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New eatery is coming to Montecito Country Mart; Letter Perfect is moving; City National Bank announces hire; and Santa Barbara's hotel bed taxes are still rising
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If you're looking for delicious barbecue with a 1990s West Coast hip-hop theme and run by the consummate cooking family, then there's a new place for you on State Street in Santa Barbara.
Kristi Bean and her daughter, Jenniffer Bean — with two Fs because she needed to be special, mom said — have opened Beans BBQ at 1230 State St., and they have hit the ground running.
The family already owns a longtime catering business. It's booked out into November 2023 and does about 40 weddings a year.
"I have been cooking my whole life," said Kristi Bean, adding that she learned to barbecue from her father. "This just seemed like a logical next step."
With the State Street restaurant, she said she wants to bring "not pretentious, just home cooking to our community."
"There's plenty of fancy going around," Kristi Bean said. "We wanted to do the kind of food that you do at grandma's house on a Sunday afternoon."
They make everything from scratch, including the sauces. On the menu are tri-tip, ribs, chicken, onion rings, salads, and a variety of tasty appetizers.
What you probably won't find at grandma's house is a painting of songwriting and rap legend Tupac Shakur. The family loves hip-hop music, and in the hall toward the back are tributes to Tupac and Ice Cube and the words, "Compton. Long Beach. Inglewood."
"We call it the hip-hop hallway," Kristi Bean said, adding that she plans to bring in local musicians, artists, drag shows and other events.
Most of all, however, she wants a family vibe at the restaurant. She said she loves the smell of the smoke.
"At the end of the day, barbecue is kind of the philosophy that family is somewhere nearby," she said. "That is what we are all about."
Kristi Bean said she raised her three kids as a single mom and that "family is the core of our business."
"We believe without it, that we aren't really anything," she said. "This family, and everyone in it, has contributed to some facet of its success."
A family member even stuffed all the animals on the wall, including the bear and the deer.
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"We're excited," she said. "It's a woman-owned, family-owned business, and it always has been."
Jenniffer Bean said, "Mama taught us to cook everything, and now we follow in her footsteps."
Ramon Velazquez, the chef and master behind Corazon Cocina inside the Santa Barbara Public Market, plans to open a new restaurant, Alma Fonda Fina, at the former site of Little Alex's in the Montecito Country Mart.
“Alma Fonda Fina will be a place where you can find the unexpected; it’s my version of soul food," Velazquez wrote in a Montecito Country Mart email. "I’ll be bringing dishes from different regions of Mexico, and there will be a heavy focus on my two passions: local seafood and vegetables, not what people typically think of when they think of Mexican food.”
Velazquez's family ran a Fonda — a neighborhood restaurant — in Guadalajara, Mexico. Velazquez's mother, Imelda, will still be cooking with him at the new restaurant, according to the Montecito Country Mart, located at 1016 Coast Village Road.
For breakfast, the restaurant will serve corn pancakes, bionico fruit cocktail and many flavors of chilaquiles. For lunch and dinner, there will be family-style choices such as Pescado A la Talla, steak tacos with molcajete salsa, tamales, chicken soup, and ceviche.
Letter Perfect is moving to 130 Garden St., Suite 5F, in Santa Barbara.
According to an email sent to its subscribers, "We are doing it all … gift wrapping, making personalized and orchestrating wedding orders and overseeing the farm (we are planting over 100 specialty raspberries and blackberries this week). Yes, you can walk in, or make an appointment for papers, weddings and personalized everything. In the meantime, while we await our dream store to be built out, we are offering as a move gift 10% off all new personalized orders."
The email added: "We have all your orders, dies, pen repairs and we are full steam ahead printing. Thank you for your support and encouragement while we await our new space."
Letter Perfect was up for sale earlier this year after more than 38 years on Coast Village Road.
The company offers custom design and art for wedding invitations, party invitations, business branding, and monograms. It also provides wedding favors, wedding save-the-date cards, custom wedding suites, custom wedding rehearsal invitations, custom wedding menus and wedding invitation calligraphy.
City National Bank has appointed Adam Johnson to senior vice president/private banker.
With more than 20 years of experience in financial services, "Johnson will play an integral role in City National’s continued expansion in the Santa Barbara and Westlake Village markets," according to a news release. Johnson is responsible for working with high-net-worth clients to assist them in managing their wealth. Previously, Johnson held leadership positions at Wells Fargo Private Bank and Santa Barbara Bank & Trust. Johnson has a bachelor’s degree from UCSB and a master's degree from California Lutheran University. He also graduated from the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington.
Santa Barbara saw another good month of transient occupancy taxes, according to the city.
The city collected $1.9 million in transient occupancy taxes for February — about $994,000 above February collections the year prior. Part of increase in taxes is because of the average daily rate increase, according to the city. Rates are 32% higher than in February 2020.
Santa Barbara has collected $20 million through February, the eighth month in the city’s fiscal year. The city’s adopted TOT budget for all funds is $23.4 million, according to the city's news release.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) . Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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