The Orient Express Capwell Hotel, Santa Barbara

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In spring 1985, La Mesa and the State Street bar already begin to have made their time. Place to a new high place of catering in Santa Barbara : the restaurant the Orient Express.

It is as a gift to his daughter that C.C. Capwell decides to offer to Eden the management of the fitting out of the 10th and last floor of the Capwell hotel. This last one, in memory of the place of her meeting with Cruz Castillo, her fiancé, decides to dedicate the restaurant to come to the famous train, of which it will take back the decoration and the class.

We reach the Orient Express by the elevator of the hotel, which leads to the reception of the restaurant, the strategic place of Mark, the maitre d'. Mark, quite as the various waiters of the restaurant, is dressed with a dark uniform (blue harms) which is not without creating a parallel with the train inspectors. From there, the customer can go either to the bar, or to the catering room.

The bar, situated at the left of the entry, is rather dark, without windows. A wallpaper and brightly coloured brown and black hangings fill the walls, all around the counter behind which we can have a drink and some crackers before having dinner.

Some tables end up filling the space, very busy because also opening to the toilets, to which the access is hidden by a curtain at the bottom of the room. Among the barmen of the place, we can remember among others Gus Jackson.

To join the dining room, we can from then on either go back by the reception by going up some steps, either raise another curtain which separates the both rooms.

Much more spacious and brighter, the room looks so much like a restaurant-car of the famous train than we can easily be mistaken. Along the windows, some tables are aligned and separated by high banquettes and golden bars, to remind the compartments of the train.

Towards the "compartments" tables open some windows framed by cream hangings. These windows look like to be mistaken to train windows. Because of the situation of the restaurant, we have through these windows a very attractive view on the bay of Santa Barbara and on the ocean.

In the middle of the room, some other square and round tables (benefitting of little more space) welcome the customers. The chairs and the banquettes are of cremate color to throw a little of light in the room which, due to its decoration, seems stuffy. The flatware are permanently drawn up, the glasses always filled with water - even without customers ! The bottom of the room, completely on the right, includes two exits : on the left towards an elevator, and on the right towards the kitchens.

Next to the kitchens is a private room, reserved for special occasions as weddings and banquets (the interrupted weddings of Eden and Cruz in 1985, and of Santana Andrade and Mason Capwell in 1986).

The Orient Express will survive a first drama the same day of its inauguration : the collapse of the window which was used as roof, further to the fall of Carla, a killer pursuing Kelly Capwell.

Then it will be the fire which will come to tarnish the place, the day of the wedding of their owner, Eden, with Cruz Castillo, further to an explosion orchestrated by Marcello Armonti.

The place, renowned and very smart, is nevertheless frequented by all the classes of the population. Even the enemies of the the Capwells come to eat there, often finding themselves obviously in front of their detractors, owners of the place.

Note that at the end of 1988, the walls of the Orient Express will suddenly be repainted in white, a way to win some luminosity, but which will make lose of its charm and its class to the place.