February 3-5, 25- 28, 2025

With a two-month trip to Europe scheduled to start at the end of March 2025, we focused on trips to Henderson for Thanksgiving, Solana Beach for Christmas, Oakland for New Years and other short visits in California.  I’ll report on two here, the first being a three-night stay in Paso Robles at the start of February.  Following a familiar pattern, we spent the weekend in Oakland with Jessica, Kris, and Gemma and then on Monday drove to Paso, returning to Oakland on Thursday to stay through the following weekend. 

We’d be staying at the Best Western Black Oak on the north end of town, across the street from the Paso Robles Event Center, formerly California Mid-State Fairgrounds, where we spent a number of very fun Memorial Day weekends participating in the Great Western Bike Rally.  Each day would feature an array of bike rides, ranging from short ones of about five miles or less, all the way up to one 100-mile ride, usually on Saturday.  There would be activities for the kids, including a local farm that provided access to inground trampolines and a pond to canoe on, and various contests of skill (tire changing, etc.) a wine and cheese event and a closing BBQ, where participants could bring their own food and cook it on large outdoor grills. 

One of our goals for the visit this time would be to hit a few wineries, one a day (given that almost all now charge for tastings) and after checking in we hit the first one, Robert Hall Winery.  As with the other two winery’s we would visit in the next couple of days, a tasting cost $25 per person (free to wine club members) and the fee would be waived with $70 bottle purchase, which we would also do at each visit (but only one tasting fee waived per purchase).  We sat on some comfortable couches and had an enjoyable hour-long experience with the hostess stopping to chat with us during each pour.  Thus, each of our outings would run us some amount over $100, but we did come away with some very nice wines. 

My former boss at UNC Charlotte, Keith, had sent me a number of recommendations for food and drink in the area and we went straight away to one of them for dinner, the Etto Pasta Bar.  This would be a good dining experience as Joanna ordered an Etto Spritz Cocktail (Bordiga Rosso Vermouth, Soda Water, and Processo) and I enjoyed the house red, a Sangiovese, Barbera, and Aglianico blend, from Giornata Wines.

We started with a soup of the day, a hearty Italian concoction that led to splitting an order of Butternut Ravioli with Brown Butter Sauce and the Lasagna (12 layers, parmesan, beef Bolognese, bechamel, onions, carrots, celery, and tomato).  Ever since we had those memorable ravioli with the same sauce in Siena and Montepulciano in 2014 with Lindsey we’ve been searching for their equal and these came pretty close.  The Lasagna was delicious and bountiful, enough so that we took some back to the hotel to enjoy later.  We closed out with a piece of the Etto Chocolate Cake (mascarpone frosting covered with chocolate ganache).  As is so often the case for us today, our tab came to $107 including tax and tip, well worth the expense. 

The next day would be filled with rain and so, with a tasting scheduled for the afternoon, we started off with breakfast at another of Keith’s recommendations, the Springside Restaurant.  We don’t usually eat breakfast out at home so when we travel it is one of our guilty pleasures.  This would be a good one, with Joanna ordering the Corned Beef Hash and I the Garden Scramble (Eggs scrambled with Tomatoes, Green Onions, Mild Green, Chilies and Bell Peppers topped with melted Cheddar Cheese).  Service was efficient and friendly, and we left full and satisfied with the tab of $52 including tax and tip.

To kill time before our tasting we decided to drive around and visit places we remembered from our prior trips to the area.  We failed in our attempt to find the farm we would ride to that had activities for the kids so pressed on east to the James Dean Memorial Junction near where he was killed in an auto accident in 1955.  It sits next to the Jack Ranch Café (which closed in 2022) that used to display a lot of memorabilia related to the actor.  Ric, Irene, and I stopped at the café briefly during a century (100 Mile) ride we did one year at the Bike Rally. 

By now it was time to head to our tasting at Tablas Creek Vineyard, located in the hills west of town and they are known for producing various Rhône-style blends and varietal wine, including the GSM Blend (Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre).  In the 1990’s Jean-Pierre and François Perrin of the Perrin family, proprietors of Beaucastel in Châteauneuf du Pape along with Robert Haas, chose this site, a former alfalfa farm on top of a Late Cretaceous seabed, for its soil pH and limestone base similarities to Beaucastel. 

With an aim to produce wines made by organic principles, vines were imported from the Beaucastel vineyards, both to supply varieties previously unavailable in California such as Counoise and Grenache blanc, and in order to ensure the disease-free provenance of the remaining varieties.  Jason Haas is the second-generation proprietor of Tablas Creek, and he learned the wine business at an early age, accompanying his father Robert on European wine-buying trips and spending two summers working at Château de Beaucastel.  The vineyard is an impressive operation producing wines that we enjoyed and so our tasting was a highlight of the afternoon. 

In the pouring rain we drove back to the Best Western, continuing to marvel at the number of rooms occupied by workers of all stripes, their trucks sitting in the parking lot announcing their numbers.  We’ve run into this situation before at a number of hotels, establishments that seem to have made arrangements with many companies to be the lodging option of choice for workers in the field. 

Dinner that night would be a short walk next door to Bubba’s Smokehouse and Spirits where we split a Pulled Pork Sandwich with sides of sweet corn and Bubba’s Beans.  It wasn’t very crowded and online reviews were uneven, but we found the service to be friendly and the food decent for what it was.  Not sure if we would return in the future, but given the circumstances it was a good choice.  That would finish up our first couple of nights in town and we will continue our activities in the next post. 

Links

Best Western Black Oak: https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US/book/hotels-in-paso-robles/best-western-plus-black-oak/propertyCode.05084.html

California Mid-State Fairgrounds: https://www.midstatefair.com/

Great Western Bike Rally: https://www.facebook.com/pasoroblescyclingfestival/

Robert Hall: https://www.roberthallwinery.com/

Etto Pasta Bar: https://www.ettopastabar.net/

Springside: https://www.springside-restaurant.com/

James Dean Memorial Junction: https://californiathroughmylens.com/james-dean-crash-site/

Tablas Creek Vineyard: https://tablascreek.com/

Bubba’s Smokehouse: https://www.bubbas-smokehouse.com/smoked-brisket