Thomas Van Stein
From...
Around five o’clock when the sun begins to set, a watering hole/steak & chop house on the east end of Coast Village Road hosts the Montecito Mellowest.
Lucky’s exudes relaxed elegance, its walls adorned with black-and-white photographs of famous thespians and crooners (mostly dead) in homage to Hollywood as it once was.
Servers are dressed formally, but management does not expect the same of its laid-back patrons, the likes of whom include folk-rockerDavid Crosby, who grew up in Montecito and drives in from Santa Ynez for beef stroganoff; the carrot-topped novelist T.C. Boyle, in trademark red Converse sneakers; Kirk Douglas, Carol Burnett,Bo Derek, and Oprah, who prefers to book the whole place when she craves steak and chops and Lucky‘s Fries and salty turtle sundaes.
A beer comes in a frosted mug, poured by Matt or Ezra; dry martinis are stirred to perfection. The menu, classic American fare, features Andy’s Baby Back Ribs, after Formula One driver Andy Granatelli, who owns a corner table.
Charlie Chaplin’s ghost is often present, when he gets bored with the Montecito Inn (next door), which he created in 1928 as a weekend getaway for himself and friends. Now Charlie pulls playful pranks on patrons.
For instance, he’ll jerk a barstool, prompting a male customer to pratfall while concurrently causing a female to slip on an imaginary banana skin, and they’ll engage each other on the floor—Charlie’s slapstick style of sparking seduction.
Strangely, no injuries occur from these pratfalls and slippages (which of course have nothing to do with martinis.) Charlie, costumed as The Tramp, is seen walking through walls in Lucky’s Bamboo Room; he flicks empty glasses off serving trays, incessantly taps the shoulders of chosen patrons, and, when washrooms are occupied, switches the lights off or jiggles sliding locks to show “vacant,” resulting in mirthful (if mortifying) encounters.
Lucky’s Table 80 belongs to Charlie. That’s the one whose candle mysteriously alights at evening’s end when all other candles, and lights, are extinguished.
