A wine destination glows up, adds texture and looks heavenward
PHOTOS BY MARK C. ANDERSON
Against the post-sunset sky at immersive art exhibition Sensorio, the planets align.
Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars appear to the naked eye, while Uranus and Neptune linger in the background, visible by telescope.
As the “planetary parade” (as astronomers call it) dances across the mild winter night in Paso Robles, Sensorio has its own otherworldliness at work.
First Field of Light sprouts 100,000 solar-powered stemmed spheres across 15 acres of wavy terrain interspersed with walking paths and oak silhouettes.
Then Light Towers illuminates 69 columns of some 17,000 wine bottles wired with radiant optic fibers that change colors with the ambient score.
Next DIMENSIONS invites earthlings into a labyrinth of large-scale geometric sculptures casting pattern and shadow and movement.
From there the experience widens, with installations like Gone Fishing and Fireflies and Fiber Optic Symphonic Orchestra transcending their titles, complemented by optional local wine, craft beer and wood-fired pizza on the terrace above Field of Light.
Along the odyssey, one visitor looks to the sky, then the hills, and I hear him mumble in awe, “Sure is the right night.”
Paso Robles, simultaneously, is encountering its own planetary alignment.
It’s grown up enough to enjoy a restaurant scene to match the world-class wine—and to add newer luxuries like a jazz speakeasy—but humble enough that it retains eagerness to please.
Travel Paso spokesperson Sierra Mercado grew up in nearby Atascadero but didn’t appreciate the Paso paradox of cool-but-not-too-cool until working in the wine industry.
“Paso Robles is out there enough, but it’s still kind of a hidden gem, with a lot more to explore,” she says. “What I like is that it’s more relaxed—you can go from exercise class straight to a wine tasting, with no judgement, and it still has the family touch, [and] everyone is beyond friendly. So when people visit, that radiates off the town.”
What follows are additional takeaways from a three-night stay just south of Monterey County, which earn Paso Robles the first slot in EMB’s new regular series “Appetite for Travel.”
EMBRACE ACCESSIBILITY, INCLUDING VENDING MACHINE GOURMET.
Just off the downtown exit from Highway 101, a good sign of what’s ahead materializes on the side of Riverside Avenue. A sandwich board directs hungry audiences to the nearby charcuterie-and-cheese vending machine by boutique purveyors Cured and Cultivated.
The digitized box with 35 offerings and a cheddar wheel emblem reading “24/7” comes through ably—everything- you-need-nothing-you-don’t style—with tubs of stuffed olives, satchels of Marcona almonds, wedges of boutique cheese and tubes of fine imported salami.
My tastemate and I leave with fancy crackers and a pre-bundled medley of artisan Central Coast Creamery hard cheeses (no $95.75 ramekin of Sturia Oscietra caviar), to go with the complimentary bottle of Paso wine that surprises us at Stables Inn—which follows a similar formula to the CandC vending module: a humble frame, reworked with clever updates, which maximize style and convenience.
Within a few blocks of Stables Inn await small-batch sweets (including legendary Brown Butter Cookie Co. and storied Negranti Creamery), history (note the 1900s-era foot pedal water fountain and El Paso de Robles Area History Museum), bespoke caffeine (Spearhead Coffee) and a relatively new rum bar (Cane Tiki Room).
“I like to think we’re not missing anything!” Mercado says.
Downtown also enjoys the August 2020-debuted Paso Market Walk, 16,000 square feet appointed with tenants like Momotaro Ramen, Just Baked Cake Studio & Bakery, The Vreamery Artisan Vegan Cheese Collective, and Hog Canyon Brewing Co.
So sticking around the grassy—and by night, string-light illuminated—Downtown City Park square is a formula for happiness.
But so is getting further afield. Any true paso through the robles should involve vineyards.
THERE’S A LOT MORE THAN BIG REDS TO BELIEVE IN.
Paso Robles and its now 200+ wineries first rose to renown around hot-climate varietals—think full-bodied zins from Turley and Peachy Canyon, or lesser-known-but-no-less-spectacular cab and petite sirah from Indigené Cellars.
Now a number of its most remarkable winemakers are pursuing fresher formulas, with sublime results.
Two in particular impress the eye and imagination.
Kukkula Wine’s architecture, summoning weathered steel and gabion stone, leans into the land of the Adelaida District, one of 11 Paso region AVAs whose microclimates help drive new and diverse area expressions.
Its dry-farmed and low-intervention wines tune into Rhone varietals happy in this climate, and take Finnish names honoring its creator’s heritage (kukkula means “hill”).
Standouts include the vaalea (or “light”), an airy blend of grenache blanc, viognier and roussanne, and the karu (aka “rugged”), a savory blend of grenache and counoise, the latter a favorite of founder Kevin Jussila.
