Winds of change at Linda’s Seabreeze: Beloved Seabright restaurant under new ownership

It’s ironic that during a Thursday morning visit to Linda’s Seabreeze Cafe in the Seabright neighborhood of Santa Cruz, small earthquakes rippled throughout the region, aftershocks of a large 7.0 quake in Humboldt County. Very apropos, considering the founding of the longstanding cafe is tied to another large quake: Original owner, local chef and restaurateur Linda Hopper opened the Seabreeze just two weeks after the infamous 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 that devastated parts of Santa Cruz County. 

But aside from an emergency alert that buzzed urgently from patrons’ pockets, nothing could shake the calm atmosphere inside the cozy café. Spatulas clanged uninterrupted against the hot griddle, flipping pancakes and omelets and sliding home fries onto wide ceramic plates. Patient and friendly servers kept coffee cups full, and the homey blue and white restaurant was filled with the relaxing thrum of conversation and the clack of forks. 

For 35 years, Linda’s Seabreeze Cafe has been an oasis for a home-cooked meal and warm hospitality. In August, new owners Marcie Bei Magdaleno and her husband, Mark Magdaleno, took over from longtime owners Tex and Claire Hintze, who purchased the cafe from Hopper in 1998. (Before Hopper died in 2022, she shared her straightforward Americana fare at other local restaurants, such as the Silver Spur in Santa Cruz and Sunrise Cafe in Soquel Village.)

Although Bei Magdaleno is no stranger to the beloved café, or the Santa Cruz restaurant industry, the opportunity to purchase the Seabreeze came as a surprise. 

“I wanted a small place, with a community that had multiple generations coming to it. But I never thought that I would be buying this restaurant. My dad said, don’t do it, you’re crazy. He knows how hard you have to work, and you have to love it,” she said. 

Her father, Jon Bei, ran the DeLaveaga Lodge Restaurant from 1970 to 2016 with his business partner George Vomvolakis, and she’s been a customer of Linda’s since she was a kid. “My dad knew Linda from the community work they did together. He and I would come down to Linda’s Seabreeze and have breakfast on Monday mornings because that was his day off,” said Bei Magdaleno. Her standing order: a stack of chocolate chip pancakes. 

She started helping her dad at DeLaveaga as a busser when she was 12 and worked her way up as a server, bartender and line cook. Later, she graduated from the California Culinary Institute in San Francisco and the Culinary Institute of America in Napa with degrees in pastry and chocolate, and became a partner at DeLaveaga in 2001. When her dad got sick, she returned to the kitchen at DeLaveaga, where she remained as the chef and event manager, even after the restaurant went under new ownership in 2017.

Last spring, the Hintzes were preparing for retirement and a mutual friend recommended the Magadalenos as potential new owners. The Magadalenos jumped at the chance, and the couple came on full time. Their son, Lucas, also joined the team. “All the staff stayed, including Tex and Claire’s son, Matt. That was so important to me. They were all so welcoming and excited to see that I was going to keep it the same, but add a new twist to it little by little,” Bei Magdaleno said. 

Longtime customers need not worry about their favorite dishes like the Castroville omelette ($16.50), Seabreeze Spuds ($13.50), Hearts Ahoy ($15.50) and homemade cinnamon rolls ($4.50) leaving the menu, but Bei Magadaleno aims to slowly incorporate some of the most popular items from DeLaveaga, too, like sand dabs and eggs, a pulled pork sandwich, a French dip sandwich, new soups and more baked goods, possibly even birthday cakes. Later, the restaurant will do catering pickups and drop-offs. On Wednesday, it held the first annual holiday market in the café’s parking lot, featuring art by some of the Seabreeze’s employees. 

For the past four months, Bei Magdaleno has bounced between the kitchen and front of house to get to know the customers, many of whom have been coming there for generations. 

“People come in and the staff already have their coffee on the table. They know they want their cinnamon roll at a certain time,” she said. “The same families come with their kids, then their grandkids – just like at DeLa. It’s pretty special and there’s not many more restaurants like that.”

On Thursday, a mother, Laurie, sat at a table with her two grown daughters, Kelsey and Courtney. For the past five years, they’ve come from Scotts Valley to have breakfast at Linda’s once a week. “We come for the staff, and the cinnamon rolls,” said Laurie.

At an outside table, two men sat drinking coffee. Henry said he and his nephew, Ron, have been coming once a week for the past 30 years. Neither is loyal to any particular dish – “We order from both sides of the menu,” said Ron, meaning both breakfast and lunch, and come to Linda’s for a slice of “old Santa Cruz” and the kind staff. 

Bei Magadeleno is well aware of Linda’s devoted fans, and the reasons they keep coming back. “Good food, large portions, and the staff and the community. Midtown really supports this place. We do get a lot of tourists, but there’s a strong community in Midtown that supports each other,” she said. “And there’s history, and people like that.”

Although she has mostly moved on from chocolate chip pancakes in favor of other dishes on the menu, she still can’t resist one of Linda’s most iconic treats: “When the cinnamon rolls come out of the oven, I steal one while they’re still steaming hot.” 

542 Seabright Ave., Santa Cruz; seabreezecafe.com; 831-427-9713.

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