South Coast Deli celebrated its grand opening yesterday at 6521 Pardall Road, featuring a wide variety of “Sammie” sandwiches and paninis for the Isla Vista community.
Unlike the deli’s Goleta and Santa Barbara locations, the new locale will offer a selection of beers and breakfast during the weekend until 2 p.m. The restaurant uses only renewable and compostable plastic products as well as 100 percent recycled paper materials.
According to Matthew Seyhun, a fourth-year environmental science and psychology major, the eatery gives students a variety of dining choices.
“It offers me with the diversity that I want — I can get two gourmet-style sandwiches for the price of one,” Seyhun said. “I have options and I’m a guy that needs options.”
The deli will fill a dining niche for local sandwich enthusiasts, according to Seyhun.
“This place will fuck Subway’s shit up for sure,” Seyhun said. “The only problem with South Coast coming here is that my parents don’t give me enough money per month for it to be so close to my house.”
South Coast Deli owner Jim St. John said positive community input encouraged the franchise’s expansion into Isla Vista.
“It’s something we’ve been thinking about for a number of years,” St. John said. “We were approached by a couple of people with businesses out here, and talking to employees over the years and all those who have lived in I.V. or have been UCSB students said we would be successful.”
Despite the short-lived business ventures of the Pardall location’s previous tenants, St. John said the sandwich shop’s reputation will attract a steady flow of customers.
“We bring to the table 20 years of doing what we do and owning our craft; our reputation has helped us,” St. John said. “I don’t think it’s a cursed location, I think it’s a fantastic location. The experience at South Coast Deli will bring people back again and again.”
St. John said the store aims to provide a friendlier environment than other local options.
“I’ve had a lot of strange dining experiences in I.V.,” St. John said. “We hope to give people a nice, clean, fun environment with quality ingredients and exceptional value. We have some of the more creative and interesting sandwiches available from seven to 10 bucks and everything will fill you up.”
Fourth-year communication major Irene Park said the venue’s close proximity to campus will make it particularly convenient for hungry Gauchos.
“I’m really excited it came to I.V. I’ll probably go more often now that it’s here,” Park said. “It’s delicious and it’s not boring — there’s a lot of options and a lot of sandwiches.”
For a full review of the grub, see On the Menu’s spotlight on South Coast Deli in tomorrow’s Daily Nexus!
Wow- Matthew Seyhun sounds like a really nice guy…he is a “guy that needs options” and his parents don’t “give” him enough money to eat here often enough…wow.
This is why I didn’t get along w/some undergrads during my time at UCSB.
Because classifying an entire group of people based off of one person’s off-the-cuff comments is an incredibly nice thing to do as well. At least Seyhun is honest about where is money comes from.