A Cup of Teeccino with Caroline by Montecito Journal

Ernie’s White Elephant – It’s the season of giving…

The Giving List

SERVING MONTECITO AND SOUTHERN SANTA BARBARA

Family Service Agency is full of PEARLS, page 24

JOURNAL

Holiday del Herrero – The weather outside is cool but the feelings are warm at Casa del Herrero’s holiday soirée, P.14

at least one gift – and Ernie has the story of how it all began, P.32

21 – 28 DEC 2023 | VOL 29 ISS 51 | www.montecitojournal.net

A Cup of Teeccino • with Caroline

IT’S WARM… IT’S OH SO ROASTY… IT’S CAFFEINE-FREE AND ALL KINDS OF HEALTHY… IT’S TEECCINO. FOUNDER CAROLINE MACDOUGALL SHARES HER STORY AND HOW THE HERBAL BLEND CAME ABOUT (STORY STARTS ON PAGE 5)

County Responds to Nets The ring nets are out but the Santa Barbara County Flood Control District says it has a plan – here it is, page 6

The LOCAL Story

From Wall Street to tech company CEO to restaurateur – Mike Sheldon shares his story and how this LOCAL favorite happened, page 8

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21 – 28 December 2023

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21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

Photography : Spenser Bruce

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Wise – It’s dark, warming, healthy, and can S ociety Invites – A series of holiday soirées 5 Bbeodyfreshly brewed each morning or night… no, it’s 14 happening at Casa del Herrero, SB Rescue not coffee or tea – it’s Teeccino

Mission, and Helena Mason Art Gallery

Voices – The basins are cleared and Thoughts – From bottles to tears, 6 Ctheommunity 16 Bandrilliant County is ready for the rain says SBC Flood most of our bodies – these are the ways that Control District’s Walter Rubalcava

to the Editor – A community member 10 Lhasetters some photos and thoughts on the latest tree lost to the freeway expansion Santa’s Sleigh on E. 54th – Santa and a few local gift givers came to Los Angeles this season to spread some holiday joy Tide Guide

n Entertainment – Chris Shiflett brings 11 Ofriends and the holidays to SOhO, The Irish Tenors’ 25th year touring, and get in line to dance

Your Westmont – Students return with lessons 33 from the climate conference, winter work begins An Evening with Jay Leno – Crowds gathered night with the man himself and the Turner Foundation

22 candlesticks lead their owner to question the Elizabeth’s Appraisals – A pair of silver antique vs. scrap value

The Giving List – Family Service Agency 24 continues its 124 years of help and is now offering PEARLS to the community

Buzz – Beautiful sights and a meal 26 Tofravel Leslie’s (and anyone’s) dreams awaits at Mazatlán

12 system and beyond with this month’s Astronomy 31 wine is… Mexico? While maybe not on the tip 4

store this year Curious Traveler – Get your chef ’s hat on and appetite ready for one of Chef Johnny Vee’s New Mexico cooking classes

water flows through our lives

Journey – From tech CEO to founder 8 AofLOCAL 21 at the Rosewood Miramar to spend the LOCAL, Mike Sheldon details his journey to Montecito and serving up LOCAL fare

World – Learn about the historic ritual 32 Eofrnie’s white elephant giving and what Ernie has in

Our Town – Take a ride through the solar

Petite Wine Traveler – The next hot spot in

on Tap

of the wine world’s tongue. Here’s why.

Montecito JOURNAL

“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” — Percy Bysshe Shelley

at the Dining Commons, and a new book examines Mendelssohn

ar Flung Travel – Deep in the Kalahari, a 35 Fband of meerkats is foraging, chirping, and frolicking around the den

Optimist Daily – Families are gathering for 39 Ttheheholidays and here are some tips for getting the most out of them

Calendar of Events – ZooLights wraps up, 44 feeling sublime at Sullivan Goss, An Irish Christmas, and more

46 Classifieds – Our own “Craigslist” of classified ads ini Meta Crossword Puzzles 47 MLocal Business Directory

21 – 28 December 2023

Body Wise

Teeccino: The Premier Coffee Alternative by Ann Brode

s the days get shorter and the nights get colder, I find myself seeking out a cup of something warm and tasty. This is the perfect way to shift from busy to quiet; from out in the world to indoor cozy. Whether tucking in with a good book or sharing a warm hearth with friends and family, this is one of the perks of this time of year. Delightfully, on a recent chilly afternoon, my daughter invited me to sit down with a cup of her new favorite beverage – Teeccino. Have you heard of it? Teeccino (pronounced tea-chee-no) is the creation of herbal product innovator Caroline MacDougall. Neither tea nor coffee, Teeccino is a delicious coffee-esque drink that’s robust like coffee, caffeine-free like herbal tea, and, when combined with frothy milk, as yummy as a cappuccino. This was Caroline’s intention. Though I’ve known Caroline for many years and respected her as a health advocate and beverage designer, I was curious to know more about how she became CEO of a successful company with 40 employees. So, over breakfast the other morning, we sat together as Caroline recounted her fascinating journey into the world of herbs. Way back when Caroline was in high school working in a health food store, she discovered the books of Juliette de Baïracli Levy, a renowned English herbalist and author noted for pioneering work with Bedouin nomads, indigenous tribes, and gypsies. A few years later, as a fearless young woman traveling to Sudan and Egypt buying herbs for Celestial

Alice Foote MacDougall, “the only woman coffee expert” in the 1920s (courtesy photo)

21 – 28 December 2023

Caroline MacDougall: longtime Santa Barbara resident and Teeccino founder and CEO (courtesy photo)

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Seasoning, Caroline went in search of her inspiration and found Levy living with her herd of goats and Afghan hounds on the Balearic Island of Formentera. Each summer during her annual herb buying trip, Caroline sought out Levy from island to island in the Mediterranean wherever she was. As Caroline explained: “At that time, there were no courses in herbal medicine, so I learned by traveling, seeing where herbs came from, tasting them, studying with Juliette, and reading herbals.” Over the next few years, Caroline continued to follow her passion, growing and blending herbs to create teas, herbal cigarettes, and homeopathic products. You may have encountered some of her tea blends in the collections of Yogi Tea, The Republic of Tea, or Organic India. After being inspired by a dream to create a caffeine-free cappuccino, Caroline began testing various herbal combinations in her kitchen to see if she could find a blend that would deliver the taste satisfaction of cappuccino without the acidity and jitters from coffee. She launched Teeccino a few years later in 1996. Today, it is the number one coffee alternative around the world. From the beginning, Caroline’s mission has been to “bring the health benefits of herbs to everybody’s cup!” It could be said that Caroline’s entrepreneurial interest in plants and brewing warm beverages was in her DNA. You see, her great-grandmother, Alice Foote MacDougall, was in the coffee business in NYC in the early 1900s, back when people would buy green coffee beans at

Body Wise Page 294 294

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Community Voices

SBC Flood Control District has a Plan by Walter Rubalcava

ublic safety is a top priority of the Santa Barbara County Flood Control District. Since 1955, the District’s work has helped protect life and property through channel maintenance and capital improvements throughout the county, including work in cities. Flood Control builds major infrastructure and conducts maintenance from the Santa Maria River on the county’s northern border all the way to the south to the city of Carpinteria, and all areas between. Each community has its unique needs and infrastructure. The Santa Maria Valley, Lompoc area, Eastern Goleta Valley, and city of Santa Barbara have levees, urban channels, storm drain systems, basins, and other protective infrastructure with complex features to control storm flows. These facilities take continuous maintenance, as do the creeks and rivers that the Flood Control District maintains. In addition, the District reviews new developments and operates a hydrological data collection system, including a rain gauge

Montecito JOURNAL

network (https://rain.cosbpw.net), to maintain the countywide flood warning system. Of this infrastructure, Montecito has the highest concentration of debris basins in the county. Eight basins have been built to protect the community, including the recently completed Randall Road debris basin, with an excavated volume of 90,000 cubic yards (nearly 8,000 truckloads). A ninth basin at Buena Vista Creek is in the final phases of design. While these basins take significant resources to clear and maintain due to their volume, the demonstrated protection they provide makes them a valuable asset in flood protection. They are also located on all-weather accessible roadways that allow rapid maintenance and clearing immediately following storms. Protection from flood and debris flow risks is best achieved by a system of channels and basins that can be quickly accessed and where material can be physically removed. In the Montecito area, the District helps maintain the regional creeks – including Montecito, Oak, San Ysidro, and Romero – and the eight District-owned debris basins. The District also works with the

Transportation Division to help maintain a culvert and drainage system network that falls within the public right-of-way. This includes evaluating the basins and creeks and constantly seeking opportunities to improve infrastructure and flood control protection over time. The District has recently completed two basin upgrade projects to improve its operations and increase capacity, with two additional modification projects planned for 2024. With the planned completion of the Buena Vista Creek Basin, the District will have installed two new basins within the last five years. To keep Montecito safer during a 100year flood event (1% probability, any given year) Flood Control recently initiated a study – with support from First District Supervisor Das Williams – as part of our commitment to partnering with the Montecito Community to improve public safety. The District is developing a Flood Mitigation Master Plan that considers the unique sensitivity of Montecito’s steep mountainous terrain coupled with a short distance to the Pacific Ocean, which results in the challenging drainage and debris generation dynamics that this community has experienced. The project aims to determine opportunities and challenges of various improvements and develop the best and most feasible alternatives for improving flood protection for the community. This

plan will guide private and public flood control improvement planning, design, and construction in the community for decades to come. Work on the plan began in early 2023 and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2024. In addition to two town hall meetings held in May and November 2023, there will be another opportunity to provide input at a public hearing in the first few months of 2024. Residents can also learn more and provide input through the project website (www. countyofsb.org/mfcmp) or by contacting District staff by calling (805) 568-3440 or emailing fccontact@countyofsb.org. The Montecito basins are cleared and prepared, and our annual maintenance plan projects are complete for the upcoming rainy season. We are always ready to respond to any unexpected emergency. The goal of the Flood Mitigation Master Plan and implementation is to help our community reduce flooding impacts well into the future. To improve our chances of success, improvements associated with the Master Plan must be effective and accessible to maintain. We look forward to continuing our work with the residents of Montecito to make everyday life as safe and convenient as possible for the public we serve. Walter Rubalcava Santa Barbara County Flood Control District

21 – 28 December 2023

Flowers iver on a

SPECIAL ONE-DAY LECTURE SERIES Contemplating Nature: Flowers, Gardens and Self-Reflection in Chinese Painting Saturday, January 6 | 9:30 am – 5 pm Expert art historians offer detailed glimpses into some of the many facets of the flower-and-bird genre in Chinese painting and reveal how these images of intimate nature can be thresholds to worlds rich with beauty and private emotions. Each talk will be approximately 30 minutes with a Q&A following. Mary Craig Auditorium Free SBMA Members + Students/$20 Non-Members

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This Lecture Series is made possible through the generosity of SBMA Friends of Asian Art and Capital Group, Inc. Oriental Lecture Fund. Yun Bing, Qing dynasty, active first half of the 18th century, female artist, Hundred Flowers (detail), ink and color on silk. Handscroll. Tianjin Museum.

21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

A GASTRONOMIC JOURNEY

BOSSA NOVA BRUNCH SUNDAYS FROM 11:30AM TO 3:00PM

While away your Sunday morning with an exploration of Latin American flavors, craft cocktails and artisanal desserts. Live music and stunning views complete this full sensory experience. A special Bossa Nova Brunch will also be served on New Year’s Day.

A LOCAL Journey

The Path from Tech Entrepreneur to Restaurateur by Jeff Wing

“I

cooked my way through college. I was the cook in our fraternity for a while because our actual cook quit, along with a couple other guys. So I made meals for 50 guys, six days a week. That teaches you how to cook pretty fast.” Not to worry; “Frat House Epicure” does not define the vibe or the menu at Mike Sheldon’s place – the cozy “basement bistro” called LOCAL [1187 Coast Village Road]. And anyway, his culinary leanings evolved – to say the least… “When I left investment banking, my initial thought was to go to cooking school.” Renaissance Man? Restless Pilgrim? Yeah. “I’d enrolled in the French Culinary Institute in New York,” he continues. Mike Sheldon is an enjoyably emphatic guy who speaks the same way he seems to have lived his life: in a carefully articulated hurry. Here he continues his flashback. “I’d been to the institute’s orientation – I mean, I was going! Oh my god…” The guy’s arc has been an unlikely series of such moments, a whirlwind whose unlikely denouement (excuse me) was to deposit our hero onto our lovely Coast Village Road. Think Dorothy’s house in The Wizard of Oz, but without the scary little witches feet poking out. By the time Sheldon realized he wasn’t in Kansas anymore… it was too late. “I found this

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Take a stroll down the staircase and feel welcome at LOCAL (courtesy photo)

Montecito JOURNAL

“Winter collapsed on us that year. It knelt, exhausted, and stayed.” — Emily Fridlund

Mike Sheldon standing at LOCAL’s curved bar that caught his eye (courtesy photo)

spot on Coast Village Road,” he says. “And I literally just sat on the stairs for a while and stared at it. I stared and I stared. And I started thinking about what it could be.”

LOCAL Area Network LOCAL is a gently roaring rendezvous, a conversation pit with a kitchen. Think Renoir’s Bal du Moulin de la Galette, minus the straw hats and petticoats. There is a big round bar, palate-seducing cuisine, and a patio whose feng shui eddies around and embraces the gathered guests as they sip libations and lean into each other in warm fits of laughter. This is LOCAL: a lamplit divot right in the middle of the world’s coziest main street; the suspiciously marvelous Coast Village Road. You descend a staircase to enter LOCAL, which like any respectable meal-and-martini cave is set back and below street level. The place is a self-contained world unto itself down there – an effect reinforced by relaxed cuisine, a heady cocktail, and the company of your pals. LOCAL’s story flows from Mike Sheldon’s story; from his “journey,” to invoke the wandering pilgrim. We all know from public television that the hero’s journey includes taking on

LOCAL Page 304 304

21 – 28 December 2023

J y

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21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

Santa’s Sleigh on E. 54th

Letters to the Editor

Teran Davis’ Mold-Breaking Holiday Mission

In Caltrans We (Don’t) Trust

The end result

by Jeff Wing

Another historic tree being lost to the freeway expansion

ing up the landscape on the edges of the freeway. I wrote a letter questioning many of the positions Caltrans was taking (see “The Road Ahead” Montecito Journal, Letters to the Editor, November 14, 2023). These photos show just how much anyone should trust anything Caltrans says. I’m sure this Morton Bay fig tree was planted around the same time as the fig tree at the Amtrak station, which is a community treasure. Why didn’t Caltrans explain that this 100+ year old tree would also be destroyed while they were making excuses for tearing up all the foliage in the median? Why do they tear these trees down at night? Do they hope we won’t notice? Are they embarrassed about their work? If they’re not, they should be, as should our City Council and any other agency that allowed this debacle to start. Destroy this tree (and so many others) and give us chain link fences. Is that what the residents of Montecito and Santa Barbara wanted? Progress? I don’t think so… Larry Grassini

Teran Davis with husband Rand Rosenberg (courtesy photo)

through speakers. In the middle of the racket – a portly, elf in garish red velveteen is waving at gathered neighbors as Davis and her festive cadre of gift givers hand out wrapped surprises. “We served 1,500 families this year,” Davis says of the now-annual outreach. Toys, bikes, turkeys. What were Davis’ feelings the very first time she and her team visited the neighborhoods? “It was the most beautiful day of my life.”

