Esau`s Cafe Carpinteria`s Oldest Restaurant. Editorial Photo

What is today the oldest restaurant in Carpinteria, California, was actually formed in San Francisco, by a midwesterner. A young Tom Esau was working in the food pavilion of the San Francisco 1939 Worlds Fair. Tom continued to work in various restaurants, and by 1961 he was ready to open his own cafe, and came to Santa Barbara with his wife. This is now the longest running breakfast house in Santa Barbara. When the cafe was sold, the new owners opened a second location in their home town of Carpinteria, California. And being avid surfers themselves, it is a comfortable, surer restaurant.