Professor T and I visit Cambria several times each year. My parents live in this charming seaside town, just over the Santa Lucia range from Paso Robles and the wine regions. They’re so lucky! On this trip, we were able to mix family with friends. On our way to see my folks, we met some of the weirdcombos tasting crew at the tail end of the Paso Robles Wine Festival.
welcome to Vin Fuzion
We hooked up with the WCs at the Anglim tasting room. Most of the others were “tasted out” after the festival so they offered us their complementary tasting. I liked Anglim’s nice 2007 Viognier, Bien Nacido Vineyard and their 2006 Cerise. Unlike the WC crowd who thought it was just “OK,” au contraire, I found the Cerise to be amazing and refreshing. I wanted to buy some but held back cause I knew there would be lots of opportunities to spend money on wine around here. And I was saving my checkbook for my favorite, Vin Fuzion.
Before we got to Vin Fuzion, which is located off highway 46 between Paso Robles and Cambria, we spent some time walking off our buzz in the heat of downtown Paso. There are numerous quaint little shops to browse through, all wedged between various wine tasting rooms. I checked out exciting trinkets from Asia, tried herbal body lotions (I liked the one with a strong rosemary scent), touched crystals and looked into books of history of the area. There are little coffee shops and European lunch and dinner restaurants. I absolutely had to get to We Olive before they closed because we wanted some of the same good olive oil that we found there last year. This time I got a bottle of the Reserve Blend Olio Nuevo, an extra virgin olive oil (as opposed to what, extra slutty olive oil?) from the Paso area. It’s made of a Spanish style mix of olives. The man who manages the company was there to sign the bottle so it was kind of special getting oil from the maker! I splurged on this, as I bought a small $14 bottle which I would probably never do at home. There I would most likely buy something bigger but not as boutique at Trader Joe’s for like half the price.
french fries and fried calamari
We were all getting hungry and our expert wine taster pals were also staying in Cambria so we carpooled out to the coast. On the way we had to pick up some wine from our personal favorite winery, Vin Fuzion. The stop took a bit longer than planned and out friends were getting grumpy. But Prof. T and I loved chatting with Pam, the owner and winemaker, as we tasted the newest infused wines. They blend various minerals, herbs and rare flavors into more traditional wines like chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. It’s supposed to be good for your health and it tastes magical. My favorite was ISLA VI, a white, and I’m not normally a white wine drinker. It goes excellently with my favorite champagne fish recipe. Someone tasting there once said, “This is how wine tastes when you go to heaven!” Lovely, I’m totally in agreement with that quote.
Back in the car, we debated where to eat dinner. Unlike San Francisco, Cambria doesn’t have a huge variety of choices. We ended up at the Cambria Moonstone Grill which sits right across the street from Moonstone beach. We’d experienced good breakfasts and lunches there and they have a great location. I once took my Mom there for a Mother’s Day brunch and it was delightful with the view of the blue water in the background. At night, though, the place was too dark. None of us could even read the menus well. Also the décor was a bit lacking: sort of leftover diner style. We all critiqued it madly while waiting on the rather slow service. Things picked up some when they brought the drinks. Billy, Hegui and the Professor got some local Paso Robles Firestone beers. I got a glass of white wine cause all the talk about the Paso Wine Festival made me envious.
moonstone grill scampi
We ordered appetizers, salad and main dishes. The best treat were the fries cause they were crispy and salted just right. The calamari appetizer had a little too much batter but really you can’t go wrong with deep fried stuff, can you? For dinner, I ordered shrimp scampi but it was kind of a watery buttery mess with mushrooms which I sort of don’t like but eat anyways sometimes. Prof. T got the pork chop but found it just average. Hegui seemed to enjoy his ahi tuna, though that was the only one that any of us actually liked. Billy got the pasta primavera, which was dreadful! Instead of tomato based, it came with a kind of brown sauce that I commonly associate with Chinese food. Yuck! The company was good but we won’t return there for dinner.
The next day the hubby and I relaxed at the Pelican Cove Inn and had a full breakfast then a soak in the hot tub. We drank some locally made zinfandel that we scored for only $5.99 at the Paso Robles Albertsons. Unfortunately, Prof. T got tired and an acid stomach after drinking a half bottle of the wine. I won’t mention the name or say more because it was such a bad experience for him.
Useful tip 1: The Paso Robles Albertsons is a good place to pick up a few bottles of wine from the region for low cost. It’s best to know what you’re looking for before you shop there.
vegan tofu with Dad
Next we went to my parent’s house in the woods just east of Cambria Village. My Dad made a hearty vegan pizza with a store bought crust from Trader Joes and a blend of shredded soy cheese and veggie ground “meat” and tomatoes from his garden and other unknown organic ingredients. We enjoyed some home grown lettuce from his garden as well. The following day we visited more with Mom and Dad, this time relaxing by the hotel pool. There we enjoyed complimentary chardonnay from Castoro Cellars, a Paso Robles popular favorite.
Useful tip 2: Pelican Cove Inn offers a $50 two entrée and bottle of wine special at their partner hotel and restaurant Cambria Pines Lodge.
That night we took my folks to the Cambria Pines Loge Restaurant. There’s a beautiful English style garden which we explored before we started into the dinner. The Lodge is one of the oldest hotel restaurant establishments in Cambria. It’s nestled in the woods above Cambria village. The food was excellent and we would certainly return. They had a vegan tofu for my Dad who is a “fegan,” a vegan who eats fish! My Mom got eggplant parmesan with angel hair pasta. I had the wild sea bass. Prof T got the steak. It was well done but I had a bite and it tasted really good anyway. Can you believe they offered a “vegan” entrée at Cambria Pines Lodge Restaurant? The wine was also Castoro Cellars, a cabernet sauvignon. It went well with the food and with the company.
ISLA VI from Vin Fuzion
The next day it was time for us to return home. On the way we decided to take full advantage of our free tasting privileges as members of Vin Fuzion so we tried the full range of wines again. We ended up buying one of everything so we’d be fully supplied as these wines are not available in San Francisco yet. We got really hungry on our way. I remembered my Mom mentioned a great little Euro lunch place in Paso Robles called Odyssey World Cafe, on the corner of Pine and Park Streets, so we stopped in. I got a Mediterranean Three Olive Pasta that was the perfect finishing touch to our little getaway. As you can see we ordered more local Firestone beers. This “Union Jack” version was very strong at 7.5% alcohol. The César salad wasn’t half bad either!
Paso Robles and Cambria are so much fun! I am so lucky my parents live there so we can combine three great things when we visit: good food, tasty wine and family. It was even more special that some of our friends from weirdcombos were around. We’ll soon be back to visit the parents, eat again at Cambria Pines Lodge, drink from the Vin Fuzions tap, and lunch at Odyssey.
lunch at Odyssey
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Cambria sounds really charming! I don’t quite understand what Vin Fusion is about though. Do they actually put stuff into the wines other than grape juice? How does it taste? It sounds like you enjoyed your dad’s pizza. I’m not sure about the veggie meat. That scares me more than the real stuff.
Cambria is very nice, and quaint! VinFuzion is a fusion of herbs essense into the wine. They also use crystals to raise the vibration of the wine as well. It is a very interesting combination. They are all kosher and do everything by the FDA so they can only infuse so much herbs and such. It definately tastes a little different than regular wine!