The winery choices look good. For restaurants, stay far away from the Hitching Post. By far, one of the worst restaurant meals I’ve ever had.
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In Los Olivos go to Nella for pinsa at lunch, and do Toma and Bouchon in Santa Barbara if you can.
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Pinsa 
The Stone House at San Ysidro Ranch. I’m trying to think of a restaurant I like better north of Malibu to Big Sur and I can’t think of one.
Thanks all for the great recommendations. We had a lot of fun. Overall impressions is there is huge variability in the styles , knowledge and approach and dare I say quality. This isnt Napa and Sonoma and thats ok. Its more an area where Wine is prevalent but not the only thing. Recap below - sorry so long.
Saturday
I wanted to see vineyard or two and not just tasting rooms so started at Beckmen. Most of the lineup was un inspiring until we got to the Syrahs. Two really solid single block and single clone wines set the trip off to a really nice start. I would happily buy these at the $75 range. The Sauv blanc was nice as well.
Gainey - was another vineyard and on way to Los Olivos so we stopped in. This reminded me of something like Sattui. Not very personal and the we tasted in some large room with some guy playing guitar and singing. Not a terrible setting but not my style. Would have rather been outside but it was very hot. Wines were oaky and i struggled to find anything we really enjoyed.
Holus Bolus / Joy Fantastic - ahh finally. These were beautiful wines. 2021 TJF Chard was great and single vineyard expression showing no real oak. Then we tasted some Pinots and Rhones. All well made and again the Rhone styles stole the show here. Holus Bolus wines are sourced and TJF are estate. Favorites were the 2021 HB Lyons Vineyard Grenache, 2020 TJF syrah and 2021 HB Presqu’ile syrah. Really a nice visit and we will order from here.
Liquid Farm - they had a party going on so that was fun. Golden Slops Chard and Pinot were BTG and we got one of each along with rose. Chard was oaky and typical Cali that i am not a fan of. Pinot was massive and a style you have to like. Think RRV big cherry. I have had these before and enjoyed from B Day… but this time - it was a miss.
Dinner - Bar La Cote - this was just weird. Started with trying to get a local white and red from them. Their response was that they do not serve local wine. Really odd. They did have one cab franc and we tried it… ehh. Then stuff from other regions like Spain, Uruguay etc. Imagine going to Italy and not able to get Italian wine or France and not get a nice Burg/Bordeaux. OK then - oysters were amazing… and that was the highlight. We got an Oyster that was basically in a pool of pickle juice. It was awful. Then Clams in a chorizo and marinara sauce… that was so much sauce and chorizo you couldn’t even find the clams. It was such a strong sauce… again inedible. We got something else before just getting a side of french fries that were great. We saw at least one other table do same thing. Really disappointing.
Hotel and Bar at Corque we loved. Good wines, liquor choices and dessert. We would stay again.
Sunday - We started early at Brewer Clifton. Now owned by Jackson Family so we knew the focus on hospitality and we were impressed by everything. Galloni was just there the day or two before tasting so they had great stuff opened. Honestly everything we had here was great and this was the highlight winery of the trip. Little higher alcohol but not hugely noticeable. The single vineyard Chards and Pinots stole the show with the Hapgod being our favorite. Great visit, knowledgeable staff. Wife’s favorite visit by far.
Carhart - this is something my work colleague wanted to try so my wife and I met up with him. I appreciate what they are trying to do and nothing was bad. Nothing really stood out here. Lots of Grenache, Mouvedre, etc. Nice but not spectacular visit.
Dragonette - another highlight. Sauv Blanc was best we had all trip. Then the Pinots were rock solid. The 2021 S&B Pinot was excellent. Paired with Brewer Clifton - these were both really nice visits.
Olive Oil tasting - Olive Hill Farms. This was a lot of fun and an incredible value. $5 for a small loaf of bread and 5 olive oils/Vinegars. The truffle was amazing and the blackberry Vinegar was great. Good break from wine and we would definitely go back if in area.
Nella - Ahh our one and only really nice meal here and it was at the bar. Pizza was really really good. And the Tuna better. Given we just had the bread and olive oil - we went small which was a mistake. I want to eat there again.
Monday - back in Santa Barbara
Started at Jaffurs - and had a nice time. SB was nice and the Grenache and syrahs were well made and tasty. Away from the other SB tasting rooms which was nice.
Au Bon Climate - umm what happened here? Wines , i am sorry just have slipped. This was BY FAR the most unpleasant wines we tried. From Chards to Pinots. I not this is not a helpful review but we didn’t get what they were doing here.
Melville - This is more a bar than a tasting room which was most of the SB spots. Given Greg Brewer helped founded this - no surprise we really enjoyed these wines. Very similar to BC. Nice fruit driven wines. The Donnas block syrah was excellent. And the Terraces PN was nice if not a hair big for us. Really a nice tasting room experience in the Funk Zone.
We had about 30-40 minutes so not time for a full tasting so went to Margerum to have a glass before dinner. We knew Margerum from a tasting in Dallas years ago. And this didn’t disappoint. We split a glass of the Uber and the Black Oak 0 which could have been called black pepper as it was really prevalent… in a good way. Really nice underrated Rhone styles. We enjoyed the glass and went to dinner at Oku which was highly recommended by locals.
Oju - food was amazing… service was not. We asked for a spot outside and said they could do that as they book up. Ok. So went upstairs and it was maybe half full. Most those tables were empty and they started sitting walk ons… left a bad taste in our mouth which was a shame because everything we had we enjoyed from Sahimi, to rolls and some dishes. Service acted like we didnt matter. Again - good food - weird service.
Hotel - stayed at Ritz Bacara for final two days and loved it. Views, trails, bars. Pricey but really nice. They just opened a wine bar that has only local wines. I loved the concept and it was fun to try a few different things.
Overall - thanks to the board for the recs. We had a really nice time and we would go back for a few days.
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