JOURNAL

hen you wrote the article about Caltrans tearing down the iconic trees in the Montecito median in order to expand the freeway, one of their excuses was that it would allow them to limit tear-

eran Davis is one of those people. While the rest of us are gauzily imagining the summit over sips of cabernet, Davis is kneeling in a blizzard and hammering in her tent stakes at base camp. With a grin. “I just believe in saying ‘Yes’ in life,” she delicately explains. “A few years ago, I was having about 200 women to the Los Angeles Country Club. I sent out an email 24 hours before my tea party and I said, ‘Please don’t bring me a gift. Just bring me an unwrapped children’s toy.’ I saw that a charity was working in Los Angeles at the Barker Hangar, and I thought, ‘I’m just going to drive over there on this Saturday morning and see if they want toys.’” They did. Fast forward. Santa’s “sleigh” is tooling down E. 54th Street in Los Angeles amid a flotilla of LAPD squad cars from Newton Station, Christmas tunes blaring

Executive Editor/CEO | G wyn Lurie gwyn@montecitojournal.net President/COO | Timothy Lennon Buckley tim@montecitojournal.net VP, Sales & Marketing | Leanne Wood leanne@montecitojournal.net Managing Editor | Zach Rosen, zach@montecitojournal.net Art/Production Director | Trent Watanabe Administration | Jessikah Fechner Administrative Assistant | Valerie Alva Graphic Design/Layout | Stevie Acuña MoJo Contributing Editor | Christopher Matteo Connor Account Managers | Sue Brooks, Tanis Nelson, Elizabeth Scott, Bryce Eller Contributing Editor | Kelly Mahan Herrick Copy Editor | Lily Buckley Harbin, Jeff Wing Proofreading | Helen Buckley Arts and Entertainment | Steven Libowitz

Santa and the team passing out gifts (courtesy photo)

MONTECITO TIDE GUIDE Day

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“Winter is not a season, it’s a celebration.” — Anamika Mishra

Contributors | Scott Craig, Ashleigh Brilliant, Kim Crail, Tom Farr, Chuck Graham, Stella Haffner, Mark Ashton Hunt, Dalina Michaels, Robert Bernstein, Christina Atchison, Leslie Zemeckis, Sigrid Toye, Jamie Knee, Elizabeth Stewart, Amélie Dieux, Houghton Hyatt Gossip | Richard Mineards History | Hattie Beresford Humor | Ernie Witham Our Town/Society | Joanne A Calitri Travel | Jerry Dunn, Leslie Westbrook Food & Wine | Claudia Schou, Melissa Petitto, Gabe Saglie Published by: Montecito Journal Media Group, LLC Montecito Journal is compiled, compounded, calibrated, cogitated over, and coughed up every Wednesday by an exacting agglomeration of excitable (and often exemplary) expert edifiers at 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite G, Montecito, CA 93108. How to reach us: (805) 565-1860; FAX: (805) 969-6654; Montecito Journal, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite G, Montecito, CA 93108; EMAIL: tim@montecitojournal.net

21 – 28 December 2023

On Entertainment Back in the Saddle: Shiflett Returns to SOhO by Steven Libowitz

uitarist Chris Shiflett grew up on Santa Barbara’s Eastside just a short walk from the Santa Barbara Bowl, the local amphitheater he would eventually play with as the lead guitarist in Foo Fighters. But back in the ‘70s and ‘80s it was the bar scene and house parties for Shiflett, who went to the junior high and high schools that were right down the street, then skipped town to play in the Bay Area punk band No Use for a Name and others before enlisting in the Fighters back in 1999. Now, he’s become something of a regular in town once again, and not just with the Foo, who did a short-notice gig at the Bowl in September on the heels of a 15th Grammy Award. Rather, Shiflett has set up annual dates at SOhO for his “Hometown Holiday Hoedown,” a night for him to showcase his country-inflected solo material and hang with some old buddies and musical colleagues. We caught up with Shiflett via phone from his L.A. home over the weekend. Q. How did growing up in Santa Barbara influence your music, your approach, and your sound? A. When I first started playing guitar in bands in junior high and high school in the ‘80s, there was just a great music scene. There were lots of places to play, all these bars around town and parties, and bands that played funk, rock, and heavy metal and thrash metal, what they called ‘college rock.’ It seemed like everybody I was friends with had a band. Santa Barbara isn’t that big of a town, so all the bands would play

On Entertainment Page 374 374

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n Thursday, December 14, the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) team held its “Astronomy on Tap” meeting at M. Special on State Street. These events are an all ages and pet friendly info session on current astronomy science and news. The LCO team has raffle tickets that support the event with winners getting the coveted LCO beer glasses, and other goodies, along with t-shirts and posters available for purchase – organized by Sandy Seale PhD, LCO’s Director of Development. Attendees included LCO Director Dr. Lisa Storrie-Lombardi, with her husband, astrobiologist Michael Storrie-Lombardi, astroscientists who have been covered in the MJ by me; Tim Lister PhD on the DART Mission team and who was recently awarded with a Minor Planet named in his honor for his work [ref: MJ July 25, 2023]; and Rachel Street PhD [ref: MJ September 21, 2021], who continues her work with the Rubin Observatory team to get it up and ready for recording data accurately. Lister shared that the DART mission has been completed and he has submitted an application for a grant from NASA to work with the European Space team on the continuance of the project. Street added that Rubin should be up by 2025. The Astro on Tap program that evening started with its newest post-doctoral fellow Katarzyna Kruszyńska, who is on Street’s team. Her research focus is gravitational microlensing events, searching

“Summer is for surrendering; winter is for wondering.” — Debasish Mridha

for solitary black holes and exoplanets, working with Gaia data, and preparing for Rubin Observatory’s launch. She is from Warsaw, Poland, and her interests include drawing comics and fashion. Kruszyńska presented “Gaia: 10 years of Observing the Galaxy in Motion.” Her key talking points were how stars are measured in terms of their distance from Earth, their compositional elements, and their age and evolution. She traced the history of how such measurements were ascertained including the Cosmic Distance Ladder, levels of brightness, and tracking movement. She traced concepts from Hipparchus in 190 BC discovering the Earth wobbles to Tycho Brahe’s precise measuring (within one to two minutes) of the arc for the positions and movements of the planets, acknowledging Thomas Henderson of South Africa in 1832-1833 for the first successful stellar parallax measurements. The lead Gaia scientists were Lennart Lindegren and Michael Perryman, who in 1993 proposed the use of CCDs and mirrors for telescope observations. They worked for the European Space Agency’s Gaia project, a space telescope designed to measure the positions of billions of stars with unprecedented precision. It launched on December 19, 2013, and is located at the L2 Lagrange point. The James Webb telescope will not be located precisely at L2, but will move in a halo orbit around L2 as it orbits the Sun. Gaia tracks the distance and movement of one billion stars in the Milky Way

Our Town Page 434 434

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*DOLLAR VOLUME IN THE SANTA BARBARA MLS. +DOLLAR VOLUME PER REALTRENDS ACROSS ALL BROKERAGES. 21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

Society Invites

Susan Palmer, Debbie Jones, Joan Jackson, Palmer Jackson Jr., and Meghan Stoll (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

Casa del Herrero Holiday Soirée with a Capital Announcement Casa del Herrero Trustees: Marc Gelinas, Elizabeth McGovern, Carolyn Williams, Heather Biles, Meghan Stoll, Beth Esrey, Mari McAlister, and Gary Bradhering (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

by Joanne A Calitri

he much looked forward to Casa del Herrero “Home for the Holidays” evening was held at the organization’s rare jewel outdoor area – its Spanish Patio and Blue and White Garden off the formal living room – on Saturday, December 9. The 150 guests were treated to the blissful Spanish guitar of Chris Fossek, while they were served famous-

ly fabulous champagne, wines, canapés, desserts, and the curated cocktail called Spanish Tile Spritz – vodka, club soda, ginger, cranberry juice, and orange juice. The evening featured a tribute to Meghan Stoll for her years of generous support and leadership. Stoll served as past president and member of the Board of Trustees. Board of Trustees President Heather Biles honored Stoll in her event speech and presented her with a wonderful bronze statue. Biles stated, “One of the

Casa’s loveliest traditions of this annual holiday celebration is to recognize an individual in our community for their exemplary support of the Casa del Herrero. Tonight, we honor Meghan Stoll, for her incredible generosity, leadership, and enthusiastic support of the Casa. Meghan has had her hands in every part of the Casa, as a volunteer, as a committee member, serving as Vice President, Board President, and board member for six years. Meghan has tirelessly recruited friends and family to get involved at the Casa. In fact, many of the guests in attendance are here as a result of Meghan’s encouragement! We are so grateful to Meghan for all that she has done and continues to do for Casa del Herrero.”

Society Page 424 424

Andrew Doran and Rosie Rafferty (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

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When we were looking for a bank to finance building our hotel, American Riviera stepped up for us. —HARRY & GRACE KAZALI, LA PLAYA INN

21 – 28 December 2023

THE FINEST MONTECITO & SANTA BARBARA HOMES

HAPPY HOLIDAYS WISHING YOU A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON

CHARMING AND PRIVATE BEACHSIDE RETREAT IN MONTECITO 64 OLIVE MILL ROAD, MONTECITO CA | 3 BEDS | 2.5 BATHS | OFFERED AT $2,995,000

I Love Where I Live. Love What I Do. Sell What I Love. #1 BHHS AGENT LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY*

CRISTAL CLARKE | MONTECITO-ESTATE.COM | 805.886.9378 | CRISTAL@MONTECITO-ESTATE.COM | DRE 00968247 ©2023 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHHS and the BHHS symbol are registered service marks of Columbia Insurance Company, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. Buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information. *Individual agent by sales volume in 2022 for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

Brilliant Thoughts Water Works by Ashleigh Brilliant

have always been surprised by how many people are willing to pay for bottled water when perfectly drinkable water, certified by local inspectors, is available from their own home faucets (which of course they already pay for as a public utility). Somehow, a very good selling job has been done by the bottled water industry to persuade everyone that regular tap water is not as safe, healthy, or good tasting as the kind you get in a plastic bottle. You probably know that a large percentage of you and me is water, plus the whole surface of the Earth. Too bad the rest of the solar system isn’t as lucky. And all it takes is a certain combination of two of the most abundant elements in the universe – hydrogen and oxygen. The bottling industry does harm in other ways. Consider the wastefulness of energy involved in the manufacture, transportation, and disposal (even the recycling) of millions of these containers. I’m convinced that if ordinary AIR could be packaged and sold, and cleverly marketed, there would be no shortage of customers. But it must be because water is so much a part of us, and so essential to us, that we are attracted to it in so many ways. I am thinking particularly of landscapes and waterfalls. Great falls like Niagara charm and thrill millions of visitors. What is it about falling water that entrances us? I can only suggest that the answer may involve our perception of constant dynamic motion. Waterfalls don’t turn off at night. You can hear and feel the power of Nature at her grandest. Unfortunately for world peace and harmony, water as a resource is not equally or evenly distributed, and even where it’s readily available, it may not be readily drinkable, or even usable for other purposes, because of various impurities it may contain. Some countries depend on other countries for at least part of their water supply. The

Danube River flows through, or alongside, 10 different countries – and you can guess how many different wars and disputes this has provoked. But it also forms the border between certain countries. I have travelled the last part of its course – from Budapest to the Black Sea – and one section which particularly impressed me was where it forms the border between Romania and Bulgaria. Visiting both sides, I was amazed to find not only two different countries, but two languages, and two alphabets! (Romanian is a Latin-derived language, like French and Spanish, with the familiar “Roman” alphabet. Bulgarian has its origins in Greek, and uses the “Cyrillic” alphabet.) That’s what a little water can do. One country with its own very special water problems is the State of Israel. Because of hostile or unreliable neighbors, which might otherwise be a primary water source, the Israelis have been forced to develop other sources, which may involve purification of polluted water, desalination of sea water, and pipes and tunnels for redistributing the supply. Thus, the small settlement of Eilat at the southern tip of the country, on the Red Sea, with the Negev Desert between it and the more populated areas, receives water from what is now the reservoir known as the Sea of Galilee at the northern end. But of course, the age-old importance of wells and waterholes in that region is now well known, being referred to in numerous Old and New Testament passages. Water was a vital necessity, long before it was miraculously turned into wine. Much closer to home, Southern California has attracted large numbers of settlers, mainly because of its year-round climatic advantages. But in terms of available water, it is mostly a desert. Not until an engineer named Mulholland built a system involving 264 tunnels to bring water from 233 miles away (inaugurated in 1913) was Los Angeles able to grow into the largest city in California. But, coming back to ourselves – we not only largely consist of water, but we also excrete it in various forms. Winston Churchill, upon becoming Britain’s Prime Minister in 1940, said that, besides blood and toil he had nothing to offer but “tears, and sweat.” People didn’t Ashleigh Brilliant born take that literally – but the Romans did England 1933, came to – and in many Roman tombs have been California in 1955, to Santa found “lachrymal” containers which Barbara in 1973, to the originally held the tears of mourners. Montecito Journal in 2016. Nowadays tears are as likely, or unlikeBest-known for his illustrated ly, to be shed by a whole country as by epigrams, called “Pot-Shots,” any specific person – a phenomenon now a series of 10,000. observed in at least one celebrated song, email: ashleigh@west. net. web: www.ash leighbrilliant.com.

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21 – 28 December 2023

New Year’s Eve Champagne and Caviar Prix Fixe Menu White Truffle Custard House Made Crème Fraiche, Alba White Truffle, Chives Calvisius Tradition Elite Caviar Ranch Citrus Cured Arctic Char Tokyo Turnips, Radish, Pixie Tangerine, Yuzu Vinaigrette Imperia Steel Head Trout Roe Caviar New Zealand John Dory Celery Root, Granny Smith Apple, Mussels, Bloomsdale Spinach, Apple Cider Emulsion Ars Italica Sevruga Caviar Santa Barbara Spiny Lobster Star Anise and Local Uni Nage, Melted Leeks, Brioche Ars Italica Oscietra Classic Caviar Seared Breast of Poussin Flambéed Tableside Leg Confit, Carnaroli Risotto, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Natural Jus Calvisius Caviar Lingotto Japanese Kobe A5 Striploin Roasted Maitake Mushroom, Napa Cabbage, Mustard Seed, Dashi Consommé Calvisius Siberian Royal Caviar Hazelnut Croquant Candied Kumquat Tuille, Winter Citrus Guimauve, Meyer Lemon Sorbet 24k Caviar Champagne Toast Dom Perignon Brut, 2009, served from Methusaleh

First Seating: 5-6pm Five Course Menu: $325 Champagne Pairing: $210

Second Seating : 8-9pm Seven Course Menu: $425 Champagne Pairing: $250

San Ysidro Ranch 21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

W i shi n g You A ll A H ea l t hy , J oy F i l l ed , A nd Prosp e rous New Y ear! Thank you to all our wonderful clients for another great year in Real Estate. The team that gives back to their cherished community ever y day of the week through their non-profit, Adam’s Angels.

Adam & Company Committed to serving our Clients & Community

Successfully Representing Buyers and Sellers on the South Coast for Over 25 Years ADAM MCKAIG

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KIP GLOVER

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MIKE HERBERT

Estates & Ranch Director

Estates Specialist

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The Next Move Is Yours 150 EL CAMINO DRIVE, BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90212. 310.595.3888 © 2023 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED HEREIN IS INTENDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE, THIS INFORMATION IS BELIEVED TO BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, ROOM COUNT, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN PROPERTY LISTINGS SHOULD BE VERIFIED BY YOUR OWN ATTORNEY, ARCHITECT OR ZONING EXPERT. IF YOUR PROPERTY IS CURRENTLY LISTED WITH ANOTHER REAL ESTATE BROKER, PLEASE DISREGARD THIS OFFER. IT IS NOT OUR INTENTION TO SOLICIT THE OFFERINGS OF OTHER REAL ESTATE BROKERS. WE COOPERATE WITH THEM FULLY. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.

18 Montecito JOURNAL

21 – 28 December 2023

Just Listed! Ocean & SY Valley Views 2 3 81 R E F U G I O R OA D | G O L E TA , C A 93 1 1 7

The Historic 1446 Acre Rancho Dos Vistas

Offered at $11,998,000 ‘’Rancho Dos Vistas,’’ meaning two views, was derived from its panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean on one side and its eternal view of the Santa Ynez Valley and beyond on the other. It’s no

wonder that late President Ronald Reagan chose the r anch adjacent to ‘’Rancho Dos Vistas’ ’ to be his coveted ‘’Wester n White House’ ’ while he was in office . Its beautifully appointed ocean view main house of three bedrooms and three bathrooms, has been meticulously renovated to har monize with the r anch style of the home . Newly added wooden bar n looks as though it has sat in the same place for over a hundred year s, fr amed by Majestic Oak Trees, next to the meadow. Offer ing includes four parcels equaling 1,446 acres of natur al beauty. This is an extremely r are offer ing, with near ly two miles of r idgeline and for ty miles of roads meander ing through untouched scener y, which r ival Califor nia’s National Par ks. Possibilities are endless- hiking, fishing, mountain biking, hor seback r iding, or just escaping the hustle and bustle of urban civilization.

Successfully Representing Buyers and Sellers on the South Coast for Over 25 Years ADAM MCKAIG

JOSH ALTMAN

Estates & Ranch Director

The Altman Brothers

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Douglas Elliman R

150 EL CAMINO DRIVE, BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90212. 310.595.3888 © 2023 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED HEREIN IS INTENDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE, THIS INFORMATION IS BELIEVED TO BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, ROOM COUNT, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN PROPERTY LISTINGS SHOULD BE VERIFIED BY YOUR OWN ATTORNEY, ARCHITECT OR ZONING EXPERT. IF YOUR PROPERTY IS CURRENTLY LISTED WITH ANOTHER REAL ESTATE BROKER, PLEASE DISREGARD THIS OFFER. IT IS NOT OUR INTENTION TO SOLICIT THE OFFERINGS OF OTHER REAL ESTATE BROKERS. WE COOPERATE WITH THEM FULLY. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.

21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS! 8 4 5 W O O D L A N D D R | S A N TA B A R BA R A 93 1 0 8

Tranquility & Convenience

Offered at $3,495,000 Nestled on a quiet street, near Montecito’s Upper and Lower Villages , sits 845 Woodland Dr ive .

Fr amed by tall hedges, this proper ty offer s a circular dr iveway, anchored by a beautiful mature Pepper tree , multiple places for outdoor enter taining with ample off street par king, pr ivacy and a convenient location close to shopping, golf, and wor ld class beaches! Built in 1957, this four bedroom, three bath home offer s freshly restored wooden floor s, newly painted exter ior and inter ior and a ver y pr actical floor plan. Pr imar y bedroom and two additional bedrooms sit at the East side of the house - giving perfect sunlight and war mth to star t your day. An additional bedroom and office on the West side of the house , adjacent to the lar ge back patio and deck share the setting of the sun. The living room, lar ge enough to place your gr and piano in, offer s a sur plus of natur al light and envelops ever y possible place in this Califor nia Ranch Style home . A few additional offer ings include: dog r un, beamed ceilings, laundr y room, bonus room, and a spacious manicured yard set on approximately a half acre of land. This beauty is ready for its new owner.

