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 canyon near Lompoc.
An hour later we were in Santa Barbara, checking into the adorable White Rabbit Suite at the Cheshire Cat Inn, an impeccably run Victorian bed and breakfast about a block off State Street.
We arrived just in time to enjoy an evening wine reception with appetizers, which we savored while sitting at a bistro table in the inn’s park-like garden.
Afterwards, we took a several-block stroll in search of the new Santa Barbara Public Market I had heard so much about. More than a dozen high-quality purveyors share the marketplace’s modern space, where you can purchase practically everything from flavored olive oil to ceviche; find bowls of authentic Thai noodles and fresh pasta; or satisfy a sweet tooth with some cupcakes. Take a virtual tour of marketplace delights at SBPublicMarket.com.
We walked down State, hung a left at La Arcada Marketplace, and nabbed a lounge table upstairs at the popular Cielito Restaurant.
Following a round of margaritas, we shared two flavorful plates: the layered Quesadilla de Ciudad de Mexico with baby kale, asparagus, and cheeses and the spicy Enchiladas de Jaiba y Camaron with Dungeness crab and Mexican white shrimp. Cielito’s website is CielitoRestaurant.com.
The next morning, we went downstairs at the inn and were delighted by the assortment of breakfast food, including homemade scones with lemon curd, cinnamon-dusted poached pears, and delicious deep-dish walnut French toast. Christine Dunstan, owner and creator of the Cheshire Cat, said the French toast is an inn specialty.
“Two pieces of bread are sandwiched together with cream cheese and marmalade and placed on a layer of walnuts that have been cooked up in a sauce of brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Then we pour over a mixture of eggs and whipping cream,” Dunstan said. “Of course, it tastes so good because it is rich and full of great ingredients.”
See what else the inn offers at CheshireCat.com.
Good thing our next stop burned off some calories; it was an excellent hour-and-a-half long, docent-led walking tour of the phenomenal Lotusland.
That place is to gardens what Hearst Castle is to ranch homes.
The spectacular 37-acre estate in the foothills of Montecito has one of the world’s greatest collections of rare cycads, a romantic water garden where the estate’s namesake lotus flowers bloom each summer, 500 towering cacti representing 300 different species, and a topiary animal “zoo.”
For information on tours and Lotusland’s auction and rare plant sale on Sept. 20, go to Lotusland.org.
Next, Mom wanted to see the sea, so we headed for the harbor.
We landed a patio table at The Endless Summer Café, where people watching on a Saturday is worth the price of lunch; we ate the enormous Crab Louie Salad and grilled Halibut tacos. Check out the menu at ChucksWaterfrontGrill.com.
From our perch, we watched families boarding a cute yellow boat called Lil’ Toot, a water taxi that chugs between the harbor and Stearns Wharf every half hour. Find a schedule at SBWaterTaxi.com.
Our next stop was just a couple of blocks from the wharf—wine tasting in the Funk Zone. (Read this column next week for that adventure).
After shopping on the lively State Street, we ducked into the Santa Barbara Museum of Art for some serenity and got up close to paintings by some of the greats: Renoir, Degas, Monet, and Chagall. View the greats virtually at SBMuseArt.org.
We had time for a pre-dinner drink, and while wandering into the historic San Marcos Courtyard, we discovered the new Armada Wine & Beer Merchant, a chic yet friendly bar serving drinks from around the world and Santa Barbara County. Sitting there, we felt young and hip sipping a glass of Torrontés from Argentina. Armada’s website is ArmadaSantaBarbara.com.
Mom’s birthday dinner was spent at the lovely Bouchon. We paired Ampelos pinot noir with the restaurant’s California wine country cuisine.
We started with the refreshing market salad: mixed greens, lemon-scented burrata, Marcona almonds, local figs, topped with fig vinaigrette. Mom ordered the mustard-glazed white sea bass, while I had Bouchon’s divine duck—maple-glazed duck breast and confit of thigh with succotash of sweet corn, fava beans, applewood-smoked bacon, Windrose Farm butternut squash, and port-thyme demi-glace.
We shared dessert after Mom blew out the birthday candle on our warm molten lava cake.
Bouchon shows off its wine country cuisine at BouchonSantaBarbara.com
The rest of our evening was spent back at the inn, watching the supermoon rise from our private balcony and reminiscing about our perfect day.
Waking up the next morning, we knew another homemade breakfast awaited us downstairs; this time, it was a Mexican frittata.
Sunday in Santa Barbara would not be complete without strolling down Cabrillo checking out all the local paintings, whirligigs, and jewelry at the Sunday arts and crafts show.
Afterward, we grabbed a sandwich and salad at Panino in Montecito and splashed in the surf at beautiful Butterfly Beach across from The Biltmore in Montecito.
While leaving our footprints in the sand, we talked about how much activity we packed into 48 hours, but also all the things we couldn’t fit in during our short visit to Santa Barbara—so we started making plans to return.
Sun wine and food columnist Wendy Thies Sell can be contacted at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 4-11, 2014.
