The Hitchin Post II - Buellton, CA

The spouse and I spent a few days in and around Santa Barbara County, visiting the wine country.  Most people know the area from the movie Sideways and the trials and travails of the two protagonists, Jack and Miles. While our adventures in the area were not so low brow or exciting (Steve did not pour the wine spit bucket on his head during any winery visit), we did do a lot of wine tasting and a lot of eating.  I'll post on some of the wine tasting and recommendations later (haven't had time to download photos yet), but I can pass on my recommendation to eat at The Hitchin Post II if you're ever in that neck of the woods. 

The Hitchin Post was also featured in the movie as the location where Virginia Madsen (Maya) worked as a waitress.  I read some reviews first and overall, people seemed to give it high marks.  I will say that reservations at this place, especially on a Friday or Saturday night, are an absolute must.  We had reservations, which you can make on Open Table, for 7:45 pm.  We showed up about 10 minutes early and we had to wait.  It was so crowded in the bar that the thought of trying to get a drink from it was nothing more than a pipedream.  So, we sat in the outer lobby area for about 10-15 minutes until our table was ready.  We overheard the hostess turning people away that walked in without reservations and telling them it was a 3-hour wait for a table.  I don't think she was lying either as it was packed.

The Hitchin Post decor is pretty sad.  Kind of reminds me of my grandmother's house.  Old, tired and a little bit gummy and funky.  It sports carpet that needs to be replaced, brassy light fixtures from the 1970's and doiley-looking drapes that you can tell were probably white 10 years ago but now have a soft brown patina that only come from smoke, dust and the expelled lung air of California hippie people.  Dirty hippie people.

However, all of the above matters not.  Why?  Because this places turns out some kick-ass food.  I really went in with low expectations as I assumed they were probably living off their movie connection to pull in gullible tourists like me.  I was wrong. Their specialty is steaks grilled on a wood fired Santa Maria style grill.  A Santa Maria grill is native to the area and has a wheel on it that allows the griller to raise or lower the grilling platform to be closer or further away from the flame.  Man, on man, this place makes a damn good steak.

We started with their grilled garlic appetizer.  It was great, despite its seeming simplicity.  It's just a huge clove of garlic that has been cooked until its insides have become sweet and carmelized and is served with a side of toast points that you can spread it onto. We then had house salads, which were surprisingly good thanks to the housemade dressings.  We weren't expecting much from the salads but they were impressive.  Finally, our show stopper steaks arrived.  Steve had the filet mignon and I went with a meatier cut of sirloin.  The most amazing thing about the steak was the wood smoke flavor and smell.  It literally smelled like a camp fire and in a good way.  The meat was incredibly juicy and had an incredible woodsy, smoky flavor that I don't think I have ever had with a steak (maybe I have gotten some of that with BBQ, but not with a straight-up steak).  We both had their house made french fries with the steak and they were some damn fine fries - perfect for dipping in meat juice, which is far superior to ketchup.  Perfect smoky goodness.

Below I'm including a photo of the massive Santa Maria Grill they use. 

If you can get there - go.  I have only one disclaimer and I know this is definitely TMI but I don't care.  Later that evening, I woke up in the middle of the night needing to pee (not unusual).  The weird thing was my urine actually smelled like woodsmoke.  I shit you not.  I had smokey pee. Well, smokey-smelling pee.  I couldn't have sent smoke signals from it or anything.   It must have been from the steak and/or the garlic appetizer.  It was kind of cool but freaky at the same time. 

Victory Over Shrimp & Grits

Okay, it doesn't take much for me to declare victory but I have to say that last weekend, I made shrimp & grits my bitch.  My husband, Big Steve, loves shrimp & grits.  It's one of his favorite dishes but, alas, is almost always disappointing wherever he orders it.  He's tried shrimp & grits at just about every place in Dallas that serves it (Grace, Screen Door, J. Blacks, Dodie's, etc...).  The only place where he had S&G that lived up to his high expectations was at Nola Restaurant in New Orleans.  Nola is one of Emeril's restaurants so we assumed it would be overhyped and mediocre in execution.  Well, we have now been to Nola at least 3x and everytime, the S&G (and all our other dishes) have been phenomenal.

