Both of Bibi Ji's Old State Street Addresses Are Turning to Breakfast

In 2018, Bibi Ji opened on the 700 block of State Street with contemporary Indian food and a deep natural wine list. In the summer of 2024 it moved five blocks north, into a former McDonald's in the 1200 block that the owners renovated in bright pink. Late this summer it closed.

Both of its former addresses are being turned over to breakfast. At 734 State, Bombay Station 734 opens at 9 a.m. with dosas and masala chai. At 1213 State, the pink former McDonald's is being converted into Esther's, an all-day breakfast restaurant.

That pattern runs the length of the street this fall. The businesses arriving downtown are built for mornings, daytime cafés, music and art. Those are the hours and uses that an evening of wine and dinner could no longer carry by itself. They are signing leases now, before the city settles whether cars come back.

What the Last Dinner Crowd Stopped Doing

Bibi Ji's owners, Alejandro and Charlotte Medina, were unusually candid about the closure in the Santa Barbara Independent. Their sharpest number was about wine. "We used to open 30 to 40 bottles a night on our back patio," Alejandro told the paper about the 700 block's best years. "I haven't seen a quarter of that."

He said the move up the street didn't help as much as they had hoped. "We never thought we'd be doing less in sales in the Arts District than on the 700 block of State Street, but that's the reality of it." Charlotte described a downtown with few people living or working in it. She also said diners with money to spend were heading to Coast Village Road and Montecito's Upper Village for their nicer dinners.

"People just don't spend as much downtown — they go to Montecito. There is a different value perception between the two." Charlotte Medina, in the Santa Barbara Independent

One block south of Bibi Ji's last address, Satellite also closed. The natural-wine bar and vegetarian restaurant at 1117 State shut on Sept. 13 after a lease disagreement, ending a ten-year run. Noozhawk reported that founder Drew Cuddy is keeping the wine side of the business going at The Factory, 616 E. Haley Street. Downtown's two best-known natural wine lists both left State Street within a few weeks of each other.

Who Took the Morning Shift

The tenants replacing them are working different hours.

Bombay Station 734 belongs to brothers Ninder Josan and Kuldeep Singh, who also run Apna Indian Kitchen a little farther down the block. They held a ribbon-cutting on Sept. 19. The concept borrows from the cafés and railway clubs of old Bombay. Josan told the Independent that the menu will change "every month or so," like "a train going through India with stops in different regions." The restaurant serves breakfast, brunch, lunch and a recently added early dinner. It has just received its beer and wine license, and the owners plan to pair brunch with mimosas: "We plan to offer dosas and mimosas," Josan said. Josan cooks alongside chef Balaji Murali Shanker. The restaurant is steps from the Tuesday and Saturday farmers' markets, which feed into the changing menus. Start with the dosas, which come with fresh coconut, tomato and peanut chutneys and a bowl of sambar. Then try the Kejriwal Eggs, served on masala toast.

Esther's at 1213 State comes from Starr Hall, Bruce Rolla and Barbara McDaniel. In mid-October they told Noozhawk they were aiming to open later in 2026 or early in 2027. Edhat reported that the team held a private preview on Wednesday, Oct. 14, and has not announced an opening date.

State of Mind Cafe is targeting December at 918 State, the former Cookie Plug space. It is a nonprofit café designed around accessibility, led by founder and executive director Rebecca Benozare and general manager Katelyn Tymon, according to Noozhawk.

Down at Paseo Nuevo, Sweetaly Gelato opened Aug. 1 at 401 Paseo Nuevo. It took over a space where a previous gelateria had closed the year before. Owners Francesco and Lisa Amendola brought the business from Utah, and their daughter Sophie is expected to take over the local shop.

The Block-by-Block Ledger

Sorted by address, this fall's changes look like this:

Roy is the one listing in the table where the next chapter is still open. Owner Roy Gandy told the Independent in September that the restaurant, just off State on West Carrillo, was approaching its end by year's end. He said a buyer might carry it on, though no one had been named.

The 900 Block Is Betting on Music

The largest new tenant downtown won't serve food. On Thursday, Oct. 15, the Music Academy of the West broke ground on The Muse at the corner of State and Canon Perdido, in the building that was once Forever 21. The $55 million project will create a 20,000-square-foot, 200-seat, multistory building for performances, instruction, practice and recording, with a rooftop lounge on top. Board member Cheryl Goldberg donated the $20 million used to buy the building. The Muse is scheduled to open in 2028.

It won't be alone. The Independent counts it as one corner of a roughly $100 million triangle of arts venues within a short walk of each other. The other two are a $22 million renovation about to start at the Lobero Theatre, which will also get a rooftop lounge, and a $21 million makeover of the old Fiesta Five that the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is close to finishing. The paper's conclusion was that "with or without a master plan, the 900 block of State Street appears determined to happen on its own."

Four blocks north, the cultural tenants continue. Jeff, Susan and Jessie Bridges are taking over the Tamsen Gallery at 1309 State and turning it into Bridges, a family gallery, cultural center and creative club. It will host rotating programs that include film screenings, live performances and creative pop-ups. Tamsen's Lara Firestone and Mimi Wolfe are staying on to handle logistics, and the Independent reports that the transformation begins in December.

The Vote These Tenants Are Not Waiting For

All of these openings are happening while the street's design is still unsettled.

On Sept. 1, the City Council approved the State Street Master Plan in a 6-1 vote, with Mayor Randy Rowse dissenting. The News-Press reported that the plan is estimated at $96 million and would be built in three phases over six years, with construction to begin within 18 months. It calls for two 30-foot sidewalks and a 20-foot travel corridor down the middle. It also places eight retractable and 16 standard bollards at intersections from the 500 to the 1300 block, and leaves the hours when cars could pass for the council to decide later. To address empty storefronts, the plan proposes a business activation grant or revolving loan program of up to $50,000 per business. The vote also removed a sunset clause that would have ended the pandemic-era car closure on Dec. 31, 2026.

On Wednesday, Oct. 14, the Committee to Reopen State Street, backed by SIMA Corporation President Jim Knell, submitted a referendum petition to the city clerk. The committee announced 6,000 signatures, above the 5,400 needed. Two days later, Noozhawk quoted City Clerk Sarah Gorman saying 8,700 signatures had been submitted. That figure is a count of signatures turned in, not of verified valid ones. The petition sections went to the County Elections Office for checking. Once the signatures are verified, the council can either repeal the ordinance or send it to voters, either in a special election or on the November 2028 ballot.

The referendum effort is supported by the State Street Business Alliance, a group of hundreds of merchants. It wants a "shared-use" street with low-speed vehicle access, parking and deliveries, wide sidewalks, outdoor dining and retractable bollards. Retractable bollards are in both the council's plan and the committee's proposal. The disagreement is over who decides when they come down, and whether the city should spend roughly $100 million on the street.

The new tenants have already committed. Bombay Station opens at 9 a.m. and rotates its menu monthly with produce from the nearby farmers' markets, the Music Academy has broken ground on a concert hall due in 2028, and the Bridges family starts work on its gallery in December. None of them is waiting on the verification count. On the 900 block, two of the mayoral candidates, Councilmembers Eric Friedman and Kristen Sneddon, attended The Muse's groundbreaking, and the Independent noted that no one at the event expressed concern about the master plan's fate.

For now, Bombay Station's dosas are on the 700 block, The Muse is under construction at State and Canon Perdido, and the pink building at 1213 is waiting on its first breakfast.

If you follow how a changing downtown shapes daily life near Santa Barbara's historic core, Patty Waltcher Team would be glad to talk through which blocks are changing and what that means for the homes nearby.