Ever since popping the first corks in the back of a tiny hut on lower Anacapa Street more than 15 years ago, Municipal Winemakers embodied the spirit of Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone wine scene.
Unpretentiously casual in approach, playfully modern in design, and yet utterly committed to handcrafting boundary-bucking wines, Muni in many ways created the vibe that changed the waterfront neighborhood from an industrial afterthought to the dynamic, tourist-crawling destination it is today.
But that era of Muni — which started in the rear closet of a former military barrack in 2009 before expanding into the current large space next door two years later — is ending. The winery’s founder Dave Potter announced on Monday that he’ll be closing the Funk Zone tasting room at the end of the month.
He’ll be shifting his attention to his other locations: the newish Municipal Winemakers tasting room in Ventura, which opened almost one year ago, and Potek Winery at The Mill on East Haley Street near downtown Santa Barbara, where he’s made both the Muni and more classically styled Potek brands since 2015. Potek will host Muni pop-ups every weekend starting next month.
“It’s bittersweet for sure,” said Potter on Tuesday. “I kinda wanted to hang onto that forever. But the reality is that customers are hanging out at Potek and the new Muni. We’re just following what people are telling us.”
He’s been pondering the closure for a couple years, and almost decided to shut the Funk Zone doors when he launched Ventura last February, but gave it one more year. Overall, and unlike much of the struggling wine industry, Potter said his businesses are thriving, with sales up at every location. But the bustling Funk Zone is a much different place than it was when Muni was one of the first wineries down there.
“I just don’t know if what we did 15 years ago is what people are looking for right now when there are so many other options,” said Potter, who’s always had a knack for making wine fun and accessible to newcomers and younger generations. “If we were going to try to stay, we would have had to put in a kitchen or something.”
Muni’s departure may be the biggest sign of how much the Funk Zone has evolved from its scrappy days as a patchwork of warehouses and empty lots where artists and craftspeople could afford spaces to work and, often, sleep. In the last decade, its collection of tasting rooms, bars, restaurants, and retail shops became one of Santa Barbara’s primary hospitality hubs, drawing crowds away from their historic destination of State Street.
“When Muni started, it felt so local and everyone would ride down to the Funk Zone on beach cruisers,” said Potter. “Now it feels like a lot more tourist traffic, which is great. But Potek and The Mill feels so like Santa Barbara. It feels like we’re part of the community there.” Since Muni is pretty much the only business of its type in Ventura, that scene reminds Potter of what it was like in the early days of the Funk Zone.
To announce the closure, Potter penned a heartfelt goodbye letter that was released through his website, email, and social media on Monday. “I promise you that this isn’t a death. It’s more like … we found a new place to live,” he wrote, “And from where I’m sitting right now, it honestly feels less like closing something and more like we’ve outgrown our starter apartment.”
He continues, “We got to be part of making the Funk Zone grow. We evolved wine culture in Santa Barbara, making so many different styles and varieties of wines to help you discover what you love and then bring your friends back to share them. That’s been the whole point from the beginning: making real, honest wine that punches above its weight, and putting it in a place where wine is just the excuse to hang.”
You can read his entire letter here or on Instagram here.
To toast the end of this era, Muni Wine is hosting a “Grand Closing” party across two weekends, January 16-18 and 23-25, with special wines, pop-up eateries, and a memory wall for notes and photos. Potter is inviting anyone who’s ever worked there — a total of 118 people — to come back to work one last shift, and he’s bottling a Fizz sparkling syrah for the sendoff.
Then on Sunday, January 25, guests will toast the end of Muni’s Funk Zone era and then head to the opening party of the new Muni pop-up at Potek. “From one chapter to the next, all in one afternoon,” said Potter.
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