Going to Lake Tahoe and Paso Robles next month

Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum
1

Wife and I are going in May. We already have a hotel set for Tahoe, but would like a few recco’s for Paso.

Also, good places to eat in Tahoe and Paso would help.

Gracias in advance.

2

It has been four plus years, but we stayed in a small B&B in the Paso area (right near Linne Calodo). It was http://www.thecreeksidebb.com/

3

Our favorite Paso lodging is the Adelaide Inn. It is a family run place, with some nice rooms in the newer section recently built. They also have a nice pool and jacuzzi. Best value we have found for the price. Word of advice, the 3rd weekend in May is the Paso Robles Wine Festival and I am sure there will be no rooms available that weekend. Have a great time while you are there. [cheers.gif]

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4

This is the first place we look to book a room every time we go to Paso. Clean accomodations. Low prices. And usually some great company sittin around drinking nice drinks in the jacuzzi at night.

Bring a notepad to OCP4W, and I’ll be liberal with my recs. on Paso. If asked, I could post it all here, but it’s likely to be a long post, as it’s hard to shut me up about Paso once you get me going. We’ll see, it may very well turn-out that I can’t keep my mouth shut and end-up posting here anyways.

5

Thanks guys for the heads up. We will look into them. Has anyone heard of The Carlton Hotel in Atascadero? It’s about 10 miles south of Paso. They seem to have great rates and it looks gorgeous.

Brian, it would probably be better to post it here as we want to book it this week so as not to wait to long. We are going on May 28th for a couple days after we are in Tahoe for about a week.

What about wineries?

I have Denner and Booker as ‘must-go’ right now. Where else would you reccomend? Keep in mind, we are only going tasting on ONE of the days. Don’t want to drag my boy around for 2 days going tasting.

Also, any recs on where to eat in Paso or Tahoe?

Thanks everyone.

6

In Paso
Villa Creek Yes

Bistro Laurent Yes

Gaetano’s no - others will tell you it’s great, but our meal sucked big time.

If you can get over to the coast check out Hoppes in Cayucos

7

We were in Paso two months ago. Stayed at the Paso Inn because it’s not expensive and within walking distance of the restaurants.

We really liked Artisan. The food could hold its own in Healdsburg. The wine list was excellent. We had a bean soup; yellowtail crudo with blood orange, mint, rock shrimp and vinagrette; black truffle agnolotti, and wild board chops. Great ingredients.

Also good, but less creative, was Buono Tavolo.

Our surprise winery was Halter Ranch. We don’t normally like Paso Bordeaux, but their 2004 Estate Reserve Ancestor blend, although needing another year of two before we drink it, was fruity and showed lots of promise.

Another fun winery is Zin Alley. It’s open whenever, but Frank Nerelli, from an old wine family that sold the farm to Turley, is entertaining if you find him in.

8

Carlton is suffering. It’s ok I guess… but you’re in downtown Atrashcadero (as the locals call it). And you’re pretty far from the so-called-action in Paso. There are a few new hotels that opened up at the 101 and 46 interchange that seem decent (all chain hotels - Hampton Inn, etc.) that would all be pretty centralized to where you’d go tasting.

Linne Calodo as another winery rec’d.

Artisan has the best food in Paso, hands down. If you want to take a little drive out to Santa Margarita there is an amazing restaurant there called The Range. Or even McPhee’s in Templeton.

9

Where are you staying in Tahoe? We are just leaving there now.

Cheers,

10

We’re staying in South Lake Tahoe. Don’t really know the specifics, my wife took care of the hotel there, I’m taking care of Paso.

11

I just checked the Adelaide Inn and they only have one room available in the smoking section of the hotel and no rooms in the non-smoking, so that’s out. Shoot.

12

Food:
McPhee’s, Artisan, Villa Creek, Bistro Laurent

13

+1 on The Range…IMHO, a top three restaurant in SLO county. Great food and a very reasonably priced wine list that offers some great local wines. No reservations and cash only, so be prepared…McPhee’s is really great also, but the decor is “lacking”. If you don’t mind that, it is great BBQ and has a forgiving corkage policy (bring one, buy one, with surprisingly good house wines)…the Carlton is suffering, but fairly nice…if you end up there, be prepared to only drink Martin & Weyrick wine in their bar, as they share an owner…like Brian, I could go on for days about Paso wineries, but you shouldn’t be in bad hands with Booker and Denner…I would add Villa Creek to the list and also give a +1 to the Halter Ranch reco (right down the road from Tablas Creek).

14

I will attempt to make this as short as possible (we can talk in detail in a couple weeks):

Where to stay:

  1. Adelaide Inn (too bad they’re already sold out)
  2. Hampton Inn (right near 46W and 101 FWY)

Where to eat:

  1. Artisan – incredible food, very nice wine list, although it is all Paso wines. After a day of tasting Paso wines, Ash and I usually take advantage of their $15 corkage to drink a non-Paso wine with dinner
  2. Villa Creek – also awesome food, but not as fancy as Artisan
  3. Bistro Laurent – fancier than Villa Creek, but not as good as Artisan
  4. McPhee’s (in Templeton) … very good food, maybe better than Villa Creek and Bistro Laurent, but you will have to drive to Templeton.

