Vintage video and pinball games

Peasants FEAST opens arcade in Solvang

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

With today’s grand opening of a new arcade, Michael and Sarah Cherney, owners of peasants FEAST restaurant, have expanded their blossoming Cherney Hospitality Group in Solvang.

The family-friendly entertainment space adjoins the group’s peasants DELI & MARKET at 473 Atterdag Road, across the lane from the pair’s first restaurant, peasants FEAST, which opened in April 2020 and recently received a Bib Gourmand recognition in the 2022 MICHELIN Guide California.

The sole entrance to the arcade at peasants DELI is through a speakeasy-style doorway somewhat concealed by the deli’s market shelves. The arcade features more than 15 carefully curated, vintage video and pinball games, mainly classics dating to the 1990s, as well as an air hockey “arena.”

Highlights of the collection include a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball game; a two-player, seated The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift car racing game; NBA JAM, Mortal Kombat, Area 51 and all-time classics like PAC-MAN and Galaga video games; other rotating pinball machines such as “Hook” and “Godzilla;” and other consoles available for players of most ages.

“Our motivation for the arcade is in line with that of peasants DELI’s opening, which all stemmed from memories of my dad and the experiences that we shared when I was a kid. I wanted to create a place that he would have frequented, with me in tow,” said Chef Cherney. “We’re hoping that we can create a space for other families to make their own, similar memories.”

The Cherneys’ peasants DELI & MARKET opened in January 2022, marking the couple’s second restaurant concept to debut during the pandemic. The first one — peasants FEAST, located directly across the street — opened two weeks after the initial mid-March 2020 shutdowns.

Surviving what were some of the restaurant industry’s toughest few years, the peasants FEAST team had bestowed upon them the honor of not only being included in the 2022 MICHELIN Guide California but also recognition as a Bib Gourmand establishment, the only new Bib Gourmand added to the guide along California’s Central Coast from Ventura County up to the San Francisco Bay Area.

“Bib Gourmand is reserved for restaurants with reasonable prices. They must have a menu where customers can order two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $49 or less,” explained Ms. Cherney.

The Cherneys’ peasants DELI offers classic and not-so-classic deli sandwiches filled with thoughtfully sourced, artisanal cured and smoked meats, and other proteins and veggies, served on specially-commissioned sesame French rolls from a Santa Ynez Valley bakery, Bob’s Well Bread.

A focal point of peasants DELI is a sizable leg of 5J Jamón Ibérico Bellota Cinco Jotas, a rarely-found Spanish import, considered the

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finest cured ham in the world.

Chef Cherney’s house-cured pastrami is available sliced for take-away or in two different Reuben sandwich versions. Also available are house-roasted Kobe roast beef sandwiches — “The Godfather,” an Italian sandwich rendition with Alle-Pia coppa, Cacciatorino salami, mortadella, and smoked provolone; houseroasted turkey breast; a vegetarian marinated mushroom sandwich; and an over-the-top fish sandwich incorporating Conservas Ortiz white tuna and boquerones. All peasants DELI sandwiches are finished with house dressings and condiments.

In addition to the sandwich menu and the Jamón Ibérico, peasants DELI & MARKET handslices other assorted specialty and deli meats and cheeses, which are available à la carte by the ounce or portions of pounds. The deli’s market shelving displays provisions for purchase like olive oil and fig balsamic vinegar, made for peasants DELI by local crafter, Global Gardens; jars of “peasants PICKLES”; handmade, fresh pasta; and various dressings and condiments used at the deli, including its proprietary Italian dressing and Sunrise Organic Farms Bulgarian carrot pepper hot sauce. Also available in the market section of the deli are tins of Conservas Ortiz tuna belly, boquerones like those found on peasants FEAST’s Copenhagen Caesar salad, Spanish mussels in escabeche from La Brújula and packets from Patagonia Provisions.

Peasants DELI fans, Santa Barbara wine country chefs, locals in-the-know, and other foodie insiders scoop up peasants DELI’s private-label Regiis Ova Caviar and trout roes which are available in tins of varying sizes, as currently-trending caviar “bumps,” or in the deli’s caviar cones, which entail paper-thin Jamón Ibérico, Regiis Ova Caviar, Manchego cheese espuma, and chervil, in a hand-held, feuille de brick pastry cone.

