Tag archives: local business

Meanwhile, deep into homemade pasta we go with Chef Sergio Chierego’s new location for his brand – Pasta Santina, now in Carpinteria, located at 4185 Carpinteria Avenue, #5. Here you can walk in daily and pick up freshly made pasta while serenaded by vinyl spinning on a record player. Suitably laid back.  Chierego is from […]

Autumnal Gifting Enlightenment This Holiday Season Another year gone by! And here comes that truly peaceful December closure – a month-long fare thee well to 2025 as we gather, reminisce, and mark the nourishing passage of time. Expect a light snowfall, Victorian carolers on every street corner in their cozy scarves and mufflers and top […]

Ernie and Emily Vallorano were having coffee on Coast Village Road one afternoon this summer when something across the street stopped them: a for-lease sign. The timing felt uncanny. They had just been talking about opening a brick-and-mortar shop for their decade-old clothing brand, 27 Miles Malibu. On impulse, they crossed the street, called the […]

Richie’s Barber Shop has won first place for the eleventh consecutive year in a row as the Best Barbershop in Santa Barbara according to public voting in the annual Santa Barbara Independent’s poll!  We are definitely Montecito proud on this remarkable but not necessarily surprising win – an award so richly deserved and rooted in […]

Montecito’s Upper Village is about to welcome a new culinary gem: Little Mountain, a refined, ingredient-driven restaurant helmed by acclaimed Chef Diego Moya. Slated to open soon, the restaurant will showcase Moya’s signature wood-fired, seasonal cooking rooted in sustainability and global technique. His diverse culinary journey spans top kitchens from Lima to Paris to New […]

Faherty Montecito, the eclectic clothing store on Coast Village Road that opened in December, is accentuating the negative. It has launched its first photographic exhibition displaying works by local lensman Paul Greene, with 15 of his shots dotted around the shop’s two floors showing keen surfer Greene’s love of the ocean with impressive black and […]

Upon sliding into one of the booths at Clark’s Oyster Bar, I disclosed to co-owner and chef Larry McGuire that I’d never had oysters before. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to try them; I’ve just never gotten around to it. This also seemed like the perfect time to admit to him that I don’t […]

Montecito’s Terry Pillow had more cause than most to quaff Champagne over the New Year when a photo of actress Portia de Rossi appeared in the London Daily Mail carrying one of his popular Homer leather bags at her new Cotswolds estate with wifeEllen DeGeneres. “The phones were ringing off the hook on Coast Village […]

Restaurateur Warner Ebbink and Chef Brandon Boudet didn’t plan on opening another restaurant. As it happened, the pair was focused on a hotel project in Ojai when the opportunity presented itself. But when the coveted building on the corner of Coast Village and Middle Road became available, they knew they had to have it. Even […]

The holiday cards are (hopefully) in the mail and the easy gifts have been checked off, wrapped, and lovingly crammed under the tree. But what to do about those harder-to-gift people in your life? Well, here are some options. Happy hunting.  Books are the gift that keeps giving. A literary favorite can be read until […]

Twin brothers Mike and Alex Faherty, who had long dreamed of launching their own fashion brand, realized their vision in 2013 when they founded Faherty Brand. Now, over a decade later, they’ve opened their 76th store in Montecito – on Coast Village Road, no less. Since the grand opening on Friday, December 6th, store leader […]

Growing up in a household where sweets were off-limits, Margaret (Marley) Van Sicklen, owner of Marley Confections in Montecito, developed somewhat of a sweet tooth. “All my allowance went to candy,” she recalled. Chocolate was her favorite. One bite of Swiss chocolate was all it took for 10-year-old Van Sicklen to fall in love with […]

To the new 449-seat capacity Harbor Restaurant, atop Stearns Wharf, with my trusty shutterbug Priscilla, which opened in September with panoramic views over the Pacific through giant crystal-clear windows. The seafood eatery first opened in 1941 and has undergone an impressive renovation under its new owners, Santa Barbara realtor John Thyne III and wife Olesya, […]

Some years ago, I was at a friend’s dinner party where I had the good fortune to be seated next to the late philanthropist, Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree. At the time, she was 92 and clearly had no intention of slowing down anytime soon. As I was in graduate school studying healthy aging, I used this […]

These godmothers are transforming the bookstore experience with an emphasis on community and a hint of luxury. The longish venture from Montecito to Summerland for the Summerland Block Party last month paid off with interest, as it included a visit to the newly launched Godmothers in the former Garde space. Godmothers is neither an antique […]

Executive Director of the Coast Village Association Beth Sullivan invites everyone to the upcoming Coast Village Week, Saturday, August 3 through Saturday, August 10.  Sullivan mentioned, “After a successful launch of this event in 2023, the Coast Village Association is proud to announce the First Annual ‘Coast Village Week,’ a weeklong celebration that will showcase […]

The 2nd Annual Summerland Businesses Block Party is on Saturday, July 27, from 11 am to 4 pm. Chairing the event are local business leaders Aimee Miller, owner of Home Crush; Marie Ferris, owner of Juniper; Leslie Person Ryan, owner of Farm to Paper and Sweet Wheel Farms; D’Arcy Cornwall, President of Summerland Beautiful; and […]

The boutique store Emily Joubert has now opened in Montecito is located at the Montecito Country Mart. Owner Judy Cottingham-Sieber and her husband Mike Sieber held a private opening for friends on Thursday, July 11, and a public opening July 12. Their first stores are in San Francisco and Woodside, CA. I attended the private […]

The official ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening of Drybar Montecito at 1046 Coast Village Road, Suite J, was held on Wednesday, July 10.  Marking the day official for owner Erin Moone Lazzaro was the special recognition and plaque by the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce Director of Communications Mary Lynn Harms-Romo and […]