Wine Tasting in the Central California Coast
- Tony Flohr
- May 16, 2018
- 5 min read
Once every few months my wife and I throw Penny the pup into the backseat of our silver Prius and high tail our asses a few hours north of Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez wine valley. When I say “high tail” I mean take our time up the PCH, cut through all the strawberry farms in Ventura and take a pit stop at the Camarillo outlets. My mother used to buy all my underwear and socks for me up until my engagement at 35 years old. At that point my wife was like “wtf, your mother buys your underwear for you still?” I thought this was normal but apparently not. The outlets are perfect for Calvin Klein briefs at 25-40% off plus Nike ankle socks for cheap. We also keep an eye out for Nike Fly Knits but refuse to pay for anything over $60. This basically means I’m lucky if I get one pair a year, but sometimes I get lucky.
We hit Santa Barbara shortly after the outlets and are always surprised when it takes another 40 minutes to get to wine country. After driving another 25 minutes up the coast we continue following the 101 inland through the hills. Its always a fun game to watch the temperature jump from an overcast coastal 60 degrees up to a bright and sunny 80 degrees inland. Maybe its just fun for me because my wife never notices and I’m the one always pointing it out.
Our favorite restaurant in California is Industrial Eats and its in the middle of an industrial complex in Buellton. Not far away is Andersen’s Pea Soup which is apparently an Inn that is known for its “world famous” pea soup yet I don’t know one soul on earth who has ever been there. Industrial Eats is so good that after our beloved Philadelphia Eagles won the super bowl we woke up the next morning hung-over and celebrated by driving the 3 hours just for lunch and then drove 3 hours back.
Industrial Eats is a husband and wife team that had a successful catering business and decided to open up a brick and mortar location. Everything is fresh and farm to table. They have a craft butcher shop from a boat load of local purveyors. They have a ton of different house made pizzas, sandwiches and salads as well as a few local beers and wines on tap. Although, last time there I got Old Speckled Hen on nitro and it was the smoothest ale I had since backpacking Europe in 99 (granted between the beer and hash I don’t remember much about those 6 months). The lay out is open and communal. Often enough you’ll end up talking to your neighbor about what they are eating as you watch the chefs do there thing in an open view kitchen. We have met people from all over the world although we think they mostly want to talk to Penny as she surfs the floor for scraps and pretends not to notice people.
Favorites include fennel sausage, tomato, mozzarella and basil pizza as well as the classic Caesar salad. However, IE doesn’t mess around when it comes to garlic so best be prepared. When you wake up the next morning and still have that garlic dank sitting in the back of your throat just remember how awesome that salad was.
After every meal at IE we turn to one another completely satiated and say “this is the best fucking restaurant in California, we should move up here.” Don’t know if that’s the smartest idea, has anyone ever moved just to be near a restaurant before?
After Industrial Eats we drive a few minutes through the rolling hills and past some vineyards to Los Olivos. Los Olivos consists of only a few small blocks of tasting rooms, boutiques and a few restaurants. Its from a different era of Americana, an era that says “yes, lets put all the tasting rooms within a 3 block radius so our drunk asses don’t have to stumble or drive far.” It truly is civil engineering at its best.
There are many a great tasting room in LO but the two that stand out to us are Figueroa Mountain (beer) and Carhartt (wine). Figueroa looks like they converted a small house into a brew pub and it has a large lawn area with picnic tables. Its good for drinking beers outside while your pup marks up said territory. But Carhartt is by far our favorite.
Carhartt Wine is from the same family that does the Carhartt clothing brand just the other side of the family. Although I respect the rugged work vibe of the clothes I much rather sit back in a nice leisure suit and enjoy the literal fruits of the Carhartt vineyard instead (not that the two are mutually exclusive). Carhartt is less of a tasting room and more like a tasting shack with a small outdoor area in the back that maintains some outdoor charm. Whenever we go we always end up making friends and leaving with some great advice. Case in point, Chase Carhartt (co-winemaker) suggested we go to Industrial Eats which you already know has changed our lives. On our last visit Evan graciously shared a tasting with us before convincing us to join their wine club (everything sounds great after a couple of tastings) and the following morning gave us a private tour of the vineyard itself. We showed up bleary eyed yet bushy tailed at 9am with coffee in hands and Evan was a great host. The best thing about Carhartt is that they make you feel like family which for us means something extra considering our family is 3000 miles across the country.
Our final stop on the central coast is The Skyview Motel. The motel only opened a couple weeks before in early April and we found a great deal on Hotel Tonight which I might just use for all my future travel bookings (seriously every time we use the app it gets better). Its about 10 miles north from Los Olivos right off the 101. It was a little confusing finding the driveway as my wife the tipsy navigator can attest to but the complimentary glass of chardonnay more than made up for that (luckily the only navigation required after the chardonnay was the walk to the room). Skyview rests on top of a butte in the middle of a sea of rolling green hills. The layout is open and the décor looks as if 60s Palm Spring decided to forgo the desert for wine country (however much we love Joshua Tree we will always choose wine). The rooms are simple but between the Spanish bathroom tiles, fire place and old west motif there are tons of detailed accents. The accompanying restaurant is called Norman, a nod to Norman Bates himself. I dropped the “Ill sleep with one eye open tonight” to the server who gave me a sympathy laugh. I take great pleasure in knowing I am probably one of the first guests to ever utter such a bad joke but will be far from the last (much like when a guest has an empty plate and says “I hated it”). The menu is simple but high quality, the burger was a perfect way to end the night after a day of tastings and for some reason I can’t stop thinking about the house made pickles. Dope ass pickles.
Whenever we leave the central coast we always exclaim “we could live here!” And perhaps one day we will. The people have a sincere connection to the land that permeates in everything they do. That earnestness often seems lost in a big city. But then again what do we know, it could have been the wine talking.
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