A last memento of iconic Pea Soup Andersen’s is set to be removed

Just weeks after a small town decided to demolish what’s left of its quirky and well-known tourist attraction at the gateway town to the Santa Inez Valley, the fate of its beloved billboards now also hangs in the balance. 

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At a Monday night meeting, the Buellton City Council debated the fate of the last two iconic Pea Soup Andersen’s billboards featuring Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee, which hangs in the balance. The meeting comes just a few weeks after the Buellton City Council voted to demolish the restaurant, which had gone out of business just before its 100th birthday, having served split pea soup.

The Chamber of Commerce owns the billboard on the northbound side of Highway 101, 3 miles south of Buellton, and rents the land underneath it for $3,000 a year.On the sign are two chefs named Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee in a bowl, directing drivers to the city of Buellton for a bowl of split pea soup. 

Now that the restaurant is gone, the Chamber of Commerce is paying the rent on its own. Kathy Vreeland, executive director of the Buellton Chamber of Commerce, told the city council that due to the signs’ age and extensive structural repair needs, the current billboards must be refurbished. But when repairs are completed, Pea Soup Andersen’s mascots won’t return.

“I know they’re iconic, and I know everybody loved Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee, but it’s no longer here, and so it’s just time to put a new face on Buellton,” she said.

The council also debated the strategy for tackling the billboard on the southbound side of Highway 101 within city limits. The ownership of the sign is unclear, and because the land it sits on is privately owned, accessing it for repairs is much more difficult. 

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City Manager Scott Wolfe said when the city offered to remove the sign off the land, the landowner did not allow the Chamber of Commerce access to the land and instead filed paperwork with the state to retain a permit for the sign. 

“That, from my perspective, is ownership that’s in dispute and probably not something the city necessarily wants to put its fingers in the middle of,” Wolfe said.

The retirement of the northbound and southbound billboard images would wipe the restaurant’s legacy from the area, as two other Pea Soup Andersen’s billboards have already been changed.