Summerland’s Delicious New Bookstore Dishes Up More than Words

“I want to live in this space” was my first reaction when I walked into Godmothers, the bookstore and gathering space that took Summerland — and the Internet — by storm in September. Named by Oprah Winfrey, the patron saint of the book industry, who happens to be a friend and neighbor of store owners Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and Victoria Jackson, the splashy opening weekend included appearances by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Maria Shriver, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, Jane Lynch, and Whitney Wolfe Herd (founder of Bumble and cofounder of Tinder), among others — hence the whole Internet buzz thing.

What kind of bookstore gets an opening weekend story in Town & Country? I wondered. But once I walked through the door, the mystery was solved. “I think it’s a three-legged stool for us,” said Rudolph Walsh, as we sat in the comfy second-story sitting room of the meticulously renovated, three-story, 1920s barn, formerly home to Garde and multiple antique stores, now surrounded by a gorgeous case of cookbooks and travel tomes. “I would say it’s equal story, connection, and beauty. … We’re always putting everything through those three lenses, you know: the gathering lens, the beauty lens, and the story lens. It has to pass all three.”

Both partners have impressive business backgrounds. Rudolph Walsh, who moved to town four years ago, is the former Global Head of the William Morris Endeavor (WME) Books, Lectures, and Conference Divisions and represented Oprah, Arianna Huffington, Curtis Sittenfeld, Sue Monk Kidd, and Glennon Doyle (to name a few).

A Santa Barbara resident for 32 years, Jackson is an author, cosmetics entrepreneur whose Victoria Jackson Cosmetics brand made her the first woman to generate more than a billion dollars in revenue from selling cosmetics on television, and activist/advocate who turned her attention to medical research in 2008, when her then-14-year-old daughter, Ali, was diagnosed with a rare and potentially fatal autoimmune disorder, neuromyelitis optica (NMO). Jackson and her husband, Bill Guthy, established the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation, which has funded therapeutic research and treatments and is on a mission to find a cure for NMO and other autoimmune diseases — both rare and common.

The store is primarily a passion project for the two recent empty nesters, who became friends when they met about three years ago at a dinner party and quickly clicked. “It was love at first sight,” laughed Rudolph Walsh.

They both laughed when I asked about which other bookstores they researched before creating this beautiful spot, which a friend of mine aptly described as looking as if Architectural Digest and Pottery Barn birthed a bookstore (Jackson actually worked with acclaimed interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard). “People say, ‘How long did you spend doing research and development and studying other stores,’ and no, we didn’t do that,” said Rudolph Walsh.

“I mean, we’ve lived our life; we’ve traveled the world. We’ve been in every beautiful place, but no, this was a heart project,” said Jackson.

Rudolph Walsh added, “We’ve been doing the Heart Math — H-E-A-R-T — the whole time. We haven’t been doing the hard math. … And we just always end up exactly kind of where we are, either where we want to be or what we’re meant to be. We’re very spiritual, both of us, and we really believe in what we call Divine Standard Time. DST; everything happens in Divine Standard Time.”

Spending time in the store certainly feels like Divine Standard Time. From the cozy fireplace sitting area on a raised platform designed for author chats, to the expansive, beautifully displayed selection of fiction, nonfiction, nature, cookbooks, YA, book-themed gifts like candles scented by “late fees at the library” and “love letters lost,” and gorgeous coffee table books, it’s easy to get lost in the dreaminess of this place. There’s also an area for intimate dinner parties or gatherings, a great selection of local authors prominently placed, and a darling room full of kids’
books, colorful nooks, and child-sized tables that’s a dream come true for any parent, grandparent, or kid at heart.

Godmothers really does feel like a destination spot. Especially with the addition of the outdoor café food truck, which debuted last weekend and is open daily for breakfast and lunch.

All of that cool stuff is inside a barn exterior that is also quite unique. Jackson said she’s always admired the building and purchased it herself. “I hadn’t owned a commercial building before,” she said. “And I took the building down to the studs, and it was like a start over. The Fire Marshal said to me yesterday that this is the best renovated building, he thinks, in the state of California, but surely in the County of Santa Barbara…. He said, ‘If anything happens, weather-related, you’ll find me running to Godmothers.’”

Some of the challenges have been being new to city planning and opening different businesses. “Whether it’s our food truck or just kind of learning the ropes. So, I’d say those have been some of the surprises,” said Rudolph Walsh. “At the same time, everybody’s been very excited about the fact that it is a bookstore and everybody’s helped us. … But for Victoria, especially, when her day job is curing disease, we like to say the stakes are laughably low here. I mean, we take it very seriously, and we’re hugely invested, both financially and emotionally, but at the end of the
day, it’s not curing disease. So if something’s challenging here, we could take it with a grain of salt. I would say for me, the surprise is just being a beginner at something, because I did spend 30-plus years in the entertainment business, specifically with a focus in publishing, but I’ve never been a bookseller. So, learning to be a shopkeeper, you know, has its surprises, and it keeps me very engaged, but also keeps me humble, because there’s a lot I didn’t know.” She continued, “We see ourselves as a local bookstore with a global impact. It’s a prideful, big thing to say, but we’re going to manifest it … our newsletter is already growing [subscribe at godmothers.substack.com]. I think we’re closing in on 30,000 subscribers, and [on] Instagram, over 30,000. Not everybody gets to get a slice of heaven by being in Summerland, right? But everybody can have a little feeling of Godmothers through our marketing and through our social channels.”

We could all use a little godmother guidance from time to time. At the store, there’s an amazing entryway that pays homage to the “godmothers who lit our way,” and includes portraits of inspiring women such as Gloria Steinem, Joan Didion, Oprah Winfrey, Amelia Earhart, Sojourner Truth, Frida Kahlo, Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, Sally Ride, and Maya Angelou.

Clearly this is no ordinary bookstore. “It was always important to both of us that we wanted something for the community that would be more than a bookstore. Let’s also call it a gathering space,” said Jackson.

“Gathering community that’s always been a key part,” Jackson continued, explaining that plans for the third floor of the building are still evolving. “The thing that I think we just clicked immediately about was to create a place that we wanted for ourselves. I mean, we built this for ourselves and with the belief that if it was going to fill a need in our lives, it would be filling the need in other people’s lives as well.”

Godmothers is located at 2280 Lillie Avenue in Summerland. See godmothers.com for more information.