We at Central Coast Food Tours have a special place in our hearts for Avila Beach.
Avila Beach
The Avila Beach community has much to offer to curious tourist and especially wine lovers! Several wineries have set up tasting rooms in Avila Beach along the beach, and you’ll find other wineries on the country roads just outside of town.
The white sand beaches and sparkling blue water is a real draw to beach lovers. And those with children will enjoy the gymnastic equipment on the beach. The views are gorgeous as you look out over Avila beach and bay and view the sea.
Hungry? Then take a short walk through the town and stop in at many of the delicious restaurants. If you choose to head over to the pier, you find Fat Cats (yum) and a wharf with fresh catch unloaded daily. The Fishmongers are a great source for fresh local seafood – give it a try!
I invite you to discover this beach and all it has to offer.
Located in the small town of San Simeon on California’s Central Coast, I encourage you to visit Hearst Castle. A visit to Hearst Castle will open your eyes to the art and architectural collections that Hearst amassed over his lifetime. Built by the famed publisher William Randolph Hearst, Hearst Castle is the jewel of the Central Coast.
Hearst Castle
Hearst was known for his love of collecting priceless art and artifacts and modeled his home to highlight these delightful treasures.
Built by Julia Morgan, there are sweeping views, gorgeous gardens and breathtaking architecture. Offered to visitors is a IMAX film documenting the build of the castle. It is a MUST SEE. In addition to a number of daily tours there is also a free museum of artifacts and exhibits on Hearst’ life.
For more information on the Hearst Castle and its variety of programs please visit www.hearstcastle.org
As many of you know, Central Coast Food Tours offers a wonderful walking tour in San Luis Obispo.
SLO Trolly
Our San Luis Obispo Downtown Walking Tour finishes up about 4:40 – 5:00 p.m. Our guests are always wondering if the SLO Downtown Trolly is operating – or not.
It always seems the SLO Downtown trollies are operating – then they aren’t…what exactly is the SLO Downtown Trolly schedule? First of all you can visit www.slotransit.org to get an update on their ever-changing schedule. Meanwhile, they’ve just posted their most recent schedule. Here it is:
Thursdays: 5:00 pm – 9 pm All year round
Fridays: 5:00 pm – 9 pm June through Labor Day
Saturdays: 5:00 pm – 9 pm April through October
We’re in April right now, so we can count on the trolly Thursdays and Saturdays from 5:00 pm – 9 pm.
Come join Central Coast Food Tours at the 5th Annual Templeton Wine Festival. The festival is always a good time but this year the festival will include the best wineries, plus breweries and cider producers pouring unlimited tastes, specialty food samples, food vendors, boutique shopping and live music by Joy Bonner.
The Templeton Wine Festival takes place on Saturday, May 6th from 1:00 – 5:00 pm. Tickets are $35 presale and $40 at the door.
Contact the Templeton Chamber of Commerce for more information on purchasing tickets for the Templeton Wine Festival at 805 434 1789.
Come and join Central Coast Food Tours for the 14th annual Paso Pinot & Paella Festival! The Pinot and Paella festival is taking place in the Templeton City Park on Sunday, June 4, 2017 from 2-5 p.m.
The festival promises to be a great and delicious day with 20 Paso Robles Pinots and 1 dozen unique paellas. In addition to the delightful setting, the delicious food and wines there will also be live music.
Tickets are now on sale at www.pinotandpaella.com. 100% of the proceeds are donated to local youth arts foundations.
Get your pinot on and get on over to the festival! It’s good eats for a good cause.
O.K. – restaurants are in flux in SLO. Some wonderful ones have closed, new ones have opened and all this chaos keeps us on our toes. New to the scene is Thomas Hill Organics in SLO. We look for the best. It might be in an alleyway, perhaps in a well established restaurant. Whatever the environment, we seek to bring you our favorites in a rapidly changing environment.
Thomas Hill Organics
Mom and I were looking forward to dining at the new iteration of our favorite Thomas Hill Organics in Paso Robles. Debbie Thomas’ new restaurant, Thomas Hill Organics Kitchen, is a much needed and delightful addition to the San Luis Obispo restaurant offering.
