Eats

The moment I stepped through the creaky, wooden threshold of the artfully adorned beer haven, I knew I was home. Babi’s Beer Emporium is all warmth, laughter, and true reverence for craft brew. Owner Sonja Magdevski never fails to flash each patron a wide smile, her spritely eyes dancing with unceasing energy. Ask anyone in […]

Few restaurants on the Central Coast have a line of customers waiting outside before the doors open for dinner, but there is at least one. Since Ember restaurant in Arroyo Grande opened for business earlier this year, it’s had repeat diners queued up and eager for the exceptional wood-fired cuisine, flatbread pizzas, local boutique wines […]

Fewer and fewer locals can remember Rancho Bowl when it first opened its doors in 1959, but the proud band of customers who swill black coffee at the coffee shop counter each week sure do. Much has changed since those early years—including the addition of DJ nights, 24 state-of-the-art bowling lanes, and ongoing remodeling throughout—but […]

Beer lovers rejoice! Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company has expanded operations and production, much to the gratitude of the local craft beer crowd. The award-winning, Buellton-based craft brewery opened a taproom earlier this month in Santa Maria at 560 E. Betteravia Rd. in the College Square shopping center. “The demand was there. We had people coming […]

Travel past the rusty windmill and towering 8-foot-tall sunflowers in Solvang’s Atterdag Square and you will be rewarded with pork—glorious, gleaming, local pork. Hunks of house-smoked bacon, mounds of freshly sliced ham, and spiced shoulders cooked slow and low. This is the kind of pig that makes field-hardened farmers weep and Southern folks beam with […]

Maybe it’s my humble Midwestern roots. Or maybe it’s the crisp chill in the air this time of year. Or maybe it’s the gooey cheese and salty meat. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s the sauerkraut, which I recall my German immigrant relatives serving on every holiday table. Whatever the reason, I find great comfort in […]

We are lying motionless on the ground, wrestling with the ancient struggle of letting go. “You are sinking into the grass with every exhale of your breath,” coos yoga instructor Cori Lassahn. “Let go of the effort it took to drive here. Try to be so still that you are no longer concerned with your […]

When Aaron Petersen decided to open a restaurant in the building he owns on Solvang’s main drag, his children chimed in on the name. “I was going to call it something like the American Grill or the American Tavern,” Peterson said. “And my college-aged kids said, ‘Dad, you’re a complete nerd. You cannot call it […]

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 […]