Drive up State Street past Las Positas and the block starts to feel less like downtown and more like a neighborhood. Broadmoor Plaza sits on one side, the old Yanni's Greek Deli storefront on the other, and for years that stretch was the kind of place you passed through rather than stopped at. That changed in pieces, first in the fall of 2024 and again this spring, and the two changes sit close enough together that they've quietly rewired how a San Roque morning and a San Roque evening actually work.
The short version: you can now get coffee, breakfast, dinner, and a beer without leaving Upper State. The longer version is more interesting, because both openings followed lengthy projects.
What took over the old Yanni's spot
As Edhat reported, the building at 3102 State Street sat through a long stretch of construction, dating back to April 2024, before it reopened this year as Brass Bird Coffee & Kitchen. The café officially opened on April 1, 2026, marking the second Santa Barbara-area location for the Carpinteria original.
The space had a different name in mind for a while. Early plans floated "Teddy's on State," a nod to owners Sarah Dandona and Juan Rodriguez's other restaurant, Teddy's by the Sea, and their catering business, Omni Catering. The project ultimately launched under the Brass Bird name instead, carrying over the Carpinteria menu with a few additions: breakfast sandwiches, a BLT with lemon aioli, a smoked salmon plate, paninis, and a house granola bowl. The café runs daily from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with weekend brunch hours from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and there's a lot of outdoor seating built into the redesigned lot, which now has a one-way flow with the entrance off Calle Palo Colorado and an exit onto State that's right-turn only.
Two years between breaking ground and pouring the first cup is not a fast turnaround for a coffee shop. It's the kind of timeline you'd expect from a bigger, more complicated build.
What took over the old La Rumba space
Three blocks north, the same pattern played out on a longer clock. As The Santa Barbara Independent reported, the 5,000-square-foot building at 3435 State Street had been La Rumba Bar & Grill and, before that, Josie's Fourwinds. It sat as a dark, closed-in space for years until new landlords added garage doors that opened the room to light and air. Lama Dog's founder, Pete Burnham, had been looking for a San Roque location since his original Funk Zone taproom opened, and the spots he found were either too small, chopped into awkward pieces, or capped by low ceilings. He signed the lease in November 2022 and spent most of the following two years working through permitting and construction before Uptown Lama Dog Tap Room + Bottle Shop opened alongside Sama Sama Kitchen on October 11, 2024. Locals started calling the combined space Lama Sama before the paint had even dried.
The pairing works because it splits the job: Lama Dog runs a 30-tap beer list and bottle shop, and Sama Sama brings its Southeast Asian menu into the same room. It's built to be family-friendly, with games and TVs, and the hours stretch late on weekends, 11:30 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, with earlier Sunday hours during football season. Burnham has said he was betting there were enough beer-loving residents in San Roque to support that many taps in one room. Whether that bet paid off is a question for the people who now treat 3435 State as their regular Friday stop rather than a special occasion.
Two operators, one long wait
What connects these two openings isn't just proximity. Both followed lengthy projects. Burnham spent most of two years on permitting and construction. The Brass Bird team spent roughly two years on construction alone, then reconsidered the name of the place before it opened. Both are operators with a proven concept already running elsewhere in the county, Lama Dog in the Funk Zone and Teddy's by the Sea and Brass Bird's original location in Carpinteria.
San Roque's blocks of Upper State got these two openings in the span of eighteen months.
What actually changed for a resident's day
Before Brass Bird and Lama Sama opened, a San Roque morning coffee run or evening beer usually meant a drive toward lower State or over to the Mesa. Now there's a version of the day that starts at 3102 State with a breakfast sandwich on the patio, runs through an afternoon errand loop past Broadmoor Plaza, and ends three blocks up at 3435 State with a plate from Sama Sama and something off Lama Dog's tap list. None of that requires leaving the neighborhood or fighting for downtown parking.
It's a small geographic fact with a real effect on how the day gets structured. A coffee shop and a taproom three blocks apart don't just add options, they create a loop, and a loop changes habits in a way that two isolated openings somewhere else in town wouldn't. If you live near Las Positas or up toward Ontare, your Saturday can now start and end on the same half-mile of State Street.
A few practical notes if you're headed up there
- Brass Bird's parking lot off Calle Palo Colorado is one-way, with the exit onto State restricted to right turns only, so plan your approach from the north if you're driving in for breakfast.
- Weekend brunch at Brass Bird runs 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a later start and an earlier finish than weekday hours.
- Lama Sama's Sunday hours shift earlier during football season, opening at 10 a.m. instead of the usual 11:30.
- The 3435 State building's garage doors mean the indoor and patio seating blend together more than the old La Rumba layout ever did.
Together, the two businesses give residents more ways to make that State Street loop part of an ordinary day.
If you're already up there most weeks, you've probably worked this loop out for yourself by now. If you haven't made it up Upper State in a while, the stretch between Broadmoor Plaza and Ontare is worth a second look.
I keep half an eye on what opens and closes across the neighborhoods I work in, not because it changes anyone's address, but because it's part of what makes each one feel like a specific place rather than a category on a map. If you ever want to talk about what's changing in San Roque, Hope Ranch, Montecito, or anywhere else along the coast, reach out to Gregg Leach. Let's Connect.