You don't expect to bite into the greatest roast beef sandwich you've ever tasted in a place like Morro Bay. Those moments are reserved for big cities with large Italian, Jewish, possibly Polish, hopefully not Irish, populations. You certainly don't expect it to be in a lily-white, high rent town on California's Central Coast. But that is what the Morro Bay Hofbrau provides. A massive, hand carved, roast beef sandwich so good I would have quite willingly paid two or three times the remarkably reasonable price of $8.50. The Lovely Girlfriend couldn't finish the other half of hers. She also couldn't even finish her sentence "do you want this" before I was devouring the tender juicy goodness. I tried to talk her into going there for breakfast the next day, and no, they don't serve a breakfast menu.
After a nice walk around downtown Morro Bay we headed to Solvang/Buellton. This is the wine country area that was featured in Sideways and the prices reflect it. We started with Mosby, an Italian style winery that was packed and pricey. Their wine was only average so we gulped down our tasting and quickly left in hopes of greener and cheaper pastures.
While perusing the handy wine map we spotted an interesting area titled The Lompoc Wine Ghetto. Since Lompoc is best known for its prison and military base we figured this was a not to be missed tasting spot. Like doing a scotch tasting at a Wal-mart in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. We were only partially correct. The Lompoc Wine Ghetto is located behind the Home Depot (honestly) but it is far more Ghetto Fabulous than just plain ghetto. As someone that grew up surrounded by real life hillbillies, rednecks, hicks and all around poor-white-trash in Northern Maine I take offence to the trend of transforming the poor into the posh. Making a camo trucker hat a must have fashion statement is insulting not just to the people that grew up wearing them but to those of us that grew up surrounded by them all the while telling ourselves "thank God I've got more sense than that!" When we look back a old photos are we to think that somehow Jethro was an ahead of his time fashionistas? I'm not saying I don't have a rather large soft spot for backwoods culture, I've been to my fair share of gravel pit and trailer park parties. Those parties were free to attend and the booze was cheap. Nobody was trying to sell plastic cups at ten bucks a pop throwing in a splash of keg beer then explaining to you the intricacies of the hops and barley. If I'm going to be doing my drinking in a corrugated metal shed I expect the prices, pours and conversation to reflect it. We hit two tasting rooms, Fiddleheads and The Flying Goat. I won't lie, the wine at both places was absolutely excellent but holy shit was it pretentious. I'd expect that at one of those giant phony french villas that's piping in orchestral music and brandishing a scenic overlook. We were in a low-rent business park. Our view was a shade-free parking lot and more corrugated metal. There have been few times in my life where I've felt more mislead by a name.
In an effort to save the day we headed back toward Solvang with one of our favorite tasting rooms Sort This Out Cellars in our sights. I will be dedicating tomorrows entire posting to the good people at Sort This Out. They deserve their own spot but if you are reading this while currently on a wine tasting adventure through Solvang/Buellton and you cannot wait for tomorrow I will tell you go there now! 1636 Copenhagen Drive Solvang, CA 93463. Great time, great wine. Full report tomorrow.
Before we made it to Sort This Out we stopped at Casa Cassara's tasting room. I'd been there before on my own a few years back while the Lovely Girlfriend was working in Santa Barbara. Last time I was there they had a tempranillo that was out of this world so we had to stop. They weren't tasting the tempranillo that day but we did get a whole bunch of other very tasty wine to sample. All at reasonable prices, tasting fee waved when we purchased a bottle. The young girl doing the pouring was super personable and extremely informative. We even joined the wine club. Take that Lompoc Wine Ghetto! We've got $$ to spend (well, the Lovely Girlfriend does anyway) but we don't want to feel like we're taking it in the shorts while we spend it.
From Casa Cassara we headed to Sort This Out Cellars but since I've already stated that they will get their own posting I will leave you with this cliffhanger. Did we find parking nearby? Did we have to pay for it??? Were we forced to walk several blocks????? Tune in tomorrow to find out!
After a nice walk around downtown Morro Bay we headed to Solvang/Buellton. This is the wine country area that was featured in Sideways and the prices reflect it. We started with Mosby, an Italian style winery that was packed and pricey. Their wine was only average so we gulped down our tasting and quickly left in hopes of greener and cheaper pastures.
While perusing the handy wine map we spotted an interesting area titled The Lompoc Wine Ghetto. Since Lompoc is best known for its prison and military base we figured this was a not to be missed tasting spot. Like doing a scotch tasting at a Wal-mart in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. We were only partially correct. The Lompoc Wine Ghetto is located behind the Home Depot (honestly) but it is far more Ghetto Fabulous than just plain ghetto. As someone that grew up surrounded by real life hillbillies, rednecks, hicks and all around poor-white-trash in Northern Maine I take offence to the trend of transforming the poor into the posh. Making a camo trucker hat a must have fashion statement is insulting not just to the people that grew up wearing them but to those of us that grew up surrounded by them all the while telling ourselves "thank God I've got more sense than that!" When we look back a old photos are we to think that somehow Jethro was an ahead of his time fashionistas? I'm not saying I don't have a rather large soft spot for backwoods culture, I've been to my fair share of gravel pit and trailer park parties. Those parties were free to attend and the booze was cheap. Nobody was trying to sell plastic cups at ten bucks a pop throwing in a splash of keg beer then explaining to you the intricacies of the hops and barley. If I'm going to be doing my drinking in a corrugated metal shed I expect the prices, pours and conversation to reflect it. We hit two tasting rooms, Fiddleheads and The Flying Goat. I won't lie, the wine at both places was absolutely excellent but holy shit was it pretentious. I'd expect that at one of those giant phony french villas that's piping in orchestral music and brandishing a scenic overlook. We were in a low-rent business park. Our view was a shade-free parking lot and more corrugated metal. There have been few times in my life where I've felt more mislead by a name.
In an effort to save the day we headed back toward Solvang with one of our favorite tasting rooms Sort This Out Cellars in our sights. I will be dedicating tomorrows entire posting to the good people at Sort This Out. They deserve their own spot but if you are reading this while currently on a wine tasting adventure through Solvang/Buellton and you cannot wait for tomorrow I will tell you go there now! 1636 Copenhagen Drive Solvang, CA 93463. Great time, great wine. Full report tomorrow.
Before we made it to Sort This Out we stopped at Casa Cassara's tasting room. I'd been there before on my own a few years back while the Lovely Girlfriend was working in Santa Barbara. Last time I was there they had a tempranillo that was out of this world so we had to stop. They weren't tasting the tempranillo that day but we did get a whole bunch of other very tasty wine to sample. All at reasonable prices, tasting fee waved when we purchased a bottle. The young girl doing the pouring was super personable and extremely informative. We even joined the wine club. Take that Lompoc Wine Ghetto! We've got $$ to spend (well, the Lovely Girlfriend does anyway) but we don't want to feel like we're taking it in the shorts while we spend it.
From Casa Cassara we headed to Sort This Out Cellars but since I've already stated that they will get their own posting I will leave you with this cliffhanger. Did we find parking nearby? Did we have to pay for it??? Were we forced to walk several blocks????? Tune in tomorrow to find out!
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