Steve says that the best thing about Nola's S&G is the Spicy Abita Beer BBQ Glaze that is on the shrimp. Well, I finally found the recipe for this dish and made it last week.  It was awesome.  It did take several steps to make  but the end product was worth the time and effort.  To be honest, the glaze itself was so simple to make that it was laughable.  Basically, it's beer, ketchup, crushed red pepper, brown sugar and Abita Amber ale that you cook on the stovetop for about 10 minutes and that's it.  I found the recipe on Food Network.com of all places.  Go figure.

I also made an appetizer of some fried oysters (used Zatarain's fish fry mix) on field greens topped with a horseradish cream sauce.  I hate to toot my own horn (not really) but they pretty much rocked.

Evidence of said victories is below.

Oyster Appetizer

Shrimp & Grits with Abita Beer BBQ Glaze.  Boo.Yah.

New Grill - Searing Feature - Test One

Last weekend my husband decided to test the "searing plate" on our new grill.  For those of you that haven't used one before, it's basically a porcelain plate with a grate over it that replaces one of your grill burners and heats up to an ungodly temperature (circa 1200 degrees).  It's supposed to immediately sear your steak to lock in the juice and flavor.  Our google research indicated that your steak should be placed on it for about 20-30 seconds before the quarter turn for the cross hatch and then flipped for an additional 30 seconds and then finished on the regular grill burner for about 5 minutes.  We had mixed results but it was our first time using it so I think that with more practice, it can work really well.

Here are the finished steaks.  As you can see, one steak got a nice cross hatch on it but the other one, not so much.  You really have to get them both right on the mid-section of the plate, which can be tricky b/c it's 1200 friggin' degrees.  In fact, when you start heating up th searing plate, it begins to glow in an unearthly way.  When you open your grill, you would swear that it's about to unleash the Balrog demon that Gandolph fought in first The Lord of the Rings.  You almost want to stand in front of the grill and strike the ground with your staff while shouting "You shall not pass!"

At any rate, the searing plate is going to take some more work and practice.  Both steaks came out a little underdone. 

Gym Etiquette

About 10 months ago I embarked on a serious "get my fat ass in shape" program at my local gym with the help of a trainer.  After months of torture and self-deprivation, I came out the other side with a much more svelte physique and renewed sense of self confidence.  Unfortunately, the reality soon hit me that this was not a one time thing and that if I want to eat food other than egg whites and plain oatmeal then I would literally have to work out 5 or 6 days a week in order to avoid weight gain.  So, I now spend quite a bit of time at the gym, which has really opened my eyes to a new subculture of freaks, roid heads and narcissitic weirdos.  There are a lot of strange people that work out.  Over the past few months, I have developed some basic etiquette rules for people working out at the gym and if these rules were followed, we could all have a much more pleasant exercise experience.  See below.

• Please don't speak loudly into your cyborg phone headpiece while working out.  It's annoying and just because you tell your lame-ass friend on the other end that "I'm working out, girl!", you really aren't.  If you were really working out, you wouldn't even be able to draw enough breath to have that conversation.  So, shut up, girl.

• Guys this is for you.  I know that sometimes you need to adjust your package and there are discreet ways to do so.  Here is what not to do while walking through the middle of the gym:  (i) Don't pull up the bottom of your T-shirt and put it in your mouth thereby exposing your flaccid, hairy stomach, (ii) don't use one hand to pull your shorts several inches away from your body and (iii) don't plunge your opposite hand into your scrotal region and start rummaging around down there. No one needs to see that. 

• Ladies, please put some fucking clothes on.  First, the vast majority of you (including myself) don't look nearly as good as you think you do.  Yes, you have recently lost 15 lbs, so congratulations and all, but when you started out weighing 195 and you're 5'3, it's kind of like a chip off Mount Rushmore.  A t-shirt is needed.  Second, for those of you who do have the figure for it, please keep in mind that you are wearing a sports bra.  The key word being "bra" which means that it does not qualify as a shirt.  Also, chances are you still have cellulite on the back of your thighs so there's no reason to wear shorts so short that your butt cheeks hang out the bottom.  Try to have some dignity, please.  Plenty of men will be looking at you later as you slide down the pole and grind the floor at your evening job. Your mom must be proud.

