Central California Adventures (Pt. 2) - International Bright Flung Things

Statue of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, famed pianist, former Prime Minister of
Poland, and one of the most famed residents of Paso Robles

As it turned out, our dalliance with an Paso Robles' Pappy McGregor's (an Irish Pub detailed in my last blogpost) was just a sign of the unexpected international tour we would end up getting with our Paso Robles travels.

Obviously, California has more than held their own in the wine making world the past few decades, and much of that has come with grape varietals such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Blanc that originated on French soil (on a side note, Zinfandel, one of California's big players in the wine-making world, actually traces its origins to Croatia.)

However, less familiar stateside are wine styles from France's Rhône Valley. Grenache and Syrah will probably ring bells for even the casual wine drinker, but seeing other grape varietals such as Marsanne, Mourvèdre, Picpoul Blanc and Counoise are still somewhat uncommon.  As it turns out, many of the wineries around Paso Robles feature the perfect climate and soil to grow these grapes, and we heard word that the wines coming from the grapes grown at Tablas Creek Vineyard, a pioneer in the state for these Rhône varietals, are among the best.

California Brunching (Pt. 2): Cabin Fever and a Keller Instinct

A look down at the cities of the East Bay from the Berkeley Hills

The second of my California breakfast/brunch posts for 2016 takes our first peek into the San Francisco Bay Area proper, where we enjoyed the a fine sit-down meal inside a vintage catalog house.  Also, a glance at a Wine Country town known worldwide for its gourmet restaurants and some of the prettier pastries you could ever lay your eyes (or taste buds) on.

You don't exactly go looking for log cabins within the urban landscape, nor would you expect to actually find one. However, Sam's Log Cabin, located along a main thoroughfare just outside of Berkeley proper, is worth seeking out for some scrumptious early day eats.

Built in 1930 from a Sears Roebuck catalog home kit, the space which houses Sam's has served many different capacities: speakeasy, roadhouse, and a gambling institution (as in off-track horse race betting.)  Current owners Mike Daillak and Rhasaan Fernandez took over the space in 2010 and have implemented a focus on organic and local food sources as well as an expanded backyard that doubles as a community/music event space and a customer waiting area.

Still Craving After All These Years: Moschetti Coffee (Vallejo, CA)/El Molino Central (Boyes Hot Springs, CA)

While our recent travels with California were filled with a lot of new explorations, a couple of old favorites popped-up in our excursions.  Needless to say, they did not disappoint even with a few years removed between visits.

Moschetti Coffee: Similar to the craft beer phenomenon (see my prior post on Vallejo's Mare Island Brewing Company), finer coffee has bypassed this East Bay town until fairly recently. Even the goliath of Second Wave coffee, Starbucks, took their sweet time to come to town, arriving within city limits at the start of the new millenium (2001.) A few smaller, hometown-styled coffee houses dot the landscape, including the Ferry Building-located Panama Red (a small regional chain of coffeehouses) as well as the former gas station that has hosted Java Jax near downtown Vallejo for several years.

One of the more unique members of this small coffee clique has been making the rounds for more than 25 years, and has provided the locals a taste of what a more refined cup of joe can be for the last several years for absolutely free (yes, I said free.)

Fabrice Moschetti, a native of France who started the commercially-oriented Moschetti Coffee in 1989, acknowledged in a recent Vallejo Times-Herald article about his 25th anniversary that most of the people back then "didn't care. Coffee was coffee." But with the growth in the coffee industry (Starbucks, a company Moschetti definitely has some strong opinions on, grew by 12,000 stores in the decade after finally arriving in the area in 2001), Moschetti eventually found more and more interested in the hows and whys behind the coffee they were brewing and drinking, and he was only more than happy to help them out via what has become a regular community gathering in their weekly "Tasting Saturdays", where all coffee sampling is on the house.

Dispensers featuring all of Moschetti's single-origin and coffee blends
were lined up like I remembered from past visits

This visit to Moschetti had been the first for me in a couple years and the first ever for my spouse. The interior of the facility, essentially a warehouse building with a small adjoining office, was setup more or less how I remembered from past visits - coffee beverage dispensers filled with brewed coffees from pretty much all of Moschetti's roasted beans are lined up throughout the space.

Moschetti had all manner of coffee preparation, from old school to nitro brew

However, there were some notable enhancements since my last visit, mainly in the number of coffee brewing equipment systems in-house, from basic coffee brewers you might see in your corner cafe to fancier items like nitro cold brew and the Curtis Gold Cup, Not surprisingly, we found Fabrice himself stationed by the espresso machine, offering espresso-based drinks to those who came by to say hi or talk shop about coffee and current events. Even on this post-Christmas weekend, quite a few folks were already in-house early on; one person who seemed to be a regular felt comfortable enough to show up in flip-flops and a bathrobe.

