Eats

Between all the restaurantes, taquerias, carnicerias, and mercados in Santa Maria, Mexican is by far the most popular type of food in town, with more than 50 establishments to choose from. For the last nine years, the folks at People For Leisure And Youth, Inc. (P.L.A.Y.) have selected their favorite Mexican restaurants and caterers in […]

One of the tastiest meals I’ve enjoyed in a long time wasn’t prepared in a state-of-the-art restaurant kitchen by a culinary academy-educated chef. It was made by some of Santa Maria’s bravest: three hard-working firefighters, in between multiple emergency calls, using unconventional tools in their firehouse kitchen, with no recipe cards or cookbooks in sight. […]

Over six decades, a family-run farm in Arroyo Grande has built an international reputation for growing high–quality, farm-fresh vegetables. Today, Talley Farms includes 1,200 acres of fertile farmland. They grow, pack, and ship their famous bell peppers, in addition to spinach, cilantro, nappa cabbage, lettuce, and avocados, among other produce, to some of the biggest […]

The Sta. Rita Hills, the red-hot wine region between Buellton and Lompoc, is sizzling with excitement over the wine events planned for the weekend of Aug. 17 to 19. Passions burn bright in one of the colder grape-growing regions in California. Local wine pioneers warmly welcome the next generation of young wine producers choosing to […]

The Santa Ynez Valley has long been a getaway for television celebrities; many TV stars even made the valley home: Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Cheryl Ladd, Jennie Garth, Noah Wyle, John Forsythe, and Fess Parker, just to name a few. Add the name Budi Kazali to the list of local luminaries appearing on the […]

Get tickled pink this summer by a whole new crop of pretty, pink wines from Santa Barbara County. More local wineries are adding Rosé to their line-ups. Not to be mistaken for sweet “White Zin,” floral, fruity, fragrant, dry Rosés produced on the Central Coast are usually made from Pinot Noir, Syrah, or Grenache. You’d […]

The American food scene has witnessed restaurant trends come and go. In recent years, Asian-fusion eateries, gourmet Mexican grills, vegan cafés, Japanese restaurants, and tapas bars have grown in popularity. The last few years, trendy Korean restaurants have popped up in every major U.S. city. And now, Santa Maria has jumped on the Korean barbecue […]

Sometimes food has the ability to take you home. The perfect combination of aroma and flavor can transport you back in time, to a different place; scent and taste trigger memory responses in the brain. My husband had just such an experience while dining at Sides Hardware and Shoes, a Brothers Restaurant—the new modern wine […]

The Santa Maria Valley is a world-class grape-growing and wine-producing region, so it makes perfect sense to invite the world to visit. (Even some lifelong locals might not realize that this area is considered quite extraordinary in the wide-ranging world of wine.) Santa Barbara County has a long history of growing wine grapes, dating back […]

Fess Parker told me a dozen years ago during a fireside chat in his homey Los Olivos hotel lobby—one of several extensive interviews I was granted by the late actor-turned-Santa Barbara County winery/hotel owner—that for a wine region to flourish, it must have five-star lodging and food. He explained that for Santa Barbara County to […]

If you spend any amount of time drinking wine or visiting California wineries, you probably know at least the basics of winemaking, grape growing, and/or my personal favorite: wine appreciation. But how many people give any thought to the final step of the winemaking process> After all, wine doesn’t just magically appear in a bottle. […]

If you subscribe to the notion that variety is the spice of life, you will be enamored, like I am—and like so many others are—with Full of Life Foods. The increasingly popular restaurant in Los Alamos embraces the farm-to-table philosophy, basing its ever-changing specials menu almost entirely on what local produce is in season. This […]