• Yes, weights can be heavy but if I can hear you groaning from the complete opposite end of the gym over the sound of the shitty techno music coming through the loudspeakers then either you are trying to lift too much weight or you're trying to draw attention to yourself.  Either way, you're an idiot.  The sound of your groaning is not a mating call so don't expect women to come running down there to watch you lift a 50 lb dumbbell. No one cares.

• Finally, don't talk to me.  If I have my headphones on, that should be the universal sign of "fuck off" to you.  If I don't, you should still assume I have no interest in speaking to you.  If I smile and say "good morning" that is not an opening for you to begin telling me about how awesome you are at flag football and how much you can bench press.  It just means I was in a rare good mood and had a fleeting moment of kindness and love towards my fellow man, which you just ruined.

There, I think that sums it up pretty well.

Wasting Away in Margaritaville

Given that we're now on consecutive Day #31 of temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, our weekend beverage choices seem to be on a steady rotation of frozen margaritas, white wine or light beer (aka, domestic swill).  Now, I know that some people believe frozen margaritas are a bastardization of the real deal and I do agree with that.  To my tastebuds there is nothing better than Rick Bayless' simple margarita recipe of high quality silver tequila mixed with freshly squeezed lime juice, a teaspoon of agave nectar and served on the rocks with a bit of salt on the rim.  However, when it's 104 degrees outside, sometimes you just need more damn ice in your drink.

We recently finished building (or I should say, having a team of sweaty construction workers build for us) an outdoor kitchen. It was just finished last Friday afternoon and it's pretty awesome.  My husband is referring to it as his fully operational entertainment area deathstar.  The new kitchen also gives us extra storage and additional electrical outlets, so I gave my spouse the go-ahead to buy a contraption that he's been eyeing for about 3 months now - the Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Maker.

Here it is in all its Margaritaville trademarked glory. Is there anything that Jimmy Buffet won't put his name on these days? You have to hand it to the guy - he does more marketing and branding than Mel Brook's Yogurt character did in Spaceballs The Movie.  It's impressive.

Despite the cheesiness of it, I have to give this product high marks.  It pretty much bitchslaps regular blenders when it comes to creating a frozen alcoholic beverage.  It works differently from your average blender.  You put the ice in the top and put your tequila and lime juice or mixer in the carafe.  Then, you flip a dial to set how many drinks you want it to make (who are you kidding?  Just set it to the highest number) and it shaves the ice, dumps it into the carafe and then blends it to make the perfect margarita or other frozen concoction.  If you decide you want more ice, you can just turn on the shave feature to dump more perfectly shaven ice into the carafe.  It makes the perfect, fluffy frozen margarita with no hint of unprocessed ice chunks that I get with my normal blender and that get stuck in my straw creating a margarita blockage which pisses me off.  So, this product is getting an A+ from me as far as functionality. I'll deduct a point or two for the corny marketing ploy, though.

We found it for sale at Macy's for $299.  Sur la Table used to carry it but seem to have dropped it now.  At any rate, if you like frozen drinks, it's pretty kick-ass in that department.

Santa Barbara Trip

My husband's Christmas gift this past year was a weekend trip to Santa Barbara over President's Day weekend.  We enjoyed the area and the wine so much that we booked again for this upcoming Labor Day weekend.  This is the location where the movie Sideways was filmed and we stopped into several of the film location wineries and spots.  In February, we stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, which was gorgeous but very expensive (we're talking about $750 a night for a terrace room with a fireplace).  It's also about a 45 minute drive from the wineries, which are around the towns of Los Olivos and Solvang.  Labor Day weekend we will be staying in a rented home in Los Olivos so we'll be closer to the wineries and won't have to worry about the drive back.

