Get To Know The Presidio: Three Pickles and the Pickle Room with Clay Lovejoy
Welcome to Get to Know The Presidio, a series sharing the behind-the-scenes of some of our beloved Presidio Neighborhood businesses and organizations.
In this edition of Get to Know the Presidio, we talk to Clay Lovejoy, the owner of Three Pickles and the Pickle Room. Three Pickles is housed in the Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens Building at 126 E. Canon Perdido Street, a historic resource in El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park, which was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. Here, Clay shares how he and his dad, Bob Lovejoy, with partner Bob McCourt, founded the business in the Presidio Neighborhood, and why Three Pickles sandwiches are rooted in family, tradition, and this special place.
Tell us a little about yourself and your business.
I’m Clay Lovejoy, the owner of Three Pickles. I grew up off and on in Santa Barbara and finally moved back here and was able to open a business. We started Three Pickles during the same week my first child was born—it was a busy year.
The concept for the business came from the love of food and the love of sandwiches. My father [Bob Lovejoy] said, “Let’s try it out and see if anyone likes the idea!” We started with sandwiches we both love, including Boston-style subs with pickles, tomatoes, and onions chopped up, and favorites, including the Cuban, and then we named some after the community, including the Presidio, the best pastrami in town.
Where is Three Pickles located?
The first location was where Handlebar Coffee is now [next door at 128 E. Canon Perdido St.]. It was a small, 400 sq. ft. space. At the time, it was a sandwich shop called Chio’s. My dad and I were at Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens having a drink, and we saw a sale sign at Chio’s. Jimmy’s was my dad’s favorite bar, he visited almost every day, and [when he saw the sale sign next door] he thought it was a sign. We opened Three Pickles three months later.
The restaurant was packed since the first day. After three and a half years, the business had outgrown the space, and that’s when the Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens building became available.
Clay Lovejoy in the Pickle Room. Photo courtesy Three Pickles.
Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens. Photo by Michael H. Imwalle.
Bob had been going to Jimmy’s since about 1978. The first time he went in, he ran up a tab with Willie the bartender (who bartends at The Pickle Room today). He had forgotten his wallet, and they let him go get it. He returned with money and befriended the staff as a result.
I grew up eating in the restaurant at Jimmy’s, and was a fan of the famous egg rolls. I once asked Tommy [Chung] for his recipe because they were not typical, they were a large size. Tommy said no, because the recipe was too involved for a home cook!
Having our business downtown in this area, with all the historic buildings all around, is surreal. I walk out at night, and it’s just gorgeous, quiet, and no traffic. To see all these old buildings and all the history around you—in no other place would I have wanted to open my business. I had the feeling that this was going to last a long time.
What is Three Pickles known for?
Three Pickles had three founders, and we called ourselves the Pickles. That’s how we got our name, and in reference to the name, we offer three varieties of pickles free with our sandwiches.
Bob Lovejoy, Clay Lovejoy, and Bob McCourt, the Three Pickles, with their Foodie Award from the Santa Barbara Independent. Photo courtesy of Three Pickles.
We are known for providing the best bang for your buck-- the best quality food and a fair portion for what we charge. I would want to be a patron at my place. I would recommend it to a friend and feel good about it. I enjoy tinkering to find combinations that work with the ingredients we carry, and creating new specials. I will put a special out to see if people like it, and if people come back and ask for it, I will add it to the menu.
For example, we don’t have a hood in the restaurant, so we use steamers and toaster ovens to prepare hot foods. So how do we cook a cheesesteak [a favorite classic sandwich] without a grill? We use rare roast beef, and cook it in the au jus, and we can toast the bread.
Our Italian beef dip came out of developing that process. So did the De la Guerra, which includes the cheesesteak from the Italian beef with salsa and avocado added. Now, the De la Guerra is one of our bestsellers. It’s our take on the Santa Maria Tri-Tip sandwich and is served with au jus.
Can you share a little bit more about the history of Three Pickles?
My dad knew Tommy Chung [the owner of Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens] well, and also Mike Imwalle [Associate Executive Director for Cultural Resources at the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation (SBTHP), which acquired the building from the Chung family in 2008]. When we saw that the building was available, we wanted to see if we could work with SBTHP to restore and reopen the bar side.
The bar restoration took two and a half years. We wanted to honor the space. My dad and I felt the same way about the importance of the building—my grandfather owned an antique store, and cared about the past. We opened Three Pickles Deli in 2010 and opened the restored bar as the Pickle Room in 2013. The work included extending the bar to its original length from 1947, with the same curvature and drop-down element.
The Pickle Room on a busy night. Photo courtesy of Three Pickles.
What’s something about Three Pickles that most people might not know?
People probably don’t know that we have some of the best soups in town. We make two to three different soups from scratch each week, and we make them all at this location to share with our two other stores.
We’ve entered the Santa Barbara Chowder Fest three times and won two out of the three times. Favorites include Italian wedding soup and albondigas. For the albondigas, we grind our own meat and add cilantro, mint, and oregano to the meatballs. We make everything from scratch as much as possible. Maintaining consistency is important for our business, and we order the best quality pastrami from Los Angeles, and have continued to order it even as markets change.
What makes Three Pickles unique?
The range of sandwiches we offer makes us unique. We have favorite hot sandwiches from around the United States in addition to local offerings. For the Pickle Room, I mixed deli food with Chinese food to come up with new dishes, including the Reuben egg roll, which has become our all-time best seller. Our fried rice has a fried egg on top with a sriracha smiley face.
My great-grandfather had a burger spot in Oxnard in the early 1900s. We have recreated his recipe and make the same burger in his honor. My grandfather’s name was Smith and people called him “Smitty.” Our Smitty burger includes a chorizo aioli (his was sausage), and a handmade patty. The Smitty Burger is available on Fridays in the deli and always at the bar.
A Three Pickles catering order on the move! Photo courtesy of Three Pickles.
Are there any other dishes you would like to highlight?
I have a fisherman buddy who calls me when he’s coming in and asks if we want halibut. He guts it at the shop, and we’ll have halibut on the menu for two days. We make halibut sandwiches on a potato bun, and we also make halibut ceviche. We don’t buy fish unless it’s from a local fisherman, and it’s a special only.
People buy 5 sandwiches at a time. We’ve built a reputation now for a local fish sandwich that’s as fresh as it can be. We also make a special fried chicken sandwich, and marinate the chicken in a pickle brine and buttermilk overnight. We sell one hundred chicken sandwiches in two days.
In the bar, the Mai Tai is our most famous drink, and has been served here since Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens opened in1947. Willie, the bartender, uses the same recipe, but with better rum than in the old days! Also popular is my dad Bob’s favorite drink, the Boo Boo Kitty, with blood orange juice. The Singapore Sling and Old Fashioned are other old-school favorites from the last one hundred years.
What’s new or exciting for Three Pickles right now?
With Covid over, catering is coming back. It’s a huge part of our business that is growing again. We can make an order for one hundred salads and one hundred sandwiches within one and one half hours. If an order is big enough, we will travel to Ventura to deliver it. We handle lots of catering for companies in Goleta. Catering means people try your sandwiches and then will hopefully come into the store.
Is there anything you’d like our readers to do?
Come in and try our sandwiches and the pickle bar; we know you will love them and check out the history of the building while you are there, and come back at 4:30 when the Pickle Room opens!
If you are a small or big office interested in catering for your business, we will bring sandwiches to you in a van, on a bike, or on foot! We have our own ordering app, so when you support us, you keep the profit local.