Successfully Representing Buyers and Sellers on the South Coast for Over 25 Years ADAM MCKAIG

MELISSA BORDERS

Estates & Ranch Director

Estates Specialist

Adam.McKaig@Elliman.com

Melissa.Borders@Elliman.com

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Direct: 805.452.6884

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Douglas Elliman R

20 Montecito JOURNAL

“I write probably 80 percent of my stuff over the winter.” — Bob Seger

21 – 28 December 2023

An Evening with Jay Leno Turner Foundation Turns 65

BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED PROFESSIONALLY INSTALLED Turner Foundation President/CEO Dean Wilson, Jay Leno, and Turner Foundation Director of Operations Donnie Feller (photo by Priscilla) License # 785983

by Jamie Knee

n Thursday, December 14, it was a memorable evening in Montecito. The Rosewood Miramar Beach Hotel turned into a radiant stage, hosting an unforgettable event – An Evening with Jay Leno: A Celebration of the Turner Foundation’s 65 Years of Service. The gala commenced with a welcome and introductions by John Davies, whose words ushered in the evening’s aura of camaraderie and goodwill. Following Davies’ warm introduction, Turner Foundation President & CEO Dean Wilson took the stage, not merely to speak but to weave together a tapestry of inspiring sentiments. His opening remarks were the catalyst that

ignited the collective spirit, setting the foundation for an extraordinary night of purpose and generosity. The highlight? None other than Jay Leno, who effortlessly captivated the audience with his trademark humor. Next, Wilson steered a delightful Q&A session with Leno, and R&B musician Brandon Watts serenaded the crowd throughout the evening. His rendition of the National Anthem earned a well-deserved standing ovation. The event was sponsored by influential entities like Farmers & Merchants Bank, Bottenfield Construction, and Bunnin Chevrolet, along with local luminaries. Amid the laughter and entertainment, it was the attendees’ generosity that stole the spotlight. A Candlelight Soirée

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Jay Leno Page 364 364

Make a difference for our neighbors in need. Donate today! To donate, scan the QR code or visit SBFoundation.org/Give-Now Turner Foundation staff with Jay Leno (photo by Priscilla)

21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

Elizabeth’s Appraisals Shreve & Co. by Elizabeth Stewart

traight from Butterfly Lane, I have a question from a reader about a pair of candlesticks: PJ says he wants to sell the sticks you see in his photo, as they are not his wife’s taste, and have been inherited by him from someone to whom he had little connection. They are of significant weight and heft, as he also writes to me, and he knows, as he has also written to me, that the silver price today is at $23.83 per troy ounce. PJ wants to know how the resale market works in regard to selling a true fine antique piece of silver versus melting down. Because these sticks weigh so much, as he says in his email, PJ is thinking to sell them to a scrap dealer – to make a large profit! His question: what is the relationship of the smelt or scrap versus the antique value? Weighing the candlesticks and multiplying this number by the “spot” price has resulted in PJ’s estimate of value. He

These Shreve & Co. candlesticks were inherited by reader PJ

is aware that pawn brokers, coin dealers, online smelters, and bullion companies, all buy to melt down. But he has not

considered the base material of the candlesticks: they are “weighted,” as we will see, by a material that makes them heavy – but is not sterling. Here is the challenge: Is the value of the antique piece of silver worth more than the scrap value? The candlesticks are not solid silver, so if you weigh them, you will be more than likely weighing the Plaster of Paris used to form the weight of the candlesticks. I asked if PJ could send me the markings on the base, because unless these sticks are sterling, they are not worth selling. Silver plate is hard to sell. I have advised him to look for the British sterling markings, which are four “touches” (stamps) that include a lion, or, if American, to look for “sterling” which may be stamped on the piece, or ‘.925’ stamped (which means the piece is sterling silver at 92.5% pure silver over a base metal which is often nickel or copper). If you are in a similar quandary, email me and ask if the value of the piece is worth MORE as an antique than the value of silver in the scrap market. This scrap value changes daily! Now let us do a test case for JP’s candlesticks: they are stamped on the bottom ‘Shreve & Co., San Francisco,’ and also stamped ‘weighted.’ These

pair date, judging by the design of the candlesticks, from the early 20th century, manufactured for Shreve & Company and originally sold in the Shreve & Company jewelry store in San Francisco. Shreve & Company was known for their great designs, especially in tableware, and was unique because they were designing for patrons on the West Coast. Founder George Shreve (1828-1893) and his nephew Samuel sailed for San Francisco at the height of the California Gold Rush, and upon their arrival in San Francisco, they established a jewelry shop, the first major jewelry concern on the West Coast, Shreve Jewelry Company on the corner of Montgomery and Clay streets. The company was connected with its Gold Rush roots, having been commissioned to design a 10-inch-tall solid gold Teddy Bear as a gift by the citizens of San Francisco for Teddy Roosevelt. Samuel, the nephew, died shortly after the establishment of the concern, and George then led the concern: when these sticks were purchased, the shop was located at 150 Post Street at Grant Avenue in San Francisco. I have no doubt the family travelled from Riven

Elizabeth’s Appraisals Page 384 384

Richard Schloss

Padaro Beach

oil on canvas

16x36

Santa Barbara Fine Art

1321 State St. (next to the Arlington Theater)

www.santabarbarafineart.com

22 Montecito JOURNAL

(805) 845-4270

“Winter’s notion of poetry is tragedy. It knows nothing of comedy. Its laughter was frozen on its lips long ago.” — William A. Quayle

21 – 28 December 2023

HOME IS OUR FAVORITE DESTINATION

595 Picacho Ln | Montecito | 7BD/11BA DRE 01447045 | Offered at $33,000,000 Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600

2101 Mountain Ave | Santa Barbara | 6BD/6BA DRE 00978392 | Offered at $3,895,000 Sener Jones Associates 805.969.8900

2779/77/73 Padaro Ln | Carpinteria | 5BD/11BA DRE 01447045 | Offered at $80,000,000 Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600

3055 Padaro Ln | Carpinteria | 4BD/7BA DRE 01447045 | Offered at $63,000,000 Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600

13800 US Highway 101 | Goleta | 4BD/5BA DRE 01447045 | Offered at $45,000,000 Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600

875 & 885 Park Ln | Montecito | 10BD/14BA DRE 01447045 | Offered at $43,500,000 Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600

1104 Channel Dr | Montecito | 5BD/10BA DRE 01447045 | Offered at $38,500,000 Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600

89 Hollister Ranch Rd | Santa Barbara | 5BD/6BA DRE 01397913 | Offered at $33,000,000 Emily Kellenberger 805.252.2773

13600 Calle Real | Santa Barbara | 6BD/10BA DRE 01447045 | Offered at $25,000,000 Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600

777 Romero Canyon Rd | Santa Barbara | 6BD/5BA DRE 01806890 | Offered at $25,000,000 Doré & O'Neill Real Estate Team 805.947.0608

303 Meadowbrook Dr | Montecito | 5BD/7BA DRE 01402612 | Offered at $10,200,000 Marcy Bazzani 805.717.0450

767 Las Palmas Dr | Santa Barbara | 5BD/6BA DRE 01509445/02003319 | Offered at $8,995,000 Gilles/Sanchez 805.895.1877

20 Camino Alto | Santa Barbara | 4BD/5BA DRE 02082960 | Offered at $7,499,000 Elizabeth Slifirski 805.222.0147

4199 Tims Rd | Santa Ynez | 5BD/5BA DRE 01921235 | Offered at $7,490,000 Michelle Glaus 805.452.0446

108 Pierpont Ave | Summerland | Commercial Property DRE 00780607 | Offered at $6,950,000 John Henderson 805.689.1066

2610 Roundup Rd | Santa Ynez | 3BD/3BA DRE 00753349 | Offered at $6,900,000 Carey Kendall 805.689.6262

1120 Via Del Rey | Santa Barbara | 4BD/4BA DRE 00947199 | Offered at $5,200,000 Dianne and Brianna Johnson 805.455.6570

1270 Poppy Valley Rd | Buellton | 3BD/3BA DRE 01897654 | Offered at $3,950,000 David McIntire 805.315.8444

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21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

The Giving List Family Service Agency by Steven Libowitz

eniors experiencing depression or related mental health challenges have a new resource to help them retain their independence and improve quality of life thanks to a recently-launched program from Family Service Agency (FSA). PEARLS – an acronym for the Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives – utilizes an evidence-based approach to reduce symptoms of depression through active problem solving. Modeled after a health promotion program developed by the University of Washington, PEARLS pairs participants with a professional coach who teaches core skills for solving practical problems during six to eight sessions conducted over the course of four or five months. Particularly valuable for older adults who may not find other mental health programs to be a good fit, the PEARLS sessions take place in the older adult’s home or at a community-based setting that is more accessible and comfortable, although the dynamic program also allows for coordination with a participant’s current health care providers where appropriate. Empowering, education, and connection is at the core. “We know that when people age, there are many changes they experience – their own physical health, losing friends or family members, dealing with retirement. But there’s not a lot of help out there about how to adjust,” explained Lisa Brabo, FSA’s CEO. “It’s a lot to deal with and studies are showing that there’s a big increase in anxiety and depression, and also, most tragically, in suicide attempts. Getting older is as hard a job as being a parent, and it’s normal to need help.” With the PEARLS program’s time-tested

Family Service Agency has been assisting the community for nearly 125 years

effective methods, mental wellness can be vastly improved with a “lesser intervention” that doesn’t require therapy, Brabo said. “It helps address the needs before they get to the therapeutic level, helping people to adjust to these changes in their lives, and figure out ways that they can make changes in their own life so that they feel more comfortable with what’s happening,” she said. “That could be their activity level and exercise, or something to do with socialization and increasing social engagement. The PEARLS program addresses those things that can help us to feel calmer, more balanced, and have a clearer understanding of what the components are so that we can be okay moving forward, even as changes continue in our lives.” The PEARLS program is free to all Santa Barbara County residents through a grant from the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (MHSOAC) for a pilot program that began in October. But it’s not only seniors that need support with mental health services. The escalation was clearly identified in Cottage Hospital’s 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), which identified sev-

Experience

eral areas regarding anxiety, depression, mental illnesses, and disorders. The CHNA also found Latino residents, people with low incomes, and those with less education suffer the most from health disparities. And virtually everyone can feel overwhelmed trying to negotiate through all the avenues, agencies, and providers in the sector to find whatever help they need. That’s why FSA concurrently created its new Mental Health Navigator program to help people cut through the maze and get the support they need. The program, which also began in October through a grant from the Woman’s Fund, provides assistance to assist those in need in accessing mental health services. “Quite simply, we don’t have enough therapists in the county to meet the need and many organizations and individual private therapists have long waiting lists,” Brabo said. “The Navigator works oneon-one with people to see where they are at, what they’ve done so far to access services, and then helps with additional steps that they can take. We help by compiling what resources are available, including with our own staff. We might know of an agency or an individual that’s really a good fit for their needs or perhaps has a shorter waiting time, and then we go over the details of what needs to be done. Help them place a phone call or fill out the paperwork so that their next step is successful in having access to therapy, and even overcome barriers such as transportation or childcare. We’re always trying to find a way to work it out.” Sometimes the stressor is actually a basic needs issue – food for the family, clothing for the kids – which FSA then can address directly by forwarding the client to the organization’s own services or with many of its nonprofit partners. “We’re really assessing the needs across the board, and then work to get them stabilized so they can carry on with their lives,” Brabo said. PEARLS and the Navigator are recent additions to FSA’s long history that reflects

both the changing philosophies of social service work over the past century and the evolving needs of Santa Barbara County’s population. When the Great Depression of the 1930s threw thousands out of work, the Agency responded with several employment programs. When the disastrous Painted Cave Fire destroyed over 500 homes in 1990, FSA was there to help find housing for the displaced and to counsel traumatized victims. And in the pandemic, FSA responded with a whole host of services. Santa Barbara has a proud history of aiding the less-fortunate members of the community and Family Service Agency has played a major role in that heritage. FSA lends a helping hand when necessary, providing solutions to immediate needs, but the agency has never been solely about charity. Education is at the core of its myriad programs, and the organization works to instruct and enable people to help themselves, providing essential tools for increased long-term self-sufficiency. Nowadays, through its wide array of programs over seven locations throughout the county, Family Service Agency annually provides services to more than 25,000, and in the calendar year 2022 topped 26,000, with 80 percent of services delivered on school campuses, at community centers, or in clients’ homes. Looking forward, the organization will celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2024, another milestone in its many years of service to the community and commitment to continuing to evolve and expand its programs, and demonstrating its continued relevance and effectiveness in meeting community needs. Visit fsacares.org for more information about FSA, to research and inquire about services, or to make a year-end gift or any other type of donation to support the organization’s new programs as well as its many successful existing ones. Family Service Agency https://fsacares.org (805) 965-1001

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How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall Feb 1

Renée Fleming in Recital 7 PM / Granada Theatre Feb 22

Apr 26

Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Deep River 8 PM / Granada Theatre

Taj Mahal Quartet and Sona Jobarteh 8 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall

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Apr 23

Rhiannon Giddens, You’re the One 8 PM / The Granada Theatre

Montecito JOURNAL

Travel Buzz

Mazatlán, Mexico: Part One Land of the Deer and a Meal of My Dreams Chef Daniel Bernal Vega brings his regional fare to Atol in Mazatlán (photo by Leslie Westbrook)

by Leslie Westbrook

ettled in 1531, historic Mazatlán’s nicknames include “Pacific Pearl” and “Fish Land.” But the beautiful name is actually Nahuatl (an indigenous language still spoken by 1.5 million people today) for “place of the deer.” On our flight’s landing approach to Mazatlán, the plane traveled south of the city before circling back around to land, revealing stunning geography. The maze of inlets, few patterns of civilization, and verdant agricultural land made it easy to imagine how deer once roamed here. I exited the sold-out flight and stepped out onto the stairs and tarmac, where I was immediately embraced by the warm, humid afternoon air and familiar aroma of Mexico. I arrived in Mazatlán at 1 pm – a city I knew little about – to experience Day of the Dead and All Souls Day in this Pacific coastal city of some half a million people in the state of Sinaloa. Yes, that state. A name that is well-known to anyone who watches the news thanks to the Sinaloa cartel. However, all was tranquillo – plus everyone’s luggage arrived in baggage claim faster than anyone could remember. I’d landed safely and I had a list of things I wanted to do, including a first meal somewhere really, really good.

My list also included a visit to the opera house, a local cemetery, as well as the new aquarium, and museum of art. As a result of Germans who settled here, banda (loud oompah-pah Mexican music mostly made up of brass wind instruments and percussion) is native to the region (German immigrants also founded Pacifico beer). Don’t be surprised to come across such a band striking up on the beach at sunset – or in the historic main square or zocalo. A friend had emailed me before I left: “Maybe you will meet the man of your dreams – or have the meal of your dreams.” I decided to kick off my visit with a late Sunday lunch at Atol, a restaurant with a five-star rating on Yelp. I’d aim for at least one of my friend’s good wishes! The hotel driver met me at the airport and transferred myself and other guests in an airconditioned van to our hotel set on the beach – Pueblo Bonito Mazatlán. I raced to my room, admired the gorgeous view of the sea fringed by palm trees from the third-floor patio, and dashed back downstairs to meet a friend to hail one of the local souped-up golf carts called a “pulmonia” (invented here) for our open-air ride along the Malecón to make our 3 pm reservation at Atol. On our open-air ride, I was immediately smitten with seaside Mazatlán. Despite the city being a “Level 4” on the State Department watchlist of places not to visit, and a popular cruise ship stop, the ride revealed a beachside region that was a delightful mix of charming and tacky. I passed gritty, pretty, historic, colorful, drab, falling apart, and new buildings rising. What wasn’t there to like? Little seafood shacks lined the sand along the Malecón selling fish tacos and the historic opera house with a storied past beckoned. This is the real Mexico – not one that has been sanitized for tourists, one filled with a mix of locals and Mexican tourists also there for the big holiday week.

First Meal of Mazatlán Atol, which opened just a little over a year ago, is named for a traditional corn drink popular on Day of the Dead. A discreet sign hangs over the door and the building’s exterior, painted black, fronts a building that was a former school and foundation. We buzzed for entrance and were warmly welcomed to the small, but stylish, restaurant by the owner’s mother. Chef Daniel Bernal Vega has traveled the globe – even working in Egypt – but

Travel Buzz Page 284 284

The cochinita pibil is just one of the dreamy dishes served at Atol

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Montecito JOURNAL

mole; his guava mole is also outta sight and spoon worthy as well. A filling meal for two – including a chardonnay/chenin blanc blend from Valle de Guadalupe’s Monte Xanic and a Pacifico cerveza served in a wine glass was a bargain at just a smidgen over $50. Atol is also open for breakfast – if I lived here, I’d probably stop here weekly for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. The bar was set high for the week ahead after my happy dining discovery – and I still had a list to cross off. Tune in next week for Mazatlán highlights and gems, in Part Two of my Travel Buzz report!

Travel Buzz (Continued from 26 26))

Getting There: I flew Alaska Airlines nonstop from LAX-MZT in just a little over two hours.

