, […]
Santa Barbara’s second annual hospitality summer games at the Hilton boasted 14 teams, double the number of participants at the first event at the Hotel Californian. The fun-filled event, which included a recycling race, a bed making contest, a server obstacle course, pastry cake wars, a toilet paper toss, and a talent and bike building […]
Hillside House, now rebranded Hillside given the expansion plans for its 280-acre property which has 59 residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities, raised around $100,000 from its 16th annual Sunset Soirée, held for the first time at the Rockwood Woman’s Club, given the death of Tita Lanning, chatelaine of the historic El Mirador estate, where […]
The 23-year-old Gaviota Coast Conservancy went paddling at the El Encanto with its third annual premier benefactors’ reception for 60 supporters of the organization dedicated to preserving the 76 miles of pristine coastline, the longest stretch of undeveloped coastal land remaining in Southern California. The sunset soirée, co-chaired by Joyce Macias and Donna Senaur, also […]
Lindsay Cortina is the new president of The Junior League of Santa Barbara replacing Kielle Horton after a one-year term. Cortina joined the league six years ago and has served in numerous leadership roles. She is also director of organizational initiatives at Sansum Clinic, where she oversees the implementation of strategic projects and programs aimed […]