Rooftop bar Arnie’s — the brainchild of Santa Barbara’s Arnie Sturham — is coming to Linden Square’s second story.
Although there was a large banner up during the California Avocado Festival in early October stating the bar was “coming soon!,” owner Sturham told Coastal View News on Tuesday it’ll still be a few months before Arnie’s welcomes patrons; while he was hoping to open in December, he is now eyeing an opening date sometime in January 2026. While the soon-to-be bar’s patio is mostly complete, the inside still needs some work, with the design handled by AB Design, like most of Linden Square.
Sturham is the former owner of Treehouse Cafe, a pub and pizzeria he built from the ground up in his hometown of Bainbridge Island just outside Seattle, Washington. A hospitality entrepreneur, he came to the area three years ago and started searching for businesses to purchase and manage after selling Treehouse. He heard about a rooftop bar space available in Linden Square through word of mouth and was drawn to Carpinteria because of its similarity to his hometown…