June 2023, by Britta Gustafson (CC BY-SA)

900 Embarcadero del Mar is a multi-tenant commercial building with a large restaurant space on the ground floor and several smaller office/retail spaces on the second floor. Over the past several decades, at various times the building has held union offices, tanning salons (such as The B Boutique), a yoga studio, an optometrist, a computer repair shop, Flamingo Gifts & Printworks, The Egghead (a breakfast restaurant), New York Hero House, Discount Records, a video store, property management company offices, and more.

Union offices include American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) 3299 for UC employees.

1970s

Not certain when the building was built. There was a Gay Liberation Front group in Suite B in 1970. The building also shows up in this photo from 1973:

The building in fall 1973, by Steve Owen

At some point it got some remodeling that added more windows, a second-floor balcony, and decorative tiles.

Silvergreens, 1990s-2020s

November 2014, by Jay Freeman (CC BY-SA)

March 2011, by Britta Gustafson (CC BY-SA)Silvergreens was a restaurant that served a variety of healthy-type meals. Silvergreens was founded in 1995 by Jay Ferro, a UCSB graduate and local resident. The company opened another branch in downtown Santa Barbara in 2008.

Silvergreens closed its doors in September 2020 due to financial complications surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. It was replaced by sister restaurant Kyle's Kitchen, which closed after not a long time open.

Silvergreens tried to be very transparent about the nutritional content of their food. Rather than just having an optional "nutritional facts" menu, they total key nutritional facts to print directly on to your receipt, something they spun off as a company called Nutricate, in the hope of bringing this feature to many more restaurants. Nutricate was later acquired by a larger company.

For a while, they had palm trees painted on the columns in the dining area.