The old A&W in Atascadero is becoming a Chipotle. Which is interesting because it’s kinda the first national fast-casual or *mall food* chain for town. How many Habit Burgers are there? Only other thing I can think of and aren’t they a local chain based in SB or something? Of course SLO has scads of them and Paso several too, but can’t think of any in Atascadero. Boomer-fest Huckleberry’s is open also… I suppose that could be a large chain. I don’t know. I don’t care. Finally got into a couple taco-joints (actually full Mexican restaurants) out on 41 I’d been meaning to. Hadn’t been to Taconazo since the name change… Hadn’t been to Malu’s Kitchen since the name change. Both make basically an identical taco, similar to hundreds if not thousands of al pastor tacos throughout the area. Suitable in a pinch, but far from Top-5 material. The only exception: Malu’s fries their tortillas in reddish-seasoned oil. Also don’t forget the new Guatemalan market AZTEKA, whose tacos DO come very close to Top-5 material.

BUT IF YOU WANT TOP-5 TACOS: Check out the new La Chata in Templeton where the old JJ’s burger or whatever and Rangeland Grassfed was. The old filling station. Again: tortillas fried in seriously stained oil–in this case from the marinade–to near translucence: a double-wrap covering nicely-seasoned meat and a couple home-made sauces TO DIE FOR. With the possible exception of La Reyna, this could very well be NoCo’s best taco. Go get it.

Speaking of Templeton, 15 DEGREES C has closed for modifications by the new owners and Ali has moved to SLO and is really close to opening. Into the old Broad Street Pub and former wine bar I’m blankin out on. By Cole Jeep, in the center where Croma Vera Wine is. Croma Vera is of course moving to the new Duncan Alley along with El Lugar and a BUNCH of stuff. Work continues there, and I would expect to see operational businesses within a month.

NOT opening in a month will be Lure Fish House downtown. Their “August 2023” prediction has passed and walked through the other day and they are a LONG way off. I would say they would be lucky to open this YEAR. Already open is THE HUB up at the old Cadillac dealership in NoMo. I mean… that’s what I *hear*. Haven’t actually witnessed it yet… I’ve walked through twice so far in the past week because all the doors and windows were open and driven by numerous times and have yet to see a SOUL. Cruised by slowly again just yesterday and nothing. I guess they open at 3, and after that it is allegedly “packed”. Both times I visited I was unable to find a menu.

Ragtag Wine Co. downtown closed its doors and is out of the wine biz. Selling off all inventory this weekend for less than 10 bucks a bottle–a CRAZY number of red and white varieties for such a tiny brand. The wines are decent and I hate to say I told ya so but there’s something toxic about winery TR’s in downtown SLO. For some reason they Just. Don’t. Work. Go ahead: list all the TR’s downtown in the past 20 years. Pretty sure Gary Gibson’s ‘Shadow Canyon’ was the longest-running of them all. Pithy Little Wine Co.? I think there’s one more. That’s it. MORRO BAY has 200% more TR’s than SLO!!!! THINK about that! Where’s the nearest vineyard to Morro Bay??? AG has more! Cayucos has more! Atascadero–for many years a complete tasting room DESERT now has 5 or 6 and Templeton has, like, 10! How many are in downtown Paso these days? Look at Los Alamos, Los Olivos and The ‘Vang. But not SLO. Never SLO. WHY IS THAT.

Speaking of wine: The Switch has gone through another morph and now calling itself a wine bar? No sign of Field Day Coffee‘s wine shop opening, but they do have lots of bottles for sale inside. Don’t go there for your beloved Austin Hope Cab though… this list runs WAAAAAAAY the other direction. Also in the esoteric list catagory, BOTTLECRAFT got its liquor license suspended. If you follow my stories on IG, you will remember the upstairs/downstairs alcohol debacle with TODO BUENO. It seems one of the ABC’s requirements is the ability by proprietors to *monitor* alcohol consumption. You can’t do that up the stairs. You can’t do that down the stairs. Also a linked food/beverage license with the beverage portion being active while the food portion was closed. I’m not gonna say who the resty was because I will be accused of beating a dead horse so that ought to be hint enough. BTW: Todo Bueno is really good and so is Bottlecraft’s winelist. So there’s that.

