IMPECCABLE TASTE

Brass Bird and Teddy’s rise and shine in Carpinteria

WORDS BY PETER DUGRÉ • PHOTOS BY EMILY MERRILL

Before November 2022, there was no Brass Bird Coffee at 4835 Carpinteria Avenue. Then the open sign went up on the Euro-style, chic-casual cafe and patisserie, and it became an overnight sensation, as if owners Juan Rodriguez and Sarah Dandona had special knowledge of what it takes to woo and win over a uniquely Carpinterian clientele.

The recipe for being an instant hit, they say, begins and ends with quality, both of the product and customer experience. Brass Bird stands out as an inviting place that pulls off a well-put-together vibe without a hint of pretension. It appeared. It belongs.

“We had fallen in love with Carpinteria as a little beach town. There’s so much pride in the community, and we are grateful to be part of it,” says Sarah on a sunny morning from the buzzing Brass Bird patio. Trained at the Culinary Institute of America, Sarah is the back-of-thehouse brains of the husband-and-wife duo.

“She is a magician of making menus,” says Juan, his easy bright smile framed by a dark beard, who is the front-of-house pro, having cut his chops in restaurants since he was a 12-year-old first-generation MexicanAmerican who never hesitated to roll up his sleeves.

Brass Bird isn’t their first rodeo. Before the Carpinteria Avenue cafe, Sarah and Juan had opened Teddy’s by the Sea, founded in 2018, a few blocks away. Combined, the two eateries represent two parts of the couple’s serial mom-and-pop restaurateur brand. Sarah also co-owned Omni Catering, which she sold and replaced with Brass Bird. Near the couple’s home in Santa Barbara, they purchased their neighborhood bar, The Uptown Lounge on upper State Street, in 2022.

Sarah and Juan, who have two young children, once dreamed of running “a little breakfast spot” as their retirement plan, where they could downshift to cruising speed at a place they are passionate about. Brass Bird fit the vision but manifested itself prematurely. Cruise control doesn’t appear to be part of the Sarah’s or Juan’s DNA.

Seated at a Brass Bird patio four-top last spring, Juan wonders aloud to Sarah whether they should re-orient the table to improve traffic flow. “We are here all the time, so it’s not like we have to run it through corporate if we want to make a change. We are always trying to be better,” Juan says. The menu, which covers breakfast, brunch, and lunch from sweet to savory, often rotates, bending with the seasons, the chef’s whims, and what customers up-vote with their wallets.

Brass Bird was the dream cafe, but it’s now the last thing, not the next. They are currently under construction at a new Santa Barbara spot at the old McKenzie Market at State Street and Las Positas Road in Santa Barbara, where the concept will merge a breakfast/lunch cafe plus sit-down dinner.

THEODORA’S MEMORY IS THE COMMON THREAD

In only the last decade, there was Cabo’s Cantina, Cielo Bar & Grill, and The Nugget at 5096 Carpinteria Ave., where Teddy’s By the Sea has now taken root. And not long before that it was Chuy’s. Nothing was sticking at the revolving-door location, before Teddy’s, which Sarah and Juan say introduced a casual seafood cuisine to Carpinteria’s offerings and aspires to an atmosphere that makes even locals feel like they are on vacation.

“We had to build an experience that gives people a reason to want to come back,” Juan says.

Teddy’s namesake is Sarah’s grandmother Theodora, Teddy for short, who loved to host and never failed to create a warm and welcoming environment for family gatherings through her charm and culinary skills.

Brass Bird gets its name from the ornamental brass pheasants that Teddy left to Sarah and Juan when she passed. Teddy’s brass birds now live on the couple’s mantle and are accurately represented on the yellow-gold Brass Bird logo. Searching for a name for their cafe, they found inspiration from the patinated brass birds, simple yet symbolic of Teddy and the small touches that never go overlooked by good hosts.

Curators Of Quality

In preparation for opening Teddy’s, Sarah and Juan traveled up and down the coast, month-after-month, in search of the perfect fish taco. They once drove to San Diego to get tacos, no other reason. Before opening Brass Bird, Juan attended barista school in Seattle. “I don’t mess around,” he says. This spring, they traveled to Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam to immerse themselves into European culture built on culinary excellence.

“If we build something we love and have passion for, that translates to our guests,” Sarah says. “So we want to make something that’s exactly the spot we’d visit.”

They live and breathe food and the restaurant business. Compromising on quality is not an option, says the couple, who use sustainably sourced coffee at Brass Bird and wild caught fish approved by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.

“All of our ingredients are high quality, because that’s what we like, and we wouldn’t want to serve others anything that isn’t the best,” Juan says.

Measuring up to high standards in sourcing ingredients — both for the planet and the flavor — doesn’t preclude playfulness at the couple’s restaurants. For instance, guests at Brass Bird can select from a rotating pop tart menu, not the packaged variety but a nod to the nostalgic breakfast treat leveled up to flaky-crust perfection by the in-house pastry chef. Brass Bird creates all of its pastries in house, apart from the croissants, which are sourced from Renaud’s Bakery in Santa Barbara.

Fish and chips and fish tacos are best sellers at Teddy’s, along with weekly selections of locally caught white fish. The chef shops from Tino’s Organic Farm for Teddy’s and Brass Bird along with the food-service kitchen that operates out of Brass Bird and serves the Linked-In cafeteria five days per week. Purchasing locally is always a priority along with eliminating food waste, a byproduct of running an efficient kitchen and donating leftovers to the Girls Inc. of Carpinteria 24-hour food pantry. Scraps go back to Tino’s to feed the pigs.

To pull it all off, Sarah and Juan rely on their people, and put full faith in their managers and chefs to meet the expectation of always delivering a quality customer experience. Near-term plans include getting a beer and wine license and expanding Brass Bird’s hours. There always seems to be a next, next thing. Though driven and enjoying the ride, they see the restaurant business with eyes wide open, understanding that it’s not for the risk averse.

“The one thing we never want to see is a bunch of cookie cutter places,” Sarah says. “What makes Carpinteria so cool and unique is all of the independent businesses.” 