Image Credit: Rosewood Hotels
The designer and hotelier behind Proper Hotels on the rhythm of a place where ambition is quiet, and sunsets are never missed.
Some places are just coordinates. Montecito is a condition. Brian De Lowe has been here long enough to know the difference between visiting and belonging. As President and Co-Founder of Proper Hotels, De Lowe has spent his career thinking about what it means for a place to feel exactly like itself. He’s an entrepreneur who has built a serious company in a place where, as he puts it, you can still walk barefoot to the beach with your kids after dinner. Where the ambition is real but quiet. Where people care about art and food and wellness and design, and also about being outside, catching a sunset, taking their children to school. That combination, he says, is rare. What follows is how he moves through it.
Image Credit: Brian De Lowe
Where To Stay
De Lowe has a clear hierarchy when it comes to where to sleep in the area, and each recommendation comes with a distinct personality. For privacy and old-school California romance, he points unhesitatingly to San Ysidro Ranch. “It feels like staying at one of the Mediterranean’s great inns without getting on a plane,” he says. “Quiet, discreet, and deeply beautiful.” He rides over from his own house at magic hour to walk the grounds with his family, and counts it among his favorite spots for dinner and special occasions.
Rosewood Miramar Beach offers a completely different energy — right on the sand, more polished, more social. On weekends, it draws a mix of locals and visitors coming from Los Angeles. De Lowe and his family love beach days there with friends, which often turn into sunset drinks and bites at the beach bar.
The property that captures the spirit of the area, in De Lowe’s view, is the Four Seasons Biltmore. Situated across from Butterfly Beach, it has held the relaxed, confident Montecito sensibility for decades and was the site of several formative experiences for De Lowe before he moved to town. Its closure since 2020 strikes him as strange. He is excited for its return.
Image Credit: San Ysidro Ranch
Where To Eat And Drink
De Lowe is candid about the food scene here. Santa Barbara and Montecito aren’t loud food cities. The scene is grounded, ingredient-driven, and local, and that is precisely what makes it worth paying attention to. What follows is the list he actually sends friends.
Seafood & Sushi
For seafood, Clark’s Oyster Bar on Coast Village Road is the first call — a raw bar with great martinis and a classic room, from the team behind Clark’s in Austin and Aspen, who happen to be friends and partners of De Lowe’s. For sushi, there is only one answer: Sushi Bar Montecito. Omakase only, small, serious, and worth every penny of the splurge.
Mexican — A Daily Devotion
De Lowe is unapologetic about this one: he eats Mexican food almost daily. Coraçon Cocina is his go-to for clean, high-quality Mexican, casual but thoughtful, delivered to the De Lowe household weekly. For burritos, Mony’s in the Funk Zone is excellent. Alma Fonda Fina at the Country Mart offers whole fish, suadero tacos, and great breakfast burritos. And Flor de Maíz is the elevated option: big flavors, a good setting, unreal shrimp tacos, and a zarandeado whole fish that, if they have it, must be ordered.
Neighborhood & Casual Favorites
Bettina — pizza, salads, a strong wine list — feels, in De Lowe’s words, like the center of Montecito. Little Mountain is currently the hardest reservation in town: new and worth the effort. Bibi Ji brings inventive Indian cuisine alongside a strong natural wine list. Stonehouse at San Ysidro Ranch is romantic, historic, and very Montecito. For something that feels like old California, Cold Spring Tavern in the hills delivers tri-tip sandwiches and live music.
Coffee & Morning Ritual
Handlebar Coffee Roasters is, without qualification, the best coffee in town. Oat Bakery produces the bread and pastries you bring back to the house. De Lowe calls it essential. Merci Montecito rounds out the morning circuit with coffee, salads, sandwiches, and a great chicken paillard.
The Local Move
De Lowe’s recommended orientation to the town involves renting e-bikes and exploring. The route: ride along the waterfront through the Funk Zone, stop for coffee at Dart Coffee Co., and end at Brophy Bros. on the marina for an early evening meal at sunset. That loop, he says, gives you a real feel for the place. And the Santa Barbara Farmers Market — Tuesday nights downtown or Saturday mornings — is where you see how strong the local food culture really is.
Image Credit (Left to Right): Alma Fonda Fina, Clark’s Oyster Bar, Handlebar Coffee, Handlebar Coffee Roasters, Bettina, Brophy Bros
What To Do And See
De Lowe’s cultural recommendations are brief, but deliberate. The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is well-curated and manageable. You can actually take it in, which is rare, and he notes it’s particularly nice with young children. Lotusland is one of the most incredible gardens in the country: quiet, almost surreal, the kind of place that feels like somewhere you wander into rather than visit. Access is limited by design, so booking ahead is essential.
For design, The Post is his current destination: a new shopping zone that feels curated, not commercial. The De Lowe family is there weekly, partly to pick up Organic Oren.
For the landscape itself, the instructions are clear. Hike Inspiration Point early, before it warms up — you want to be up there as the fog burns off the city. Ride or jog from Butterfly Beach up around the old Santa Barbara Cemetery and down to the waterfront. It’s magic, he says, simply and with finality. And if there’s swell, Rincon. One of the great point breaks in California. Non-negotiable.
Image Credit (Left to Right): Lotusland, Santa Barbara Museum of Art
What Visitors Miss
Ask De Lowe what visitors overlook, and the answer comes quickly: they move too fast. This place is on a different rhythm. Up early. Morning light, long lunches, early evenings, beautiful sunsets. The town does not reward urgency, and it does not perform for people who haven’t learned to slow down.
His personal hidden gem is harder to articulate — which is, he suggests, part of the point. Hiking up into the foothills above Montecito on an early morning, crisp air, getting into the sun above the cloud layer. It’s one of those things that’s hard to explain until you’ve done it.
As for timing: September and October are the answer. Beautiful weather, warmer water, fewer people. The summer crowds are gone, school is back in session, the air is clear, and the fall energy has hit. Within any given day, sunrise and sunset are the hours that matter most.
Image Credit: Four Seasons Biltmore
One Day in Brian’s Santa Barbara
De Lowe’s personal morning begins with coffee at home, then breakfast, then a padel game with his family. If there’s swell, a quick surf. The afternoon goes to a hike or a bike ride to the beach. It is a rhythm that is, in miniature, a philosophy.
Asked to map out a single ideal day for a visitor, he does so without hesitation. Coffee first, at home or at Handlebar. If there is swell, start at Rincon. If not, hike Inspiration Point before it warms up and catch the fog burning off the city. Farmers Market on a Saturday morning, with pastries from Oat Bakery or breakfast burritos from Alma Fonda Fina. Then the slow ride from Butterfly Beach through the old Santa Barbara Cemetery and down to the waterfront.
Lunch is long — at Bettina, or sandwiches from Bossie’s Kitchen for a picnic at the Mission Rose Garden. Sunset with friends at the Miramar Beach Bar, above Butterfly Beach, or at Brophy’s. In bed by ten at the latest, so you can get up early and do it all again.
Image Credit (Left to Right): Rosewood Hotels, Oat Bakery
