Dear Subscribers,
This is a departure from my usual Purely Political and/or Notes From Abroad columns, but the following appears in the summer edition of Montecito Journal’s glossy edition and its out now. You can access it online at montecitojournal.net or pick up a copy in Santa Barbara or Montecito at any number of outdoor racks. I hope you enjoy it.
Montecito has the peaceful (most of the time) Pacific Ocean and the soft (most of the time) feminine mountains and a near-perfect year-round climate (almost all the time, but you know what they say about rain in California), so perhaps you don’t feel you need to go on a Weekend Getaway anytime soon.
Think again.
There’s Ojai and the Ojai Valley Inn, for example. If you haven’t been there, go for a weekend. Just go. Especially if you play golf, as its course is a real treasure.
The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach, of course (great golf there too).
And there is Hotel Cerro in the college town of San Luis Obispo.
It’s time you added Pismo Beach to that short list of Weekend Getaway locations.
Vespera Resort at Pismo Beach is a five-star destination that sits directly on the sand in front of the Pacific Ocean with many rooms boasting expansive ocean views. The rooms are spacious, ceilings are high, beds are comfortable (two queen-sized in many, others with king-sized beds fit for, well, royalty). The exercise room is well-equipped, outdoor swimming pool is heated, the full bar plentiful, and you are allowed two pets (less than 50 pounds each) per room. There is also an electric-car charging station.
And, the nice thing about Pismo Beach is that it is just a two-hour drive (about 75 miles by air if you are a crow or a cormorant, and just a little over 98 miles directly up Highway 101. But, as with, say, Ojai, you really are in different territory.
This is a true California beach town, one of the few (if there even are any others) that have retained the quirky charm of 1960s surfing days and ways. The magnificent broad west-facing beach is among the largest and most attractive on the Central Coast; the surf is continuous: sometimes small and approachable, other times large and challenging.
It is always beautiful.
The pet-friendly comfortably elegant yet beachy Vespera is just paces away from the Pismo Beach Pier, and it couldn’t be more comfortable or convenient. One can walk along the elevated boardwalk directly in front of Vespera to a string of other hotels and restaurants in either direction and, of course, hop down to the inviting surf directly from your hotel room. You are also just steps away from the bars, ice cream parlors, and shops that give this beach town its funky panache.
The Pismo Beach Pier, by the way, shares the kind of history that anyone or anything that’s existed along the California coast for any period of time would be familiar with: the famously indiscriminate ocean has taken it out of commission a number of times. The original wharf that the town used as its gateway to commerce (there was no highway) was built in 1881 and lasted until a 1905 storm did it in, along with the Café Royal dance hall and half a dozen other structures. Other piers were built and lost and rebuilt over the years. The storms of 1983 with 20-to-30-foot waves severely damaged the pier, which was partly rebuilt again in 1985. In 2017, the city council agreed to renovate and strengthen the structure and the latest incarnation of the now 1300-foot-long Pismo Beach Pier, anchored with steel pilings (replacing the wooden pilings), was inaugurated in October 2018.
It is a handsome structure.
A friend of mine, Bev Aho, the late Archie McLaren’s life partner, is a runner. She lives in nearby Avila Beach but often finds herself at Pismo. “I can run along the beach forever; it goes on for miles and miles,” she gloats, adding that “It makes me realize how special it is to live here on the coastline. Pismo offers a gateway to the outdoors,” she notes. “We have the coast, undeveloped nature behind us; nature unfolds around you.” Bev suggests getting a foot massage and then taking a barefoot walk on the beach.
Pismo Beach is in the heart of California’s Central Coast Wine district. A short drive will take you to Alapay Cellars, the Avila Wine & Roasting Co, Peloton Cellars, PierFront Wine and Brew, Sinor-LaVallee, Silver Horse Winery, and Kelsey See Canyon Vineyards in Avila Beach. In Pismo Beach are Tastes of the Valleys, Sans Liege Wines and Puffer’s of Pismo. There are plenty of Edna Valley and Arroyo Grande wineries less than a dozen miles away.
