A year ago this month, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History held its second annual Mission Creek Beer Festival on the grounds along Mission Creek. This November the museum's fall slot goes to its first Fall Tasting Festival, set for Saturday, November 7, in the same setting, with wine, spirits, coffee, nonalcoholic drinks and harvest-season food alongside the beer.
The museum made the change because a beer-only event drew narrowly. The new format copies the museum's June Wine Festival, which has sold out for decades. The food producers named so far are all cooking out of hotel restaurants, and three of the four are new or renamed since mid-2025. That makes the afternoon one of the easiest ways to try the coast's newest hotel dining rooms in one place.
Two Years of Mission Creek, and the Limits of One Drink
The beer festival had a short run. The first one was held on Saturday, November 2, 2024, from 2 to 5 p.m., according to KSBY. The museum billed the 2025 edition as a return after that inaugural year, and it was held on October 18, 2025. In September 2025 the museum announced 13 confirmed brewery entries, including the CARP Homebrewers, and later listed 12 beer participants on the event page, including TW Hollister.
The Santa Barbara Independent reported that the beer festival "didn't draw the same crowds" as the Wine Festival. Jonah Haas, the museum's director of marketing and communications, told the paper the topic was too narrow for many people:
"It was too easy for people to say, 'I'm not a beer drinker, so that's not for me.'"
The Wine Festival sets the standard Haas is measuring against. According to the Montecito Journal, it started in the early 1980s, has been held at the museum from the beginning, and ran this year on June 27. Haas called the new November event "the cool, younger sibling to the wine festival." The museum is keeping what has worked in June for more than forty years and widening what gets poured.
What Carries Over From June
Vendors set up booths across the backyard, creekside and woodland areas of the 17-acre property, and the museum closes to visitors without tickets. As at the Wine Festival, the winemakers, brewers and chefs will often pour your drinks and hand you your food themselves. Most vendors come from Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, and Haas told the Independent that "The Museum follows a whole curation philosophy, aiming for a standard of quality and an integrity of local sourcing."
Haas said the November date lets the selections be "more harvest focused." All of the profits go to the museum's education programs, including Star Parties, school field trips, 70 percent of which go to Title I schools, and the Quasars to Sea Stars teen mentorship program.
The Food Side Reads Like a Hotel Directory
The museum's official page describes regional producers but hasn't posted a full roster. The four kitchens named in the Independent's preview are examples, so the full list on November 7 may be longer. All four of those examples are hotel restaurants:
- Bistro Amasa, inside the Upham Hotel at 1404 De la Vina Street, serves classic American bistro dishes updated with modern technique and California ingredients. The Independent reported that it moved into the former Louie's space in 2025.
- Convivo, inside the Santa Barbara Inn at 901 East Cabrillo Boulevard across from East Beach, is chef-owner Peter McNee's "Nomad Italian" kitchen.
- Marisella, at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara on Hollister Avenue in Goleta, is chef Danny Grant's coastal Italian restaurant, known for handmade pasta and seafood. The Independent reviewed it as a new restaurant in July 2025 and highlighted its redesigned, more open dining room.
- The Knock, at the Hotel Californian at 36 State Street, is a Hitchcock-themed gastropub. The Independent reported that it replaced the hotel's Blackbird in 2026 with a more casual menu.
Three of these four were new or renamed between July 2025 and August 2026. For anyone who hasn't yet booked a table at the Upham, the Bacara or the Californian since the changes, the festival lets you taste all three in one afternoon, a short drive up Mission Canyon. Our Santa Barbara restaurant guide covers what to order once you go back for a full dinner.
The Pours Come From the Funk Zone, Downtown and Foxen Canyon
The drinks named so far are just as easy to find again after the festival. Most have tasting rooms within a few blocks of the State Street promenade, which changed a great deal this summer.
Producer | Where to find them the rest of the year | What's new |
|---|---|---|
Margerum | Tasting room in the Funk Zone | Robert Daugherty became head winemaker in March 2025. The 2023 ÜBER Syrah placed No. 27 on Jeb Dunnuck's 2025 Top 100 |
Third Window Brewing | 406 E. Haley Street, Suite 3 | Opened a second location at Linden Square in Carpinteria in May 2025 |
Tyler x Lieu Dit | Bar Centro, 23 E. Canon Perdido Street | Reopened after a renovation pause last winter. Current hours are Friday and Saturday |
Foxen | 7600 and 7200 Foxen Canyon Road, Santa Maria | Single-vineyard Pinot Noirs from Santa Maria Valley and Santa Rita Hills |
Hermanas Amigas Tequila | No public tasting room. Founder Toya Banks is based in the Santa Barbara area | A blanco tequila produced in Jalisco |
Third Window shows how the format change plays out in practice. A brewery that would have fit easily into Mission Creek now pours alongside tequila and Syrah, and it's also part of the Carpinteria corridor covered in our post on Linden Avenue's food stretch. Tyler x Lieu Dit is Justin Willett's pair of Santa Barbara County labels focused on classically styled, low-intervention wines. Larry Schaffer of tercero wines, who has poured at the Wine Festival for years, is also on the list. He told the Independent, "This event is all about community. It's all about sharing our local bounty with all of those who attend."
Saturday, November 7, in Practice
The museum's event page and ticketing site cover the details:
- Hours and tiers. General Admission is $125 with entry at 2 p.m. Early Entry is $165 and opens the whole festival at 1 p.m. Both end at 5 p.m.
- What's included. Both tickets include all food and drinks.
- Ages. The event is 21 and over, with no children or infants, and everyone needs a valid ID such as a driver's license.
- Weather. It goes ahead rain or shine.
- The rest of the museum. The main museum is closed all day on November 7. The Sea Center stays open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., so plan family visits around that.
- Parking. The museum's general visitor page lists free parking in its lot. The festival pages don't mention a shuttle.
The museum says its festivals usually sell out. Tickets were still on sale in mid-October, so anyone set on early entry should book soon.
If an afternoon under the oaks has you thinking about which part of Santa Barbara puts Mission Canyon, the Funk Zone and East Beach closest to your door, the team at Alemann & Associates knows these blocks, from the hotel dining rooms to the tasting rooms. Contact Us whenever you'd like to talk it through.
Photo Credit: https://www.sbnature.org/