Had brunch at The Carrisa for the first time since Christmas and the menu looks a LOT different and everything went swimmingly. Quail. Pork belly & eggs. Lots of good stuff. Rod & Hammer’s Whiskey Lounge down there is doing amazing Fri & Sat evenings with live jazz and popped into brunch twice now in as many weeks. And yes: THE most-talked-about event fo the year is coming back: Things are gearing up for CHRISTMAS AT THE CARRISA once again. Across the street, the Streetside Alehouse machine rumbles on, with the recent purchase of Mother’s Tavern. I honestly think that’s a really good fit for bringing rejuvenated dining downtown and retiring a tired brand. Or maybe they won’t….

I went to The Swiss! Finally after all these years. Not as good as SHAW’S in terms of pure steak-house quality and service, and I went to each of them at dinner with the *steakhouse* goal in mind. Very good though. Easily on par with Far Western. Shaw’s might be a little better. Time to hit up The Inn. Everyone in SLO reading this like what the hell he talking about well see now there’s a little town south of here called Santa Maria you won’t go to because ewww Santa Maria and it actually has over 100k people now and looks more like Camarillo than anything and also has a LONG, rich storied history, lots of money and a very diverse demo. It has the best tacos. It has the best BBQ Chicken. It has the best steaks. It has the best pho. It has the oldest hotel and a strip club. Santa Maria is a really interesting place. Just don’t go to the mall.

Did you really expect to get all the way through this without a Roger Sharp mention? I’ll make it short: Roger Sharp has done NOTHING to Morro Bay except fill restaurants with staff and guests–THREE of which (possibly 4) would certainly be sitting empty right now otherwise–and the karens on yelp and nextdoor have done NOTHING but bugger him senseless. It all stems from him buying the LONG-for-sale Blue Sky Bistro and giving everyone employed the option of staying or going (most regretably chose the latter) then NOT changing ANYTHING: the name or the vibe or even any of the typos in the menu. THIS IS WHY MORRO BAY HATES ROGER SHARP. Make sense? So Mr. Sharp buys another empty spot, dumps a shit-ton of money into it and opens a seafood palace aimed CLEARLY at the out-of-town demographic. The locals exploded again: It’s too loud. It’s too expensive. My daughter’s uncle’s friend’s sister worked there for 2 weeks and Roger’s an asshole. It’s ugly. It’s cold. The lighting sucks. His clams are weird. He puts The Harbor Tax on his receipt. A neighborhood “foodie” wrote a scathing “review” admiting in the first paragraph he had heretofore not dined there yet. They literally just will not STFU. Roger’s a candid guy, and in one of his rambling instagram stories was asked what he was going to change to make the locals happy, to which he replied “Fuck the locals”. I think it’s important to point out I covered this 3 weeks ago and the clearly anti-hospitality-industry SLO Tribune just got wind of it Thursday and have been poking and prodding and re-posting to get ALL the ire and puss they possibly can out of this MASSIVE P.R. FAUX PAS WHICH WILL SURELY RUIN ROGER SHARP. The little girls writing the trib can ONLY function in cancel-culture. Meanwhile, the tourists pack his restaurant and the big bad out-of-towner Roger takes his money back to Tulare WHERE EVERYBODY IN MORRO BAY IS FROM ALSO. One of the most transparent, shallow and hypocritical smear campaigns ever churned up. And don’t expect a Friends & Family Local’s Discount to pop up on the menu anytime soon. Let’s make a list, shall we? This will be fun! Let’s make a list of ALL THE HORRIBLE CRIMES Roger Sharp has committed against humanity in his life. I’ll even start you off:
1. Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ is a really bad restaurant.
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Now go find something better to do with your life.