WENDY THIES SELL

Five months after opening its doors, Comfort Market is filling a niche, in addition to filling stomachs with satisfying house-made soups, fresh salads, unique sandwiches, local wines, and the ultimate comfort food—the downright delicious macaroni and cheese. Located in the village of Arroyo Grande, Comfort Market combines a bistro, specialty food and wine market, and […]

Considered one of America’s greatest Master Sommeliers, Paolo Barbieri has served wine to the biggest stars and wealthiest wine connoisseurs in the world. For more than two decades, he’s hand-picked millions of dollars in wines for Las Vegas restaurants. But he recently traded in that lifestyle for one with less flash by opening a tasting […]

Imagine standing atop a seaside cliff, the fresh ocean breeze in your hair, waves crashing on the beach below, while you sip from a bottomless flute of sparkling wine. Some lucky festival-goers will be living that dream this month. Create Promotions, the event specialists behind the annual Bacon & Barrels, has created a new event […]

The latest winery to open a tasting room 
in Los Alamos is no stranger to local 
wine enthusiasts. Municipal Winemakers, led by Dave Potter, has been producing compelling wine for years, selling it at the winery’s tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone. Potter handcrafts the wines and sources most of the fruit in […]

It’s a rare business that survives 50 years, run by the same family, in the same location, no less. And when it happens, it’s worthy of acknowledgment. This month, Santa Maria restaurant Casa Mañana is quietly celebrating its 50th anniversary. Casa Mañana’s founders, Robert Ontiveros, now 84 years old, and his wife Lydia, 81, opened […]

You know you’ve made it big when everyone knows you by just one name. Orcutt’s single-named icon is Kay. I recently sat down for a cup of coffee at the copper counter inside Kay’s Country Kitchen with Kay Flagg during a busy Friday morning breakfast rush, where we talked about food, love, and why life […]

Just a stone’s throw from Stearns Wharf is a soulful area of downtown Santa Barbara affectionately known as the Funk Zone, where “the ocean meets the streets.”   The formerly run-down industrial area between State Street, Garden Street, Montecito Street, and Cabrillo Boulevard has undergone a dramatic metamorphosis over the last decade. A small section […]

To celebrate my mom’s 70th birthday, I treated her to a mother/daughter weekend last month in beautiful Santa Barbara. We started our road trip the day after she flew in from Wisconsin, lunching at Bell Street Farm in Los Alamos, then wine tasting at Dierberg-Star Lane tasting room, which is tucked away in a scenic […]

On Aug. 16, a day that would have been Fess Parker’s 90th birthday, his family and more than 100 friends and fans gathered in the Fess Parker Winery VIP barrel room in Los Olivos, raising their wine glasses to toast the man who passed away in 2010. But the winery toasted its founder for more […]

For several years, Wil Fernandez crisscrossed the country in an RV, trying to figure out where he wanted to live. He returned to Santa Barbara County, intrigued by the landscape, the people, and the bountiful food and wine. “People ask me, ‘Where’s your favorite place?’ This is my favorite place. This is it. There’s nowhere […]

The Murphy Family knew they had something special when they planted the sustainably farmed 72-acre Presqu’ile Vineyard on their property off of Clark Avenue east of Orcutt. Their sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir, syrah, and nebbiolo vines are thriving on the sandy Santa Maria Valley hillsides where rows of gladiolas once bloomed. Because of warmer […]