The lush view from Pueblo Bonito (photo by Leslie Westbrook)

he creates regional Mexican dishes with his own artistic flair culled from his travels throughout the country: Oaxaca, Yucatan, and his native Culiacán, Sinaloa. They are as delicious as they are picture worthy – layers of flavors laboriously created with – dare I say it? – love, dedication, and deliciousness. Sit at the bar and you will be treated to explanations from Chef/Owner Daniel as he works away with one helper/sous-chef. Daniel’s mother (he is the youngest of five children) not only welcomes guests but also lends a hand with the dishes and did the calculations on our extremely reasonable bill. I devoured the following from the “Menú Degustación”: Bolita istemeña, a yummy ball of double cream cheese placed atop a peanut mole, with smoked plantain on top and a dusting of pumpkin flower; an amazing cochinita pibil (as good as, if not better than, any of the slow-roasted pork wrapped in a banana leaf that I’ve had in the Yucatan); a gorgeous tamal made from local fermented masa (with pork fat and stock) topped with crema de requesón, a Mexican ricotta from a small town nearby and a bit of dried grasshopper on top for crunch; and a molote de lengua, beef tongue atop a chocolate mole with crema de huitlacoche (one of my fav Mexican specialties – a type of corn mold), was also outstanding. All are served in beautiful Mexican pottery dishware made especially for the restaurant by Uriel Rodriguez of Alma de Barro in Puebla; the amazing corn tortillas are made before your eyes. Daniel, a married father of two young girls, makes a crazy good, multi-layered 60-ingredient Oaxacan style

Happy Holidays!

A look at the Day of the Dead celebrations happening in a Mazatlán zocalo (photo by Leslie Westbrook)

Where to Stay: There’s no shortage or variety of Mexican resorts to choose from in this vast country – from chic boutique city hotels to five-star resort/spas, to all-inclusive resorts which often appeal to families. I spent five nights at the all-inclusive Pueblo Bonito Mazatlán, the original and first of the hotel group’s half a dozen resorts, located on a beach in an area called the Golden Zone. There are four Pueblo Bonito properties in Cabo San Lucas, two in Mazatlán, and a new luxury hotel is scheduled to open in San Miguel de Allende in May 2024. Set on a crescent-shaped beach, many of Pueblo Bonito Mazatlán’s spacious and tastefully furnished 248 guest rooms (all have undergone a recent $27 million dollar renovation/refresh) have magical sunset views through waving palm trees. The excellent, super-friendly staff (Pueblo Bonito excels in hiring wonderful people) attended to all needs – accompanied by beautiful smiles. During my visit in late October, the Pacific was as warm as bath water and the crowd (during Day of the Dead holidays) leaned towards Mexican families. This is an active, festive destination with pool games (like Bingo) during afternoon siesta hours and an excellent breakfast buffet that includes custom order omelets, chilaquiles, fresh fruit galore, and lots more. I also visited the sister property during my stay, Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay, a popular timeshare property and resort with villas, about half an hour away and set on verdant grounds, for an excellent spa treatment. www.pueblobonito.com Leslie A. Westbrook is a Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel writer and journalist who loves exploring the globe. A 3rd generation Californian., Leslie also assists clients sell fine art, antiques, and collectibles via auction. lesliewestbrook.com

Atol: Traditional menu reflecting different regions of Mexico that changes every two weeks/seasonally. Dishes range from $4 to $13. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner Wednesday to Sunday. Book online or via Whatsapp. 21 de Marzo 1414, Centro, 82000 Mazatlán, Sinaloa www.atolmexico.com Phone: 667 144 1192

Enjoy the gift of time with your loved ones. — Karen, Giana, Ashley, and Cayley

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28 Montecito JOURNAL

“In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths.” — George R.R. Martin

21 – 28 December 2023

Body Wise (Continued from 5) like an herbal tea. The upside is that these coffee alternatives have hardly any calories, no caffeine or acidity, and a lot of health benefits. “Originally I just wanted Teeccino to be caffeine free and taste delicious… but health benefits – like Teeccino being great for digestion – were revealed later from our customers testimonials!”

Health Benefits

A can of Alice’s brew (courtesy photo)

the store and roast them at home. Caroline’s ancestor happened to roast a pretty good bean, and she began selling it to her friends when she suddenly found herself the sole provider for her three children. This little enterprise morphed into one of the top chains of restaurants in the 1920s in NYC. Recognizing the generational contribution to her success, Caroline likes to say that “Alice must be over-lighting this journey.”

The Product “It’s not coffee. It’s not tea. It’s Teeccino. Whether you brew it like coffee or steep it like tea, it’s still the same Teeccino.” The Teecino product line includes a wide variety of roasted herbal teas featuring chicory, dandelion, and medicinal mushrooms with flavors such as Candy Cane, Snickerdoodle, Vanilla Nut, French Roast, Reishi Eleuthero, or Dark Chocolate. Depending on your personal taste, you can brew the roasted blends just like coffee or steep a tea bag

What if there was a coffee substitute that augmented physical-mental wellbeing? And, what if it also satisfied the emotional desire for a cup of something hot without disturbing your digestion or sleep? Without getting too technical, Caroline explained how the herbal ingredients in Teeccino support gut and cardiovascular well-being. Just drinking a cup of Teeccino every day supports good digestion and immunity with prebiotics and lowers stress. And it is caffeine free! It’s no secret that the caffeine in coffee and tea doesn’t work for many people. It jangles nerves, upsets digestion, and disturbs sleep. And, like any addictive substance, consumption tends to increase as time goes on. Shifting to a lower caffeine load or going all herbal makes sense as we get older. But, even young people complain that feeling the coffee buzz can be unsettling and, in many ways, unproductive.

Social-emotional Benefits “What are you thinking about when you want to have a warm drink? What motivates you?” When Teeccino asked the 60,000 plus newsletter subscribers these questions, over 70% of respondents were looking for a comforting taste experience. In Caroline’s words, “They’re really thinking about what they want emotionally… what they get from sitting down and having a warm cup of something delicious to drink.” Just the ritual of preparing the beverage and sitting down shifts the mood. Wrapping your hands around a warm cup creates an opening for meaningful

The Teeccino line of products (courtesy photo)

conversation and social bonding. Your personal experience confirms how good this is for your body, mind, and spirit. So, the next time you need to slow down and connect, why not follow the British tradition and “put the kettle on to have a cuppa”? After dinner recipe for a warm treat for you and holiday guests.

Teeccino Eggnog 8 oz brewed Teeccino Holiday Eggnog (or a Teeccino Vanilla Nut tea bag) 2 oz Eggnog (store bought or homemade) 1 pinch ground nutmeg 1 splash dark rum (optional) 1 splash brandy (optional) So simple, just brew Teeccino, add your favorite eggnog and a bit of nutmeg (and brandy or rum), and enjoy the season at its best.

Ann Brode writes about living consciously in the body. She is the author of the book A Guide to Body Wisdom. Visit bodywisdomforlife.com for more information.

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Teeccino Holiday Eggnog (courtesy photo)

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Montecito JOURNAL

LOCAL (Continued from 8) many exotic guises. Here’s an early one called Starved Jock. “Beginning in high school I started to cook,” Sheldon says. “Mostly because I was an athlete. I liked to eat, and I ate a lot.” Okay. Rome wasn’t built in a day. After college (and his galloping gourmand frat house period), Sheldon worked for a derivatives-trading investment bank for nine years. The summation is pure Mike. “I was living in New York and then lived overseas in London and Switzerland for a little while and moved back to New York and got married, and there was a lot going on.” His rapid-fire locution does begin to grow on you. Sheldon isn’t amped so much as excited in the moment. I mean, every moment. Here he describes a crucial fork in the road. “In ‘99, 2000, 2001, you had the dot-com crash and you had Y2K… and my wife and I decided that it was a good time to make a change.” This was that brief window where Sheldon the financial wizard considered a fresh slate at culinary school in Manhattan. “And then… it’s not so much that I had second thoughts. An opportunity arose that I thought was probably the best chance I had to get back to the West Coast.”

LOCAL Time Having grown up in Hermosa Beach, Mike Sheldon was coming home, from the Old World to a California garage startup. Sort of. “In 2001, I joined a small technology company that was started by my brother and my father.” Founded on a shoestring in 1989 as Strand Computer Resale (how much technological progress do we owe to garages?), the company later rebranded as Network Hardware Resale, and ultimately Curvature. The once-plucky family startup had exited the garage, reporting revenues of $20M the year before Sheldon arrived to dig in. “We sold pre-owned networking and computer hardware. The work had a lot to do with trading, so my background on Wall Street was a good fit.” Mike became CEO in 2004. His tenure as Curvature CEO saw Sheldon head back to The Continent where, as business traveler and gastronome, he truly acquainted himself with the wonderfully various eateries of a hospitable Europe and Asia. In 2017 he retired from Curvature. “When I joined, I was employee number 18, and when I took over as CEO,

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From bistro comfort food to craft cocktails, LOCAL delivers warmth in food and ambiance (courtesy photo)

we were 80. When we sold it, we were 780. More than half of that growth happened overseas in Singapore and Amsterdam and Tokyo and other places.” The retiree took a breath (like this guy ever takes a breath) and chose a next move. This is where we Locals enter the picture. “I really love food,” Sheldon says without adornment. “And when I was back East, I really dove into wine and cocktails and mixology.” The restaurateur idea had also been furtively tiptoeing around in the back of Sheldon’s mind. “I started looking around at spaces, thinking that if I found the right spot, I’d go for it.” Spoiler – he found the right spot. “That huge patio is such an attractive place to get people together outside. And then the fire pit and big open doors and a big circular bar…”

LOCAL Favorite “Adam (Sanacore, formerly of The Lark) and (Jason) Carter are the head chefs and have been with me since the beginning. Adam is very familiar with Santa Barbara dining and Santa Barbara seafood. Carter brings a Southern comfort food flair, and his work in catering means he’s very comfortable with high-volume cooking. The two of them run the kitchen.” Sheldon’s love of music – and secret identity as a musician himself – may be felt more acutely in LOCAL’s future. He wouldn’t mind creating an after-hours music experience befitting the place’s setup as a sunken alcove. What would that look like? Lucky patrons heading downstairs to sigh as one under a canopy of stars as musicians hang notes on the fragrant evening air. More or less. “People love the music but don’t necessarily want to hear it while they’re eating,” Sheldon says. He has been reading the room. “They want to listen to the

“The problem with winter sports is that – follow me closely here - they generally take place in winter.” — Dave Barry

music, so let’s make that change. From a decor perspective, I think LOCAL is already quite beautiful, but we’re going to refine the artwork, and support and really highlight our local artists.” LOCAL is growing and relaxing and becoming (frankly) cooler, an evolution spurred by the “natural selections” of guests. “People love the food, but they’re also inclined to more approachable dishes. We’ve arrived now at a formula for bistro comfort food with a Santa Barbara flair.” The guy grows suddenly animated. “You have to try our Chicken and Dumplings, Braised Beef Cheeks, Jumbo Crab Cakes, Barbecue Baby Back Ribs…” We get it; unpretentious good eats perfected.

Guest Chef ? Yes, Chef. Here’s an idea: to make the menu even more dynamic, LOCAL occasionally surrenders its Sunday kitchen to an adored guest Chef de Cuisine from the area. Sheldon explains the complex strategic research required to launch the idea. “We thought ‘why not?’” As reported in these pages, Chef Mollie Ahlstrand – of the long-cherished Trattoria Mollie on Coast Village Road (undone by the 2018 debris flow after 30 years) and the current Mollie’s Italian Deli on Casitas Pass Road in Carpinteria – inaugurated the program on December 10 and 17. LOCAL diners on those evenings ordered Mollie’s approachable and delish Italian dishes – comfy cuisine in which Montecitans of a certain vintage have delighted for 30 years. Sheldon is enthused about regularizing the “guest-chef ” model. Hell, he’s enthused about everything. And we’re all the beneficiaries. Is any of this what Mike Sheldon foresaw back when his derivatives-addled brain saw fleeting images of a plated future? “I guess it’s everything I hoped and feared it would be,” he says, laughing. “It’s fun seeing a lot of my friends and new friends come back week after week. I hope that five years from now, LOCAL is a place where a big cadre of Montecitans congregates on any given evening, get to know each other, and really enjoy themselves.”

Jeff Wing is a journalist, raconteur, autodidact, and polysyllable enthusiast. He has been writing about Montecito and environs since before some people were born. He can be reached at jeff@ montecitojournal.net

21 – 28 December 2023

Petite Wine Traveler Mexico’s Hidden Wine Treasures

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s I reflect on my recent journey through the captivating landscapes of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, a vibrant tapestry of wine, food, and travel experiences weaves itself through my memories. This region, rich in natural beauty, unfolds a compelling invitation to explore at every juncture. Its picturesque beaches tell stories of tranquility and wonder, providing serene moments amidst the embrace of the Gulf of Mexico’s inviting waters.

Did you know that Mexico produces wines? Well, they certainly do! Amid the Yucatán’s undeniable beauty, my primary purpose in visiting the region was to unearth Mexico’s concealed treasures within the realm of wines. Immersed in this breathtaking locale, I found myself as a wine judge at the Mexico Selection by CMB Wine Competition. The event gathered over 35 international judges from 12 countries, showcasing a collection of over 800 distinctive wines sourced from 20 states across Mexico. This assembly proved to be a delightful rarity within the world of oenology, presenting a magnificent spectacle where flavors harmonized in a lively fiesta-like dance. The blind-tasting wine competition served as a celebration of diverse palates and entrée into the wines of Mexico. Let’s delve deeper into this fascinating world. Often underestimated for its winemaking prowess, Mexico stands out as an innovator in the Americas’ wine-growing domain. This legacy traces back to the 16th century when Spanish conquistadors introduced vines, a heritage that has blossomed into a thriving scene today. With over 16,000 acres of vineyards cultivating more than 40 varietals, Mexico showcases a diverse range including beloved international classics like cabernet sauvignon, nebbiolo, malbec, and sauvignon blanc. Baja California emerges as the shining

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21 – 28 December 2023

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Ernie’s World

I’m Dreaming of a White Elephant... by Ernie Witham

his year, X-mas, formerly known as Twitter-mas, is “almost” failure-proof for me. How is that possible you readers of my Christmases past, want to know? Simple, three wise men (actually, it was my stepdaughter, Christy) proclaimed that the only gift required this year is one white elephant gift! For those of you unfamiliar with the ancient ritual of the white elephant gift, it kinda goes like this... Many, many eves ago, a strange white elephant appeared in a tiny village in a land far, far away. At first the locals were thrilled by this phenomenon and they followed him everywhere and all took turns chiseling selfies of themselves and their new friend onto stone tablets. But Packy was not the most energetic of white elephants and would often just abruptly sit down, which was not all that great for those close followers. Though this was the beginning of a new peoples known as the flatlanders, the others thought maybe this was a bad omen and they gifted Packy to another village. This village experienced similar problems and in turn gifted Packy to yet another village. This went on and on until the last village ended up with Packy forever. (Source: Erniepedia) Nowadays, white elephant gifts are usually much smaller and don’t smell quite as bad. Names are put into a Santa hat, and one is picked out and that person chooses any wrapped gift under the tree. They open it and everyone oohs and aahs and the next person can either pick any gift under the tree or they can “steal” the first person’s gift. This often causes much laughter and the occasional cuss word. But the first person gets to pick another gift, often begging someone to steal it. More laughter ensues, until one person gets stuck with the worst gift of the year. They in turn often tip over the Christmas tree onto said gift giver. These groaner gifts are where I excel. Just ask anyone in our family who has received one of my presents in the past. “Bourbon-flavored gingerbread people? Seriously?” “I know, huh? Betcha weren’t expecting that.” “I’m only ten. I asked for a truck. Here, you keep it!” “If you insist. Hey, can I get a Diet Coke chaser over here?” Plus, not that I need to rock my jingle bell anymore, but we have a gift-spending limit this year of twenty bucks! That’s even less than I spent last year.” “What the heck is that?”

32 Montecito JOURNAL

“It’s a potato with my face professionally super-imposed onto it by a company in Idaho.” “I just lost my appetite.” “That’s okay! It’s much better if you stick it somewhere special until it sprouts. Then you can plant it and have a whole garden of, well, me! Whataya think now, huh?” “I’m thinking of the special place I want to stick it.” Previous years I delighted all with things like sloth-paw socks, a jalapeño pizza blanket, and a yodeling pickle. “Who wants to vote Ernie off the gifter’s list? “I do.” “I do.” “I do.” “I do.” The other reason to be ho-ho-hoing during this chestnut-roasting time of year is that the huge, use-every-dishglass-spoon-fork-and-knife-in-the-house dinner is not at our house! So, I won’t be expected to clean-up after the onslaught. “Wait! Be careful of grandma’s crystal...” “Oops. No problemo. Anyone got duct tape?” Plus, I won’t even be expected to prepare a gourmet meal. “You cubed an entire honey-baked ham?” “Cool, right? I cubed everything so we can all make food forts. I even made little flags out of asparagus. I read about it on Pinterest.” “Who wants to vote Ernie off Pinterest? “I do.” “I do.” “I do.” “I do.” The only hiccup in this year’s plan is that I ordered my white elephant gift from Instagram. “Someone’s gonna love this!” “Right. I wouldn’t stand too close to the tree, though.” But, said treasure has not yet arrived. Once again, I was fooled by the term “ships immediately” written in several foreign languages. But I have a backup plan... “Can I help you?” “Yes. I need the most unusual thing you have in the store for $19.99 and I need it fast!” “Excuse me... ‘Hello? Security? We have another weird white elephant guy on the loose.’”