We’re happy they’re here! Located at the corner of Monterey and Chorro St. in San Luis Obispo, they are in the heart of downtown SLO. While most access the restaurant off Monterey Street, I suggest you park in the parking structure on Chorro and Palm and take the easy walkway to the restaurant (note: your first 60 minutes of parking are free!) Entering the restaurant you’ll find both outdoor and indoor seating – both are lovely. I dined there today with my mom and we both found inventive and delicious menu items. It was raining so we dined indoors and enjoyed a pot of mint tea while we chatted and waited for our lunch.
I selected the Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna which was served with Edamame puree, soba noodle salad, carrot, radish, scallion, toasted nori, miso vinaigrette. It was delicious and filling. We had planned on sharing a single entree, but after tasting the dish mom ordered her own (which she graciously shared with me!) Delicious! Being too full for dessert, though it sounded wonderful, we ended our lunch with another pot of the mint tea.
We have “No Reservations” in sharing our recommendation of Thomas Hill Organics for lunch, dinner … or try their fire roasted pizzas. They have a full bar as well as serving wines from the Central Coast and elsewhere.
Olive harvest on the central coast is an exciting time of year. With new acreage dedicated to growing olives added each year, the olive harvest has become a ‘big deal’ here in San Luis Obispo county. The olive harvest traditionally follows closely on the heels of the grape harvest. It’s a convenient event in that folks here to pick the many thousand acres of wine grapes stay around to also pick the olives.
Olive oil originating from San Luis Obispo county is some of the best produced in the United States, and competes with the finest olive oils from around the world. If you haven’t tried our olive oil, suffice it to say you are missing out! As a result of many of our imported olive oils from abroad found to be adulterated by lesser oils, California has taken the lead in establishing quality standards for EVOO – or extra virgin olive oil. Oils that pass these extremely strict standards receive a special label/sticker indicating its quality.
To learn more about the central coast’s olive oil we recommend a visit to an olive farm, and visiting during harvest is as good as it gets. A few of our favorite local producers are Pasolivo, Oleo Olive Oil and Kiler Ridge. All these folks are gearing up for harvest and will be busy over the next few weeks as they pick the olives and ready their mills.
San Simeon Beach is one of my favorite beaches on the Central Coast – especially when you add dogs. Being one to ever accommodate, we love
to bring our dogs to San Simeon Beach. This shot is from a few years ago when we still had our beloved “Peaches”, the pretty golden retriever. The brown poodle was still a puppy, happy to let Peaches be his teacher in all things canine, and human (as far as she knew them).
It’s exciting the announce our NEW TOUR to all our friends and guests. And as do most of our tours, it’s concept came from our guests. You
loved our food tours but wanted to see the wine country and taste wines in that setting without having to spend a full day touring. We came up with a solution: it’s called the “Double the Fun” tour because it takes the best of both tours – our food tour and our full day wine tour and creates something entirely new and special.
We are starting the tour in Paso Robles, but if all goes well we plan to expand it down to San Luis Obispo as well. The tour starts at one of our favorite eateries in historic downtown Paso Robles, where we enjoy food and wine and learn a bit about the history of the area, town and local wine industry. We also spend this time to get to know YOU. What kind of wine you favor, what kind of a tasting room experience you seek, and whether you have any ideas where you might like to visit for wine tasting. Talk about a personalized tour – this is it!
Rain brings green to the Central Coast. It is such a delight to drive the local roadways, especially Hwy. 46 and see the landscape transform from the dusty dry barren hills of Fall to the luscious mounds literally jumping to life with new grasses and foliage. While the rainfall has yet to reach pre-drought years, we seem to have a good start. And, news is that a weather pattern is setting up in March to bring in a series of storms throughout the month. I have a feeling that 2016 will be a beautiful Spring and we’ll see an overflowing of wildflowers we’ve missed for the last several years. I think it’s a perfect time for a visit!
So, here are some dates for upcoming wine events you may want to add to your calendar.
March 12-14, 2016: International Chardonnay Symposium
March 18-20, 2016: Zinfandel Weekend in Paso Robles
May 19-22, 2016: Paso Robles Wine Festival
June 23-26, 2016: Roll Out the Barrels Wine Festival in SLO
This is just a start to the many events and festivals planned for the area. And, with our rain this year, I anticipate we will have a most beautiful Spring to grace your visit!
