Pretty soon the verdant hills began to have signs of the noble fruit
Paso Robles was the first viticulture area we hit which is sort of centered on was the little town of Paso Robles, just off the highway on SR 46. Meridian Winery which I was familiar with is located there, so we sort of zeroed in on that. I wasn’t sure of what else was there, but I eventually picked up a little brochure for the upcoming “Zin Festival” and it listed over 140 vineyards and wineries in the area! Some of the more familiar names would be Justin, J. Lohr, Robert Hall, Tablas Creek, and Wild Horse, but also a plethora of ones you (I) never heard of….Pomar Junction, Red Soles, on and on. Some are just vineyards that most likely sell their fruit, but many, many are also wineries. I don’t (still) know enough about the business to know if they bottle under their own label. What is apparent is how much of the local economy is driven by wines, grapes, juice, and tourists. And Paso Robles isn’t nearly the scope of a Napa Valley…Amazing.
Anyway, we finally found Meridian
And drove up the long driveway
through the vines (some trimmed, some not) to the lovely building
And the usual well appointed gift shop/tasting room
I did their tasting (5 bucks) through some reislings, chards (which I remembered as their star), and eventually bought a bottle of Pinot which resulted in re-couping the tasting fee – for a fee sort of. The wines are not memorable and I don’t think they’re intended to be, but they make nice value priced, everyday wine..
Upon leaving, we saw their original digs, quite different from today’s edifice.
We didn’t stop at any others in Paso Robles, although there were plenty of chances. Most of the little wineries have banners proclaiming “tasting today”. Boy, you gotta wonder how they make it.
As it was getting near lunch, we headed for the little town of Los Olivos, where a little researching revealed a possible nice luncheon spot, the Los Olivos Café. It had several good recommendations (along with the few grumpy ones), has Zagat and Wine Spectator accolades, and was involved with “Sideways”. Anyway, we veered off the highway on SR 154, through some lovely country (boy, it’s green now in CA) and turned off on Grand Avenue into the little village. It’s a lovely little wine oriented town with several tasting rooms from area wineries (Qupe, Robert Hall, and others) along with galleries, gifty shops, and places to eat. We found the Café, an unassuming little building
And went inside. One half of the place is devoted to wine sales
And the other half to dining.
Although “outside” dining seemed attractive the 20 minute wait drove us to accept a table inside which was pleasant enough. We were just seated along that back wall, and water from a big bottle was brought to the table along with menus and (duhhh) a wine list. Oh, did I mention there were white paper table squares? I’ll never figure that one out…
Anyway, the place was bustling with tourists (unlike us) and had just about the right amount of noise. Our server didn’t announce his name, but asked about drinks and we said the fatal “give us a minute” as we had just sat down and wanted to peruse the menu and list. There was a “standard” menu and also an insert of today’s features. The wine list had many wines from the local vineyards, although we didn’t see but one Fess Parker which isn’t all that far away. It begged to be tasted through, another trip necessary! Food was all over the place from tri tip sandwiches, braised beef sliders for appetizers, house cured olives, rustic (?) pizzas, interesting salads, all featuring local stuff where they could. We finally decided on a Scottish salmon over crispy potatoes and greens for MFO, and I went for their version of the Salade Nicoise, which they called “Café Nicoise”, which today had a grilled mahi mahi over the standard green beans, (fingerling) potatoes, and hard boiled eggs. Cherry (I think a local addition) tomatoes and tomato vinaigrette. We thought we would start with the artisanal cheese plate, which the daily menu said consisted of all cow’s milk Comte de montagne (French); Cashel Blue (Irish); and Truckle (English). MFO selected a suggested wine with her entrée of Presidio Estate Pinot Grigio (from Solvang); and I went for a Au Bon Climat “cold harvest” Viognier (also located in Solvang). A lovely tray of I think soda bread with salted tops and some toasted baguette slices were brought along with the wine which was lamentably (and too commonly these days) too cold. So there was people watching/listening while the wine warmed, but still no cheese plate. Both of our wines were very nice, and I am quite fond of a well crafted Viognier. So fond in fact that it was gone any food arrived. At this point the server stopped by and said our order would be ready shortly, and indeed it was, The salmon and the Niscoise was gracefully set before us. Um, how about the cheese plate? Oh, I forgot that, I’ll go get it. I suggested at this point that perhaps the cheese plate should transfer (as is more proper anyway) to the end of the meal. He agreed. Both the salmon and the salad were delicious. The Mahi just barely flaked and all the stuff in the salad was fine. Fresh greens, good beans, eggs that looked to be hard boiled by hand, not those processed perfectly done ones you see these days. I decided at this point that water wasn’t sufficient so looked at the wine list again and ended up with a Whitcraft Pinot that I very much enjoyed (Santa Barbara). Dense and fruity, did well with the Mahi.
The cheese tray arrived, with the three wedges of cheese, plus some toasted Marcona Almonds, Fig Jam, grapes and honeycomb honey. The blue was excellent, but we thought the other two selections were too much alike. Both semi hard, good flavor but I would have appreciated more variety. And, I can’t help but wonder why if the restaurant was focusing on local stuff, why weren’t there some local cheeses. Surely there must be some (yes there are and stop calling….).
A good meal, service could have been more attentive, but unfortunately in the tourist business, turning tables is the name of the game. Go there when you’re in town.
After that, we headed back to US 101 through Solvang (home of Anderson Pea Soup)
And then back to playing pinball on US 101. Hey! What’s that over there?
Then, the roof fell in… around Santa Barbara, the traffic ground to a crawl, and it stayed that way for the next hour and a half, maybe advancing us 15 miles toward the objective. Finally, it broke and we got back up to speed for a while, and before it got dark we remembered what’s what..
We survived the remaining transit through LA on 405 to 5 to 805 to 8 and San Diego, and got to our friends house around 9 and had a nice bowl of potato leek soup and a salad. And some clear liquid on the rocks. Good start, harrowing finish. Yesterday a lovely day including a visit to the venerable Hotel Del, next edition..
We just heard there might be some depot level maintenance required on the Momster so we might get another night to
DFD
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