Among the bags of coffee, Moschetti Coffee's owner Fabrice
was pulling shots for the customers who dropped in as usual

Another eye-catching change lay outside of the main space: the facility has become much more reception-friendly. Along with the familiar cargo container filled with the roaster's beans, a seating area and a fire pit for the cooler (by California standards, anyway) winter weather conditions had been setup. More seats stood scattered about as well as a stage of sorts: at the time of our arrival, a local musician was setting himself up for an acoustic guitar performance.

As befitting a community-based gathering, visitors can almost always find a couple of locally-based vendors selling their wares at the event. On this visit, sample and bring home the confections of Ian Scott and the bath and beauty products of Shameeka Dream. The friendly and casual conversation with these vendors, as these interactions often are, are perhaps some of the most favorite aspects of our travels. Even if many of these end up being single-shot experiences, they are often the main ingredients to a very simple but highly desirable goal: getting out of the house and having a great day for yourselves.

Local vendors are almost always found at Moschetti's Tasting Saturdays
Top: Shameeka Dream and her homemade body- and beauty-products
Bottom: the Pumpkin Seed Brittle and Pistachio Cherry Chocolate Bar
from Ian Scott Confections

Moschetti Coffee
11 6th St
Vallejo, CA 94590
(707) 556-9000
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El Molino Central - Trends, hot neighborhoods and the latest"you've got to try this place" change rapidly in a food-focused area like the San Francisco Bay Area, so its very easy to forget about places that were in the spotlight even for the briefest of moments.

Our return to El Molino Central, in the easy-to-drive-by town of Boyes Hot Springs (most folks would see this small town of 7,000 as part of Sonoma itself) was one such place, until my spouse recalled it from a previous trip when we were still dating. It seemed like a good candidate for a revisit, as we enjoyed our food there and the vibe and the food are reminiscent of a Columbus eatery we have grown fond of in the form of Katalina's.

El Molino Central is a small eatery owned Karen Taylor Waikiki, who had long set her mark on the Bay Area dining scene through Primavera and their organic, homemade tamales and tortillas. Opened in the middle of 2010, her Sonoma-area cafe (the "Molino" in the name refers to the mill where corn is taken to be ground into masa; this eatery takes pride in milling its own masa) showed that her talent with food reached far beyond those two Mexican staples, sporting a seasonal menu with unique creations such as Swiss Chard Enchiladas and Chalupas.

Those same items were the very first we sampled on our first visit ever: my spouse loved the contrast of bitter provided by the chard and the salty in the cotija cheese in her enchiladas, while my dish (definitely NOT anything like the Taco Bell item) sported layered taste extravaganza of tender chicken, onions, beans and salsa on top of freshly-made masa. The pour-over Blue Bottle Coffee was just icing on the cake.

El Molino's interior is pretty much all kitchen and prep space; while some
eating areas have been appended, this eatery is geared to take out

As we found out, not much had changed in terms of the building setup. Visitors find out quickly that the main building doesn't really have a seating area: the kitchen, preparation space, and the ordering area pretty much take up what is readily visible. While a small, functional patio-style seating area appended to the rear of the building remains an option (some additional umbrella-covered outdoor bench seats have been added since my first visit), El Molino Central is really suited for take out orders. Also changed is the coffee provider: El Molino Central has switched from Blue Bottle to a pretty-much equally regarded coffee roaster in Four Barrel. Our Honduran Ventura provided a fruity flavor profile for our wake-up cup of joe that morning.

The Chard Enchiladas were again on the menu along with other unique items like the Pozole Rojo with Tostada (hominy pork soup stew with traditional garnishes), German Butterball Potato and Cheese Tacos (with salsa, habanero, sour cream and pickled jalapeno), as well as tamale options and a special with Dungeness Crab. However, much to our chagrin, we had arrived a bit too early, so the only option available to us was their Chilaquiles Merida.

Mmmm....El Molino Central's Chilaquiles Merida

This turned out to be a rather delicious consolation prize, as these were some of the best chilaquiles we've ever eaten. The handmade tortillas chips (reminiscent a bit of the Shagbark chips used in Katalina's Huevos Rancheros), huge chunks of avocado, and a just spicy enough roasted chipotle salsa made this quite a satisfying and filling breakfast as we made our way through Sonoma's wine country this day.

El Molino Central
11 Central Avenue
Boyes Hot Springs (Sonoma), CA 95476
(707) 939-1010
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Sonoma Day-Tripping: Fremont Diner/Mission Sonoma San Francisco/Adobe Road Winery

Our California travels during the holidays, unlike other visits in the past, were marked by days or half-day trips instead of extended multi-day affairs. One of these excursions was marked with a quick road trip along Highway 12 into Sonoma, where we dropped by an old favorite, absorbed a little California history, and did a little wine tasting along the way.

The Fremont Diner has gained a loyal following since its opening in 2009

Fremont Diner - this roadside diner had been formerly the home of a long-standing roadside dive Babe's Burgers and Franks, which had a reputation for good burgers. After Babe's closed, over a year passed before the building was remade and reopened in mid-2009 by owner Chad Harris. Despite the cramped (though nicely nostalgically-decorated) interior space and window-only service, diners started to flock here as word spread the delicious Southern-styled eats being created here using locally sourced food purveyors.

