••• The name of the Italian restaurant taking over the Via Vai space in Montecito’s Upper Village—a half-sibling of S.Y. Kitchen in Santa Ynez, and shooting to open this summer—is Ancora Osteria. In Italian, ancora means “again,” and also “anchor”—the new restaurant will be more of ocean-inspired than S.Y. Kitchen. —Restaurant Guy
••• “Sole Bidder Wants to Open Tavern-Style Restaurant at Anchor Rose Space; City Begins Lease Talks,” reports Edhat. This is for the upstairs space in the Maritime Museum building, and it’s to be called Harbor Tavern. (Seems ripe for confusion with The Harbor Restaurant on Stearns Wharf, but maybe that’s just me.) The names associated with the LLC are Donald Chick and Benjamin Goldhirsh. The upstairs space, as previously reported, is likely to become a Corazón outpost.
••• The Chick-fil-A in the works at 4765 Calle Real got sent back to the drawing board by the county Planning Commission: “A majority of the commission said that Chick-fil-A must show evidence that the drive-thru won’t have any additional impact on the environment than the same use without the drive-thru facility.” Well, of course it will unless everyone starts driving electric cars. Will a Costco gas station on Hollister Avenue, where lines would surely form, face the same hurdle? —Santa Barbara News-Press…