November 30, 2025|by Erik Torkells
••• There’s something exciting in this Wednesday’s Historic Landmarks Commission agenda: a small hotel by Jeff Shelton on the vacant lot at 813 Garden Street (De La Guerra/Canon Perdido). The three-story building would have “one ADU; an eight-room hotel; and one residential dwelling unit.” Please let it be pink!
••• The Polette eyewear shop at 1014 State Street (Carrillo/Figueroa) has opened, and it’s sharing space with a sister brand, Academy of Love. Polette is kind of like Warby Parker, affordable and with transparent pricing. As for Academy of Love, “we create exclusively All-White products, as we believe they represent simplicity and purity as Love should be. Each month we release 5 to 10 products in limited editions. All our collections are unisex, timeless and full of softness. We invite you to also visit our showrooms that are built like Love Galleries, an unique retail experience where the time is slow and the love grows.”
••• While working on this year’s Shop-Local Gift Guide, I belatedly learned that the Folly shop at Arlington Plaza has expanded into the former Marisa Mason space next door.
••• Goleta’s Maker House community arts center has a pop-up at 913 State Street through the end of the year. For a temporary space, it looks pretty darn good, and I thought the ceramics on view were both attractive and affordably priced. If my husband’s late father hadn’t been a ceramicist, I might’ve been tempted to buy something. The giant toadstools would look great in my yard….
••• The Indian Summers women’s apparel boutique in Summerland has announced that it’s closing, but I’m not sure when. In the meantime, everything is half off. Is more change in store?
••• Opening December 6 at Separate Reality gallery: The Shape of Unease, works by Armando Ramos, head of Sculpture and chair of the Art Department at Santa Barbara City College. “Guided by a distinct sense of duality, Ramos’s newest works explore the tension between the industrial and the handmade, irony and sincerity, reverence and irreverence. Ceramic baskets constructed through complex firing and glazing techniques emphasize fragility and negative space, while cast-aluminum knots consider the entanglement of time, memory, and function.” Below: “Convert.”
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