California Food and Wine Blog

We launched our 2nd Wine Down Wednesday in Los Osos, Ca and tasted two wines: ONEHOPE’s 2009 Chardonnay and Cantara’s 2008 Barbera. We had a spread of cheeses and stuffed mushrooms to pair with the wines, and enjoyed with friends!

OneHope 2009 Chardonnay:

Very smooth, light oak flavor. Pairs nicely with cheese stuffed mushrooms and havarti cheese!

Light toasty vanilla, pear and apple notes.  Very smooth, not as much depth as I am used to with Chardonnays, but glad there is the light oak. Purchased for $19

Taste: 4/5

Nose: 4.5/5

Color: 4/5

Value: 4.5/5 **Bonus points for profits donated to fight against Breast Cancer and cast special for $99 right now.

Cantara Cellars 2008 Barbera (Lodi):

A bit tart, but a nice light body with nice smooth tannic feel. Bright raspberry flavors with light pepper on the nose. Good to pair with red meat, but didn’t prefer with the cheese pairing.  Purchased for $31.

Taste: 3/5

Nose: 3.5/5

Color: 3/5

Value: 2.5/5

Had a casual brunch at the new Sidecar restaurant this morning with a few friends.

Had an enjoyable ambiance with eclectic style, friendly staff, and some patio seating. Mmm Eastern Bloody Mary with lemongrass infused vodka, basil, sesame oil, and soy sau – very good! Gotta love a few early morning cocktail options.

I ordered the Wild Bore Pozole. It was meaty, fresh, and spicy! I also tried the Brandade Benedict: a poached egg over salt cod which had the most amazing hollandaise sauce… we were licking the plate. All items priced $9-$14 with good portions.

4.5/5 stars

While wine tasting in Ventura County, we stopped in downtown ventura for lunch at a French-American restuarant called 71Palm. We ate outside on the dog friendly patio with water dishes ready for barley and enjoyed the warm sun and quiet breeze 🙂 The outside of the building is a bit rundown from a distance but its actually quite a nice historic building.

We received friendly service, though I’m pretty sure we were the only customers that afternoon with farmers market happening right down the street.

I ordered the sampler with broccoli asparagus soup of the day, cessation salad, and portabella mushroom sandwich for $12. Flavors very good and healthy portions.

Nathan ordered the kobe burger very juicy and flavorful with a side of fries for $12. Again not huge portions but quite filling.

Overall it was a very nice meal at a reasonable price.

Service: 5/5
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 4/5

http://www.71palm.com/

We went to Union Brewery in Santa Barbara for dinner on their covered patio. Cushions were pretty gross and stained but the furnaces kept the outdoor patio toasty.

We ordered the western burger for $12 and the santa barbara burger for $10 with their Pinehopple Pale and Honeysuckle Hop beers. Nathan’s western burger had amazing sauce and was nice and juicy; my burger was pretty average though it seemed to have coleslaw in it which was interesting. Their sweet potato fries were quite good and we would have liked to try some of their other sauce options (7 to choose from) but that’s only available when you order a full order of fries, not on the side.. odd. Brews were good and at $3.50 can’t beat their price.

Halfway through dinner the speakers turned on and all tbsp changed to their pay per view WWE game which we got to watch all 15 seconds of before a nice knockout. We left just in time as a bunch of drunk college students arrived and what may have turned into a local WWE between some of the patrons over seating conflicts.

Ambiance: 3/5
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 3.5/5