Aligning with the arcade’s opening, peasants DELI will be adding more snack items such as small plates of meats, cheeses and antipastos, as well as a couple of grab-and-go salads.

Chef Cherney and his wife, Sarah, brought more than three decades of experience to peasants FEAST with time spent in Michelin-starred, Los Angeles (Ortolan) and Las Vegas (L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon) kitchens, and with California Central Coast eateries (Sides Hardware and Shoes and Firestone Walker Brewing Co.).

“Solvang attracts so many families, both local and visiting, but there’s not a ton of kid-friendly activities within town,” said Ms. Cherney. “We really feel like this is what our little village needs — a social center for teens and for ‘kids’ of all ages, much like the ones that we experienced when we were growing up. We want a spot that our video game-fanatic son can be proud of, someplace he’d bring all of his friends,” email: mmcmahon@newspress. com

Fyi

Michael and Sarah Cherney’s peasants DELI & MARKET is located at 473 Atterdag Road in Solvang, across from peasants FEAST. Current DELI hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Sunday (or until sold out), with DELI and arcade hours extending 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. To reach peasants DELI directly, call 805-691-9649.

The arcade will be available for private parties and buyouts outside of the arcade’s operating hours. Arcade announcements and updates will be posted to the team’s social media accounts: @peasantsDELI and @ peasantsFEAST.

Central Coast artist and London native Annie Hoffman’s exhibit “Seeing Ourselves in Colour” will be displayed through Feb. 28 at Gallery Los Olivos, 2920 Grand Ave., Los Olivos. For more information, visit anniehoffmann.com.

10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. “The Search for the Modern West,” an exhibit, continues through Feb. 20 at Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, 11 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. For more information, see sullivangoss.com or call the gallery at 805-730-1460.

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit “Parliament of Owls” runs through Feb. 5 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays. For more information, go to www.sbnature. org.

Noon to 5 p.m. “Clarence Mattei: Portrait of a Community” is on view now through May at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, which is located in downtown Santa Barbara at 136 E. De la Guerra St. Admission is free. Hours are currently from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and from noon to 7 p.m. Thursdays. For more information, visit www.sbhistorical.org. The Santa Barbara International Film Festival continues through Feb. 18. See sbiff.org.

8 p.m. Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “Selling Kabul” at the New Vic Theatre, 33 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara, The play is about an Afghan man hiding from the Taliban in his sister’s home in Kabul. Tickets cost $40 to $84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

FEB. 10

8 p.m. Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “Selling Kabul” at the New Vic Theatre, 33 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara, The play is about an Afghan man hiding from the Taliban in his sister’s home in Kabul. Tickets cost $40 to $84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

FEB. 11 4 and 8 p.m. Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “Selling Kabul” at the New Vic Theatre, 33 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara, The play is about an Afghan man hiding from the Taliban in his sister’s home in Kabul. Tickets cost $40 to $84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

8 p.m. Transform Through Arts will present 10 dance companies in “Colors of Love” at the Center Stage Theater, upstairs at Paseo Nuevo in Santa Barbara. General admission costs $30 in advance and $35 at the door. Tickets are $25 for students. To purchase, go to www. centerstagetheater.org.

FEB. 12 Noon. Participants in Ted Nash’s workshop will go on stage at the Mary Craig Auditorium, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State St. The free program is called “Transformation:

Personal Stories of Change, Acceptance and Evolution” and will feature student composers, performers and writers from Mr. Nash’s workshop. 2 p.m. Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “Selling Kabul” at the New Vic Theatre, 33 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara, The play is about an Afghan man hiding from the Taliban in his sister’s home in Kabul. Tickets cost $40 to $84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

FEB. 14

6 to 7:30 p.m. Nicole Lvoff and Joe Woodard will perform on Valentine’s Day at the Crush Bar & Tap, 1129 A State St., Santa Barbara. Their music varies from Beatles songs to jazz standards. For more information, go to crushbarsb. com.

FEB. 15

7:30 p.m. Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “Selling Kabul” at the New Vic Theatre, 33 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara, The play is about an Afghan man hiding from the Taliban in his sister’s home in Kabul. Tickets cost $40 to $84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

— Dave Mason