THE WHOLE BIZ
The Whitefoot Meat Market and six adjoining Milpas Street
businesses could soon be razed and replaced with a
brand-new Longs Drugstore. The new store — which
would be the fifth Longs on the South Coast — would occupy about
39,000 square feet. No construction date has been set, and the
matter need not be considered by the City Council or the Planning
Commission, but only by the Architectural Board of Review.
Businesses slated to be removed along with Whitefoot — which has
been in business there for 38 years — are La Gloria Taquería,
Panadería Verónica bakery, Milpas Nails and Spa, Mariscos Boca de
Río Restaurant, and Al’s Cleaners.
Raytheon Corporation announced it will relocate
Santa Barbara Remote Sensing to El Segundo. Remote Sensing is one
of the corporation’s three Goleta-based businesses; it employs 250
people working primarily on civil space technology, according to
Raytheon’s Goleta spokesperson. It is relocating to work more
closely with other centers of space sensor systems. Raytheon’s
Electronic Warfare Systems and Vision Systems — defense industry
contractors employing a total of 1,600 people — will remain in
Goleta. Raytheon’s three Goleta businesses contributed $500 million
in revenue to the parent corporation, which reported worldwide
sales of $21.9 billion in 2005.
Esau’s Coffee Shop at 421 State Street — one of
Santa Barbara’s iconic greasy spoons — is officially going out of
business this Sunday after serving abundant breakfasts and lunches
for the past 52 years. Owner Scott Stanley said he’s going out of
business because he could not negotiate a new lease with landlord
Abe Safina. Safina has declined to discuss the matter.
Stanley — who has owned the business for 28 years — said Safina is
acting out of pure spite. “When we go, he’s going to paper up the
windows and it’s going to just sit like that,” he said. “I could
understand if he had other plans, but he doesn’t.” Stanley said he
even joined the Elks Lodge — to which Safina belongs — to enlist
the support of Safina’s fellow Elks members. Apparently, it
backfired, with Safina reportedly telling Stanley, “It’s time for a
change down there, Mr. Esau.” Stanley will keep the Carpinteria
Esau’s open, and has talked about the possibility of relocating
elsewhere on State Street.
It appears the bitter battle and family feud surrounding one of
Santa Barbara’s most beloved eating establishments may be on the
way to resolution. The controversy began when
Pascucci’s expanded to Goleta’s Camino Real
Marketplace in mid- 2005. The Goleta Pascucci’s was opened by Paula
Ferguson and her husband — the sister and brother-in-law of
original Pascucci’s owner Laura Knight — and filed for bankruptcy
this past winter after incurring $1.1 million in debt. The U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in Santa Barbara ruled last month that the newer
Pascucci’s location may no longer use the Pascucci name in order to
resume its lease.