Car related... Moss ! and Cars & Coffee every Sunday morning. Its
absolutely AMAZING the number of exotics and old cars some of the people
that live here have. I am constantly impressed with the calibre of cars
that show up. 30 miles up the mountain in Solvang is a really nice
Motorcycle museum. And 30 miles south in Ventura is the Mullin Auto Museum.
Unfortunately even with Moss here there is very little British car
stuff going on and very few LBCs on the road.
For things to see. There is the Mission which is worth a visit, then
our Courthouse which should not be missed, both of these take only a
half hour to walk around (more if you are a history buff) and are well
restored. The Courthouse is only a short block from State street, our
main shopping street. Staying on upper downtown state, you should
really go to the Karpeles Manuscript library, its a short look around
maybe 1/2 hour but some of the documents they have are worth a look, 2
years ago they had the Magna Carta, they rotate the manuscripts along
with the displays so it changes every 6 or so months. My daughter loved
it a few years ago when they had a space suit that actually walked on
the moon along with original blueprints of the space capsule.
Everything so far is free and even if you are not interested in the
stuff, they are pretty quick to see and build "wifey" points. Staying
with history and buildings, there is the Presidio which is interesting
from the point of view of how they are restoring it and what it was
built for, etc. and while you can walk around it for free, they charge
$6 to walk inside and see 3 rooms that you can actually look into from
the windows while you walk around for free. The Presidio is 2 blocks
from State st. but it is near C'est Cheese if you are into Cheese from
all around the world and some pretty good sandwiches. The Presidio is
also across the street from 3 Pickles home of the second best Pastrami
sandwiches in SB. On the 900 block of State st. (same block as the
Presidio) is a new pizza place that I don't remember the name of, they
use 2 wood burning ovens and the pizza's are pretty good.
If the wife is into Antiques, there are a few stores in SB but the
best ones are in Summerland only 8-10 miles down the road and Tres Lune
has a wood burning pizza oven and does pretty good pizzas.
General "shopping" is all done on State st. but its a long street,
so the 2 malls are separated by miles, we informally call it lower state
and upper state. All the bars and dance clubs are on VERY low state by
the beach.
Speaking of the beach, of course you HAVE to walk the harbor and
breakwater, I would stay away from the restaurants at the harbor, they
are very touristy with the exception of Brophy's which is a small place
upstairs, unfortunately the wait is always over an hour and often
multiple hours and they don't take reservations, it was the local
hangout at the harbor. On the warf are some good restaurants, the
very best for me is SB Shellfish company, they have Atlantic ocean
oysters (only place in SB that does, all others get their oysters on
West coast) and are reasonable on their shellfish, its all alive in huge
aquariums. No tables to sit at, you sit around the bar which goes all
the way around the room, so not fancy like the Warf or Moby Dick's and
priced less and guaranteed FRESH. There is a Art show on Sunday's at
the beach which is quite nice with local artists but I would go to C&C
instead.
If you did not build enough wifey points during the day and need some
more before the night, you can go to Montecito and shop around upscale
shops and go to Via Vai Trattoria for dinner, she will like it and they
have a wood oven and make a really good pizza. A drive through
Montecito and looking at the mansions is always fun as well.
For food while walking down state I would go to Norton's Pastrami,
home of the best Pastrami sandwhich in SB, its next door to Giovanni's
Pie's which does not use a wood oven but is the last pizza place in town
that does not use a conveyor belt oven, only 2 tables its more designed
for take out. Do NOT confuse Giovanni's Pie's with Giovanni's
restaurants (there are 3 of them), their pizza is garbage. Good Italian
food is Petrini's if you like family style food, if you want fancier
there are many tratorria's in town. Norton's is only open for lunch,
they close at 4 (I think). For Dinner there is a HUGE variety, Dan's on
upper state has a wood oven but I have not tried their pizza yet,
however I know the oven builder and chef personally so I assume its very
good. Dan's is a old biker bar that is trying to upscale itself, so one
half bar, one half food now, but except for the pizza its mostly snacks
from the wood oven. Walking distance from Dan's is Harry's, pretty good
steaks, its the local hangout, been there since the 1940's and warning
their drinks are HEAVY on the alcohol, the food is not great but its
never bad and its a nice environment. Most of the restaurants on State
are pretty good. Best steaks are probably at the Tee-off, but my choice
is Paradise because they have good steaks and great fries (I prefer
shoestring fries).
On upper De La Vina is a old shopping mall, in there is Presto Pasta,
really good pasta of all kinds and really CHEAP, but warning there are
no other choices just pasta with all kinds of sauces/toppings. Next
door is Nicky D's pizza, and while he advertises its a wood burning its
actually coal burning so its a white oven, the pizza there is different,
its what he calls a New York style and you can taste the freshness of
the ingredients but the dough is always soggy so I don't go there anymore.
Then there is IV (Isla Vista) next to UCSB, tons of really good food
for REALLY cheap and in June the scenery will be quite good due to the
warm weather. Make sure you bring sun glasses so the wife does not know
what you are staring at and she should wear them also (so my wife tells
me). Angry wings is awesome !!! and so is the BBQ place whose name I
can't remember but can walk to for lunch and get the name if you need it.
Still reading ? I can go on :)
mike
On 04/22/2013 05:12 PM, Trevor Jessie wrote:
> It looks like I'll be in Santa Barbara the week of June 16th. I'm tagging
> along with my wife on a "business" trip. Anything I might see and do
> related to spridgets or British cars? I'm not sure of our itinerary yet.
>
> Thanks,
> Trevor
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