When a movie is filmed at a specific location, it sometimes can create a lot of hype.
Take for example the movie “Sideways.” It was released in 2004, and Los Olivos Wine Merchant &Café and The Hitching Post II in Buelton, in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County in California, still are popular restaurants because of it.
“Sideways” won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay and was nominated for four other awards, including best picture. It is about an unsuccessful writer, wine enthusiast, divorced, middle-age Miles Raymond and his best friend and former college roommate, Jack Cole, who is happy with cheap merlot, on a weeklong adventure to the Santa Barbara County wine country before Jack’s wedding. Part of the adventure includes going to the Hitching Post II, Miles’ favorite restaurant, and meeting Maya, a waitress there, and Stephanie, who is acquainted with Maya and is a pourer at the restaurant. The wine wall at Los Olivos is the backdrop for one of the scenes in the movie.
In 2000, Los Olivos Wine Merchant &Café expanded its wine section and created a wine wall of more than 500 wines from the many terroirs of California’s Central Coast. The owners liked the smalltown atmosphere and charm of Los Olivos. It certainly is a quaint town, as when I tried to put the address into our GPS the town of Los Olivos was not recognized, but had the restaurant in Lompoc instead.
All dressing, sauces, pastas, ice cream and desserts are made in-house, and the ingredients are local, wild and organic.
The outside seating has a trellis covered with wisteria; inside there is a U-shaped bar that seats more than 24 people.
Lunch was excellent, with nine salad selections and six different pizzas, a natural beef burger, a turkey burger, house-roasted turkey, or a portobello burger. Jack Stevenson ordered his favorite, house-made ravioli with mushroom and ricotta with porcini cream. There also is a Reuben sandwich, parmesan gnocchi, orecchiette, Skuna Bay salmon, Mary’s natural chicken or steak and fries, under the supervision of chef Chris Joslyn.
For dinner, Los Olivos has a Sideways Dinner Menu for $35 per person, plus tax and gratuity. You get a choice of a glass of Los Olivos Café house chardonnay or pinot noir, soup or seasonal salad, cafe salmon, cafe pot roast or house-made ravioli. And don’t forget the chocolate scream (homemade flourless chocolate cake, homemade ice cream and a caramel sauce). There also is a note that salmon was served in the movie.
I had the Skuna Bay salmon salad, which was wonderful. Jane Stevenson had the curried chicken salad and Lorna Larsen Jeyte had the nicoise salad. Jim had the Skuna Bay salmon burger. We were joined by Lorna’s classmate at Punahou School, who she had not seen in 60 years, Margy Dunkley Houtz. She and her husband, Dick, sold their winery, Houtz Winery, which became Beckmen Vineyards.
The Hitching Post II in Buelton is known for its barbecue. It is the second restaurant, as the first Hitching Post is in Casmalia, which was opened in 1952 by Frank and Natalie Ostini, who brought “Santa Maria-style barbecue” to perfection. Today, children Bill, Bob, Terri and Annette continue the tradition. The Los Angeles Times named the restaurant’s french fries the best in Southern California.
The entrees include a fresh vegetable tray already on the table when you are seated, garlic bread, choice of rice pilaf, baked potato or their famous french fries; choice of organic mixed green salad or soup de jour; or shrimp cocktail (add $1) or neither (less $1).
Their Midwestern corned beef is sourced from small packers in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas and is aged to their specifications. It is grilled over an oakwood fire as they have done for 50 years, and seasoned with “magic dust,” their special blend of salt and spices.
How do you want your steak?
• Rare is very red inside, warm in the middle.
• Medium-rare is still red inside when the juices start to flow.
• Medium has pink edges and red in the middle, still juicy.
• Medium-well has just a touch of pink in the middle.
• Well-done is cooked through, with little or no pink inside. We recommend the “butterfly” cut so the steaks are thinner.
For those with huge appetites, the Angus rib chop, a bone-in rib steak cut off the roast and cooked slow over the oakwood, is like no prime rib you’ve ever eaten.
It is tasty and big enough to share, weighing in at 24 to 26 ounces and is $49.95.
For those who do not eat beef, the fresh Shelton chicken breast, 10 ounces of natural and high-quality chicken from the California desert, is oak grilled and still juicy.
Small bites
Here are some interesting wine facts:
• A 750 ml bottle of wine is 25.6 ounces and made from 2.4 pounds of grapes and is enough for four or possibly five glasses of wine.
• One standard barrel of wine holds 295 bottles, or 59 gallons, made from 740 pounds of grapes and is 24 cases of wine.
• A case of wine, or 12 bottles or 24 half-bottles, is 307.2 ounces, which comes from 30 pounds of grapes.
• An acre of vineyard land can give the grower 5 tons of grapes, which is 797 gallons of juice, or 13.5 barrels, or close to 4,000 bottles of wine.
Email me at audreywilson808@gmail.com if you have questions.
