Literary Libations Come to Santa Barbara’s Kingdom by the Sea

 

It’s not every day you get to make jokes about cooping with the creator of an immersive evening of entertainment that’s coming to Santa Barbara September 12-14. Then again, it’s also unusual to discuss the beloved 19th-century writer with someone who has studied him enough to put together a touring show called the “Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy.” Fortunately, creative director Julia Tirinnanzi can promise that even with four spookily themed cocktails served up in 90 minutes or so, “There’s no cooping allowed.”

(For the 93 percent of the planet that has no idea what that’s referring to, one rumor about Poe’s still-mysterious death is that Baltimore ward workers marched him around from polling location to polling location, changing his outfit and keeping him drunk, causing his demise on election night 1849. This old-time political machine gambit was known as “cooping.”)

Care to read the rest then do at the Independent's site.

The Bobcat Drinks Tonight

It’s easy to think that the last thing Santa Barbara needs now is another bar — cue Prohibition-revivalist online commenters! — but with the coming of the Bobcat Room on West Ortega Street, it’s easier to conclude that such a notion is horribly wrong. Hip without being hipster, retro without irony, clubby without being exclusive, it’s not so much dimly lit as artfully shadowed, with wall seating angled just so people are edged into ergonomically easier talking postures. That it’s the rowdier Wildcat Lounge’s speakeasy neighbor — you have to enter through a double door from the dance floor — is even more of an enchanting surprise.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Indy's site.