Ever since this trip, I have become a huge fan of the pinot noirs, chardonnays and syrahs of the Santa Ynez Valley.  My personal wine tastes lean heavily towards big, jammy pinots.  Cabernets tend to be a bit heavy and oaky for me, though I certainly drink my fair share of them in the winter time.  I typically don't care for California chardonnay as they often seem to be overly oaked and have that rich, buttery flavor that I find off-putting and cloying.  Since I usually drink white wine in the summertime, I prefer whites that are crisp, light and have citrus overtones, which usually leads me to Sauvignon Blancs, Vinho Verdes and Provencal Roses. However, I love a nice glass of a light bodied pinot with a piece of cedar plank grilled salmon or steelhead trout on a summer day.  Unfortunately, the 100+ degree heat for the past 25 days in a row has even made me forego my favorite pinots lately.  The idea of drinking red wine in this heat almost turns my stomach and we can barely keep our house under 80 degrees lately.  It's like living on the face of the sun.

This heat has me pining away for the cool temperatures of the Santa Ynez Valley.  Some of our favorite wineries there were Blackjack Ranch, Bridlewood and Loring Wine Company.  We ran out of time on our last trip to hit all the wineries we wanted so next time we plan to visit Samsara, Foxen and Alma.  Our biggest disappointments were the tasting room of Andrew Murray wines in Los Olivos and Melville.  I've had Melville pinots before and thought it was decent so I was looking forward to stopping by their winery and tasting room.  Beautiful winery - all gussied up to look like a Tuscan villa but, alas, it was more show than anything.  The wines we tasted were incredibly bland to us.  Andrew Murray's wines were vile.  I've had a bottle of his pinot before, too, and found it very ho-hum.  The recent releases they had at the tasting room were awful. They were either flat and insipid or were so strong on the tannins and alcohol that they practically burned going down - like wine mixed with gasoline.  Okay, maybe that's overstating it a bit, but I wasn't a fan.

If you ever make it to Santa Barbara, I highly recommend stopping by the Lompoc Wine Ghetto (location of Samsara, Loring, Flying Goat and Palmina tasting rooms) and Blackjack Ranch.  A drive down the lovely Santa Rosa Road is also a must.  For lunch or dinner, I highly recommend the Los Olivos Cafe.  Bouchon in downtown Santa Barbara was also fantastic.  We'll be checking out The Hitchin' Post II located in Buellton for a steak dinner on our next trip, so I'll be sure to write a report about that one.  It's another film location in Sideways and was the restaurant where Maya (Virginia Madsen) worked.  Links and a few photos from our last trip are below.

http://www.lompocghetto.com/
http://www.blackjackranch.com/
http://www.losolivoscafe.com/
http://www.bouchonsantabarbara.com/homepage.php
http://www.hitchingpost2.com/



Stephen @ Blackjack Ranch



Vineyards @ Blackjack

Tasting the vino @ Blackjack

Vineyards Along the Santa Rosa Road

Perry's Steakhouse - Dallas

Since we had a $150 gift certificate to Perry's Steakhouse in Dallas, my husband and I decided to get some appetizers and a bottle of wine at the bar last Friday.  Perry's is located on McKinney Avenue in Uptown (or Uppity-town, as I like to call it).  The decor was fairly typical steakhouse - very dark, clubby, lots of wood and sleek surfaces.  The bar area is circular with one very large booth right in the middle and a piano near the windows where they have live music on Friday and Saturday evenings.  We picked a small table as far away from the piano player as possible as it was a little loud if you were too close to him.  Overall, I liked the atmosphere in the bar area.

I walked through the restaurant once to use the ladies room, which is quite a haul from the bar.  The piano man music is also piped into the restaurant.  The restaurant itself reminds me of the kind of place Frank Sinatra would have enjoyed having a martini and a steak in after a show but maybe that's because the piano man was singing a lot of Frank that evening.  Of course, on my way back to the bar area, I slipped and completely ate it in front of several people.  One minute I was walking into the bar, listening to the sultry sounds of Frank and feeling pretty good about myself as I was wearing a cute new dress which the waitress had complimented me on and I even noticed a few men look in my direction.  The next minute I was on the floor, flailing about and looking like an idiot.  This is not unusual for me as I am extremely clumsy and I fall or trip on a regular basis (my husband says I am genetically predispositioned to this condition as my mother is a legendary klutz).  At any rate, it was not my finest moment and I landed with a very solid thump on my left thigh.  I have a nice bruise there now. The lesson?  Ladies, be careful in the bar at Perry's if you are wearing heels as the floor is a rather slick parquet.  Also, whenever you start to feel overly confident about yourself, that's when life kicks you in the ass - literally, sometimes.

