Village People

Debbie Ousey, Montecito Coffee Shop by Nicholas Schou I f you’ve ever had breakfast or lunch at the Montecito Coffee Shop – it’s the restaurant next to the San Ysidro Pharmacy at the intersection of East Valley and San Ysidro roads – then you may have been waited on by a petite and unassuming woman who seems to know her way around the establishment. As it happens, Debbie Ousey, the waitress in question, is also the owner of the coffee shop and has been for the past 17 years. Before that, Ousey worked at the restaurant for 19 years as a waitress, so some habits just die hard.

“I’m a waitress, but I’m known to be the cook, too,” Ousey tells me on a recent morning during her shift break. “It’s a small place. A year ago, we had a cook who was very ill and I was the cook until we found a replacement.” Ousey was born in Canada to British parents but grew up in Santa Barbara. She began working in the restaurant business at a young age: her parents ran a continental style seafood restaurant in town called the Encina. “They did a lot of catering to the community, doctors, the temple, and other big meals, and anyways, we all started working when we were thirteen,” Ousey says. “I started working here at the coffee shop for the previous owner at age twenty.”

Throughout her career as a waitress, Ousey says she always worked more than one job. “I always had more than one job to survive,” she recalls. “And I always wanted a good car, so I came up with side jobs, be it house sitting or dog sitting, working a second waitress job at night or on weekends, catering to private parties to make a little extra money. I even did massage therapy.” Sometime in the 1940s, the pharmacy and restaurant first opened for business. “Nobody has an exact date, but my understanding was the owner of the pharmacy was at one point the owner of the restaurant as well, until they retired and sold the property to Mero Susnar,” a Serbian-American real estate developer. Susnar held onto the property for two decades before retiring to Florida, at which point, the restaurant became available, and in 2003, Ousey bought it.

According to Ousey, customers like

Let’s discuss your real estate needs.

ly didn’t notice much change to the menu, at least not at first. “I think the concept worked very well, so I kept it mainly the way it was and over time added some of my input,” she explains. “I’m not a bad cook myself and came from that kind of background, so I wasn’t ignorant of food or how to get around a kitchen.”

The Montecito Coffee Shop has been open without a hitch except for during the aftermath of the 2018 debris flows when it was forced to close for 43 days. “Everybody was closed; we weren’t alone,” Ousey says. “But after we reopened, I was really ready for new chairs. It was time for a facelift.” Because the coffee shop is so cozy, Ousey says all the food is twice as fresh as what you’d find at larger establishments. “We’re not cheap, but everything is fresh,” she says. “We don’t have a lot of room to store a lot of stuff, so it costs us more money to have everything delivered fresh daily. The tuna salad is made every day, the chicken salad is made every day. If it’s not sold by the third day, it’s out.”

The coffee shop’s menu ranges from

oatmeal, scrambles, huevos rancheros, and omelets for breakfast to salads, sandwiches, and burgers for lunch. But regulars, many of whom have been eating there for decades, know the restaurant’s secret weapon is the soup, the stock of which is made from freshly roasted turkeys.

“The stocks for our soup are made fresh every day,” Ousey explains. (On the day I met Ousey at the shop, the soup of the day was turkey broth with arugula, roasted pine nuts, and goat cheese, which made for a delicious and well-textured meal in a cup.)

Ousey isn’t shy about the soup’s merits. “The soups are the best,” she says with a straightforward smile. “I don’t eat soups anywhere else. I don’t even make my own.” •MJ

Montecito Coffee Shop is open daily at 7 am until 2:30 pm (8 am to 2 pm on Sundays) and is located at 1498 East Valley Road. 805-969-6250. Montecitocoffeeshop.com. (Although there is currently no dine-in service, take-out is available until the coronavirus pandemic blows over.)

Susan Pate | Beverly Palmer | Mitch Morehart

Ichiban Japanese Restaurant/Sushi Bar

Lunch: Monday through Saturday 11:30am - 2:30pm Dinner: Monday through Sunday: 5pm - 10pm

691 Picacho Ln | Montecito | 7BD/8BA Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600 DRE 01815307 | Offered at $16,500,000

499 Crocker Sperry Dr | Santa Barbara | 3BD/5BA Jeff Oien 805.895.2944 DRE 00852118 | Offered at $4,495,000

705 Riven Rock Rd | Montecito | 5BD/8BA Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600 DRE 01815307 | Offered at $12,900,000

1147 Hill Rd | Santa Barbara | 4BD/5BA Grubb Campbell Group 805.895.6226 DRE 01236143/01410304 | Offered at $11,500,000

956 Mariposa Ln | Montecito | 5BD/7BA Riskin/Griffin 805.565.8600 DRE 01815307/00837659 | Offered at $11,450,000

4558 Via Esperanza | Santa Barbara | 5BD/6BA Gregg Leach 805.886.9000 DRE 01005773 | Offered at $9,975,000

1398 Oak Creek Canyon Rd | Montecito | 6BD/7BA Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600 DRE 01815307 | Offered at $9,950,000

811 Camino Viejo Rd | Santa Barbara | 5BD/7BA Walsh/Clyne 805.259.8808 DRE 00914713/01335689 | Offered at $7,495,000

209 Greenwell Ave | Summerland | 4BD/4BA Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600 DRE 01815307 | Offered at $6,395,000

808 San Ysidro Ln | Montecito | 6BD/7BA Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600 DRE 01815307 | Offered at $5,950,000

640 El Bosque Rd | Montecito | 4BD/4BA Amy J Baird 805.478.9318 DRE 01497110 | Offered at $5,250,000

5162 Foothill Rd | Carpinteria | 2BD/4BA Gregg Leach 805.886.9000 DRE 01005773 | Offered at $4,950,000 618 Hot Springs Rd | Montecito | 5BD/8BA Crawford Speier Group 805.683.7335 DRE 01010817 | Offered at $4,750,000

4002 Cuervo Ave | Santa Barbara | 5BD/4BA Jeff Oien 805.895.2944 DRE 00852118 | Offered at $4,650,000

734 Sea Ranch Dr | Santa Barbara | 3BD/3BA Gregg Leach 805.886.9000 DRE 01005773 | Offered at $4,550,000

109 Olive Mill Rd | Santa Barbara | 3BD/5BA Sener/Walsh 805.331.7402 DRE 00978392/00914713 | Offered at $4,495,000

4050 Mariposa Dr | Santa Barbara | 5BD/5BA Riskin Partners Estate Group 805.565.8600 DRE 01815307 | Offered at $4,490,000

105 Olive Mill Rd | Santa Barbara | 2BD/3BA Walsh/Sener 805.259.8808 DRE 00914713/00978392 | Offered at $2,995,000

WE REACH A WORLDWIDE AUDIENCE THROUGH OUR EXCLUSIVE AFFILIATES