Food & Drink

Whether it whets your appetite or not, there’s something objectively pure and life-fulfilling about seeing a tiny taco on top of a cupcake. It’s like crossing something off a bucket list you never thought was there to begin with.  But this particular taco was made of fondant icing, like many of home baker Terri Wahlberg’s […]

The tried-and-true—and still apropos—idiom “the bee’s knees” is a bit of an understatement when describing the husband-and-wife duo behind Cuyama Homegrown.  “It’s the most pure honey you could ever dream about,” said Jean Gaillard, co-owner of the farm with his wife, Meg Brown, while discussing the two bee hives on their property. One of the […]

Drilling and hammering noises bled into my Zoom call with Santa Ynez chef Anthony Carron before prompting a change of scenery.  “It’s hard to find a quiet place at a construction site,” Carron said while stepping outside of a vacant building in downtown Solvang. The large space, currently being remodeled, was once home to The […]

In 30 years, the Sta. Rita Hills hasn’t let Greg Brewer down.  “I’ve been reflecting a lot on my relationship with this place,” the Brewer-Clifton winemaker said. “I’m very loyal to this place. I’m very provincial in that way. I’ll always work here. I’ve only worked here.”  He describes his relationship with the region as […]

Santa Ynez Valley chef Anthony Endy went up against celebrity chef Bobby Flay on Flay’s own show last April—and beat him. Endy got the best of Flay on the Beat Bobby Flay show in an episode that aired in June, giving Endy—the executive chef at Alisal Guest Ranch in Solvang—a boost as the ranch reopened […]

This year has been particularly hard on the owners of Alfie’s Fish & Chips in Lompoc, Mike and Nellie Sewall. Similar to other Santa Barbara County restaurants, the pandemic has forced the longtime Lompoc establishment to shut down not once, but twice.  And on top of that, Nellie has been battling cancer. “I was diagnosed […]

When the Rushing family viewed a property off Jonata Road owned by Jack Buell, whose family ranch eventually evolved into the city of Buellton, they were entranced with it. The land had been unused since 2001.   “We thought it would be the ideal place to start a restaurant,” Chelsea Rushing said. The Rushings—Chelsea; her […]

Wes Hagen and Noah Rowles, two longtime area winemakers, figured Alisos Canyon had the wherewithal to be the newest designated American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Santa Barbara County. The two men liked the area’s location. They liked the soil. They believed in the workers who tilled the soil and harvested the grapes. So they labored […]

Annie Greene saw what she figured was a culinary need in Santa Maria. So she decided to fill it. “There isn’t much upscale fast food here, and most of what there is is pretty expensive,” she said. So she and friends Michael Xu and Claire Reyes decided to open a new restaurant that features what […]

The words on the window to the left of the Tom’s Burgers entrance, and on the window to the right of it, read, “Lompoc Strong.” Those words signify a commitment the business has made to the Lompoc Valley since opening its doors in 1979. On an unseasonably balmy mid-October day, Jenn Villareal, Tom’s Burgers manager, […]

Talk about a fruitful lifestyle move. Bob Oswaks had been in the television industry in Los Angeles for 30 years when he decided it was time for a career change. “It wasn’t anything all of a sudden. I had been working for Norman Lear for years. He talked to me after I had been working […]

Solvang resident Tom Orem is in seven wine clubs and purchases maybe 300 bottles of wine a year from Santa Barbara County wineries.  “You gotta have something that’s your hobby, and mine’s drinking wine,” Orem said. “I know how many [bottles] I drink a year, because there are 365 days, so that’s easy to figure […]