Ernie Witham has been writing humor for more than 25 years. He is the author of three humor books and is the humor workshop leader at the prestigious Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

Curious Traveler

A Kitchen Clod Takes a Cooking Class in Santa Fe

The man himself – Chef Johnny Vee

by Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Jr.

hef Johnny Vee stood in his test kitchen, welcoming a dozen students to his “New Mexico Combination Plate” class and trying to explain how the list of dishes we’d be preparing had grown so-o-o long. “I don’t smoke pot,” he said, “but it looks like it – like I’m going, ‘Maybe we should make enchiladas. Yeah, and let’s do carne adovada. Oooh, and chile con queso! Chile rellenos! Beans! And sopaipillas with honey for dessert!” The chance to tackle cooking all these dishes – basically the classic “combo plate” served at any respectable New Mexico restaurant that’s worth its weight in chiles – is what drew me and my wife, Merry, to Chef Johnny’s kitchen. (Other Santa Fe cooking classes tend to focus on a single dish.) Our instructor was relaxed and full of hilarious stories, so if we’d felt stressed about cooking in a group of strangers, he immediately put us at ease. Taking a cooking class when you travel is a great way to explore the local culture – in this case, the unique place food holds in the history and life of New Mexico. You learn to cook new dishes, and at the end – you get to eat your homework! Having so many courses for us to prepare, Johnny’s strategy was to divide and conquer. With an experienced eye, he assessed our individual kitchen skills and split us into small groups, each with a single dish to prepare. Perhaps surmising that I am a guy who, at home, doesn’t know where the kitchen is, Johnny assigned me to make tortillas. Merry, who’s a good cook, did the heavy lifting. She mixed blue corn masa and water into dough of just the right consistency – not so moist that it would stick to the tortilla press, not so dry that the tortillas would fall apart. It was my personal zero-skill job to place small balls of dough on the hand press and push down to flatten them into disks. Luckily, even if we messed up our tortillas, they would be disguised in the creations of other teams who were busy making green chile chicken enchiladas, carne adovada tacos, and blue corn chile rellenos. Various students were rinsing beans, roasting chiles, shredding chicken, and combining fifteen separate ingredients to make the world’s best chile con queso. (Previously, I’d only had the Velveeta style served at friends’ parties.) Chef Johnny – full name Johnny Vollertsen – told us a little about himself. “I’m from New York, so there’s no reason to pay attention to anything I say! I grew up in Curious Traveler Page 384 384

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21 – 28 December 2023

Your Westmont

Returning with Climate Conference Lessons

Analee Josselyn (with braids in the back row) poses with Christian Climate Observers in the Dubai desert

by Scott Craig, photos by Brad Elliott

estmont junior Analee Josselyn (’25), a history and economics and business double major, and Conrad Morgan (’23), who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies, are attending the U.N. Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai. Josselyn and Morgan are there with Christian Climate Observers, a non-denominational Christian presence advocating for God’s creation while training the next generation of U.N. climate observers from a Christian and missional perspective. “One of my hopes for the experience is that the impact would not stop at me, but reverberate back to Westmont College and help to cultivate more conversation around faith and climate action, which I see as inextricably linked,” Josselyn says. Morgan and Josselyn, who are both earning a minor in environmental studies, were both involved with last summer’s

“Faith. Climate. Action: A Workshop on Christian Climate Advocacy,” which welcomed about 40 students from Christian college campuses to Westmont. Josselyn will be part of this summer’s conference June 16-21 at Westmont. Josselyn plans on sharing her experience in Dubai to The Horizon, Westmont’s student newspaper, and on social media for the Students for Sustainability Club at Westmont.

Dining Commons Gets a Remodel Crews have begun a $2 million renovation project to Westmont’s Dining Commons with the majority of the work being funded by Bon Appetit, the college’s food service provider since August 2022. While there is no additional interior square footage, workers are enlarging the outdoor dining patio by incorporating a small section of unused concrete between the patio and the southeast corner of the Dining Commons known as El Tejado. The patio will have new furniture, a trellis, heat and lights, making it more usable throughout the day and year.

The kitchen that serves the college’s 1,200 students

The kitchen infrastructure, much of which is original, needs repair and improvement. Crews will replace plumbing lines, some electrical and other kitchen infrastructure to make it safer, more appealing, and more efficient for kitchen staff to work. The main dining area will get new flooring, paint and perhaps other improvements such as lighting if funds allow. “The project is important for a variety of reasons, including that it will enhance the dining experience of the students and others who use the space,” says Doug Jones, vice president for finance. “It will allow us to modernize the kitchen, so we don’t run the risk of something failing at an inopportune time. The work in El Tejado will allow more flexibility in what is prepared and served there, including expanding the options for the late-night retail dining service.” El Tejado, the name of the original Dwight Murphy estate that Westmont purchased in 1945, was last renovated in 2011 to exclusively serve Mexican food during regular dining hours.

Examining Mendelssohn, Protestant Music For two decades, Siegwart ‘Zig’ Reichwald, Westmont’s Adams professor of music and worship, engrossed himself in the sacred music of German composer and performer Felix Mendelssohn. But when he came to his works written for the Berlin Cathedral in 1843-44, he was struck by how unusual they were compared to the rest of Mendelssohn’s musical creations. “Unlike his other sacred works, these

Renovations to El Tejado will allow greater food options for students

Siegwart ‘Zig’ Reichwald

pieces have liturgical function and purpose,” Reichwald says. “The purpose was to help establish a new liturgy for German Protestantism and their function was to lead the congregation into deeper worship, both intellectually and emotionally.” Reichwald’s new book, Mendelssohn and the Genesis of the Protestant A Cappella Movement, is part of the Cambridge Elements Series targeted broadly to musicologists, historians, and theologians. While most deemed Mendelssohn’s brief stint as director of Prussian church music as inconsequential, Reichwald has reevaluated 25 compositions for the Berlin Cathedral that offer a different narrative. “This book tells that story and presents a missing link in our understanding of the rise of the Protestant a cappella movement,” he says. “It’s the first study that places any of his works within their very specific theological and liturgical contexts.”

Scott Craig is manager of media relations at Westmont College

Analee Josselyn and Conrad Morgan at COP28

21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

Petite Wine Traveler (Continued from 31 31)) star within Mexico’s wine country, housing over 150 wineries that proudly showcase wines echoing the region’s Mediterranean climate and diverse topography. Among its noteworthy subregions, Valle de Guadalupe, Valle de Calafia, Valle de San Vicente, and Valle de Santo Tomás stand distinguished by their granite-rich soils akin to France’s Northern Rhône Valley. These wines boast robustness, jammy textures, and a unique stony minerality – a tribute to the region’s coastal proximity and groundwater irrigation. Valle de Guadalupe, the crown jewel of Baja, parallels the elegance of some of Napa Valley’s finest wines. Here, boutique wineries craft symphonies from diverse grape blends, showcasing opu-

A bite and sip at Micaela Mar & Leña restaurant

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34 Montecito JOURNAL

lent richness and vibrant hues that have captured global attention. The region’s moniker – the “Napa Valley of Mexico” – testifies to its allure and burgeoning wine tourism, painting a vibrant image on the global wine map. Chihuahua, often overshadowed, holds a unique presence in Mexico’s vinicultural narrative. Though its acclaim is not as widespread, this northern region contributes significantly to Mexico’s wine production. Its climate fosters grape growth tailored for brandy and raisin production. Yet, amidst these terrains, adventurous winemakers explore the region’s distinct terroirs, endeavoring to unveil flavors that define Chihuahua’s wine identity. Nestled in Central Mexico, Guanajuato might not be the first name that springs to mind when thinking of Mexican wine regions, yet it’s steadily crafting its place in the spotlight, and is carving a niche in the realm of fine wines. With elevations soaring up to 6,500 feet, and a blend of loamy clay soils that retain crucial moisture, this terrain becomes a nurturing cradle for grape cultivation. The bubbly scene in the subregion of Urireo has been popping since 1979, thanks to Spain’s Freixenet setting up shop there. Now Urireo is the shining star of Mexico’s sparkling wine world, boasting the title of the country’s biggest sparkling winery. With its specialty in sparkling wine production, it’s no wonder this place attracts visitors from around the world. Despite being less renowned than Baja or Valle de Guadalupe, Guanajuato promises an exciting canvas for winemakers, fostering the creation of distinctive, high-quality wines that are gradually leaving an indelible mark in Mexico’s wine portfolio. What’s truly buzz-worthy is the region’s upcoming role as the host city for the prestigious

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Concours Mondial in 2024, where over 300 judges from across the globe will converge to savor its wines, indulge in its cuisine, and relish its remarkable hospitality. This event promises to catapult Guanajuato’s thriving wine scene onto an international stage, shining a vibrant spotlight on its burgeoning reputation. But the true star of Mexico has to be Mexico City. Despite lacking vast vineyards, its cosmopolitan allure birthed a coveted wine culture. Imagine trendy wine bars and upscale venues offering global wine pairings – earthy reds, and joyous whites, catering to every discerning palate. This wine scene, much like the city itself, is diverse, dynamic, and always primed for a taste adventure. But wait, Mexico City, where sophistication meets celebration, doesn’t stop at vino!

This dazzling epicenter bursts with culinary innovation and sensory delight, a pulsating revolution that elevates every taste and sip to an ode to Mexico’s flavors and spirit. Visualize this flavor fiesta: the melody of taco stands serenading you with heavenly pastor (pork) tacos, the ocean’s bounty unfolding in mariscos (seafood) tacos adorned with fresh fish or shrimp embraced by zesty salsas. And have you indulged in the tantalizing taste of nopales (cactus) tacos? They’re an absolute delight! Meander through markets overflowing with a kaleidoscope of vivid produce, each vibrant hue promising a burst of sunshine in every bite. The culinary enchantment extends far beyond the streets! Step into award-winning restaurants orchestrated by global culinary maestros, transforming dining and wine pairing into an art form where every dish weaves a narrative and every sip carries its own revelation. So, amigos, the takeaway? Mexican wines aren’t just a thing; they’re the next big thing! The journey through these vineyard treasures and the exploration of Mexico’s wine regions have been nothing short of thrilling. Cheers to the vibrant streets, the exquisite flavors, and the rich tapestry of Mexican wines – here’s to embracing life’s vibrant flavors in every sip and every meal. ¡Salud!

Jamie Knee is a global wine communicator and travel writer, has hosted 100+ winemaker interviews, international wine judge, and holds multiple wine, sommelier, and educator certifications.

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“Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.” — George R.R. Martin

21 – 28 December 2023

Far Flung Travel Meerkat Memories

to each other during the grooming process. Some of this was done right at my feet, as I sat, watched, and waited as they milled around me. However, as soon as grooming was complete, the meerkat mob was back at it, foraging in the fine earthy sands of the magnificent Kalahari.

Teamwork As they foraged, several meerkats stood watch like little centurions scouring the desertscape. Standing tall, meerkats have crazy eyesight, and their peripheral vision goes unmatched. The black rings around their eyes act as sun protection against the piercing desert sun. There’s safety in numbers as eagles, jackals, African painted dogs, and snakes are their biggest threats. Once a potential threat had been detected, a series of chirps and shrieks warned the mob of possible trouble. Their tails went up like spindly radars as the adults’ grouped around a den, and their young were sent below first. After the mob regrouped, after the threat was defused, foraging continued. The band of 20 meerkats would seemingly spread out and disperse, with just a few remaining. However, a chirp here, a shriek there, and much like a light desert wind blowing across the Kalahari, all 20 members reappeared and were accounted for. A meerkat looking for its phone charger

by Chuck Graham

mob of meerkats was on my Southern African menu. Deep in the Kalahari Desert, I scanned that brilliant red earth with my binoculars from dawn until dusk. Finally, on the morning of our third day in Namibia, it was meerkat mania as 20 of them arrived just after breakfast. This was my 16th trip to Africa, and my third to Namibia. Traveling to 13 countries within the continent, I had never encountered meerkats before. Needless to say, I was a little anxious to see them. In my mind I continuously envisioned the Animal Planet series, Meerkat Manor. Meerkats maintain a roughly 1.8 square kilometer territory. My girlfriend, marine biologist Holly Lohuis, and I were staying at the Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch, which was smack dab in the middle of this band of meerkat’s turf. The dunes were perfectly wind-groomed, the only blemishes were the spoor of springbok, ostrich, helmeted guinea fowl, yellow mongoose, and finally those steadfast meerkats.

Down Time These were some of the best, most tender moments with these members of the weasel family. Foraging in that dry desert heat can cause meerkats to overheat a little bit, so they sought out shady spots to rest and relax. Lazing the day away involved meerkats piling up on top of each other. There were also lots of hugs to go around, the group dynamic playing a large part in meerkat survival. Even more so was the roughhousing that ensued once those pileups became boring. Within those three hours we soaked in all we could of meerkat behavior, but it flew by quickly. Before we knew it, all 20 meerkats were gone, moving on into other areas of their vast desert realm.

Epilogue

That’s how much time we had with these busy, voracious meerkats before they moved onto another region of their desert biome. Fortunately, they were so consumed by foraging for food, they didn’t give a bleep about us and how close we got to them. In fact, on one occasion, I was so close that beautiful red earth was being kicked onto my camera and lens as they vigorously dug and dug. Several meerkats dug so long I thought they were excavating another den as they keep many throughout their territory. This was about food though. As dirt flew out beneath a determined meerkat that had vanished in a burrow, it soon emerged with a crunchy beetle. As much foraging as there was, there was also lots of grooming. They all lend a hand

After Holly and I left that corner of the Kalahari, we traveled south to the otherworldly Quiver Tree Forest. On our first evening in the forest dark clouds rolled in at sunset creating a mythical-like scene across the arid landscape. Early the next morning we saw a small band of meerkats moving quickly through the forest. They appeared super alert, not slowing down for anything. We couldn’t keep track of them and lost them in an endless boulder field beyond the quiver trees. It was the last time we had a glimpse Chuck Graham is a freeof any meerkats on that 30-day overlance writer and photograland trip. African wildlife is on its own pher based in Carpinteria, schedule, and sightings of unique desert where he also leads kayak fauna are so fleeting. Nine months after tours and backpacking that stunning Namibian sojourn, I still trips in Channel Islands find tiny red grains of Kalahari sand in National Park the deepest corners of my Atlas camera pack. Thank you, meerkats.

Why did the guineafowl cross the desert?

You had to be there to get the joke

Three Hours

21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

Jay Leno (Continued from 21 21))

Kareem Battle with Grace Fisher and her parents, Bill and Debbie Fisher (photo by Priscilla)

Daniel and Mandy Hochman, Legacy recipient John Daly with his wife Marti Daly, Melissa Borders, and Adam McKaig (photo by Priscilla)

for 50 at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum fetched an impressive $6,500, and a bidding war for a six-night stay at a Tuscan Villa found two fortunate bidders securing the opportunity for $11,500 each. Simultaneously, a silent auction was underway, where the community’s spirit of giving was on vivid display. Local businesses, embodying the essence of goodwill, generously donated hundreds of thousands worth of their wares and services, contributing wholeheartedly to the cause. The collective effort of these businesses alongside the attendees’ fervent bidding exemplified a community united in support of the Turner Foundation’s endeavors. A pivotal moment unfolded during the presentation of the 2023 Albert J. Turner Legacy Awards, a ceremony dedicated to honoring the pioneering spirit of Rev. Turner, the esteemed founder of the Foundation, as well as individuals who

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36 Montecito JOURNAL

Farmers & Merchants Bank CEO Henry Walker with Jay Leno and Caroline Walker (photo by Priscilla)

embody his revolutionary vision and servant leadership. This year’s ceremony recognized remarkable figures, including John Daly and Tomeeka Morris, the wife of Stevie Wonder, both lauded for their unwavering commitment to community causes. Dean Wilson specifically praised Daly for his continuous support within local schools via the Key Class initiative and his enduring partnership with the Turner Foundation. Simultaneously, Tomeeka Morris was celebrated for her lifelong dedication to aiding women during times of loss, showcasing the unwavering compassion and dedication she consistently brings to her work. At the heart of the Turner Foundation lies a commitment to various community programs, from transitional housing to supporting homeless youth in Isla Vista and providing access to music education through the Music & Imagination program. The recent launch of The Foundation House underscores the Foundation’s ongoing dedication to uplifting transitional-aged youth.

Dean Wilson with Jay Leno entertaining the crowd (photo by Priscilla)

Expanding their vision from serving the elderly to encompassing youth, families, seniors, individuals with special needs, and those in need of financial support, the Foundation’s impact shines. Their transformation of low-income apartment complexes like The Village and The Lighthouse into family-friendly havens beams hope across Santa Barbara’s Westside. Central to their approach are the Community Learning Centers, fostering genuine connections and empowering individuals within these communities. The Turner Foundation’s unwavering

mission – to equip individuals with the tools for positive contribution and leadership – is not rhetoric but a lived reality. This evening wasn’t just a celebration; it epitomized the power of community support and collective goodwill. Montecito’s convergence for the Turner Foundation illuminated the holiday season with laughter, generosity, and an unwavering commitment to uplift those in need. It was a night where hearts were warmed, spirits lifted, and, undoubtedly, a few more laughter lines etched onto smiling faces, all in support of a cause that truly matters.

Peter and Kathy Halper with Mary and Peter Levay (photo by Priscilla)

“To keep a warm heart in winter is the real victory.” — Marty Rubin

21 – 28 December 2023

Our 56th Season!

