Esau’s Cafe is home to Carpinteria’s first permanent outdoor parklet

CARPINTERIA, Calif. - If you enjoy eating outdoors, year-round, add Carpinteria to your list.

The city installed its first permanent parklet Wednesday in front of Esau's Cafe on Linden Avenue.

The clipped-together system is made of hard steel.

It an 854 mile journey to get to the south coast as the city-owned parklet was manufactured by Modstreet in Durango, Colorado.

"This is safe," said Matt Kibel with Modstreet. "It's made out of carbon steel so it's a whole carbon steel structure frame and it's crash-rated up to 25 miles an hour, 30 miles an hour crash rating."

The newly installed parklet outside the local, popular restaurant is actually two six foot by 12 foot systems, built as one. 

"It gives people a chance to be outside in nice weather and gives us a lot more seating and make it all around a better cafe-style restaurant," said Scott Stanley, President of Esau's Cafe. "I'm very fortunate to be the first one doing it."

Bicyclists are also expected to be pleased with the new design as it brings back bike lanes; no more encroachment, a common complaint linked to the older styles.

Stanley is renting his parklet from the city. Other business owners in town have the option of either buying a parklet outright from Modstreet or, lease one from the city on a monthly basis for roughly $55.

The City of Carpinteria established a hard deadline of June 30 for business owners to remove older, pandemic-era parklets.