Wine Cask Press & Reviews
- November 15, 2009
- Wine Spectator - Winemaker Q&A: Doug Margerum
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Doug Margerum thought he was out of the restaurant business. But after the Wine Cask, the Santa Barbara restaurant and wineshop his family owned from 1981 to 2007, closed under its new owner, he wanted to bring it back-and reconnect with consumers. Margerum teamed up with restaurateur Mitchell Sjerven and is backed in part by the property's landlords. The restaurant made its name with one of the best wine lists in the country, but was also popular with local winemakers and hosted the annual Santa Barbara County futures tasting. It became a hangout/classroom for then-up-and-coming winemakers such as Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat and Adam Tolmach of Ojai winery.
- November 2, 2009
- Video tour of the Wine Cask from SantaBarbara.com
Tour of the Wine Cask restaurant (currently under construction) in Santa Barbara. Music intro by Benise.
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- August 14, 2009
- Santa Barbara Independent - Rebirth of the Wine Cask
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Rumors had been swirling around Santa Barbara’s foodie and winemaking community for months, and this week, it was finally made official: The Wine Cask will re-open in November at the same exact location in the El Paseo complex on Anacapa Street, and its attempted return to epicurean excellence is riding squarely on the backs of former owner Doug Margerum and onetime Wine Cask employee Mitchell Sjerven, who now owns and operates the downtown restaurants bouchon and Seagrass. Also involved this time around are silent investors reportedly connected to the SIMA Corporation, the property ownership and management company that counts the El Paseo complex as one of its many holdings in Santa Barbara.
- August 13, 2009
- Santa Barbara News Press - Wine Cask to reopen in fall
The Wine Cask will reopen this fall on the heels of the harvest season.
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- August 10, 2009
- Local Duo Acquire Wine Cask
Former owner Doug Margerum and Santa Barbara restaurateur Mitchell Sjerven have joined forces to bring back the venerable Wine Cask. Margerum, who owned and operated the award–winning institution since 1981 before selling in 2007, and Sjerven, who owns Santa Barbara restaurants Bouchon and Seagrass both took the restaurant’s closure personally. Rather than simply sit back and allow a permanent demise of the Wine Cask, the duo instead decided to combine their passion and talents. “It wasn’t so much the business side of the equation—things happen, restaurants are tough even in good times—but the personal aspect of seeing what had been the formative decades of my professional career just evaporate,” relates Margerum.
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