When friends Kathy Hayes and Kerry Main Aller invited me to join them on a one-day bus trip to tiny Cayucos by the Sea, 53 miles away— one stop before Cambria and two stops before San Simeon—I gasped with glee. The price was right and the destination, irresistible.
Cayucos is the home of the famed Hoppe’s Bistro and Wine Bar, an establishment with the best food, so gourmet that it has been written up with stars to spare in the likes of The New York Times.
Would I ride all day on public transportation just to have fresh sea bass caught off Avila Beach, Wasabi mashed potatoes, figs marinated in a balsamic reduction sauce, and lavender-infused creme brulée or a chocolate hazelnut terrine, with homemade hummus and walnut bread, all in a charming setting?
You bet I would.
And did.
The good news is that the transportation between Santa Maria and Cayucos is a bargain. The bad news is that the trip involves three different buses and two transfers. Fortunately for me, my friends are real pros coordinating bus schedules. All I had to do was show up, sit back, and leave the navigating and driving to others.
Kathy and Kerry put together a transportation schedule so flawless that, without having to wait at transfer points, we went immediately from one bus to another and, mercifully, never missed a connection.
Early in the morning on a recent weekday, we convened at the new multi-million dollar transit center at Boone and Miller streets. The first one there, I sat in the waiting room because it was warmer than outside and featured chairs with backs. The three of us boarded the No. 10 RTA bus at 10:12 a.m. and left three minutes later, picking up passengers at Marian Hospital, two stops, and Hancock College before going on U.S. Highway 101.
RTA stands for San Luis Obispo County Regional Transportation Authority, which offers bus transportation to points north of Santa Maria. Arroyo Grande, Nipomo, and Pismo Beach are stopping points on the way to San Luis Obispo.
Time on the bus flew by. Pardon the cliché, but it fits. We sat in the back of the vehicle and were joined by an older gent who boarded the bus at the first Marian stop. A well-known local media person—who preferred to
remain anonymous—hopped on at the second Marian stop.
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“You never know who you’ll meet on the bus,” Kerry chirped.
The five of us fell into a rousing discussion about public transportation, which kept us occupied until the end of the line. An outstanding feature of the trip: the drivers and our fellow passengers were pleasant and helpful.
SLO’s government center—our first transfer point—was busy, busy, busy, with a lot of student-age passengers milling about. With a burst of energy, we rushed off our bus to board Route 11, which carried us to Morro Bay Park, where we boarded a smaller, very comfortable bus—Route 15—that serves Cayucos, Cambria, and San Simeon.
Fifteen minutes later, at 12:14 p.m., we got off the bus on Ocean Avenue and Cayucos Drive. Our restaurant was straight ahead, a 10-minute walk, with a clear view of the Pacific Ocean all the way.
The ocean air was fresh and crisp, and the sun at long last came out. Walking along the main drag, we could not help but notice that every other building seemed to house a real estate office. The non-real estate places were mostly antique stores.
Hoppe’s charming manager took us to a garden table, where we could view masses of summer flowers while dining. There is also a delightful sunken garden, large enough for just four tables, three steps down from the lawn, with sculpture and vegetation. It, however, was not open for lunch.
Considering the quality of the food and the gourmet nature of the menu, Hoppe’s prices are extremely reasonable and surely no more for lunch than some of the fish-and-chip places we passed. For gourmet types, this is a real value (unless, of course, you choose abalone steak for a whopping $48).
My navigator companions were hot to visit the Brown Butter Cookie Company, which they had researched and was about a five-minute walk along Ocean Avenue from the restaurant. En route, lured by the display of colorful new Bauer pottery in the window, we stopped at the Cayucos Pharmacy. The front of the store is a gift shop. There was enough there for a couple hours’ worth of browsing, but the cookies called, and out we went, only to be lured into an antique store.
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We tried on old hats, lifted teapots to get prices, admired vintage wrought-iron garden furniture, and hightailed it back outside. After passing several interesting, old-fashioned looking bars, we stopped to admire the architecture and design of an upscale restaurant and inn, the historic James Cass House, a handsome, recently-restored Victorian.
The Cass House restaurant serves only dinner and has a menu that makes daytrippers wish they were staying overnight. There’s so much good food in this little town!
The Brown Butter Cookie Company is an old-fashioned, barn-red, one-story building that sparkles with cleanliness. Two sisters, Christa Hozie and Traci Nickson, launched their cookie-making business in January 2009. Like Hoppe’s, they have been featured in The New York Times, as well as Gourmet magazine, Orange Coast Magazine, Good Housekeeping, and “The Rachel Ray Show.”
Inside, several young women were seated at long tables, rolling dough, and shaping cookies.
The atmosphere is one of calm and productivity. Traci immediately offered us samples of the chocolate and espresso cookies, which are famous for being topped with sea salt. They are $13 a dozen.
On the way back to the bus stop, about a 10-minute walk, Kathy and I discussed how clean everything looked and felt in the restaurant and the stores. Housekeeping in Cayucos gets high marks.
Our day trip allowed for only about two and a half hours in the seaside community—not really a lot of time for career shoppers to explore. We did everything, except lunch, breathlessly, mindful of our schedule. Bus connections on the return trip were as smooth as they were on the way north. We rolled into the transit center at 5:15 p.m.
The inexpensive excursion had been a fun day.
Freelancer Helen Ann Thomas can be reached through Arts Editor Shelly Cone at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 10-17, 2011.