On Entertainment (Continued from 11 11))

Chris Shiflett returns to SOhO with some friends this December 22-23 (photo by Andi K. Taylor)

Local Artwork in Santa Barbara Since 1968

together – four bands on a bill at the Red Barn. So without a doubt, that had a huge impact on just being able to develop as a guitar player. I’ve never heard of the Red Barn. Oh man, it was literally this little red barn structure out in Isla Vista. You could rent it for the night from the city and somebody would come unlock it. The power would stay on until there was a curfew and then it would just shut off. And literally every show you ever went to out there, that’s what would happen to the last band. Your last several solo records have songs that are autobiographical and refer to growing up here. So I imagine it’s still with you. Oh yeah. That period of my life just continues to be a source of inspiration. There’s just so many great stories from those days, and Santa Barbara was such a great place to grow up in that time period, just kind of a wild time in California. So there’s just no shortage of inspiration and material there for me. You started out in rock-pop bands, did punk with No Use for a Name and now, of course, post-grunge hard rock with Foo Fighters. But your solo albums have a strong alt. country flavor. Where’d that come from? It’s just an evolution over time. That’s where my taste went, but it’s hard to exactly pinpoint. There’s so much overlap between rock and roll and country music, but definitely in the mid-’90s with Son Volt and Wilco was the jumping off point. It comes out in my songwriting for my solo records. Your new one, Lost At Sea, mostly eschews the pedal steel for more guitars. What was the concept behind the album? There wasn’t one. The initial impetus was I wanted to record some music with my friend Jaren Johnston from Cadillac Three. I had written a bunch of songs during the lockdown, and it was time to go make another record. We chipped away at it over the course of about a year because we were both touring all the time. There was no concept, and no rules. There are a whole bunch of great guitarists playing on it. But I never set out to make a country record or a rock record or a punk rock record anything. We just kind of record the songs and the instrumentation fits whatever the song is. You’ve just got to put your music out, and it’s up to other people how they interpret it. I’ve got to ask you about “Dead and Gone.” Where did that come from? When I wrote that song in 2020, there were two back-to-back guys that passed away up in Santa Barbara that I knew from back in the day. I was reflecting on that and it’s a long list. Tonally, there’s a Johnny Cash song where he plays down how heartbroken you are by saying, “Now you’re dead and gone and I don’t have time to mourn, when really you’re hurting inside.” That’s what I was going for. What prompted you to start the Hometown Holiday Hoedown in 2021 after all those years away?

21 – 28 December 2023

On Entertainment Page 414 414

Montecito JOURNAL

Elizabeth’s Appraisals (Continued from 22 22))

Curious Traveler (Continued from 32 32))

ily, who had an estate in Riven Rock in Montecito. I receive many questions about the value of weighted candlesticks, and the least valuable pieces of sterling are usually these weighted candlesticks – with significant exceptions: anything in sterling crafted by Tiffany, and most pieces by Shreve. As for British sterling, the older the better, so look for 18th century candlesticks which may be solid sterling, and look for chambersticks, which are usually a single candlestick of solid silver. The value of PJ’s pair of Shreve candlesticks is $700 antique value – but far less for scrap value.

Marking on the base of the candlesticks

Rock to this store to purchase these candlesticks in 1910 or thereabouts. By the 1860s, Shreve & Co. had established its reputation as the finest silver and goldsmiths on the West Coast. Many of the company’s spectacular pieces were collected by prominent families, and indeed PJ’s family was connected with the McCormick fam-

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Rochester, went to college for restaurant management, and moved to Manhattan to be a chef, peeled a lot of potatoes.” Soon Johnny was working in top New York City eateries; then he helped open a chain of Southwest-flavored restaurants in Australia. To entertain the customers, he and the waiters would do line dancing in the dining room to “Achy Breaky Heart.” “Down Under, they never quite got Spanish pronunciation,” he added with an eye roll. “So a jalapeno was a ‘jah-LAP-a no’ and quesadillas were ‘kaysaDILL-uhs.’” Jovial and puckish, Johnny made the class a blast. He’s also efficient; his assistants had already done lots of the prep work (peeling, dicing, measuring), so we students could get right to putting together our dishes. The chile pepper is the linchpin of New Mexico cooking, and Johnny gave us a rundown on some of the 4,000 varieties on the planet. Most of the world’s cuisines use chiles, especially in countries near the equator, perhaps because chiles make you sweat, which is good air conditioning. When New Mexico green chiles ripen and dry, they turn red. Visitors to Santa Fe see strings of clustered red peppers, called ristras, hanging from porches all over town. “You can cook with them if they haven’t been bug sprayed or shellacked,” said Johnny. He once thought about contacting Santa Fe mystery writer Anne Hillerman, a friend, to co-write a murder mystery in which a woman slowly kills her husband with red chile sauce made with bug spray. “I said this one day in a class, and a woman sitting next to her sister said, ‘What a great idea!’ And the sister said, ‘Is everything okay in your marriage??’” Scientists use a scale to grade the heat of various chiles, measured in “Scoville Units.” A bell pepper is zero, or no heat. A jalapeno clocks in at 3,000 units. New Mexico’s hottest green chile, the Hatch, scores 6,000. A Habanero clangs the bell at a mouth-searing 300,000 units. At a kitchen counter poblano chiles were being chopped and cheddar cheese grated by two local men on the chile con queso dip detail, who had taken Johnny’s classes before. Meanwhile Johnny passed around spices for us to smell before they got

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lasses are taught in a well-equipped kitchen at Las Cosas, an upscale kitchen shop, and are listed online at www. lascosascooking.com/pages/cooking-with-johnny-vee. Here’s a sample: “Sabor Santa Fe, a hands-on class featuring Banana Leaf Guacamole Boats with Salsa and Corn Chips, Mexican Beer Soup with Cheddar Cheese, Mixed Baby Greens with Lime Dressing and Toasted Pine Nuts, Mexican Chicken Piccata, Green Chile Polenta, and Homemade Dulce de Leche Ice Cream with Red Chile Caramel Sauce.” I suggest choosing a hands-on class like ours, not a demonstration class – way more fun and useful.

“The snow did not even whisper its way to earth, but seemed to salt the night with silence.” — Dean Koontz

21 – 28 December 2023

added to the dip, among them – toasted ground cumin seeds. (“Toast your spices to get more bang out of them.”) The end result would be scooped up later with fresh-baked tortilla chips. (Merry and I decided to make chile con queso back home; it freezes well and doesn’t separate when left in a fondue pot over a flame on a dinner table.) The carne adovada team was measuring out caribe chiles, found only in New Mexico. This variety isn’t ground to powder but crushed into coarse flakes. “They smell like sun-dried tomatoes or tobacco,” said Johnny, “and they create the distinctive flavor of carne adovada; the meat absorbs the red chile flavor.” Another duo was making Drunken Pintos (Frijoles Borrachos) with cilantro, bacon, and tequila (!). A chile relleno produced during one of Chef Johnny Vee’s Meanwhile Merry and I cooking classes (photo by Graham Dunn) were cranking out the tortillas – some successful, some laughable – and passing them to the duo making chicken enchiladas. In New Mexico, enchiladas aren’t rolled but stacked. “Nobody really knows why,” said Johnny. “Texans say it’s because we’re lazy. But hey, if you go through the process of handmaking your own tortillas and they get stale after a day or two, you don’t want to throw them away. So you just dip them in yummy sauce to soften them up and refresh them. That’s how enchiladas came about.” As the three-hour class came to a close, our creations were laid out on the kitchen counter, and everyone dove in. By now we’d all been chatting and joking and getting to know each other, making the class more like a good party. We all had something in common – our time cooking together – and now we were celebrating what we’d made. We all headed out the door with good memories, detailed recipes to use back home, and – most important – leftovers!

Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Jr., the MJ’s Travel Correspondent, worked with the National Geographic Society for 35 years. His feature stories have won three Lowell Thomas Awards, the “Oscars” of the field, from the Society of American Travel Writers. His “Curious Traveler” column in the MJ won the SATW gold medal. Jerry has written 11 books and more than 600 magazine and newspaper pieces.

THE FLAT PACK

Meaningful Moments: How to Make Family Gatherings More Engaging Over the Holidays

uring the holiday season, the spirit of family togetherness is sometimes overshadowed by family tensions and unavoidable disputes. Caroline Maguire, M.Ed., a recognized childcare specialist and author of Why Will No One Play with Me? The Play Better Plan to Help Children of All Ages Make Friends and Thrive, shares insights on how to transform these fleeting moments into lasting connections that transcend chaos and arguments. Prioritizing presence over distraction Being present is the foundation of meaningful connection in a technologically inundated world. Maguire goes on to say: “To truly savor family time, disconnect from screens and embrace the present moment.” Encouragement of screen-free interactions by both parents and children creates deeper ties and genuine engagement. Increase the interaction Maguire pushes for hands-on engagement as a means of transitioning from forced conversations to shared activities. Plan activities that involve using your hands, such as making gingerbread houses, playing board games, or a game of outdoor family football. These kinds of interactions act as accelerators for relationship building. Multiple activity stations or team contests encourage participation and break down barriers. Using tradition to strengthen connection Maguire proposes using family traditions as a unifying force in the midst of societal differences. “Revisiting ancestral recipes or initiating new customs fosters a shared sense of purpose,” she says. Making relationships through common activities such as cooking family favorites strengthens unity and bridges gaps. If your family doesn’t have established traditions yet, don’t shy away from creating some new ones! Bridging generational divides Storytelling serves as a link between generations, providing insights and cultivating understanding. Maguire suggests encouraging children to inquire and adults to share their experiences. Childhood recollections, treasured holiday customs, or stories of mischief serve as conduits for intergenerational discussion. A nostalgic journey across time Maguire, reviving nostalgia, pushes for the use of visual aids in narrative. Gathering old photographs or albums before family reunions strengthens tales by giving anecdotes faces and conserving ancestral heritage. This trip down memory lane strengthens bonds and deepens shared experiences. Maguire’s advice intensifies the melody of familial bonds in the symphony of festivals and enthusiasm. Families can transform fleeting moments into enduring memories by infusing intentionality, withdrawing from distractions, and embracing participatory activities, weaving the fabric of togetherness with threads of significance.

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THE YES STORE 1100 STATE STREET, SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA LOCATED IN LA ARCADA PLAZA 21 – 28 December 2023

Montecito JOURNAL

NOTICE OF SCHOOL BOARD VACANCY AND INTENT TO APPOINT A MEMBER TO THE SANTA BARBARA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF TRUSTEES NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Board of Trustees of the Santa Barbara Unified School District intends to appoint a board member to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of incumbent member Virginia Alvarez effective November 27, 2023. Applicants are required to reside within the District's boundaries (At-Large). The provisional appointee will complete Trustee Alvarez’s remaining term ending November 2024. In 2024, the Provisional Appointment seat, which represents Trustee Area 5 will be up for election in November, along with Area 2 and Area 3 seats. The appointed Trustee will be required to reside in Trustee Areas 2, 3 or 5 in order to participate in the November 2024 election.

Interested applicants must 1) complete and submit a Candidate Application Form, 2) reside in the attendance boundaries of the Santa Barbara Unified School District, 3) meet all requirements of law, and 4) comply with the District’s submission requirements. The window to submit an application will open on December 15, 2023. The application deadline is 5:00 P.M. on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. To apply online go to www.sbunified.org or pick up an application at the District Office located at 720 Santa Barbara Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Late applications will not be considered. Qualified applicants will be interviewed by the Board on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 and Wednesday January 10, 2024 (if needed). The school board will deliberate upon completing all interviews and make an appointment at the end of the meeting. Please visit the District’s website for instructions on how to apply to serve on the school board, email strujillo@sbunified.org or call the Superintendent's Office at (805) 963-4338, ext. 6201. Published December 20, 2023 Montecito Journal

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/ are doing business as: Groove Pilates, 1235 Coast Village Road STE 1, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. Bright Move LLC, 1491 Camino Rio Verde, Santa Barbara, CA 93111. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on November 14, 2023. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2023-0002641. Published December 20, 27, 2023 and January 3, 10, 2024 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/ are doing business as: Montecito Plumbing, 2669 Montrose Pl, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. Montecito Plumbing LLC, 2669 Montrose Pl, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on December 11, 2023. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2023-0002817. Published December 20, 27, 2023 and January 3, 10, 2024 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Integral Health Bolivia, 1374 B Danielson Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. Erik D Taylor, 1374 B Danielson Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on November 9, 2023. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2023-0002738. Published December 13, 20, 27, 2023 and January 3, 2024 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Montecito Valley; Montecito Valley Estates; Montecito Valley Estates Group; 1101 Coast Village Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. Tyler Kallenbach Real Estate, 513 E De La Guerra St, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on November 9, 2023. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20230002613. Published December 6, 13, 20, 27, 2023

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Bosco Sportfishing, 7931 Rio Vista Drive, Goleta, CA 93117. Weston C Boyle, 7931 Rio Vista Drive, Goleta, CA 93117.

“If winter helps you curl up and more that makes it one of the best of the seasons.” — Murray Pura

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on November 17, 2023. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2023-0002682. Published November 29, December 6, 13, 20, 2023 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/ are doing business as: Quinn Fiduciary Services, 601 E. Arrellaga Street #102, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. Montecito Fiduciary Services, LLC, 601 E. Arrellaga Street #102, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on November 1, 2023. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2023-0002562. Published November 29, December 6, 13, 20, 2023 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT: The following person(s) has (have) abandoned the use of the Fictitious Business Name(s): Quinn Fiduciary Services, 601 E. Arrellaga Street #102, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. Jaquelyn A Quinn, 333 Old Mill Road Space 168, Santa Barbara, CA 93110. This statement was originally filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on December 22, 2020. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL), filed October 25, 2023. Original FBN No. 2020-0003043. FBN 2023-0002506. Published November 29, December 6, 13, 20, 2023 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME: CASE No. 23CV00602. To all interested parties: Petitioner Kevin Brier Random aka Kevin Brierley Random filed a petition with Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara, for a decree changing name to Brier Kevin Random. The Court orders that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. Filed December 8, 2023 by Jessica Vega. Hearing date: February 7, 2024 at 10 am in Dept. 3, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Published December 13, 20, 27, and January 3, 2024

21 – 28 December 2023

On Entertainment (Continued from 37 37))

The Irish Tenors are celebrating 25 years of touring at the Granada this December 22 (courtesy photo)

There’s always so many people back in town around the holidays visiting family, so it’s always been a good time to get together and see my old friends. I’d actually done a little acoustic show with some friends out at my friend’s bar in Goleta the year before, which was really fun. So I thought it would be cool to turn it into an annual gig to have something to anchor me to Santa Barbara every Christmas season. It’s a good excuse to be back up at home during the holidays… Even though I’ve lived elsewhere far longer than the years that I spent in Santa Barbara, I still think of it as home no matter what. And it’s still your friends that you’re playing with at SOhO. Yeah, and every year I’ve gotten different people. We have a really solid lineup this year. Tom Curren, Santa Barbara surf legend and musician, is on the first night with Jim Lindberg, the singer for Pennywise, who is doing his solo acoustic thing. The second night, my buddies who have a bluegrass band called Gandy Dancer are opening, and then it’s Joey Cape, the singer of Lagwagon, who’s one of my oldest friends from town. I’m playing with my lean, mean, three-piece with bass and drum. Both nights are going to be a little bit each of punk rock, singer-songwriter, bluegrass and country rock. We’re going to do a Hank Williams Jr. song at the end of the night, so hopefully we can drag everybody else up there. It’s going to be really fun. Chris Shiflett’s Hometown Holiday Hoedown shows take place December 22-23 at SOhO. Tickets cost $25-$40. Info at (805) 962-7776 or www.sohosb.com.

Irish Tenors: Heart, Humor, and Harmonies Go On Anthony Kearns, Ronan Tynan, and Declan Kelly, better known as the Irish Tenors, are all well on in years and miles on the road, but have piled into one hotel room in Plymouth, Massachusetts, like a band out on its first tour. The Tenors have a history of hits with classics from the Emerald Isle (“Danny Boy,” “Whiskey in the Jar”) and modern songs (“My Heart Will Go On”) as well as Christmas nuggets dating back a quarter century, when they first came together for a PBS television special. Yet the Celtic music kings are as peppy as puppies, so talkative that Tynan didn’t even get a word in edgewise in our phone conversation to preview their concert at the Granada on December 22. Here are excerpts: Q. You all have had solo careers, recordings, teach, do theater, and more. Why do you keep coming back to the Irish Tenors and doing these tours? Anthony Kearns [AK]. That’s the thing, you just want to keep it going, take on the challenge to keep the show on the road. And we love it. It’s been 25 years, but the time has just flown by. It’s a wonderful thing. We don’t take it for granted. We work hard behind the scenes as well as on stage. What you have to understand is we were the top selling Irish act for many years with PBS. People who’ve seen us from the inception still love to see us coming back… We were the ones who took the sound out of the pub and put it on the concert platform – Declan Kelly [DK]. With a full orchestra. It gets people excited to be able to enjoy Irish music in a huge new context. AK. Right. We have a wealth of music to choose from, and never run out. The Christmas tour is even more successful. We perform the same repertoire as any of the tenors going, [Luciano] Pavarotti, [Plácido] Domingo or anyone…. Modesty is our strong suit as you can see. Q. What can people expect? How do you combine the 25th anniversary tour and the annual Christmas tour? 21 – 28 December 2023

AK. They’re very lucky in that we have divided up the program. The first quarter of the show is Irish music, then we go into more spiritual, religious songs, and then all of the second half is Christmas music, all the classics: “We Three Kings,” “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” “Silent Night,” “Jingle Bell Rock,” lots of fun stuff. DK. It’s mostly trios, but we all have some solos in each of the sections. But having all three of us singing on stage adds that huge extra dimension, the harmony and the ensemble verses within the song. It’s very exciting. AK. The tenor voices require solid singing, and you have the power of three with a full orchestra behind you with wonderful arrangements. When you have three tenors sailing to the high notes together in harmony, well, it gives you quite a lift. Q. Speaking of that, you’ve described your music as comfort food, which I imagine a lot of artists might hate. But it works for you. AK. That’s what it’s all about. At the end of the day, people need to be entertained. There’s no point of being all serious and up your nose. You just have to sing and entertain and let people enjoy themselves. That’s the bottom line. DK. People are on their feet by the end of every night. That’s the beauty of music. It changes people. It makes you feel better. The Irish Tenors perform at 7:30 pm on December 22 at the Granada Theatre, 1214 State Street. Tickets cost $50-$106. Call (805) 899-2222 or visit www.granadasb.org.

