George Yatchisin

Santa Barbara

Writer and Editor at Santa Barbara Independent

Writer, eater, drinker, maker, promoter, dj, etc.

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Articles

Book Review | ‘Hot Air’ by Marcy Dermansky

2 weeks ago | independent.com | George Yatchisin

Book Review | ‘Hot Air’ by Marcy Dermansky Sex, Drugs, Money, and Lots of “J” Names Populate This Engrossing Novel By George Yatchisin Tue Jun 10, 2025 | 12:53pm Add to Favorites Credit: Courtesy In Marcy Dermansky’s engrossing novel of (mis)manners Hot Air, third person limited isn’t just a narrative technique, it’s a view of the world where solipsism holds all the cards. Her characters are self-involved, feckless, cruel, and what’s worse, two of them, couple Jonathan and Julia, are...
An Avocado Junket Is Far from the Pits

4 weeks ago | independent.com | George Yatchisin

Avocado Commission poster in the lobby | Photo: George YatchisinI was somewhere around Camarillo, on the edge of the Conejo Grade, when the avocados began to take hold. This was late April, and I was one of “a diverse mix of journalists, content creators, and retail and foodservice professionals from across the Western United States.” At least that’s how the California Avocado Commission described us in their attractively presented Briefing Book. We were all on a junket to learn to love Big Green.
Dart Coffee Aims to Please

1 month ago | independent.com | George Yatchisin

Sometimes the interview questions write themselves.
Book Review | ‘What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory’ by Brian Eno and Bette A.

1 month ago | independent.com | George Yatchisin

Book Review | ‘What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory’ by Brian Eno and Bette A.
From the Pen of Our New Poet Laureate

2 months ago | independent.com | George Yatchisin

Editor’s Note: As has become a tradition, when a new Poet Laureate is installed, they read a poem to the Santa Barbara City Council in honor of the occasion. Given that our newest Laureate has made the ‘Santa Barbara Independent’ his “journalistic home” for the past 20 years (primarily in the Food & Drink arena), we jumped at the opportunity to share his new poem here.
Book Review | ‘Nobody’s Empire’ by Stuart Murdoch

2 months ago | independent.com | George Yatchisin

It would be easy to spend a ton of time teasing out where writer/musician Stuart Murdoch ends from where the main character of his debut novel Nobody’s Empire, Stephen Rutherford, begins.
Book Review | ‘Our Beautiful Boys’ by Sameer Pandya

Mar 27, 2025 | independent.com | George Yatchisin

It’s no coincidence that the two main subjects of Sameer Pandya’s second novel Our Beautiful Boys are family and violence. Set in a vaguely Santa Barbara–ish fictional Chilesworth, CA (Pandya is an associate professor of Asian American Studies at UCSB), the book focuses on three high school football players and a vicious attack of a fourth student at a post-game party in a spot called the Cave House.
Lodestar Whiskey Launches in Santa Barbara

Mar 6, 2025 | independent.com | George Yatchisin

Lodestar Whiskey Launches in Santa Barbara Have an Old-Fashioned with Your Men’s Fashions at The Optimist By George Yatchisin Thu Mar 06, 2025 | 3:30pm Add to Favorites Lodestar Whiskey founders (and cousins) Anna Axster and Wendelin von Schroder | Photo: Courtesy Lodestar Whiskey | Photo: Courtesy Whiskey could sort of use a de-stuffy-cation, no? Images of it harken to Western movies (which nobody makes anymore) and hardboiled writers or actors like Dashiell Hammett and Humphrey Bogart....
The County’s Finest One-Off Food Night | Clean Slate’s Just 8

Mar 4, 2025 | independent.com | George Yatchisin

The County’s Finest One-Off Food Night | Clean Slate’s Just 8 Solvang’s Clean Slate Wine Bar Offers Intimate Pairings from the Cellar of Matt Kettmann By George Yatchisin Tue Mar 04, 2025 | 1:48pm Add to Favorites Matt Kettmann pours at Clean Slate Just 8 Super Club | Photo: Wine Club Marketing Inc. Melissa and Jason Scrymgeour | Photo: Wine Club Marketing Inc. No one who has attended a Just 8 Supper Club at Solvang’s Clean Slate Wine Bar would ever, ever say that they just ate. For these...
Book Review | ‘99% Perspiration: A New Working History of the American Way of Life’ by Adam Chandler

Feb 21, 2025 | independent.com | George Yatchisin

Book Review | ‘99% Perspiration: A New Working History of the American Way of Life’ by Adam Chandler An Exploration of the Myth of Hard Work as a Way to Meet Your Destiny By George Yatchisin Fri Feb 21, 2025 | 1:48pm Add to Favorites Credit: Courtesy A few weeks into the oligarchical hell of “Trump II: This Time We Leave the Country Stripped on Blocks,” Adam Chandler’s 99% Perspiration: A New Working History of the American Way of Life can seem downright roseate in its desire to consider what...