Booker similarly bends boundaries of beauty through space and taste. So much so, if you could only visit one winery while visiting Paso, 1) That would be a cruel fate; and 2) You could make a case this is it.
That’s a result of striking design—including an inside-outside tasting salon and an underground lounge with a “living” wall—that rises to the heights of Booker’s all-organic estate juice.
The wines we feel compelled to take home include a ballerina-graceful 100% grenache and a splurge-worth signature syrah called Fracture.
Our host, tasting room lead Jonah Dewhurst, leaves us with a thought that departs from the sleek sophistication of the winery, yet provides comfort.
“I don’t think Paso will lose its smalltown vibe,” he says.
•••
Foodie cred is often only as real as its community.
A good place to view Paso’s transformation from dustier—sleepier?—cowboy crossing to wine country destination would be a short stretch of 13th Street a block from Downtown City Park, now plump with restaurants, tasting rooms and cafés.
Maggie Cameron uses a different word for the zone she helped overhaul by coopening The Hatch Rotisserie & Bar, a Michelin Guide selection centered on livefire spinning chicken and a curated roster of craft whiskeys.
Her choice: “sketchy.”
That’s hard to picture as she moves amid a buzzy scene at Hatch’s next door sister, Della’s Wood-Fired Pizza & Cocktails.
A botanical gin-and-tonic program drops globe goblets of The Bops (Earl Grey, Fever Tree Tonic, lemon, marigold), The Bangers (with pineapple and cloves) and The Ballads (butterfly tea, orange, thyme), some starring local Tin City Gin (see sidebar below).
“We like our cocktails here,” beverage chief Robin Wolf says.
Meanwhile Girl Crush, Main Squeeze and Chicago Fire pizzas made with 72- hour cold-fermented dough fly from a Fiero Forni wood-burning oven in the open kitchen, accompanied by an index of upscale crust dippers and Italian-like Bolognese pappardelle made with another Tin City star, Etto Pasta (see recipe below).
It all feels big-city, only friendlier.
ONE STOP CAN BE ENOUGH.
The feeling arrives as an arresting spread of signature salsas and asparagus-broccoli tacos at Fish Gaucho, from the same folks behind Paso staple Pappy McGregor’s, hasn’t begun to sink in—and as we’re descending to Libretto jazz club below.
It’s the sense, hello again, that a code has been cracked, a serendipity seized. Libretto represents the newest revelation to develop a local, regional and tourist following among several local music venues—like Vina Robles Amphitheatre and Paso Robles Event Center—only far more intimate.
It seduces on sight and sound thanks to custom art, exposed limestone walls, 62- seat capacity and sumptuous acoustics. Then the full gallop of the unicorn that is its 9-foot Steinway & Sons concert grand piano hits, and you understand why top touring musicians go out of their way to play it: There’s a certain synergy hard to find elsewhere.
FLAVOR ACTS AS A MAGNET.
The Japanese yellowtail ceviche of the day, with avocado, crab and tarragon oil, does an unlikely parlay of refreshing and rich. The fresh Baja fish tacos are a credit to the genre, beer battered and laced with habanero salsa. The chili butter oysters slide down so fast, it’s hard to be happy you had them…because you’re so sad they’re gone.
I didn’t need Travel Paso to flag Finca, tucked on the eastern edge of Paso Market Walk hall in one of the city’s oldest surviving houses, as a priority.
I’d stopped by on past voyages for duck al pastor tacos, crunchy potato tacos, pork belly chile verde tacos and hot honey grilled chicken tacos (all with glorious La Rosa flour tortillas out of Watsonville).
One additional development at work here (besides great margaritas): It delivers one of an increasing number of creators, entrepreneurs and artists not leaving for more visible markets, but just the opposite.
Finca co-owner/chef Patrick Aguirre chose Paso after a successful run cooking for the likes of Thomas Keller at Bouchon Bakery and Suzanne Goin of A.O.C., and starting Michelin Guide favorite La Taquiza Fish Tacos in Napa.
While at Finca, an extended relative of mine happens to pull up. Megan Mouren (and her husband Spencer Rawles) moved from Los Angeles, trading a trendy retail fashion career for work managing the family’s rising wine label High Camp.
“We wanted to pursue a different craft somewhere with open spaces, less traffic, a slower pace, and land and space for our animals,” Mouren says. “And explore the creativity of making wine while paying homage to past family ranchers and farmers.”
This type of reverse migration—Sensorio being a Burning Man import— brings a place at the intersection of Highway 101 and Highway 46 to a crossroads that could be called a sweet spot.
“Some [new residents] want to shut the door after they get here,” Maggie Cameron says, “and keep it as they found it.”
FUNKY PROVES FABULOUS.