Holiday Show of the Week Whether you’re needing a bit of exercise to work off the Christmas feast, seeking some family fun time with lots of other folks, or merely looking for a way out of the house after a weekend with relatives, the Santa Barbara Country Dance Society might have the answer. They’re throwing open their doors to everyone with the free annual Christmas contra dance, which takes place 6:30-9:30 pm on December 25 at the Carrillo Ballroom (100 East Carrillo Street), a celebratory event that’s also participatory. All are welcome, from the uber-experienced to those that have to Google contra dance. We’ll save you the trouble: it’s a form of folk dance somewhat similar to square dance but performed in long lines where a pair of dancers progress through the line, with all the steps provided by a “caller.” A terrific live band provides the Steven Libowitz has covered music, former Santa Barbara resident a plethora of topics for the Erik Hoffman is the veteran caller who Journal since 1997, and now makes things more than easy for beginleads our extensive arts and ners, and the atmosphere is beyond entertainment coverage friendly and festive. There’s even a free dance lesson at 6:10 pm. But feel free to just come listen and watch. Visit www.sbcds.org/contradance.

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Montecito JOURNAL

Society (Continued from 14 14))

Avi and Jenna Reichental (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

Stoll was indeed humbled and talked about the importance of Casa del Herrero, its relationship in architecture to the Hearst Castle, and its place as Montecito’s only National Historic Landmark to date, saying: “It has been my pleasure volunteering and serving on the Board of Trustees to respect the multitude of artists, architects, and landscapers that have contributed to this historical landmark. Casa del Herrero allows us to step back in time and truly appreciate George Fox Steedman’s ideas come to fruition! His vision of a beautiful home creates connection to this community’s history and culture.” Biles then shared about the current roof restoration project, and officially announced the launch of their first ever capital campaign, titled: Preserving our Past, Protecting our Future. Palmer Jr. and Susan Jackson are co-chairs of the Campaign Committee, and their granting organization, the Ann Jackson Family Foundation, is making the lead gift. Palmer Jr. shared, “When I met Gary [Bradhering] and heard about the campaign, Susan and I were excited to help, and we are happy to make a significant lead gift for the campaign.” In closing, Biles stated, “I want to honor the memory of George Steedman Bass; he passed several weeks ago after a long life and continuous devotion to Casa del Herrero. George was the grandson of George Fox Steedman, the man who built the Casa and he helped create the foundation to preserve the Casa and ensure that it remained open to the public. His gift to the Endowment has helped support Casa for all these years and will be valued for decades to come. I think we can all agree that we are fortu-

42 Montecito JOURNAL

nate to live in a place where philanthropy supports history, preservation, and education. I want to end this talk with a note of goodwill and thanks to all of you for coming tonight and for your continued support of Casa del Herrero.” With many cheers and toasts, the guests returned to mingle and catch up with friends. Trustees at the holiday soirée with Biles were Gary Bradhering with partner Sheraton Kalouria, Karen Jones Clark and Stephen Clark, Beth Esrey with husband Bill, Marc Gelinas, Albert Hinckley, Janet McCann, Mari McAlister with husband Patrick, Elizabeth McGovern, Fran Morrow, and Carolyn Williams with husband Bob. From the Ann Jackson Family Foundation were Joan Jackson, Jim Jackson with wife Chana, and their cousin Debbie Jones. Event sponsors and guests included Thomas Lewis and Alexa Kadish, Janet McCann, Fran Morrow, Rooms & Gardens by Jami Voulgaris, Bob and Val Montgomery, Amy and Michael Mayfield, Northern Trust – Monica Safapour, Appleton Partners, Travis and Tom Kranz, and Maureen McDermut and Associates. 411: www.casadelherrero.com Instagram: @casadelherrero

Santa Barbara Rescue Mission Women’s Auxiliary Annual Holiday Tea for Bethel House The Santa Barbara Rescue Mission (SBRM) Women’s Auxiliary (WA) held its annual Bethel House Christmas Tea for its women in recovery program on Wednesday, December 13 at the home of Susan Hughes. Dianne Davis, Hospitality Chair, organized the event, and Kirsten Walters, Membership Chair, organized the activities for the event, including the prayers, singing Christmas songs and, breakout sessions.

The annual holiday photo op with the SB Rescue Mission Women’s Auxiliary (photo by Alice Birch of SBRM)

The Santa Barbara Rescue Mission Women’s Auxiliary gathers with Bethel House residents to pray and sing Christmas carols (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

The SBRM Women’s Auxiliary is led by President Pamela Dillman Haskell. She shares: “The Christmas Tea is an opportunity for the SBRM Women’s Auxiliary to celebrate the women of Bethel House on their journey to healing. We are so grateful we can offer some holiday cheer to these brave women, and honestly it’s a gift to us that we can do so.” Attendees were board members and officers of the Women’s Auxiliary and the residents of Bethel House. Each member of the Women’s Auxiliary brings a tasty hors d’oeuvre, dessert, teas, and punch to share family style in the kitchen and dining room. The Holiday Tea program is a tea reception, followed by all joining in the living room for a community prayer service and singing Christmas carols accom-

panied on piano by Sara Coleman. The event concludes with breakout rooms for one-on-one sessions with assigned Women’s Auxiliary members and the Bethel House residents. The SBRM Women’s Auxiliary supports SBRM through fundraising for its in-house programs and community outreach. The Bethel House Women’s Residential Treatment Program is a 12-month, faith-centered, 12-step social model program. Residents are provided with a living and learning environment that addresses the issues of addiction in a holistic way. SBRM provides immediate help and lasting hope to those with no place else to go, via a 12-month residential recovery program to men and women who desire to break free from cycles of addiction, poverty, homelessness, and crime. 411: www.sbrm.org

Helena Mason Art Gallery Holiday Party

In the kitchen with Joan Wimberly, Susan Hughes, Andrea Preiser, and Norris Goss (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

Natalie Olivas, owner-director of the Helena Mason Art Gallery, held an impromptu holiday party open house on Wednesday, December 13, to promote local event professionals, the gallery as an event space for rent, and the art on the walls by Pedro de la Cruz, Chris Gocong, Bob Hernandez, and Rod Lathim. The placement of the art gallery juxtaposed within a block of the Funk Zone “I like the cold weather. It means you get work done.” — Noam Chomsky

21 – 28 December 2023

Our Town (Continued from 12 12))

Helena Mason Art Gallery owner-director Natalie Olivas with her gallery assistant Natalia Alyse, next to new art by Bob Hernandez (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

Lisa StorrieLombardi, Tim Lister, and Rachel Street (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

Gourmet caterer Rene Gonzalez showing his specialties in front of the art by Chris Gocong (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

R+R team Jessica Damon and Rudy Richardson with their specialty cocktail next to art by Rod Lathim (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

perimeter, the beach, and State Street makes it an ideal meeting place, and an escape zone itself from all three borders, with the casual back patio and upstairs loft lounge. The event professionals participating in the holiday party were DJ Eric Anderson of LeFunk Sounds spinning curated tunes; the gourmet caterer of health-oriented foods Rene Gonzalez of Gourmet Food Kitchen & Catering SB who was showcasing his Asian dumplings, Latin chili lime shrimp, and Italian mozzarella rounds; the R+R team of Jessica Damon and Rudy Richardson specializing in private events, who were crafting drinks and ice cubes with cranberries and rosemary sprigs. It was a fun and casual event, with guests catching up with the gallery owner and mingling over the art and atmosphere. 411: www.helenamasonartgallery.com 21 – 28 December 2023

Galaxy; provides a 3D map of the Milky Way Galaxy; adds data on “stellar” properties like the temperature and chemical composition of the stars; maps bodies in the solar system; and tracks the age, evolution, brightness, distance, composition, and measures the dust of the Milky Way and asteroids. There is a Citizen Science Project for it called Gaia Vari; visit the link in the 411. After a break and a few Q&A, it was time for the Astro News, presented by LCO lead astroscientist Andy Howell PhD and new to LCO Carolina Capetillo PhD. They gave briefs on the Gemini meteor showers visible now through December 24; updates on the James Webb Telescope viewing of Cassiopeia with references to NASA’s Instagram, bragging about the White House Advent calendar including a photo from the Webb Telescope; the not-so-dangerous solar storms recently reported in the news as such; and Howell finishing up the ride with the International Space Station scientists losing their tool bag in space while working. Said tool bag is now visible from Earth, and “The stray tool bag will float around our planet for a few months, until tendrils of Earth’s

atmosphere pull it back for a safe burn-up high above the surface at roughly 70 miles (113 kilometers) in altitude.” To Howell’s credit, he cited the sarcastic news bits from the UK’s Daily Mail about the female ISS scientists as “misogynistic,” and added, “men have been losing shit in space for years!” – with the most recent being the lost tomato by ISS Frank Rubio eight months ago that was recently found by the crew [no he did not eat it]. The MJ wishes a Happy Holidays to the LCO team, and may the Force be with you! 411: https://lco.global Gaia Citizen Project: https://www.gaiavari.space/

Joanne A Calitri is a professional international photographer and journalist. Contact her at: artraks@ yahoo.com

THE BIG BAG HAND MADE SANTA BARBARA EXCLUSIVELY AT: DJ Eric Anderson spinning house music with the commissioned art by Pedro de la Cruz (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

THE YES STORE 1100 STATE STREET, SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA LOCATED IN LA ARCADA PLAZA Montecito JOURNAL

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Calendar of Events

ONGOING

by Steven Libowitz ENDING THIS WEEK Living Nativity – Each year for a few days before Christmas, the lawn under the coastal redwood tree at First United Methodist Church downtown is transformed into a rustic wooden stable to evoke Bethlehem, featuring figures depicting a serene Mary, Joseph, and tiny baby Jesus asleep in the manger. The three majestic kings stand by holding their gifts for the baby, attentive angels appear in the area, and lowly shepherds tend to their flocks. It’s that last part that’s actually animated, as the scene includes live camels, donkeys, sheep, and goats – with a petting zoo, too – all surrounding the manger. The historic sanctuary inside the church is also open, with seasonal music softly playing in the background as the soundtrack to a display of crèches from around the world that adorn the communion rail. Visitors can also enjoy complimentary cider and cookies at the multigenerational event that draws families back year after year. WHEN: 5:30-7:30 pm December 20-22 WHERE: First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu St., corner of Garden St. COST: free INFO: (805) 963-3579 or www.fumcsb.org/news-announcements THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21 Merry Mezcal Martini – Shake off the first day of winter blues and come get your groove on with the scintillating sounds of the local Latin music luminaries Mezcal Martini. The jazz-dance band that calls Santa Barbara home has been playing together for over a decade, so the rhythms are tight as Mezcal Martini blends infectious grooves and improvisation with scintillating horn lines and irresistible beats to create a distinct energy and excitement all its own. Despite the death of founding drummer Jeff Davis last winter, the group that has long been Fiesta and other festival favorites has carried on contagiously with a current lineup that includes Karl Schiffmann, keyboards; Rubén Martinez, bass; Bruce Hale, vocals; Victoria Matthews, vocals; Lorenzo Martinez, vocals, congas and vibes; René Martinez, drums; Charlie Ortega, saxophone; James Siu, trumpet; and Michael Wallace, trombone. Enjoy high-energy salsa, cha-cha, cumbia, and more. WHEN: 8 pm (free dance lesson at 7:30 pm) ENDING THIS WEEK ‘Goes ‘Round’ Closing Down – The World Goes ‘Round, the musical revue that features an eclectic collection of love songs, torch songs, ballads, and witty comic numbers drawn from the songbook of Broadway’s John Kander and Fred Ebb, winds up its wintertime run at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura. The nonstop hit parade features unforgettable gems from the songwriting team behind Cabaret and Chicago, including “Mr. Cellophane,” “Maybe This Time,” “Cabaret,” and “New York, New York,” but is a step above the typical revue as it was originally conceived by director Scott Ellis, choreographer Susan Stroman, and librettist David Thompson, who collaborated on such Kander and Ebb shows as Steel Pier and the 1996 revival of Chicago. Expect melody-filled moments of humor, romance, drama, and pathos in a thrilling celebration of joie de vivre starring a quantity of Broadway veterans. WHEN: Through December 23 WHERE: Rubicon Theatre, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura COST: $30-$89.50 INFO: (805) 667-2900 or www.rubicontheatre.org

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ZooLights Sparkle Through the Holidays – ZooLights, perhaps Santa Barbara’s brightest idea for a new holiday tradition, returns for a second year of after-hours fun at the animal haven atop an oceanside bluff. Visitors can experience the Santa Barbara Zoo in, ahem, a whole new light, as it transforms into a winter wonderland filled with larger-than-lifesize animal and wildlife installations defined by thousands of LED bulbs, spread out over virtually the entire expanse of the Zoo. Meant to illuminate both the Zoo and the community’s spirit during the holiday season, the immersive holiday experience features thousands of handcrafted silk-covered lanterns aglow with more than 50,000 LED bulbs representing animals and nature scenes of wild places both local and around the world. Newcomers and those who took in the impressive and expansive exhibition alike are encouraged to attend as the vast majority of the installations are new for 2023. Guests can also enjoy interactive areas, and taste wintry snacks and drinks for purchase. WHEN: 4:30-8:30 pm nightly through January 14 (except December 18, 24-25 & January 1, 8-9) WHERE: Santa Barbara Zoo, 500 Niños Dr. COST: $20-$32 INFO: (805) 962-5339 or www.sbzoo.org/zoolights

WHERE: SOhO Restaurant & Music Club, 1221 State Street, upstairs in Victoria Court COST: $10 INFO: (805) 962-7776 or www.sohosb.com FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22 ‘Sublime’ Season at Sullivan Goss – The opening reception for the new major show at downtown’s most elegant art gallery won’t take place until the first 1st Thursday of 2024, but the exhibition itself actually opens this week. “The Sublime: Where Words Fail” is an expansive survey on the concept of the sublime in American art featuring works spanning the last 120 years that highlight how the concept of the sublime has been a recurring source of inspiration for artists even as art has moved from romanticism to realism, and representation to abstraction. The exhibit aims to display how the defining characteristic tying together the diverse aesthetics through the years is the attempt to communicate through the visual arts an experience that is by definition beyond words. To that end, Sullivan Goss’ show presents important historical examples along with innovative contemporary works that demonstrate the evolution of the sublime experience as it continues to inspire artists into the 21st century. Many of the 18 artists whose works are being exhibited will be at the opening reception on January 4, 2024. WHEN: December 22-February 26 WHERE: Sullivan Goss, 11 E. Anapamu St. COST: free INFO: (805) 730-1460 or www.sullivangoss.com Shiflett’s Soaring SOhO Showdown – Santa Barbara native guitarist-singer-songwriter Chris Shiflett, whose fame soared when he took over the lead guitar spot in the Foo Fighters way back in 1999, heads back home for a pair of pre-Christmas concerts affectionately known as “Hometown Holiday Hoedown.” The third annual affair expands to two consecutive nights for Shiflett to share intimate shows with locals where he dives deep into the Nashville country leanings that have served as the underpinnings of his three latest solo CDs, including the just-out Lost At Sea. As before, Shiflett also shares the stage with some of his old pals on the local rock/punk/surf music scene,

“In winter we behold the charms of solemn majesty and naked grandeur.” — James Ellis

21 – 28 December 2023

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22 Darla Does Christmas – Santa Barbara’s most ubiquitous and unusually peppy DJ Darla Bea heads downtown again for the pre-Christmas Party pop-up at Paseo Nuevo’s Peppermint Parlor, located in the plaza across from the old Nordstrom store. The space has been deliciously and delightfully decorated for the December holidays, all the more inviting for the full family to get its groove on including warming up via the complimentary hot cocoa bar. Darla – who no doubt will be clad in something Christmas-y for the event – has proclaimed that she’ll be playing Christmas favorites, Spanish language holiday tracks, remixes, and children’s dance songs. But we’re imagining that the always-imaginative DJ might pull out something even more thematic, perhaps 1960s chestnuts such as “Peppermint Twist” from Joey Dee & The Starliters, the psychedelic smash “Incense and Peppermint” by the onetime Santa Barbara-based band Strawberry Alarm Clock, or, more modernly, something by the British dark pop duo Peppermint Heaven. What a treat! WHEN: 6-9 pm WHERE: 651 Paseo Nuevo, between State St. and Chapala COST: free INFO: (805) 963-7147 or www.paseonuevosb.com/holidays

namely Jim Lindberg of Pennywise and Tim Curren tonight, and Joey Cape of Lagwagon and Gandy Dancer tomorrow. Expect crunchy guitars-meets-pedal steel arrangements powered by indelible melodies – and lots of hometown holiday spirit. WHEN: 8 pm tonight & tomorrow WHERE: SOhO Restaurant & Music Club, 1221 State Street, upstairs in Victoria Court COST: $25-$40 INFO: (805) 962-7776 or www.sohosb.com

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INDULGENCE $500 SHIPBOARD CREDIT plus 1-NIGHT POST-CRUISE HOTEL PACKAGE* Escape, relax and indulge with a $500 Shipboard Credit plus 1-Night Post-Cruise Hotel Package when cruising the elegant and historic shores of Europe on select 2023 voyages. Indulge on board or on shore with your shipboard credit, from luxurious spa treatments to Regent Choice Shore Excursions. Then, look forward to an extra night on us in your last port of call before heading home. EUROPEAN INDULGENCE awaits with an exclusive offer by TRAVELSTORE. Reserve your suite by August 31, 2022. EVERY LUXURY INCLUDED • FREE Airfare • FREE Unlimited Shore Excursions • FREE Specialty Restaurants

SO MANY WAYS TO EXPLORE WITH REGENT SEVEN SEAS LUXURY CRUISES • FREE Unlimited Beverages, Including Fine Wines and Spirits • FREE Unlimited Wi-Fi • FREE Pre-Paid Gratuities • FREE Valet Laundry Service

With over 500 destinations worldwide, our thousands of FREE Unlimited Shore Excursions are just the beginning. Enjoy more time ashore with FREE Pre- and Post-Cruise Land Programs on select voyages, as well as optional Mid-Cruise Overland Programs on others. Select from culinary-centric experiences, locally guided engagements for a more authentic taste of a region, exciting tours of nature’s wonders, insights into the art and culture of a particular locale, and so much more across every destination. *European Indulgence offer is capacity controlled and applies to new select 2023 Mediterranean and Northern Europe bookings only made between July 1 - August 31, 2022. Offer includes $500 Shipboard Credit per Suite and 1 Free Post Cruise Hotel Night. Availability is limited and restrictions apply — offer may be withdrawn at any time. Registry: Marshall Islands & Bahamas. ©2022 Regent Seven Seas Cruises.

