Even lifelong Santa Barbarans could be forgiven for not knowing where Powers Avenue sits on the city map, as the one-block strip of warehouses and trash trucks isn’t connected to any thoroughfares or home to many public-facing businesses. But those seeking to sip craft alcoholic beverages in a friendly setting should search out this hidden ‘hood near where Milpas Street ducks under 101, as High Seas Mead is now pouring its carbonated honey wines and refreshing ciders out of the brand’s production facility.
“I feel like this place has some potential,” said High Seas founder Austin Corrigan of this part of town, which is tucked behind the post office and homeless shelter while boasting views of the mountains and backside of oceanfront hotels. “It just might take awhile. I’m hoping to be the spearhead.”
Trained as a chef in Napa, the Santa Barbara High graduate started making mead while recovering from a car crash at State and Alamar streets that shattered his right leg in 2018. He first set up shop on the fringes of Old Town Goleta but moved to this facility in November of 2021. Getting permits to open the space as a tasting room for the public presented challenges, but Corrigan won approval a couple of weeks before his soft opening on January 11. He’s serving full glasses of his High Seas meads, Single Fin cider, and rotating guest beers for $9, half glasses for $4, and flights for $15.
Though based on honey, his meads don’t taste overwhelmingly like the bee product. The Son of a Beach, for instance, is a passionfruit-orange-guava blend while the Cosmic Bandito showcases blackberry and pineapple, and the Mystic Vibration combines watermelon with Meyer lemon. Corrigan is growing into the production space as well, preparing to make even more flavors of mead and cider, including barrel-aged products and one-off, small-batch bottlings. “I’ll get to play with the paintbrush a little bit more,” he said.
Though he’d like to project surf movies on the wall from time to time, Corrigan pledged to never put a television on the walls. “I want to make it personable,” he said. “I want it to be a place to get together, communicate, and have fun.”
Open Thu.-Fri., 5-9 p.m., Sat.-Sun., 1-9 p.m. 138 Powers Ave.; highseasmead.com