At River Oaks Hot Springs Spa, two ever-present Paso elements—stoic oaks and undulating lines of grape vines—frame a local rarity. Here the private bathing decks combine those soothing views with tranquilizing waters, optional wellness treatments and another local touch, available wine flight “sip and soak pairings.”
The creaky wood structures, vintage paint job and industrial faucets on the tubs don’t match the cushier welcome lounge and locker room, but for those looking for a little rustic texture, that’s a feature not a flaw. Mercado calls it an “intimate getaway” that’s a few minutes from the center of town.
“If you’re looking to totally Zen out, that’s the go-to spot,” she says. “You don’t have to leave Paso, but it feels like you do.”
PLANETS DON’T ASK WHAT TIME IT IS.
Brunch time at Parchetto, and the food—notably the dynamite South American mussel-shrimp stew—is the only surprise bigger than how slammed and bustling the place is. That contrasts theatrically with the smooth three-piece ensemble playing in front of the glass wine cabinets.
Later that day, a different harmony emerges. At Thacher Winery, homespun hospitality mingles with views of vineyards and hayfields as chickens cluck and scuttle underfoot, and the wines carry playful names that honor the interplay between human and climate, and soil and vine, like Controlled Chaos and Serious Play.
Both Parchetto and Thacher would feel like revelations if they weren’t so well packed with people already, experiencing their own gamut between homey and overrun.
At Thacher, something else sticks out: The converted stables that serve as private tasting venues, and the transformed farmhouse with the wide wraparound decks that work as a welcoming sipping space, shrink in comparison to the soaring 100-year-old KR Barn across the gravel parking lot.
In the KR’s rafters lives a family of barn owls we greet after our tasting. Barn owls are often associated with wisdom, knowledge, intuition and…change.
I tuck the thought away while we head to our final dinner downtown, at a place called The Alchemists’ Garden.
We flagged it from the Paso Travel’s suggestions because it tracks an inspired mission, namely the study of alchemy—which felt on brand in a place mixing inviting ingredients—and its tagline as “a bar and restaurant manifested by dreamers to inspire creativity.”
The food and drinks land with verve, highlighted by harissa tiger prawns with sunomono cucumber salad and tzatziki, burrata with compressed strawberries—and an Alchemists Gold with crème de banane, Angostura, turbinado, cacao nib-infused bourbon and mesquite smoke unleashed from a wooden box.
Before we leave, our server—who hasn’t led us astray yet—encourages us to check out the surface of Alchemists’ bar, which sits beneath a bank of hanging pothos plants.
He references the auspicious time the spot debuted in 2020, in time to encounter COVID drama, and how it’s rediscovered its Paso path. The bar, he adds, reveals something reflecting the moment the place opened: the alignment of the planets.
THE DOSSIER
Travel insight on a city in a central state of mind A good travelscape benefits from some insider tips, gleaned from locals. Here appears the first installment of the “Appetite for Travel” accompaniment, which will shape-shift according to location, but always prove useful.
THINK SEASONALLY
This applies to more than the fresh fare found in restaurants. Beware the extremes of what’s called a “hot-summer Mediterranean climate” and its fierce, longer summers and shorter, chilly winters—and how it affects crowds and surge-triggered hotel rates. Several locals counsel travel for milder crowds and weather around shoulder seasons like spring and late fall.
MOVE MINDFULLY
Downtown walkability provides convenience, but epic landscapes and tastes await further afield, including greater Paso mini-wine countries like San Miguel, which merits its own full day. Plan navigation accordingly, with 1) maps pre-downloaded when cell signals fade; and 2) DD operations like Stables Inn-endorsed UnCorked Wine Tours or Private Wine Drivers in mind.
STAY SAVVY
Lodging grows harder to come by at decent values given Paso’s popularity boom and room shortage. (I’ve trekked to a sweet tent cabin AirBnB A-frame on a remote vineyard with no plumbing and a porta-potty toilet for $65 a night.) So planning out in advance saves coin for counoise.
EXTRA SERVING
Notes on a bonus flavor haven and a recipe from its star
Having two distinct eat-and-drink districts in one burgeoning city is better than one.
Tin City delivers a critical mass of walkable attractions 3 miles north of downtown, including 20+ small-batch wineries, family-owned BarrelHouse Brewing Co., Tin City Cider Co., Tin City Distillery, Michelin-starred Six Test Kitchen’s tasting menu spot and the 3-hour Taste of Tin City Walking Tour to hold your hand if that’s helpful.
What also helps is a major anchor like Etto, a shop-supply-eat-drink super spot whose noodles are worming their way into more and more local kitchens and eaters’ affections, while starring in this recipe.
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, Edible Monterey Bay's managing editor, appears on "Friday Found Treasures" via KRML 94.7 every week, a little after 12pm noon. Reach him via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
