Esau's Cafe opens tomorrow

BY JOHN DICKSON
WELCOME BACK! We missed you. Continuing a 52 year Santa Barbara tradition the new Esau’s Café is set to reopen Wednesday within the new Paseo Chapala project located at 729 Chapala Street. Scott and Arti Stanley, purveyors of fine food in the south coast area for over 3 decades, will bring the best of their culinary talents to their loyal following of local customers. “We will be serving the same great breakfasts and lunches that have made us famous, but also we will be offering new courses of fine dinner dining,” said owner Scott Stanley. The Stanley’s will continue to operate their existing Esau’s Café restaurant in Carpinteria.

The new facility was designed by local award-winning architect Michael Holliday AIA and features artwork by Carpinteria surfer and artist Rick Sharp. “Unique back-lighting of the traditional oil paintings by Rick Sharp create an illusion of windows to another world and bring a classic Santa Barbara feel to the interiors, which highlight local surf breaks from Rincon to North County,” said Michael Holliday. Both dining rooms at Esau’s Café feature gallery-quality surf photography from an elite list of Santa Barbara’s leading surf photographers including David Pu’u, Scott Price, David Orias, Sean Collins, Nick Alker and others. The ceiling of the new restaurant features select hand-crafted surfboards from local Santa Barbara shapers Al Merrick, Renny Yater, Dave Johnson and others.
Esau’s serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily and will also offer beer & wine. The eatery opens at 6:30 a.m. on weekdays and at 7 a.m. on weekends. Esau’s closes at 10 p.m. except for Friday & Saturday when the doors stay open until 11 p.m. For more information call 965-4416.

TSUNAMI CLOSES: Fans of Montecito’s Tsunami Japanese restaurant, located at 1014 Coast Village Road, tell me that the eatery appears to have packed its belongings and moved on. I stopped by the restaurant during posted business hours, peeked through the window of the locked front door, and could see that the cash registers, liquor storage, TVs and wall art are all gone.

SPRINKLED PINK OPENS: If you are depressed about the closing of Tsunami in Montecito, you can cheer yourself up by eating a tasty cupcake at nearby Sprinkled Pink Cupcake Couture which opened yesterday at 1150 Coast Village Road. Owner Wendy Jones tells me that their signature cupcake is the “Whipper Snapper.” It is a vanilla or chocolate cupcake with a cookie dough center. Store hours are Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call 969-9808 or visit sprinkledpinkcupcakes.com.

PITA INN CLOSES: This one’s for the record books, to be filed in the chapter titled “Shortest-lived Restaurant.” I have been informed that Pita Inn on Santa Claus Lane has closed after 25 days in business. Reader Richard tipped sent me this tip and also tells me that Pita Inn might reopen at a later date. I am told that their sign is off the building and I confirmed that the phone number is disconnected. FYI, the previous record holder was Granada Grill with a lifecycle of approximately 90 days.

COMING SOON: Sources tell me that French restaurant Luck Café at 18 E. Cota Street and Habit restaurant in La Cumbre Plaza will both be opening in about two weeks.

WINE & DINE SOCIAL: Tomorrow, August 27th, visit Spiritland Bistro (230 E. Victoria St) for their monthly wine and food social gathering. Guests bring their own bottle of wine to share (no corkage fee) and receive a four-course organic meal. The focus for the evening will be Viognier / Rousanne / Marsanne and the event will feature winemaker Craig Jaffurs. Cost is $45 which includes tax & tip. For more information call 966-7759 or visit spiritlandbistro.com.

GOURMET CHALLENGE: On Saturday, September 6th, join the Gourmet Challenge benefiting the Lance Armstrong Livestrong Foundation. Start/finish in Santa Ynez Park in the Santa Ynez Valley. The event includes a 5k and 10k run and a full + half metric century bike ride through the Santa Ynez Valley followed by a gourmet luncheon with music and more. $100 donation to participate. For more information call 805-350-0294 or email dsobell@comcast.net.

SKINNY COUNTIES: CNN has published statistics listing the counties in the United States whose population has the lowest average body mass index. The skinniest county is Marin County, CA, followed in order by San Francisco County, CA, Williamson County, TN, Maury County, TN, Boulder County, CO, Douglas County, CO, San Mateo County, CA, Fayette County, GA, and Santa Fe County, NM. All California counties that made the CNN list appear to be from the Bay Area. Sounds like Southern California needs to get back on the tread mill...

John Dickson’s column appears every Tuesday in the Daily Sound. E-mail your restaurant news tips to info@SantaBarbara.com