Putting the Finishing Touches on Linden Square in Carpinteria

The finish line is nearing for Linden Square, downtown Carpinteria’s long awaited open format outdoor mall that will bring together several Central Coast favorites in one space, including the newest locations for Bettina, Third Window Brewing, and Corazón Cocina.

With the scheduled April 24 opening date just a few weeks away, the businesses are putting the final touches on the freshly constructed spaces, creating what is shaping up to be a hub of eating, drinking, shopping, and social gatherings and a key piece to the new look of the city’s downtown.

At Chef Ramón Vasquez’s newest seafood-focused spot, Corazón Cocina del Sur, artist Curt Crawshaw has been working on a 30-foot-wide mural that will serve as the centerpiece of Linden Square’s sunny outdoor courtyard. Crawshaw, also known as Hello Coyote, is the founder of Foundation Press, a design studio and printing company that helped craft the aesthetic branding and merch for a long list of local businesses from Lucky Llama to Cajun Kitchen (and the artist behind the “Gator Boy” mural taken down by the city in 2014).

This week, Crawshaw and a three-person team from Foundation Press completed the bar back mural at Linden Square, a piece packed with Carpinteria lore, easter eggs, and nods to the deep Mexican roots that define Chef Vasquez’s menus. 

Crawshaw said the mural, hand-painted in “secret cove” blue, was designed to be reminiscent of a tattoo sleeve, with a tapestry of imagery inspired by both Mexico and the Central Coast.

Among the skulls, suns, corn stalks, Thistle flowers, and Corazón Cocina’s signature heart symbol, there are references to Chumash boat builders, whose presence on the shore led Spanish settlers to assume this was the land of carpenters, hence the name “Carpinteria.”

Crawshaw said he was inspired by the history of the Chumash who built boats to cross the channel to the islands, and he included in the mural one skeleton in the sea, representing all those lost in the quest to complete the crossing. “There’s all this history here,” he said.

He wanted to make sure to highlight the marine life of the area — octopus, marlin, stingray, yellowfin tuna, and prawns — and Carpinteria’s tar pits, which he noted are one of the few natural tar pits in the world.

Crawshaw said he hopes the people of Carpinteria will appreciate the new space, which is in the “heart of downtown” and formerly the home of longtime locations such as Austin’s Hardware and Beach Liquor.

Foundation Press has worked closely with many of the businesses moving into Linden Square, doing design or printing for Bettina, Third Window, Corazón Cocina, The Shopkeepers, Macher, and Olada Yoga Studio. Other businesses opening at Linden Square include Channel Island’s Surfboards and Dart Coffee. 

“This spot brings something to be excited about for the whole community aspiring to bring Carpinteria’s social scene a significant leap forward,” said Foundation Press Creative Director Alex Ramirez.