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We were lucky to find anywhere to sit amidst the Sunday lunchtime rush on the patio of Linden Square, Carpinteria’s brand new food hall development that opened last week.
The line for Third Window’s smashburgers spilled far beyond its front door, and Tina’s — the smaller sibling to Montecito’s beloved Bettina — sported only a slightly shorter wait, though we were warned it might take up to an hour for the pizzas to come. That was fine, giving us ample time to settle into our corner couch, people watch, and drink our bottle of “Rolfshark” Lambrusco rosé. (And it wound up being less than 40 minutes anyway.)
Across the deck, Corazon’s line ebbed and flowed during our two-ish hours there, and a musician was setting up by the time we left. But the overall crowd — a mix of beachy-styled Carp locals as well as more hipster-ized and/or fancily clad presumed visitors, stretching from the patio’s many dining tables to the upstairs balconies — never really dissipated. In fact, it seemed to be swelling even more as we walked back by the square following our Rori’s scoops a little ways down Linden Avenue…