Old Town Orcutt is changing.
It’s sometimes hard to pin down exactly what the boutique area is changing into, but the signs of transformation somehow always linger around every corner. Sometimes it’s a new sign on a building; sometimes it’s a revamped menu or name change. In whatever form it takes, it tells the same story, one of a community looking to capitalize on changing tastes and evolving demographics.
One of the latest changes to take shape on South Broadway is the arrival of Vino et Amicis, a new wine bar open next to Naughty Oak Brewing Company. The space formerly housed Doc Burnstein’s, a kid-friendly ice cream parlor with three locations on the Central Coast. Doc Burnstein’s moved to Enos Ranch, settled in alongside Blaze Pizza, Old Navy, and Petco on Betteravia Road. While the treats Vino et Amicis owners Kurt and Dawn Hixenbaugh offer inside may not be very child-friendly (sorry, youngsters!), they certainly appeal to grownups with a wide range of tastes.
I spoke to Kurt a few days after I made my first visit to the venue, dragging my sister along with me to impress her with my almost non-existent knowledge of wine. He told me the wine bar was a goal of theirs for a long time.
“We would go to wine tastings and find that so many places shut their door at 5 o’clock,” he said. “We wanted a place where it would stay open later, so you could kick back, relax, and just hang out.”
The Hixenbaughs definitely nailed the vibe. Inside the decor is industrial-loft inspired (all thanks to the decorating skills of Dawn and the couple’s daughter, Natalie Martinez). The bar was built in sections; the Hixenbaughs, with help from other family members, created four separate pieces and stored them in their garage until it was ready to install.
So far, Kurt is pleased with how his vision turned out.
“I look at it and think, ‘We built this with our own hands,'” he said. “It’s pretty amazing.”
The venue offers more than 80 different wines from 18 local vineyards. And when they say “local,” they mean hyperlocal. The wines on the menu come from the Central Coast exclusively, but don’t go looking for the marquis brands with prime spots on California grocery shelves at Vino et Amicis. They stock boutique wines that don’t have a lot of exposure just yet.
Kurt also highlights winemakers who work at larger wineries such as Riverbench, but produce their own small brands on the side.
“We have a lot of those in here,” Kurt said. “Some are so small they don’t have their own tasting room. That was really our vision.”
One of the things that I really enjoyed was the way Vino et Amici does their tastings. Most tasting rooms offer a set list of wines, selected to allow the visitor to experience a progression or highlight special varietals the winery wants to promote. Kurt took a different approach.
“We had a lot of people asking for a tasting but we weren’t really sure how to do it with so many wines,” he said. “So we thought, why not just let them pick their own? That’s been really popular.”
Patrons can write five wines on a list they want to try (for $15). It’s interesting to see how the experience presents a picture of the kind of wines you like. I gravitated toward crisp whites while my fiance tended to pick more robust reds, and my sister just pointed to the ones that looked unique or had pretty names.
That day I sampled a 2017 Toccata pinot grigio, a 2015 Martian Ranch Stellar Viognier, a 2016 Aurora White Luna Hart blend (made with 40 percent sauvignon blanc, 20 percent roussanne, 20 percent viognier, 20 percent semillon), and a few others. I love a good pinot greeg (as we call it in my home), and Toccata’s has a crisp and subtle fruit and floral essence to it, highlighted with notes of lemon peel, lily flower, jasmine tea, and pear.
The winemaker calls the Aurora White the “white wine for red wine drinkers,” and it certainly lives up to the promise. It has a mild acidity and a lot of smooth aromatic notes. It’s a complex wine that pairs well with a lot of different foods or as a stand alone split with friends.
As for how the venue fits into the changing landscape of Old Town Orcutt, Kurt (who is a member of the Old Orcutt Merchants Association) is excited to watch the evolution.
“We’re really into what’s happening in Old Town Orcutt,” Kurt said. “We want to encourage that growth and improvement here without losing the old town feel. … We don’t plan on making millions here. We just love it.”
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose has officially run out of wine puns. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
• All my friends are going wild for California Folk School in Los Alamos. They offer classes on everything from raising chickens in your backyard to making your own soap to canning fruits and vegetables. The prices for their workshops are pretty reasonable, too. Check out their classes here: cal-folk.com.
• I just devoured two cupcakes from Orcutt Bakery (pictured), so before my blood sugar skyrockets and I begin to babble incoherently about whatever space alien monsters I’m about to hallucinate in the fog of this sugar rush, let me sing their praises. The cookies-and-cream cupcake is sweet without losing the richness of the chocolate cookie crunch. A single is $2.75 and a four-pack is $10 at 4869 S. Bradley Road, suite 112, Orcutt.
• We are all kinds of addicted to Coffee a la Cart right now. Monday through Fridays, the coffee cart can be found from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. in the Zodiac parking lot at 2641 Airpark Drive, Santa Maria.
• Bob’s Well Bread has become one of the first (that I know of) local restaurants to reject plastic straws. A recent Instagram stated the venue had switched to 100 percent compostable and marine degradable paper straws. This is great news and hopefully more places will follow suit. If you’re with a local restaurant or bar that has also eliminated plastic straws, let me know and I’ll gladly give you a shout-out as well. Bob’s Well Bread is located at 550 Bell St., Los Alamos.
• Babe Farms now has baby green zucchinis with the blossom attached available at local vendors. It’s a popular seasonal vegetable that can only be harvested during a narrow window in the summer season. The blossom can be stuffed with cheese or prepared in a variety of ways. It’s a delicate, sweet, and versatile flavor overall. Find out more at babefarms.com.
This article appears in Jun 21-28, 2018.