Years ago, as a young mother shopping for her first daughter, Gabriela Morales walked into Traveling Pants on a friend's suggestion. The children's resale shop was owned by Susan Solano. Gabriela kept coming back as a regular, and at some point she told Solano that if Solano ever retired, she would like to buy the business. Coastal View News tells the story.
Traveling Pants now shares a street-facing storefront at 933 Linden Ave. with La Herradura 805, the Mexican western-wear shop Gabriela runs with her husband, Noel. Children's clothes, secondhand finds and cowboy boots are sold under one roof. Until recently, both shops sat in a rear suite at 949 Linden, reached from Yucca Lane, where Gabriela said customers sometimes had trouble finding them. Their soft-reopening celebration was set for Sunday, Oct. 25.
In 2026, Carpinteria's long-running businesses are carrying on when someone already inside the town's customer base is ready to take them over. When no one is, they close with a proclamation and a goodbye.
Two Closings, Decades in the Making
Clementine's Steak House served its last meal on Oct. 4. The restaurant opened on Carpinteria Avenue in 1976. Irene McLenithan took it over in 1982, and Lloyd McLenithan kept the family tradition going for the next 45 years with full-course dinners and what the City called "legendary slices of pie." On Oct. 12, the City Council issued a proclamation honoring the restaurant.
The building at 4631 Carpinteria Ave. has been sold. Coastal View News reported that the new owners' plans for the space were not known when the restaurant closed. McLenithan told Noozhawk that he did not know what would happen to the building, and that the buyers had let the restaurant stay open two more years after the sale.
Across town, Casitas Cleaners in Casitas Plaza closes for good on Oct. 30. The shop has been in the plaza since 1985. Sunny Han bought it in 1989 and then went back to South Korea to bring his wife, Jun, and their young son to Carpinteria. Coastal View News reports that the couple is retiring after 36 years behind the counter, where their customers watched the family grow up. "The customers really love my wife," Sunny told the paper. The shop has stopped taking new orders while customers come in for their last garments, so anyone with clothes still there has very little time left.
Both businesses stayed in the same family hands for decades. Both are ending this month because those families are stepping back.
The Handoffs That Kept the Doors Open
Rincon Designs went through the same kind of ending and reached a different outcome. The surf shop closed in March 2025 when founder Matt Moore retired, after what Coastal View News described as about 45 years as a Carpinteria staple. This year his son and daughter-in-law, Ryan and Ashley Moore, reopened it at 659 Linden Ave. Matt still shapes the boards.
The new owners are hardly outsiders. Ryan and Ashley already run Lucky Llama and Sunburst Wine Bar, and they own Heritage Goods and Supply with partners. Rincon Designs makes four Carpinteria storefronts for them. The reopened shop is practically across the street from Channel Islands Surfboards, a flagship of the world's largest surfboard manufacturer, in Linden Square. Ryan's view, in the same Coastal View News piece, is that the two stores serve different customers. Rincon Designs also caters to beachgoers looking for a rental or a souvenir. "Rincon Designs and CI are like apples and oranges," he said.
Traveling Pants followed the same pattern. The buyer was a longtime customer who had asked for the business years before it became available.
Why the Next Owner Has to Be Local
Downtown owners explained the math this spring in a Coastal View News piece on the storefront shuffle.
Ryan Moore told the paper that when he and Ashley plan a business, they take the town's population of about 15,000 and cut it in half. That smaller number is their estimate of the locals likely to shop or dine in town on any given day. Every new arrival takes a share of that same group. He gave examples. When Brass Bird Coffee & Kitchen opened on Carpinteria Avenue in 2022, Lucky Llama's traffic dipped. When Third Window opened in Linden Square with its smash burger, Dang Burger, which operates inside Sunburst Wine Bar, felt it. "We feel it for about six months, but then things level out again," he said.
An owner who already knows those customers can get through that six-month dip. Earlier this year, Nirasha and Jason Rodriguez closed the lunch counter at The Food Liaison in Shepard Place Shops after 13 years. Nirasha's advice to newcomers was that doing business in Carpinteria means being part of the community.
"I think of Carpinteria almost as this snow globe. It's so beautiful, but we have to embrace change in order to build the culture and keep it special for future generations." Nirasha Rodriguez, to Coastal View News
Owners who are staying put are adjusting too. Andre Jackson of Corktree Cellars told the paper that the opening of Linden Square, along with The Nugget reopening with a full bar a few doors away, has diluted the crowd. Corktree now stays open later, books more live music and shows sports on its screens. That is a different feel from the wine-and-conversation room it opened as.
What the Newcomers Are Building Around
The new arrivals this year seem to understand that math. Several of them chose to work alongside the businesses already downtown.
Coyote's Market opened in April at 4945-A Carpinteria Ave. It is a locally owned shop run by Peter and Caroline Hernandez, selling regional meat, seafood and artisan goods.
Arnie's Rooftop Bar opened above Linden Square on April 20. Arnie Sturham's second-story bar is for guests 21 and older, and it does not serve food. Guests are encouraged to bring dishes up from Linden Square's downstairs eateries, so a drink upstairs also means business for the kitchens on the ground floor.
Linden Square is the reason the block has foot traffic at all. It opened last year on a downtown block that, by Coastal View News' count, had sat in mothballs for 17 years.
Ojai Rôtie has taken the high-profile corner of Carpinteria and Linden avenues at 5003 Carpinteria Ave. Its own website still lists the Carpinteria location as "Coming Soon."
Shepard Place Shops, the former home of The Food Liaison's lunch counter, may also look different eventually. A proposal before the City would take out the central trellis planter, add outdoor seating and smaller planters, and improve ramps and accessibility. The City describes it as a preliminary review item, so nothing has been approved or built.
Dates for the Rest of the Year Downtown
The handoffs are happening while other parts of town are also changing. Here are the dates to know through December:
- Oct. 30. Last day for Casitas Cleaners in Casitas Plaza.
- This fall. Carpinteria Valley Water District crews have been laying CAPP pipeline on Carpinteria Avenue between Maple Avenue and Eugenia Place, with overnight installation, daytime paving, partial lane closures and detours. The district's CAPP construction page has the latest schedule.
- Nov. 7. Arts & Craft Faire in the Carpinteria Arts Center courtyard.
- Dec. 1. The Harbor Seal Rookery beach closes through May 31. Until then the beach is in its open season, and the City asks visitors to stay clear of the seals. The City's rookery page points visitors to the bluff-top trail for viewing.
- Dec. 5. The second Arts & Craft Faire of the season at the Arts Center.
- December. CAPP injection-well construction is expected to begin at St. Joseph's Catholic Church on Linden Avenue, according to the water district.
The empty building at 4631 Carpinteria Ave. is the open question for downtown. Pies were served there for half a century, and so far no one has said what comes next.
When a long-held Carpinteria business changes hands, the people who knew it best usually still live a few blocks away, and the same is true of the homes around Linden Avenue. If you have owned your place for decades and are wondering what it would be worth to the next owner, Lisa Foley can help you start with an instant home valuation, quietly and without any obligation.
