Three Pickles Gets New Digs

Three Pickles Deli — currently located at 128 East Canon Perdido Street — will move a hop, skip, and a jump down the street to 126 East Canon Perdido. The sandwich shop has reportedly grown out of its old space and will soon relocate to the dining room portion of the Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens building.

Owned by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation — which bought the site from longtime owner and operator Tommy Chung when he retired in 2007 — the building is currently divided into a dining room and bar. The Trust, according to property manager Radius Group, plans to someday use the whole building as a museum space that will display Asian-American history in Santa Barbara but, while the planning and research processes have begun, the dining room portion of the property will continue to be rented to help cover the purchase cost of the building.

The bar portion will reportedly be kept empty, though, for an upcoming preliminary exhibit. While the interior of the dining space has been remodeled — most recently by the owners of Grapevine Fine Food Market, who recently vacated the space in the midst of a bitter rent dispute with the Trust — the exterior will reportedly remain the same as it reflects the architecture of the last Chinese-run business in what was once Santa Barbara’s Chinatown.

Three Pickles owner Bob Lovejoy says he’s excited about the move. “I love the building,” he said in a press release, “and we are thrilled that this special place will allow us to remain on the block and work with the [Trust] to help with the future museum that will be housed in the bar portion of the building.” The sandwich shop also has a location at 420 South Fairview in Goleta.

Trust Executive Director Jarrell Jackman said in a press release, “We are excited to add Three Pickles to the list of tenants in the El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park neighborhood, including Playa Azul Café, Zaytoon, Ensemble Theatre Co., Built Green Santa Barbara, Panino, Anacapa School, Mail Box Express and Beads, these diverse businesses help make this historic neighborhood one of a kind.”