On Connection:

How the American Riviera (Still) Gathers

WORDS Ninette Paloma

I am standing outside of the Rosewood Miramar Hotel in a windswept maxi dress - a skateboard balanced under one arm, a bouquet of flowers cradled in the other - when Andrew Firestone calls out cheerfully.

"You be careful on that thing, I don't want to have to visit you at Cottage Hospital," he insists, and I wave him off with a frown. Doesn't he know I'm going to use my newly acquired Powell-Peralta as a plant stand?

The Dream Foundation's annual Flower Empower Luncheon has just wrapped, and the ladies gathered around the valet station are showing off their auction wins. When I lift my board up in triumph, they chuckle approvingly and point out the homegrown Bones Brigade logo with pride.
From afar, the sea of printed dresses and flowing blow-outs might look like your benchmark charity crowd, but lean in and you'll discover these women are actually local volunteers, delivering dozens of floral arrangements each week to families faced with illness, loss, or economic hardship. Today they've come together - along with donors, sponsors, and Firestone as auctioneer - to celebrate their collective efforts in keeping this touching Santa Barbara tradition alive.

If you're to believe the pages of Town & Country magazine, then our charming coastal enclave has always been little more than a playpen for lifestyle queenpins and the media moguls who love them; our spaces and faces sprinkled with the gold dusted and manufactured imagery of a soap opera made popular in the 80s.

Truth is that just beyond the puffery, daily life on the Central Coast is punctuated by unfussy moments of endearing connection - from the morning coffee crowd on Canon Perdido St. to Modern Laundry's family style lunches, or the pre-show chatter on the Lobero Theatre's esplanade. Anywhere else, intention plus inspiration minus posturing might feel like a hard equation to balance, yet on the American Riviera, organizations still curate thoughtful and community-driven programming that feels wholly inclusive even against the dazzling backdrop of one of our stunning seaside resorts or historic landmarks.

As the mighty winds of change push through the area with all the ferocity of the Santa Anas, the question remains whether Santa Barbara County can hold fast to the slow living lifestyle that has placated residents as prices rise and weekend traffic swells. Has connection really taken a back seat to cachet? Over the last few months I set out on a cultural quest for the inspired and the intimate, reflecting on moments that hinted at a grounded, Central Coast sensibility. What I discovered brought me renewed assurance that the essence of the Riviera continues to thrive even as our topography transforms. From a sea of plenty and delight, this is part one of our favorite ways to gather.


Get Your Hands Dirty

Baret Boisson is setting out bundles of paintbrushes when I walk into her Carpinteria art studio, their handles worn and stained with vibrant layers of acrylic. She greets me with a glass of red wine and motions me over to the communal table that will serve as our work station for the evening - a gaggle of tubes and canvases and finishing supplies covering every inch of its surface. When all ten participants settle in, Boisson announces the evening's theme "There is a Crack in Everything" and signals for us to begin. Leonard Cohen croons encouragingly in the background.
When Boisson began her Art is Life series earlier this year, her vision was simple: invite a small group over to her studio for an evening of release and conversation through the meditative discipline of painting. Using an introspective theme as a jumping off point, participants roll up their sleeves and transform thoughts and abstractions into personal works of art before sitting down to a Bettina pizza dinner and lively conversation. No two sessions are ever the same, and the intentionally eclectic group ensures you come away with a new community perspective. Feeling creative on an artist's budget? Boisson's endearing flexibility ensures no one is turned away.
Just a few blocks away, Emma Rollin-Moore of Heritage Goods & Supply hosts monthly workshops for the culinary curious and wellness inspired. From sourdough pasta to gut-healing remedies, her confidence around a pantry and encyclopedic knowledge of nutritionally dense foods elevates the cooking class to a reflection on food as ritual. Now that Heritage has added a Santa Barbara outpost on Alamar St. their culinary offerings are expanding too, including a monthly gut club meet-up where participants dig in and prepare seasonal ferments like winter squash chutney or turmeric-laced cabbage.
 
Seated in History

On a recent Saturday evening, I found myself driving in near darkness toward the Riviera, the streets quiet save for the occasional bellow from an owl somewhere in the distance. It was almost 9pm, and the downtown restaurants were winding down their dinner service, packing up patio tables as the city tucked itself in for the night. At the Riviera Theatre on the historic Normal School campus, however, things were just getting started. 

