Solvang in detail...food and wine

Wednesday 29-April. After riding Figueroa Mountian Road our culinary odyssey started at Melville Winery, suggested to us by Thomas the Sommelier/Bartender at our hotel restaurant. Nice place (photo above) and great wines. The tasting room host, Alvin, was quite a character. He gave us two great suggestions for visits the next day...Palmina Winery in the "wine ghetto" and the La Purisima Mission in Lompoc. There is an understanding in the wine producing community that allows them to all plug each other's wines. However, the suggestion to visit the mission was mostly a shameless plug for us to go see some of Alvin's other work: besides working at Melville, he has been crafting models of each of the California Missions that are sold in the gift shops for the past 12 years. But that is for a later blog entry.

Back in Solvang we tasted at a couple of popular places. Seeking advice on where to eat later, the tasting room hosts were very helpful in suggesting Root 246, a brand new restaurant attached to a trendy new resort. Already we had received valuable suggestions from people who found out that we were newlyweds, but this experience topped everything so far. While deciding which lounge to hang out in for dinner (there are two separate lounges, one themed "white" for formal and the other "black" for a more relaxed atmosphere) we met Mike from Demetria Winery. He was in the restaurant showcasing their wines so we jumped at the opportunity to enjoy a flight during dinner. Mike snapped a photo of us and invited us to the winery, which seemed totally normal until he mentioned that we'd have to enter a gate code to enter the vineyard. He left us to enjoy our dinner, which was absolutely amazing. 

On our way out the door after dinner, the hostess asked us if we'd like to meet the chef, Bradley Ogden. Thinking he would just pop out and say hi, we were surprised when we were guided into the kitchen. The place was amazing! It was a highly refined assembly line of gourmet goodness, incredibly clean and stocked with the finest local fresh ingredients. We were really blown away by the whole experience, especially when the whole kitchen staff congratulated us as newlyweds.

The Happy Couple

After all the excitement of the big weekend subsided and all of our family and out of town friends returned home, Molly and I packed our bags and headed out for a few days of honeymoon in Santa Barbara wine country, a region made famous by the 2004 movie "Sideways". We arrived at the Hadsten House (highly recommended!) in Solvang and began to inquire about some of the local attractions. A drink and chat with bartender Thomas, a trained sommelier, gave us a place to start our adventure: Trattoria Grappolo (pictured above) and a couple of places to check out over the next few days: Mellville Winery and Figueroa Mountain Road, a notoriously challenging ride that many Pro Cycling Teams train on in the preseason. This first conversation with a friendly local, passionate about his town and industry, set the tone for our whole experience: the more we extended ourselves to the locals and expressed our genuine interest, the suggestions got better and better. Plus, everybody we spoke with was massively impressed with us being just married!

Now being the foodie that I am, I have to say a few words about Trattoria Grappolo. Molly and I enjoyed it so much that we actually went twice during our stay. Just four miles down the road from our hotel in Santa Ynez, the Trattoria offers authentic Italian foods and wines. During the week is definitely the time to go to really take in the environment of the place. The kitchen is open to the dining area which allows diners to see cooks tossing dough in the air and placing bread and pies into the woodfired oven. The food is rich but light and after sharing a pizza crusted brushetta, eating a risotto dish with scampi and snacking on a bunch on Molly's linguine with shrimp and mushroom dish, chocolate tartufa dessert and a doppio espresso, I did not feel the usual heaviness and inevitable food coma that is usually associated with carb loaded Italian food. And this is good because I would have to be alert and energetic for certain activities later that evening, you know, like driving back to the hotel, preparing a nightcap and getting to the spa for a nice relaxing evening soak:)

www.hadstenhouse.com/

www.trattoriagrappolo.com/

Da-Da-Da-Da...We are married!

Molly and Steve were married on April 25th at the French Estate in Orange, CA. Many thanks to family and friends in attendance. It was a ton of fun. Here are some of the pro photos that we have so far...enjoy! M+S. http://danieldunnphotography.com/MollySteve/photos/

Sping is here!

It is that glorious time of year where we spring forward and we get more daylight! Each year with this change, it is time to wake up the sleepy ones from their winter's nap in the garage..

Fookie and Boudi are awake and out for the summer. Here they are chowing on some iceberg and rose petals.

I probably messed up their spelling, but you get the idea.

The Bachelorette..

There were no eliminations with this bachelorette (bad joke for those that don't get it..)


Missy, Carol Ann, Erin and I headed up for a lovely weekend in Santa Barbara. CA, Missy, and I drove up Friday and got the weekend started with a lovely walk and a few happy hours. For those that may not know, Santa Barbara has some awesome happy hours. As we found out, buy one get one free had a whole new meaning :)

After some evening fun, we headed to he train station to scoop up Erin and head back to the hotel for the night.

The next morning Erin went for a bike ride and the 3 of us took off for a lovely walk along the coast. The weather was warm, sunny and beautiful. CA had a lovely strand of pearls for me to wear with everything everywhere we went. A Southern tradition.

After our lovely morning it was time to hit some of the local winery's for some wine tasting. Erin surprised me with a lovely head piece that I proudly wore all day.

We headed out to dinner and then headed back for a relaxing evening at our room. On our way home we were discussing this rumor we heard about Steve's night out. I think it ended up looking a little something like this...

Mike, Steve? does this look about right?

Our Last morning ,we cooked up a nice breakfast and then set off to explore the pier and art walk. It was a wonderful weekend with some great friends. It reminds me that we are all apart of some giant quilt, cut from the same cloth at the heart and blessed to find each other.

Prestocat!

I walked into the living room this afternoon and found Mr. Preston relaxing like this. What a character! Enjoy.