"I've always been driven by the same idea: great places bring people together," John Wright told the Santa Ynez Valley News when his Analogue Room opened at Founder's Square. Wright founded Standing Sun Wines and once worked as a preservation architect and craftsman on the East Coast. He designed and built the room himself, down to the handcrafted details, furniture and finishes.
The address is 1693 Mission Drive, where Mission meets Alisal Road at the eastern entrance to downtown. Most people who have lived in the valley for a while still know it as Denmarket Square. The corner has had several futures on paper over the past few years. What actually got built is smaller, it was built by hand, and it now stays open later than anything else on the block.
The Version That Was Drawn First
In March 2024, Solvang's Design Review Committee looked at a proposal for 1687 and 1693 Mission Drive. The plan would have torn down the non-historic building at 1687, remodeled and expanded the building at 1693, and added a 40-room hotel and four commercial units. The design concept included a bell tower that could reach 50 feet, a repurposed grain silo, and a redesigned parking lot. The city's rules required 36 commercial parking spaces. The applicant offered to pay about $445,000 instead of providing them. The committee voted 4–0 to have staff bring the project back with color and material samples, landscaping plans and a plan for the Little Mermaid statue.
That hotel was never built. The work that did follow was smaller and came in stages:
- May 2025. The city's project list showed a permit issued for the 1693 Mission Drive parking lot, covering re-striping, flatwork repairs and new landscaping with new trees.
- May 2025. The same list showed a separate application to convert upper-floor office and retail space into 30 apartments. It was marked incomplete and waiting for resubmittal.
- May 15, 2025. The Design Review Committee approved facade changes at 1693 Mission Drive on a 5–0 vote.
Local reporting in 2025 described the property's upstairs offices as long vacant. At street level, at least one business had already been there for years. CHOMP had its menu and chalkboard signs approved by the committee in April 2023. Founder's Square grew out of that existing building and its new courtyard. Nothing was demolished to make room for it.
A Courtyard Built Around People Making Things
By late July 2026, Visit Solvang counted nine independent businesses at Founder's Square. Many of them are run by the person who makes the product, which suits a property that came together in small steps. Taken in the order the day moves, it looks like this:
- Coffee House by Chomp for espresso and pastries. It describes itself as a quiet place to work or read a book.
- Meadow Studio Flowers, a floral design studio and home garden shop. Judy owns the shop, and every arrangement is made with fresh wildflowers each morning.
- The Giving Ink, a stationery shop, working art studio and gallery in one, where you can watch the work being made.
- Andrea's Heart, where Andrea makes one-of-a-kind jewelry in the shop. She also takes custom orders and does repairs.
- Natalie Groves Gallery, a small studio of original illustration and fine art prints, made steps from where they hang.
- CHOMP for burgers, melts, shakes and banana splits, with vegetarian options. The line out front is a regular sight at the corner.
- SYV Creamery, Solvang's newest scoop shop, which makes small batches of rotating flavors.
- Rooted Vine Cellars, a small Santa Barbara County winery pouring at its first tasting room, open to the public Thursday through Sunday.
- Analogue Room as evening comes on.
The square also holds replica Hans Christian Andersen statues, set within the open space. Its September 2026 guide to the town's courtyards calls Founder's Square "the one courtyard where you could easily spend an hour."
The Room That Keeps the Corner Open
The last stop on that list is what turns the square from a daytime courtyard into a place for the evening. Visit Solvang says Analogue Room keeps the latest hours on the block, which makes the square a natural place to end an evening in the valley.
The room is part vinyl listening lounge, part bottle and record shop, part bar, with a pizza kitchen. The music is vinyl only, played through a custom high-fidelity sound system by DJs and guest selectors, and the genres range across soul, jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop and world music. The website puts it plainly:
"Vinyl, played properly. No algorithms deciding the night. Records are hand-picked and spun on our turntable, bringing the room to life. Every open hour, records are spinning."
The kitchen is Side Hustle Pizza, led by Santa Ynez Valley chef Joe Blanchard. It makes focaccia-style pizzas, both classics and seasonal pies built on ingredients from the Solvang Farmers Market. When Edhat covered the opening in August, the menu was short: pepperoni and Margherita pizzas, a Caesar salad and a market salad. Wright told the Santa Maria Sun that arugula and prosciutto and sausage and mushroom pies would be added. Wine, beer and non-alcoholic drinks rotate, and there is no fixed daily drink menu. General manager Blake Economus brings a background in the Santa Ynez Valley wine business.
Wright started Standing Sun Wines in 2007. On the "Chopping It Up with Keith Saarloos" podcast, he said he wanted Analogue Room to be a "third place," where people put their phones away, slow down and meet new friends face to face. It also hosts private events, including birthdays and listening parties. The Santa Ynez Valley News adds wine tastings, dinners, celebrations and corporate gatherings to that list.
Published hours don't agree. The Santa Ynez Valley News and Visit Solvang list Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. Edhat's August report lists Thursday through Monday, 4 to 10 p.m. Check the room's own channels before planning a late night around it.
What Is Still in Motion on This End of Mission Drive
The corner is still changing. The city's September 2026 project list shows a sign-plan amendment under review for 1693 Mission Drive. The 30-apartment conversion of the upper floors isn't on that list, and the list doesn't say what became of it.
Next door, the building at 1687 Mission Drive is the one the 2024 hotel concept would have demolished. A tea-and-biscuits shop has applied to open in Unit 101 there, and that application is still in review. A few blocks west, at 1546 Mission Drive, Osteria Grappolo has a permit for a takeout expansion and a new kitchen. If the tea shop is approved, the 1687 building will hold another small business, much like the courtyard beside it.
The Fall Calendar Around the Square
Founder's Square is a short walk from Copenhagen Drive, Solvang Park, the Danish bakeries and the tasting rooms. You can park anywhere downtown and walk the rest. That makes it an easy start or finish for the season's downtown events:
- Scarecrow Fest and the Spooky Food & Wine Trail run all of October.
- Solvang Parks & Recreation's 32nd annual Haunted House, themed "Nightmares… And Beyond," runs at the Festival Theater on Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24, 2026, alongside a street fair both evenings.
- Solvang Julefest runs from November 27, 2026, through January 3, 2027. Downtown carolers are first listed for November 28.
After the Haunted House lets out on either night in late October, Analogue Room is the place on the block most likely to still be open.
Founder's Square shows what can happen when a property built for one purpose finds another through careful, small-scale work, something Lisa sees often in the character homes she represents across the valley. If you own a property with history of its own and want to understand how its story affects its value, Lisa Foley is glad to talk it through. Get Your Instant Home Valuation.
