The table is set for the walls to fall.
Elected officials stripped historic landmark protections from a deteriorated and vandalized majority of the shuttered Pea Soup Andersen’s restaurant late Thursday, clearing the way for its removal.
In a 5-0 vote, the Buellton City Council determined that only a third of the structure should remain—the tallest part nearest to the corner of Avenue of the Flags and Highway 246—and it too might go once the property is eventually redeveloped.
Since 2024 when the iconic, nearly 100-year-old restaurant closed, it has attracted trespassers. Recent thefts, drinking, drug use and even incursions from people making TikTok videos created a sense of urgency, authorities said.
“We want to avoid a catastrophe,” City Manager Scott Wolfe said, describing the potential for a fire or serious injury across the 3-acre property.
Large exterior signs, stained glass windows and several paintings of Hap-pea and Pea-wee, the restaurant’s cartoon chefs, were among artifacts expected to be saved and preserved at an undisclosed location.
Asked by Councilmember John Sanchez when the wrecking ball might arrive, Wolfe said no date was yet set.
After removal or demolition, all that’s expected to be left standing is a section constructed in 1928 originally known as The Bueltmore Hotel.
Because it’s the sole remaining piece of the earliest days of the Andersen’s complex, the Bueltmore block is considered more historically significant. And that means a more stringent state-mandated assessment that could take another year or more must occur before the Bueltmore too is either destroyed or incorporated into a new project.
Pea Soup Andersen’s only recently became a Buellton city historical landmark in 2020.
Developer Ed St. George, who owns the property and several nearby, said after Thursday’s meeting it was too soon to say what might ultimately end up replacing the restaurant.
“Right now it’s just sitting while we can get things figured out,” said St. George, who in the past floated a conceptual 4-story hotel as one option.
Building a nearby hotel, grocery store and coffee shop are more immediate goals, he said, adding whatever happens at the Pea Soup location would need to fit with those projects.
“It has to happen in that order,” St. George said. “Buellton needs to define itself… I want to be very intentional.”
