Soul Food Finds a Home in Santa Barbara

The iconic venue that once hosted performances by music legends such as Kendrick Lamar and the Foo Fighters at Velvet Jones is now home to Soul Bites, Santa Barbara’s only Black-owned café and music lounge. Soul Bites invites locals and visitors alike to experience the heart and soul of Black American–style soul food and hosts events that transcend the conventional dining experience, merging Southern cookout flavors of fried chicken and collard greens with the rhythms of jazz, blues, and more.

Owner Stirling Nix-Bradley, who cut his teeth working in hospitality positions in restaurants under chefs such as Wolfgang Puck and Michael Voltaggio, attributes his love for Southern soul food to his adoptive parents. Settling in Oxnard, Nix-Bradley’s parents became very involved in the Trinity Baptist Church, where his adoptive father was a deacon, and that’s where Nix-Bradley says he developed his love for community cooking. 

“Everyone would potluck after Sunday service, and the menu was always the same: fried chicken, collard greens, macaroni and cheese, and potato salad,” he said, reminiscing on his childhood. Summers spent in Taylor, Texas, emphasized his love for the comfort classics. “I spent all my summers as a kid eating soul food while driving to and from southern Texas, where my parents are from. They learned through their experiences growing up Black in the ‘50s and ‘60s that you didn’t pull over to eat just anywhere —as racism along that route played an imminent threat to safety. We always packed our food, so what I know is eating cold fried chicken and biscuits on the road.”