Anyway, after my not-so-graceful entrance, we ordered.  Service was inconsistent and flighty.  A female server immediately brought us menus and waters and then no one else came by after a good 15 minute wait.  I finally flagged her down again so we could order cocktails and she apologized for the wait as she assumed another gentlemen had already helped us.  He showed up after she took our drink orders and was our waiter for the remainder of the evening.  He seemed like a nice guy and had a certain Fabio-esque quality about him but I'm pretty sure he wasn't the brightest bulb in the room.

My husband had a Manhattan and I ordered a peach martini.  He said the manhattan was very good.  I thought the peach martini was a little too sweet for my taste and I think that was mainly a function of the cinnamon-sugar that heavily rimmed the glass so that every sip resulted in a mouthful of it.  We ordered off the bar menu and requested the calamari, the steak sliders and the crabcake. 

Food was hit or miss.  The calamari was pretty terrible.  It was very heavily breaded and oily.  You literally had to wipe your fingers off if you touched a piece of it becasue of the oil residue.  It was served with tons of spicy italian peppers mixed in, which completely overpowered the taste of the calamari.  I suppose that was fine since the calamari was also overcooked and rubbery.  Each little ringlet was like chewing one of my ponytail holders.  The sliders were pretty good, though.  The steak was well seasoned and tender and the carmelized onions on top gave it a nice sweetness.  The small side of tobacco onions were also quite tasty.  However, the real star of the night was the crabcake.  I do highly recommend that dish.  The crabcake came out looking more like a fried crab ball so we were dubious at first.  Our suspicions immediately dispersed with the first bite - full of sweet, succulent crab, a nice crunch from the outer crust and a savory sauce underneath somewhat reminiscent of a remoulade.  Very little filler but it was flavorful and not dry at all.  It was a well executed crabcake and I consider myself a crabcake snob.

Wine list was decent but typical steakhouse and very heavy on the California cabernets.  We settled on a pinot noir from the Santa Maria Highlands.  We pretty much served ourselves the wine the entire night as our server disappeared for long periods of time.  Overall, it was a mediocre experience and I'm glad we had the gift certificate to cover the expense.  Our total came to $150.55 so we basically only paid for the tip.  I might go back to the bar for appetizers and a cocktail but it will probably be awhile.  Next time, I will wear flats.

Grade for Perrys: B-

English Pub Lunch

I traveled to England for work a few weeks back to visit my company's UK office located in Essex (about 2 hours north of London).   I was fortunate enough to spend the day before my return flight in the lovely town of Windsor, which is located near Heathrow Airport and is the home to Windsor Castle. I spent the afternoon touring the castle, which has been beautifully restored following the fire in the 1990's and then had a few beers and a ploughman's lunch at a pub across the street called The Horse and Groom.  I absolutely love the names of pubs and any name (or sign) that is cute or clever is enough to draw me in for a pint.  English pub food is usually lousy as it almost always is poorly prepared and/or underseasoned.  However, it's pretty hard to fuck up a Ploughman's lunch, which is cheese, bread and some cornichons or greens.  Have it with a pint of ale and you can't go wrong.  The only thing that made me sad was spending the day alone as the hubby was back in Dallas. 

First Post!

My first post.  I have eschewed blogging, along with Facebook, MySpace and all other forms of social media, for several years.  Now, I figure "why the hell not?"  Since my favorite hobbies are eating and drinking, I decided that this blog will be focused on such matters. I live in Dallas, so you can expect that many postings on the food and bar front will be about locations in Dallas.  However, as the hubby and I do love to travel, I will endeavor to include restaurant reviews, descriptions, photos and the like from our travels as well.   I'm inserting a photo of my favorite beach in the whole world, White Bay Beach on Jost Van Dyke.  The photo is here for no real reason other than I'm testing out the "insert photo" feature.

To whomever discovers this blog, I hope you enjoy!