As for diversions within walking distance from Vespera Resort, they include the various small beach shacks that sell home-made items such as hats, shoes, soaps, candles, art, salt-water taffy, and all manner of artisanal stuff. I’d call the style sophisticated hippie.
You have Poncho’s Surf Shop, the Pismo Brewing Company, the 805 Bar, Fish and Chips, Cool Cat Café, Pedal Up Bikes and Boards, Hoagie’s, Peets Coffee, Not L.A, Not the Bay, various tattoo parlors and, my favorite, Splash Café, which usually has a line out the door. The nice thing about all these outlets is that they are not trying to present themselves as hip, fashion forward, or modern in any way. If you had fallen asleep in 1973 and just woke up and wandered into town without looking at a calendar, you wouldn’t know it was fifty years later. And you probably wouldn’t care.
At Vespera Resort, we ate breakfast and dinner in the Somerset Grill, though the restaurant is due for a complete makeover. On Tuesday, July 28, the restaurant becomes Pequin, named after a favorite chili from Executive Chef Frank Barajas’s childhood; He’s calling it a Coastal Cocina.Chef Barajas’s culinary goal is to offer tasty, even whimsical, dishes featuring coastal Mexican tastes and flavors. Offerings will include different types of ceviches, including vegetarian. Seafood Pozole Verde (with clam, halibut and shrimp), seasonal salsas, Veggie Taco of the Month, Pollo Asado, and other tempting dishes will be on the new menu. Design will reflect Chef Barajas’s Mexican roots with rich colors, textures, a driftwood bar top, Zapotec rugs and Baja inspired paintings and photos.
My understanding is they’ll keep the welcoming (and warm) outdoor fire pits.
I don’t know if they’ll continue offering live music on Saturdays and Sundays, as Somerset Grill does now, but it is a distinct possibility. If it’s music you’re looking for, by the way, a number of bars and eateries in the blocks behind Vespera feature live music, especially Harry’s Nightclub and Beach Bar, pretty much every night.
“Pismo,” Ms Avo observes, “has a way for you to escape time. Plan your two days well. Don’t leave empty hours or minutes. Be in the jacuzzi, in the pool, in the ocean. Be in the sand, experience it all, including the Sulphur baths at Sycamore Mineral Springs with its naturally heated water.”
It's good advice.
Diversions include boat, kayak and surfboard rentals, whale and dolphin watching from the shore or pier (especially if the anchovies are running), catching rock cod with poles (fishing passes can be bought by the day). Pismo clams are still found in abundance but are now illegal to take unless you have a California fishing license. If you are out on a boat or kayak, they ask that you stay at least 75 feet away from rocks and cliffs where birds are and away from floating flocks.
Birders will enjoy observing western gulls, long-billed curlews, cormorants, sanderlings, sandpipers, brown pelicans, even hummingbirds, which come up from Mexico in the spring and return in the fall. In addition to the foxes and coyotes that you’ll hear at night, there are thirty-four species of marine mammals in the ocean in front of you.
In conclusion, a weekend or two at Vespera Resort on the Ocean at Pismo Beach should probably be on your Summer 2022 To Do List.
My favorites
Ada’s Fish House (558 Price Street) for a great bowl of New England Clam Chowder. I’m a New England boy (born in Lowell, Mass.) and Ada’s clam chowder (featuring an abundance of clams) is as good or better as any I’ve had.
Tastes of the Valleys wine bar and tasting shop (911 Price Street) is rated as one of the “top 20 wine bars in America” by Wine Enthusiast and though I have not been to the other 19 named, I certainly agree that this is one heck of a wine haven. If you’re looking for variety, they claim to have over 1,000 wines to taste by the glass.
Golf Too
If ocean views, dramatic landscapes and challenging holes are in your wheelhouse, The Peter Jacobsen Signature Cypress Ridge Golf Course in nearby Arroyo Grande makes bringing your clubs a must. There are a number of excellent courses in the area, including the Avila Beach Golf Resort and Morro Bay Golf Club public courses.
Often had the pleasure of Archie’s and Bev’s invitations to their spectacular events…delightful and wonderful memories… Jim… why not plan a small travel itinerary.. I bet that could be enchanting for those attending
oh man, now I wanna hit the road!