Nardone’s Atascadero closed. Never eaten and always wondered how it survived in that weird location, but then pizza seems to survive in lots of horrible locations. I sure wish I could find a nice cozy place to eat pizza. Decent pizza. Normal pizza. With an inexpensive but serviceable red wine on the list–preferably Italian and…
Resty Gossip 5.6 2023 BEST OF SLO
I fixed it for you. I can’t believe we’ve gone from a curt, fun, one-pager to six separate lists with email addresses SERIOUSLY WHO EMAILS A RESTAURANT??? and the gold-star everyone’s-a-winner mentality intense gerrymandering where two “best restaurants” are literally 20 blocks apart. We’ve always been able to pick out the paid-for spots (Woodstock… Novo……
Resty Gossip 4.16
Had a nice little chat with the new owner of Linnaea’s before popping over to Brasserie SLO for a cocktail and then La Locanda for dinner. Literally a Garden Street afternoon. She mentioned a few menu tweaks and a new direction in coffee-sourcing. The big question will be of course WHEN DO THE REAL DESSERTS…
Top 10 Pizzas
Hey, so I promised a Margherita Pizza round-up, so here goes. These things are all so different. Not all thin crust–some of it quite puffy and thick. Not all of it scorched–not all of it wood-fired. Only, like 4 here are wood-fired. Maybe 5. Some have copious basil–some have just a dusting. FWIW when I…
Resty Gossip 4.2
The battle between blank store-fronts KULT and PARK was *who will open first* contest-fodder for several years on these pages… the endless #stuccogate at Nick The Greek’s provided entertainment for many… Now we’re pitting two seeming endless remodels against each other at opposite ends of town: Lure Fish House in the 5YO building WHICH HAS…
Top 5 Wine Service Peeves
Dear Restaurants: Can you please stop seating me without a wine-list. This is wine-country. THIS IS RIGHT SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWING AND HIGHEST-ACCLAIMED WINE AREAS IN THE WORLD. From where I’m sitting in your restaurant, I could hit 10 wineries with a 5-wood. Hundreds of thousands of dollars…
Resty Gossip 3.19
CENTRAL COAST MEAT MARKET is gone. Noticed on one of my drive-by’s and shocked not one of my eyes & ears out there mentioned it. That leaves 2–that’s TWO, folks–TWO briskets in the county: Jefferey’s and G Bros. Three if you count the abysmal Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ. I had heard the new RIBLINE inside…
Resty Gossip 2.20
Gonna be rough & tumble this week folks. Read between the lines. Kicker’s survives amid the out-pouring of triggered millennial, neighboring business owners and the Karenosphere. Listen: if you didn’t read my column last week, I’m not re-hashing it here. Everything I speculated about the marketing there turned out to be dead-on during my visit….
Resty Gossip 2.12
Did you know there’s three Hawaiian spots here now? One in each town! You will never be more than 20 minutes from kalua pork and katsu chicken and SPAM musubi. Santa Maria (actually Orcutt) has Zoe’s, AG has Tropical, SLO has Nobu. Wait does Lahaina’s have Hawaiian food? I don’t remember seeing any. Does Paso…
Resty Gossip 1.29
I’ve avoided the whole “Clam Chowder” thing the entire 20 years I have lived on the Central Coast. My first exposure to this odd stew was the ridiculous line wrapping around Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach. One look at the demographic queued up told me I NEVER needed to experience this soup. And I love…
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