••• Have you noticed how good the revamp of 812 Garden Street (at De La Guerra) came out? (A before photo is below.) It’s being converted into a 30-room hotel called Casa Riviera, I’d love to see mosaics, ironwork, or something along those lines in the tower insets.
••• The Linden Square complex in Carpinteria opens to the public at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 22. We already knew that Tina’s Pizza, from Bettina, will be open then; Corazón Cocina Sur, Channel Island Surfboards, and Third Window Brewing Co. say they’ll be ready, too. (“The front-of-house/beer team should be ready to operate seven days per week fairly quickly,” says Third Window. “We have a draft ‘opening menu’ and are working on developing our kitchen teams and maintaining our focus on how best to use ingredients from the ranch/farm.”) Mācher is just be doing a pop-up that day, with a real opening to come in July. And Dart Coffee Co. will debut in June. No word yet from The Shopkeepers and Olada Yoga & Pilates. UPDATE: Olada will be there on May 22, but the opening will come later.
••• In other Mācher news, its Santa Ynez shop (1090 Edison Street) opens May 15: “It’s a similar concept to the Goleta location, but with more pantry items for the winery crowd to buy grab and go snacks, and quite a few new brands being showcased,” says founder Lex Gruetzmacher.
••• I heard back from the city staffers working on the De La Vina bridge replacement, and indeed, for the duration of the project, De La Vina Street will be closed to northbound traffic, probably between Alamar Avenue and State Street. Traffic will be shifted from one side of the street to the other as work progresses…