Where to taste:

  1. Denner
  2. Tablas Creek
  3. Dover Canyon
  4. Villa Creek (appointment required)
  5. Pasolivo … this place isn’t a winery, but rather a producer of incredibly fine olive oil. It’s a great way to give your palate a break from tasting a bunch of wine, and in the process you’ll taste the best olive oil I’ve ever had)
  6. Epoch – I haven’t tasted their wines yet, in fact I only found out about them a couple weeks ago … their first vintage will be released in 2010. If you go to their website, you can set-up a tasting at the Denner facility, where they make their wine. Check out their website and decide for yourself.
  7. Terry Hoage – appointment required. very good rhone-style blends. a bit expensive, but not as expensive as Booker or Linne Calodo … and the wines are better.

FWIW, I find the wines of Booker and Linne Calodo way overblown and completely lacking in complexity. If big, heady wines are your bag, then I’d recommend those two places, but do be warned they are expensive (especially for Paso … we’re talking $50 - $90 per bottle, and the staff at Linne Calodo have a bad habit of behaving like they’re irritated that you’re there … same goes for Turley, but at least some of their wines are reasonably priced, and some of them are actually good).

15

Awww I’m sad to see this. Matt (winemaker and owner of Linne Calodo) and his wife are such awesome, earthy people. They just renovated the entire place - with no investors. All on what Matt and his family have built from the ground up. Maybe it was just a bad vibe that one day? I’d give them another chance, for sure. I get it that not all massive wines aren’t for everyone. But every now and then, it’s fun to play in the devil’s sandbox. Plus, they have an amazing Harvest Party at the end of summer that is a complete blast.

But I totally agree about Turley. Plus, I get annoyed in their tiny little tasting room and all the noobs talking in there about the wines. I want to strangle the valley trash that they get in there.

16

Just got back from South Lake Tahoe last night. Total wasteland for food. I really wish I could throw you a bone but there really is nothing in the way of great food anywhere. The weather was awesome though.

[highfive.gif]

17

Every time we go to Paso. we stay at the B&B “Wine Makers Porch” at the Frances James Vineyard. It is east of 101 in vineyard country. Marlowe & Corinne make you feel like part of the family. The breakfasts are delicious. Riley the dog loves people, even children. They have about 20 acres of vineyard and make their own reds, which are quite good. They can also arrange private tastings at wineries not open to the public. They also will recommend the best restaurants, that’s how we found The Range in Atascadero.

I second Zin Alley for a unique experience and an insightful conversation about Paso with Frank Nerelli. Try their Zin Port. One a lot of people don’t know about is Hansen Vineyards run by Bruce Hansen. But watch out, if Bruce is in the tasting room you might end up spending several hours doing barrel tasting (barrel storage is attached to the tasting room) and having a very informative conversation with Bruce and other locals ITB.

At McPhees in Templeton, if you bring in a local wine there is no corkage.

18

Kara,
I was at Linne only a few weeks ago … third time I’ve been there … and every time the staff has had their noses up in the air. I’m not exactly a rabble-rouser, and, from what I’ve observed, I am one of very few tasters (in Paso) who actually goes around spitting my pours, so it’s not like I’m out there trying to get drunk. When I went a few weeks ago, Linne was my first stop, so I wasn’t one of those people who show up with purple teeth, purple lips, and a blown palate. Every time I’ve gone to Linne the staff treated me like I was a bother to them. Furthermore, charging $10 for a tasting where I’m receiving maybe an oz. a pour is disappointing. And then the wines are expensive ($50-$90), and then, on top of that, they’re just not my style — big huge heady alcohol bombs. I can certainly understand how some people would love their wines, but their pricing and the horrible attitude of their staff preclude me from recommending them to anybody. I’ve read similar remarks from other tasters, so I would hope Matt would fire his current staff and hire new people. Matt has admirably fielded similar complaints on the other board, but it has become apparent to me that whatever he did to remedy the situation was a big fail. He may be a nice guy (I’ve never met him personally), but he obviously has a lot to learn about running a business.

19

If money is no concern there’s always the Hotel Cheval downtown, French Chateau look, horse drawn buggy rides. Being a resident I agree with the restaurant choices in no special order The Range (wonderful pizzette) Artisan (get the sandabs if they got’em, nice corkage policy), McPhees (menu needs to be changed, serving Au Bon Climat wines w/a nice Pinot Gris), Bistro Laurent, Thai Basil (damn good curry), Loading Chute (best wood grilled Rib-eye and BYOB policy). For wine I’d also taste at L’Adventure, Stephen is doing some great things there, Victor Hugo for outstanding Petite Syrah, Dover Canyon for the Dusi Bros. Zin, Caparone, small but a nice Italian varietal producer. Enjoy

20

I used to like Gaetano. Unfortunately, it is no more. I think Gaetano kind of…um…forgot to pay his taxes. Oops.

I second what Brian has said about the Linne Calodo tasting room. I have had the same kind of experience several times myself. Ditto Turley.
If you want a winery tour, just give me a buzz.