EXCEPTIONAL VALUE ACROSS THE SEVEN SEAS

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23 Step It up for an ‘Irish Christmas’ – The Lobero Theatre once again gets the honor of serving as the final venue and date for the 2023 version of Kerry Irish Productions’ annual acclaimed holiday production of An Irish Christmas. As in past years, the show features an award-winning cast of dancers drawn from veterans of some of the most popular Irish acts of all time, including Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, and Celtic Wings. Adding live musicians and singers collaborating with the dancers makes An Irish Christmas a way to celebrate the holidays as only the Irish can. Audiences will enjoy cherished carols including Silent Night, Carol of the Bells, and The Twelve Days of Christmas as backdrop to a spectacular high-energy display of Irish dancing at its very best. Serving as 2023’s Dance Captain is Kelly Pearson, who has been Irish dancing for more than 20 years, including a competitive career where she qualified for the World Championships five times, achieving multiple placements in the Top 20 in North America. This year’s dance team also has a familiar family flair as Cian, Jack, and Ellie Porter have joined the cast. The three siblings are all championship dancers who have logged a lot of performance experience – not at all surprising as they are the children of Scott Porter and Lisa Kelly who were both Riverdance cast members. As a celebration of family and community, An Irish Christmas also showcases several Irish holiday traditions including chasing the wren, butter-making, and dancing on the half-door. WHEN: 2 & 7 pm WHERE: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St. COST: $30-$80 INFO: (805) 963-0761 or www.lobero.com

21 – 28 December 2023

For Peace of Mind when you travel, contact Santa Barbara Travel Bureau. - Trusted, locally owned and operated for 75 years -

805-966-3116 • sbtravel.com SANTA BARBARA 1028 State Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101

MONTECITO 1485 East Valley Road #9 Montecito, CA 93108 Montecito JOURNAL

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING (805) 565-1860 ESTATE/SENIOR SERVICES MOVING MISS DAISY

Full Service SAFE Senior Relocation and Estate Liquidation Services Including: Packing and Unpacking, Estate Sales, Online Auctions and our own Consignment Shop! We are Licensed, Bonded, Liability Insured, Workers Comped, Certified by The National Assoc Of Senior Move Managers (NASMM) and The American Society of Estate Liquidators (ASEL). Glenn Novack, Owner. 805-770-7715 info@movingmissdaisy.com MovingMissDaisy.com Consignments@MovingMissDaisy.hibid.com The Clearing House, LLC

Recognized as the area’s Premier Estate Liquidators - Experts in the Santa Barbara Market! We are Skilled Professionals with Years of Experience in Downsizing and Estate Sales. Personalized service. Insured. Call for a complimentary consultation. Elaine (805)708-6113 Christa (805)450-8382 Email: theclearinghouseSB@cox.net Website: www.theclearinghouseSB.com TRESOR We Buy, Sell and Broker Important Estate Jewelry. Located in the upper village of Montecito. Graduate Gemologists with 30 years of experience. We do free evaluations and private consultation. 1470 East Valley Rd Suite V. 805 969-0888 PERSONAL SERVICES Tell Your Story How did you get to be where you are today? What were your challenges? What is your Love Story? I can help you tell your story in an unforgettable way – with a book that will live on for many generations. The books I write are as thorough and entertaining as acclaimed biographies you’ve read. I also assist with books you write – planning, editing and publishing. David Wilk Great references. (805) 455-5980 www.BiographyDavidWilk.com

46 Montecito JOURNAL

REVERSE MORTGAGES

KNIFE SHARPENING SERVICE

ATTENTION SENIORS!!! IS A REVERSE MORTGAGE RIGHT FOR YOU? • Access the equity in your home today • No monthly mortgage payments • You retain title to your home • Lump sum or monthly distributions • All inquiries are strictly confidential Gayle Nagy 805-448-9224 Gayle@dmfsb.com NMLS # 251258 / Company NMLS # 12007 Direct Mortgage Funding Santa Barbara Equal Housing Lender Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act

EDC Mobile Sharpening is a locally owned and operated in Santa Barbara. We specialize in (No-Entry) House Calls, Businesses and Special Events. Call 805-696-0525 to schedule an appointment

PHYSICAL TRAINING & THERAPY Stillwell Fitness of Santa Barbara In Home Personal Training Sessions for 65+ Help with: Strength, Flexibility, Balance, Motivation, and Consistency John Stillwell, CPT, Specialist in Senior Fitness 805-705-2014 StillwellFitness.com

GOT OSTEOPOROSIS? WE CAN HELP At OsteoStrong our proven non-drug protocol takes just ten minutes once a week to improve your bone density and aid in more energy, strength, balance and agility. Please call for a complimentary session! Call Now (805) 453-6086

TILE SETTING Local tile setter of 35 years is now doing small jobs only. Services include grout cleaning and repair, caulking, sealing, replacing damaged tiles and basic plumbing needs. Call Doug Watts at 805-729-3211 for a free estimate.

AVAILABLE FOR RENT Photo Booth Rentals for any event or occasion www.TruMusicLighting.com Call or text Moi (805) 403-6275 AUTOMOBILE FOR SALE 2019 Tesla Model S 100D long range AWD. 20,000 miles. Always garaged in Santa Barbara, no accidents, Tesla maintained. Battery and drive unit limited warranty until June 2027. Black exterior, cream interior. 805-448-0800 for info. $44,500. TINY GOLDEN DOODLE CHRISTMAS PUPPIES

APPAREL

Red Chocolate coats 10 – 20 lbs adult weight Family raised. Excellent therapy companion. $3000 541-999-5916 Dog License #: 22-0518: Coos County, Oregon

Timeless, elegance - Nightwear, robes, loungewear www.shopglamourhouse.com 805-969 5285 Ann@shopglamourhouse.com AVAILABLE RENTAL Fully furnished Montecito guest cottage for rent $3,400/month w/1-year lease, 1-bed/ 1-bath, part of larger estate near Upper Village, 1 outdoor parking space. J.J. Gobbell, DRE#02063124 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (805) 403-5785 JJ@EstatesOfSantaBarbara.com www.EstatesOfSantaBarbara.com POLO FIELD CONDO FOR RENT 1/bd furnished condo Ocean/Polofield views. W/D utilities pd. $3000/mo/Dep Available January 10th (805)717-1787

JOB VACANCY MERRAG Montecito Emergency Response and Recovery Group, is looking for recording secretary on the last Thursday of the month at the Montecito Fire dept. Approx. 2 hours at $25.00 per hour. Please contact Trish 805 886 0164. AUTOMOBILES WANTED We buy Classic Cars Running or not. Foreign/Domestic Chevy/Ford/Porsche/Mercedes/Etc. We come to you. Call Steven - 805-699-0684 Website – Avantiauto.group

MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN RETREAT Priv. Rm/Bth w. priv. entrance on a 3BR/3BTH,5 ac. Span. Medit. estate, W. Camino Cielo, 10 min. from State St. avail for one neat, clean, organized top professional $1800 mo. incl. utils. 805-964-1891

AVAILABLE CAREGIVER Trusted, Experienced Caregiver, CA State registered and background checked. Vaccinated. Loving and caring provides transportation, medications, etc. Lina 805-940-6888 ELECTRICIAN

IN SEARCH OF REAL ESTATE We buy land and homes in any condition. Call 805-722-5792 for a free quote

$10 MINIMUM TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD It’s simple. Charge is $3 per line, each line with 31 characters. Minimum is $10 per issue. Photo/logo/visual is an additional $20 per issue. Email Classified Ad to frontdesk@montecitojournal.net or call (805) 565-1860. All ads must be finalized by Friday at 2pm the week prior to printing. We accept Visa/MasterCard/Amex (3% surcharge) “People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.” — Anton Chekhov

Montecito Electric Repairs and Inspections Licensed C10485353 805-969-1575 VOLUNTEERS NEEDED K-9 PALS need volunteers to be foster parents for our dogs while they are waiting for their forever homes. For more information info@k-9pals.org or 805-570-0415.

21 – 28 December 2023

Mini Meta

Last Week’s Solution:

By Pete Muller & Frank Longo For each of the first five mini crosswords, one of the entries also serves as part of a five-word meta clue. The answer to the meta is a word or phrase (six letters or longer) hidden within the sixth mini crossword. The hidden meta answer starts in one of the squares and snakes through the grid vertically and horizontally from there (no diagonals!) without revisiting any squares. PUZZLE #1 1

T S K O L I V E M E T E R B E E R S S P R Y

A S T O N L A R G E B U I L T A N N E S A I D

D O G S U E D E A S C O T N E A R E D Y S

C A R P C A N A L N I T R O B R E E D C O D

C R E P E D O R A G S O A P Y S T E P T O R T

B A M P R U D E Y A R D S R A M I S E B A N

TOMBS

BUILT

NEAR

CAIRO

EGYPT

PYRAMIDS

PUZZLE #3

PUZZLE #2 4

4 5

Down 1 What a grand master plays? 2 Bush appointee of 2006 3 Extremely cold 4 Long reigns, say 5 One may be saluted as it flies

Across 1 Airer of "My 600-lb Life" and "1000-lb Sisters" 4 Sightseeing trip 5 Word with ear, eye, head, or mouth 6 Big guns in the Middle East 7 Statement in a mission statement

Down 1 Slight convergence of front wheels 2 Money said to be "filthy" 3 Prominent part of a cockatoo, kingfisher, or quetzal 4 It may seem to be crawling or flying 5 A sitter might watch one

PUZZLE #4

PUZZLE #5

3 5

Across 1 Dolor color? 5 With 6-Across, poetry without rhyme 6 See 5-Across 7 Chappelle who won a 2023 Grammy for "The Closer" 8 Space heater?

Down 1 Retrieve like a boxer 2 "Carmen" or "Elektra," e.g. 3 Approach very fast 4 Low "Yo!" 5 Result of out-of-control inflation?

META PUZZLE 4

Down 1 John of 2-Down 2 "Something everyone on Earth can share," per Ariana Grande 3 What Millie Bobby Brown was for most of her run on "Stranger Things" 4 See 7-Across 5 Lose tautness

Across 1 Word-word connector 4 Make less lackluster 6 Court reporter, in brief 7 Confetti component 8 One of those things?

Across 1 Worker with a saving plan, in brief 4 They may have bond ratings 6 On the Red, White, or Yellow 7 With 4-Down, becoming extremely gung-ho 8 Mandela's polit. party

Across 1 Fraction of Seventeen? 5 Manicurist, often 6 Boxer Ali who wrote "Reach!" 7 Those not in favor 8 Successfully through the uprights, e.g.

3 5 7

Down 1 Petting zoo sound 2 Caterpillar or doodlebug, e.g. 3 Last name of two hall-of-fame auto-racing brothers 4 Barely manage, with "out" 5 Some men's undies

Across 1 Welcome sign for a B'way angel 4 Skilled at scheming 6 Key of Katy Perry's "Firework" and John Legend's "All of Me" 8 Peak that's that highest elev. on Crete 9 Bleacher feature

Down 1 Competed in a medley relay, maybe 2 Results of falling-outs 3 Basic skateboarding jump 5 When tripled, "and so on" 7 Fanny pic, perhaps

LOCAL BUSINESS DIRECTORY

SB-LAX $ 39

OEACH WAY

She’s Already In You Professional Coaching for Women Relationships Leadership Purpose GABRIELLATAYLOR.COM

SUV $450 -----

PRIVILEGE

TCP 32411-A

TRANSPORTATION

BBQ's

Historical Paintings Vintage Posters Original Prints

Concrete Patios Driveways

Fireplaces

805-962-4606

Walkways

Masonry

WE BUY BOOKS

info@losthorizonbooks.com

LOST HORIZON BOOKSTORE now in Montecito, 539 San Ysidro Road

21 – 28 December 2023

(805) 280 5159

Andrea Dominic, R.Ph. Emily McPherson, Pharm.D. Paul Yered, R.Ph. 1498 East Valley Road Montecito, CA 93108

Phone: 805-969-2284 Fax: 805-565-3174

Compounding Pharmacy & Boutique

Diego Carrillo - Owner Call/Text 805-252-4403 SERVING THE 805 • LIC#1099725 Montecito JOURNAL

LUCKY’S

steaks / chops / seafood . . . and brunch • Morning Starters and Other First Courses • Fresh Squeezed OJ or Grapefruit Juice � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 8/10

• Sandwiches •

choice of hash browns, fries, mixed greens, Caesar, fruit salad

Vegetarian Burger, 5 oz� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22 choice of cheese (burger patty is vegan)

Grilled Artichoke with choice of sauce � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 16

Lucky Burger, 8 oz�, � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 28 choice of cheese

Bowl of Chopped Fresh Fruit w/ lime and mint � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 12 Giant Shrimp Cocktail � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 36

Burrata Mozzarella (Puglia), basil and ripe tomato� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22 French Onion Soup, Gratinée � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 17 Matzo Ball Soup � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 17 Lucky Chili w/ cornbread, cheddar and onions � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22

• A La Carte •

Grilled Chicken Breast Club on a Soft Bun� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 28 bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado Sliced Filet Mignon Open Faced Sandwich, 6 oz� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 32 mushroom sauce, french fries Pastrami Reuben � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 26 sauerkraut and gruyere on rye

Brioche French Toast w/ fresh berries and maple syrup � � � � � � � � � � � 19 Waffle w/ fresh berries, whipped cream, maple syrup � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 16 Cambridge House Rope Hung Smoked Salmon, � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 29 toasted bialy or bagel, cream cheese, olives, tomato & cucumber

• Eggs and Other Breakfast Dishes • choice of hash browns, fries, sliced tomatoes, fruit salad Classic Eggs Benedict w/ julienne ham and hollandaise � � � � � � � � � 26 California Eggs Benedict w/ spinach, tomato, avocado � � � � � � � � � � 24 Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 28 Wild Mushroom and Gruyere Omelet � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22 Home Made Spanish Chorizo Omelet w/ avocado � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22 Petit Filet 7 oz� Steak, and two eggs any style � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 59 Corned Beef Hash, and two poached eggs � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 26

• Salads and Other Specialties • Wedge of Iceberg � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 18 roquefort or thousand island dressing Arugula, Radicchio & Belgian Endive Salad � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 17 reggiano parmesan, balsamic vinaigrette Caesar Salad � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 16 w/ grilled chicken breast � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 31 Seafood Louie � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 47 two shrimp, 2 oz� crab, avocado, egg, romaine, tomato, cucumber Charred Rare Tuna Nicoise Salad � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 42 Lucky’s Salad � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 25 romaine, shrimp, bacon, green beans, peppers, avocado, roquefort Cobb Salad tossed with Roquefort dressing � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 29 Chopped Salad � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 25 arugula, radicchio, shrimp, prosciutto, cannellini beans, onions Sliced Steak Salad, 6 oz�, � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 32 arugula, radicchio, belgian endive and sauteéd onion Dos Pueblos Abalone (4pcs) � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 40

Mixed Vegetable Frittata w/ Gruyere � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22

Jimmy the Greek Salad with Feta � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 20

Huevos Rancheros, two eggs any style � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22 tortillas, melted cheese, avocado and warm salsa

join us for brunch saturday and sunday 9AM-2:30PM and for lunch fridays 11AM-2:30PM reservations via OpenTable or by phone 805-565-7540 1279 Coast Village Road, Montecito