BizHawk is published weekly and includes articles of interest to the business community. Share your company news, including employee announcements and staff moves, via email [email protected].
If you’re looking for a delicious 1990s West Coast hip-hop themed barbecue run by a family of accomplished cooks, then there’s a new spot for you on State Street in Santa Barbara.
Kristi Bean and her daughter, Jenniffer Bean — with two Fs because she had to be special, mom said — opened Beans BBQ at 1230 State St., and they got off to a flying start.
The family already owns a long-standing catering business. It is booked until November 2023 and hosts around 40 weddings per year.
“I’ve cooked my whole life,” Kristi Bean said, adding that she learned to barbecue from her dad. “It seemed like a logical next step.”
With State Street Restaurant, she said she wanted to bring “not pretentious, just home cooking to our community.”
“There’s a lot of fantasy going around,” Kristi Bean said. “We wanted to make the kind of food you make at grandma’s house on a Sunday afternoon.”
They make everything from scratch, including the sauces. On the menu, tri-tip, ribs, chicken, onion rings, salads and a variety of tasty entrees.
What you probably won’t find at Grandma’s is a painting of songwriting and rap legend Tupac Shakur. The family loves hip-hop music, and in the lobby toward the back are tributes to Tupac and Ice Cube and the words “Compton. Long Beach. Inglewood.”
Beans BBQ’s “hip-hop hallway” features a painting of rapper Tupac Shakur. (Photo by Joshua Molina/Noozhawk)
“We call it the hip-hop hallway,” said Kristi Bean, adding that she plans to bring in local musicians, artists, drag shows and other events.
But above all, she wants a family atmosphere in the restaurant. She said she liked the smell of smoke.
“At the end of the day, barbecuing is kind of a philosophy that the family is somewhere nearby,” she said. “That’s what we all are.”
Kristi Bean said she raised her three children as a single mother and “family is at the heart of our business”.
“We think that without it, we really are nothing,” she said. “That family, and everyone in it, contributed to one facet of his success.”
A family member even stuffed all the animals on the wall, including the bear and deer.
“We are thrilled,” she said. “It’s a woman-owned family business, and always has been.”
Jennifer Bean said: “Mom taught us how to cook everything, and now we’re following in her footsteps.”
New Restaurant Montecito
Ramon Velazquez, the chef and master behind Corazon Cocina inside the Santa Barbara Public Market, plans to open a new restaurant, Alma Fonda Fina, on 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 an email from Montecito Country Mart. “I will be bringing dishes from different parts of Mexico, and the focus will be on my two passions: fruits seafood and local vegetables, not what people usually 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 cook with him at the new restaurant, according to the Montecito Country Mart, located at 1016 Coast Village Road.
For breakfast, the restaurant will serve you corn pancakes, a 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 Moving
Letter Perfect is moving to 130 Garden St., Suite 5F, Santa Barbara.
According to an email sent to its subscribers, “We do it all… wrap gifts, do custom wedding orders, and orchestrate and oversee the farm (we’re planting over 100 specialty raspberries and blackberries this week). Yes, you can come in, or make an appointment for papers, weddings and anything personalized.In the meantime, while we wait for our dream store to be built, we are offering as a moving gift 10% off all new personalized orders .”
The email added: “We have all your orders, dies, pen repairs and we are printing full steam ahead. Thank you for your support and encouragement as we wait for our new space.”
Letter Perfect went on sale earlier this year after over 38 years on Coast Village Road.
The company offers custom design and artwork for wedding invitations, party invitations, corporate branding, and monograms. It also provides wedding favors, wedding cards with date, personalized wedding suites, personalized wedding rehearsal invitations, personalized wedding menus and wedding invitation calligraphy.
City National Bank appoints Johnson
City National Bank has appointed Adam Johnson as senior vice president/private banker.
With more than 20 years of financial services experience, “Johnson will play a vital role in City National’s continued expansion into the Santa Barbara and Westlake Village markets,” according to a press release.
Johnson is responsible for working with high net worth clients to help them manage their wealth. Previously, Johnson held senior positions at Wells Fargo Private Bank and Santa Barbara Bank & Trust.
Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree from UCSB and a master’s degree from California Lutheran University. He is also a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington.
Hotel bed taxes on the rise
Santa Barbara had another good month of transitional occupancy taxes, according to the city.
The city collected $1.9 million in transitional occupancy taxes for February, about $994,000 more than February collections the previous year. Part of the tax increase is due to the increase in the average daily rate, according to the city. Rates are 32% higher than in February 2020.
Santa Barbara has raised $20 million through February, the eighth month of the city’s fiscal year. The city’s adopted TOT budget for all funds is $23.4 million, according to the city’s press release.
– Noozhawk 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.
