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!