"You'd be hard pressed to find a restaurant that serves dessert with a meal," Lloyd McLenithan told Coastal View News back in 2007, when Clementine's Steak House offered no fewer than 15 kinds of pie. "We consider it a better value."
That full-course dinner ended on Oct. 4, 2026, at 4631 Carpinteria Ave. Within a few blocks on the east end of town, the new arrivals of the past year look different. A butcher shop. A café and gourmet market designed mostly for grab-and-go. And one rotisserie restaurant that has been "coming soon" since 2025. On this stretch, more of the food now leaves in a bag.
What Closed With the Pie
Clementine's opened on Carpinteria Avenue in 1976. Irene McLenithan took it over on April 30, 1982, her 52nd birthday, and her son Lloyd and daughter Esther joined her. Lloyd became head chef. In the kitchen they cut meat in-house and made soups and salad dressings from scratch. Every entrée came with soup, salad, vegetables, potatoes or rice, bread and dessert. Fried chicken, prime rib, New York steak and filet mignon were the regular orders.
According to Coastal View News, the restaurant closed because the building and property sold, and the family had never owned the land. Reservations filled through the final weekend. Noozhawk reported that the new owners let Clementine's keep operating for two years after the sale. McLenithan told Noozhawk he did not know what would happen to the building. No buyer or plan for the site has been made public. At its Oct. 12 meeting, the Carpinteria City Council issued a proclamation honoring the restaurant.
A second long-running business nearby is closing too. Casitas Cleaners has been in Casitas Plaza since 1985. Sunny Han bought it in 1989, and he and his wife, Jun, have run it together ever since. They are retiring, and Oct. 30 is the shop's last day. In the Oct. 1 issue of Coastal View News, the shop had already stopped taking new orders.
Between them, these two businesses had more than 80 years on this end of town. Both were service businesses where you came back again and again, and both reached their ends for the reasons long-running businesses usually do: retirement, and a sale of land the operator did not own.
The Replacements Sell Ingredients
The east end's new food businesses mostly sell you something to take away.
The Larder by Field + Fort opened in late August at 1033 Casitas Pass Road, in the space The Food Liaison used for about a decade. Coastal View News reported that The Food Liaison's owners, Jason and Chef Nirasha Rodriguez, had served their last café meal in February and planned to turn the kitchen into a commissary and a mentoring space for local food entrepreneurs. According to the Santa Barbara Independent, Field + Fort, the Summerland store and café run by Kyle Irwin and Susie Bechtel, bought the space because its café, Feast, had outgrown its kitchen.
General manager Paul Burns described the plan plainly to the Independent: "We wanted Carpinteria to be more focused on grab-and-go options. It is geared toward being a place where you can quickly pick up something for work, the beach, a polo game, or dinner." Along with prepared food, The Larder sells packaged gourmet foods, specialty ingredients, fresh pasta, ice cream, coffee, tea and kitchen essentials.
Chef Austin Moore brought some of Feast's best-known dishes south from Summerland. One is the breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese, apricot habanero jam and Italian ham on a homemade English muffin. Another is the tarragon chicken salad sandwich. Newer dishes include the Larder Bowl with grilled chicken, farro, tomato confit, kale and romesco, a tri-tip wrap with green harissa slaw, and a veggie wrap with grilled mushroom shawarma. You can still eat there at a long communal table or outside. As of the Independent's Oct. 2 report, the hours were Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the team was working toward opening seven days a week.
Coyote's Market opened April 11 at 4945-A Carpinteria Ave. under Peter and Caroline Hernandez. It sells regional meat and seafood, California pantry goods and kitchenware, plus house-made stocks, dressings and jams. In an Oct. 17 profile, Noozhawk called it a butcher shop and provisions store.
Put the two together and the east end now covers a steak dinner differently. Until this month you could order a cut at Clementine's, prepared there by its chef. Now you can buy one from a butcher less than half a mile up the avenue and cook it at home, with sides and dessert from The Larder's shelves.
The Corridor, Block by Block
| Address | Business | Status this fall |
|---|---|---|
| 4631 Carpinteria Ave. | Clementine's Steak House | Closed Oct. 4, 2026; property sold, future use not announced |
| Casitas Plaza | Casitas Cleaners | Final day set for Oct. 30 |
| 1033 Casitas Pass Road | The Larder by Field + Fort | Opened late August; Wed–Sun, 8 a.m.–3 p.m. as of Oct. 2 |
| 4945-A Carpinteria Ave. | Coyote's Market | Opened April 11 |
| 5003 Carpinteria Ave. | Ojai Rôtie | "Coming Soon"; opening planned for fall |
| 5205 Carpinteria Ave. | Giovanni's Pizza | Announced a move here from 5003, the former Fosters Freeze spot |
The One Newcomer Built for Sitting Down
The exception is the old Giovanni's Pizza building at 5003 Carpinteria Ave., on the corner of Linden Avenue, and it is why the east end will still have a place to stay for dinner. Giovanni's owner told Coastal View News he planned to move the pizzeria down the street to 5205 Carpinteria Ave.
Ojai Rôtie is opening its second location there, with rotisserie chicken, sourdough and a wine program it calls the Winebox. In its opening announcement, the company says the Carpinteria space is bigger than its Ojai home. It will seat 40 indoors and another 80 in a dog-friendly garden with a ranch fence, lemon and olive trees, bougainvillea and string lights. That makes it the largest garden on this stretch of Carpinteria Avenue built for staying a while.
It has taken a while. In July 2025, Siteline said the team was aiming for a January opening. The City of Carpinteria approved two wall signs for the space on Nov. 24, 2025. At that point the building permit had not yet been submitted. In January 2026, Noozhawk reported a spring target. The company's own announcement now says "this fall," with the exact date and opening events still to come. Its Carpinteria page still reads "Coming Soon." The company has said its newsletter and Instagram will announce the date first.
Even this sit-down restaurant fits the pattern. Rotisserie chicken and a loaf of sourdough are about as portable as a dinner gets.
Planning a Weeknight Around the New East End
Taken together, the new businesses mean this end of town feeds you best before mid-afternoon, or when you're cooking at home.
- Morning and lunch: The Larder opens at 8 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday. It works for a breakfast sandwich on the way to work or lunch to take to the beach, and the coffee is Joshua Tree Coffee.
- Before 3 p.m.: The Larder's fresh pasta and specialty ingredients sell from the same counter, so you can pick up dinner supplies with lunch. On Mondays and Tuesdays it is closed under the hours reported in early October.
- The main course: Coyote's Market at 4945-A Carpinteria Ave. has meat, seafood and house-made stocks if you're cooking.
- Sitting down: Once Ojai Rôtie opens, its garden at 5003 Carpinteria Ave. will be the east end's new place to sit down for dinner.
The empty building at 4631 Carpinteria Ave. is still the open question. The property has new owners, and they have not announced a plan. For the first time since 1976, there is no full-course dinner with pie at that address.
We follow Carpinteria Avenue the way our neighbors do, one storefront at a time. If you own a home on this end of town and want to know how the changes around you factor into its value, David Kim Group can give you a free home valuation built on what's really changing nearby.
