Soif Wine Bar and Merchants
Not open yet. Andrea Eckhardt and Alexis Carr spent more than two years trying to reopen Soif in an 1886 building at Cedar and Elm, and as of August 2025 they had not reached a building permit.
Why go
The original Soif was on Walnut Avenue and it is gone: the restaurant closed in February 2022 and the business shuttered in 2023, when two of Patrice Boyle's longtime staff took it on. Their new address is the Dr. Miller's building, a yellow Victorian that was Dr. Joseph Miller's dental office from 1953 until he retired in 1971, and then Caffe Pergolesi for 28 years until 2017. A Soif investor bought it in 2023. What has held it up since is not money. Jessica M. Pasko reported that the building's historic designation means every alteration goes to the city's Historic Preservation Commission first, and only after that hearing can plans reach the building department at all. The hearing was set for 17 September 2025. The plan is a retail shop with a place to sit and drink.
What locals & experts say
- Lookout Santa Cruz (Jessica M. Pasko, 21 August 2025): the pair are
working closely with a historic building consultant
on upgrades that include bringing the building to code and adding a wheelchair ramp for ADA compliance.1 - Dede Eckhardt, on the building:
We're excited to bring new life to this space while honoring its past.
1
Good to know
- Status: announced, not trading. The last read on it is August 2025 and nothing later was found.
- Which address: 418 Cedar Street, at Elm. The Walnut Avenue room is a different premises and it is closed.
Verdict
listed — Nothing has poured here yet, so there is nothing to rate. Andrea Eckhardt and Alexis Carr took Soif over from Patrice Boyle when the business shuttered in 2023 and have spent more than two years trying to reopen it in an 1886 building that has to clear the historic preservation commission before a permit application can be filed. Listed because the day-out lens carries this pin and a reader should know the door is not there yet.