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A conceptual plan by Santa Barbara Developer and landlord, Ed St. George, shows a four-story building in the art deco-style building on the site of the iconic pea soup of Andersen Restaurant. St. George bought the property last year for 4.95 million US dollars, about five months after the restaurant was closed.
The city of Buelton said that this conceptual review for the website is exactly that – a concept – and is not a formal application. The city has not determined a date for the conceptual review by the planning commission.
“There is an essential process before anything is built on the website,” said the city on its website for the project.
Pea soup of Andersen runs for almost a century. The Danish immigrant Anton Andersen and the French immigrant Juliette Andersen founded the restaurant, which became a pea soup in 1924, and originally called it an electrical café after their electric stove at the time. The son of Anton and Juliette, Robert Andersen, took over the family business in the 1930s and created the pioneering advertising boards that the restaurant would apply on the central coast for decades. The name of the restaurant was officially changed to the pea soup of Andersen in 1947. He changed the owner a few times. From 1999 until his sale, Milt Guggia owned it.
In its place, the conceptual plan shows 125 condominiums with a bedroom, some with dens and space for the pea soup restaurant, office space and a gym. The project's development team says that the architectural design of the restaurant would pay homage to the electric café of Andersen and that Guggia Enterprises would mean operating it.
The style of the building takes place as part of Buellon's plan for this part of the city, whose Avenue of the Flags specific plan, which was completed by the city council in 2017. This plan describes that the construction of the avenue should be in Art -deco style.
Art Deco dates from Western Europe in the 1910s and 20s before becoming increasingly popular in the United States in the 30s and 1940s. Art Deco building have clean shapes and stylized ornaments that are often geometric. Sometimes buildings can include different materials such as jade and silver as well as artificial plastics.
Several developments along the Avenue are said to be in the Art Deco style, including the Creekside Village with mixed buildings and the ARCO petrol station in Art Deco style was approved by the planning commission.