When the Santa Barbara International Film Festival took over the beloved arthouse back in 2016, they vowed to continue the theatre's ritual of screening the obscure and abstract, the foreign and forgotten, while also dusting off wide-ranging classics for a new generation to enjoy. They've more than made good on that promise with the debut of After Hours, where Santa Barbarans can sink into plush chairs and raid the local artisan-packed concession stand while taking in a late-night screening of American Psycho or Run Lola Run before enjoying panoramic views of a sleeping city. Maybe it's the cine-geek crowd -always lively, always convivial- or the feeling that you've just snuck out of one of the old dormitory rooms and into the auditorium of a once-bustling campus, but being up here on a weekend night is Riviera living at its most nostalgic.

At 1387 East Valley Road, the George Washington Smith-designed stunner known as Casa del Herrero has been transformed into a petite museum and historical treasure, where visitors are treated to impeccable tilework and expertly designed gardens that frame soothing fountains and lush verandas. In the hands of intuitive entertainer Sheraton Kalouria, the Casa has played host to seasonal dinners, film screenings, and arts discussions that bring the living quarters of the 1920s house to life - more of a vibrant neighborhood gathering than a museum event. This month, programming manager Ainsley Diehl is highlighting the Casa's more than 20,000 antique tiles with a tour and tile-painting workshop while sipping cocktails under romantic Spanish archways.

An Artisan Alliance

It is 9am on a Saturday morning, and the sunny patio outside of Oat Bakery is already packed with breakfast revelers. To the right, Santa Barbara's Danish contingent has huddled around the chai bar, where Bibi Ji is stirring a fragrant spice blend into Koatji's probiotic plant milk. Next to them, Roxanne Rosensteel is serving up squares of plum and cardamom sheet cake to a wide-eyed group of toddlers while their parents hover plates of Oat Bakery breakfast toast over the growing crowd.

In the last few years, Santa Barbara's artisan scene has shifted the area's foodscape with electric fervor, spilling out of cottage kitchens and into the hearts and weekends of foodies across the County. When thoughtfully curated collabs are born out of a symbiotic aesthetic, Central Coasters tend to show up to these one-off culinary raves, undeterred by long lines and brisk early mornings.

Take Summerland, where Home Crush owner Aimee Miller has launched the Taste Makers Market - a dazzling 40-vendor artisan celebration of the handmade and homegrown, with sweet and savory offerings beautifully merchandised and set against arresting views of the Pacific. A new outpost in Santa Barbara's Islay Gardens as well as a pop-up culinary series ensures your inner gourmand is satiated throughout the month and from north to south. 

The Hospitality of Culture

Mandy Jackson-Beverly loves books, a fact punctuated by the armful of tomes she's balancing on her hip as she greets new arrivals: a young woman in ballet flats, two sets of silver-haired friends laughing at an inside joke, and a middle-aged couple in matching black trousers.
They have all gathered at Belmond's El Encanto Hotel - in a small downstairs dining room with smartly dressed tables and floor to ceiling picture windows - for the hotel's monthly Lunch with an Author series, and the buzz of excitement is growing louder.
​When Jackson-Beverly, author and host of The Bookshop Podcast series, approached the cliffside hotel about collaborating on a monthly book club meet-up, the magic was obvious. What better way to attract established authors at the height of their respective careers than with a seasonal lunch in dreamy environs and a captive audience? From Dani Shapiro's sharp humor to Gillian Flynn's grounding presence, each author injects what would otherwise be a casual Tuesday afternoon with nothing less than literary reverence for the ancient art of storytelling that stays with you long after the warm El Encanto staff bids guests farewell.

Downtown and at ocean's doorstep, another storied hotel inspires locals to mingle among the international and visiting crowds with HOWL at The Hotel Californian. Nestled in their lobby bar Djinn on the full moon of every month are Tarot card and Rune readers, vinyl tunes from Val-Mar Records, and themed cocktails from mixologist Devin Espinosa.
During the last super moon of 2024 I found myself leaning into a card reading from Kristine Marie, her table and soft features illuminated under a delicate vellum Tarot deck. In the distance, Blondie crooned over her lover's heart of glass while Marie described surrendering to the darkness within in order to fully embrace the light. Maybe it was the gentle sway of a laid back crowd or the plumes of smoke rising from a cocktail tray, but in that moment in that dimly lit room, the essence of the Central Coast's molasses lifestyle softly came into focus, and there was no where else I needed to be.