I myself had been a frequent visitor of the diner while I was still residing in the Bay Area, and my spouse got the pleasure of tasting their wares on our first year dating anniversary trip out to California in 2011. Our last year's Christmas-time trip to California was our first chance for a revisit since then.

Exterior changes were the first thing that caught my eye on this return back to the diner. The hand-painted clumsy-in-a-charming way original Fremont Diner sign had been relegated to the back of the property. Even when this sign was up front, the restaurant was (and still is) easy to drive past if you aren't sure what to look for.

Clockwise from top left: Glass jugs of complimentary water; a "Greetings
 from Sonoma" mural from the now-enclosed outdoor seating area; a shot
of the Fremont Diner kitchen; and dishes of deliciousness ready to go

In addition, the outdoor grassy area with picnic tables next to the restaurant with had been enclosed, providing a shelter from inclement weather or extreme temperatures. With indoor seating packed as usual and cold temperatures (by California standards) that morning, it was a welcome sight this morning. This enclosed space had some additional neat features, including a natty Sonoma-oriented mural and play things for the kids (I spied two buckets of Mr. Potato-Head toys, amongst other items.)

Another welcome change was the switch to table service, which is a fairly recent change from the order at the window queue I was used to going through every time I dropped by for a visit. Being a bit chilly in the outdoor seating, we immediately ordered a pot of French Press coffee; the diner uses the roasts of San Francisco-based Four Barrel Coffee.

Clockwise from top left: Four Barrel French Press Coffee; Nashville Fried
Chicken and Mac 'N Cheese (from an earlier visit); and our breakfast this
morning: Black Pepper Brisket Hash and the Chilaquiles

While there are many delicious things to sample here at Fremont, my personal leanings are toward their Nashville-style chicken (yes, take note all you Hot Chicken Takeover fans who might be heading to the Bay Area soon) and anything involving pork. No chance for fried chicken this early in the morning (we did find an archival photo of their finger-licking version of this dish from a previous visit, as seen above), but we found some acceptably delectable substitutes in the Black Pepper Brisket Hash ($10.99) and their take on Chilaquiles ($11.99). The spouse was taken aback at first at not getting a corned beef flavor profile, but got in tune with the smoky profile of the brisket in her hash. The addition of pickled onions in my chilaquiles add both a bit of color and extra zing to Fremont Diner's otherwise solid take on this Mexican classic.

The Fremont Diner has a whole lot more to choose from, including craft ciders and beers, desserts (including butterscotch pudding and lemon chess meringue pie slices) and the recent addition of barbecue dinners spring of 2014. Perhaps the best advice if you decide to stop by is bring an appetite and/or bring a lot of friends: there's a lot of good stuff to be found in Fremont Diner's seasonally-oriented menus, and there is no real mystery why this place remains a favorite destination for many.

The Fremont Diner
2698 Fremont Dr. (CA Highway 12 - Google Maps)
Sonoma, CA  95476
(707) 938-7370
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The front of  Mission San Francisco Solano, the most
northernmost mission on the famed El Camino Real

Mission San Francisco Solano - there is no doubting the influence that Spanish settlers had in many areas throughout the Americas, and California was an area where that influence was profound. Much of this influence was brought on by those of the Catholic faith: from the mid-1700s all the way to statehood in 1859, representatives from the Franciscan Order, led by Father Junipero Serra, setup missions throughout the state with the idea to colonize the area as well as bring Christianity to the native peoples.

This Spanish colonization had consequences both positive (mainly via introduction into California of modern agricultural technology and European vegetables, fruits and horses) and negative (particularly in relation to the decline and decimation of Native populations from exposure to diseases and the attempts to turn and keep individuals into Christianity.) An inexpensive way to dive into this chapter of California history lies in a visit to one of these sites.

The main mission building, restored after the 1906 San Francisco
Earthquake damaged the structure, contains many informational exhibits,

Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, operated by California State Parks and part of the Sonoma State Historic Park, is the northernmost and last established (construction began in 1823) outpost along what became known as El Camino Real (translation: The Royal Highway). This road connected the 21 missions of what was then Alta California as well as assorted military presidios and pueblas such that a traveler could make it between outposts with one day's travel.

The only mission established while an independent Mexico ruled the region, Mission Solano San Francisco operated as such for only 11 years before it was officially closed in 1834. From there, the building underwent numerous ownership transfers and uses as well as increasing neglect until the property was bought by the California Landmarks League in 1903. Restoration efforts began several years after this purchase before the full transfer of the property to the state of California took place in 1926.

Various scenes from around the Mission, including the chapel and
the fenced-in courtyard behind the main building.

Admission to the Mission property will get you into several sites which now make up the Sonoma Historic Sites Park, including the Military Barracks and nearby Casa Grande Servants Quarters, the Toscano Hotel, and two homes associated with General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who was influential in the military, business and political realm in the years just before, during after the Mexican-American War as well as the subsequent statehood of California.

Exhibits inside the Sonoma Barracks, including a original
California Bear Republic flag. We also dropped by the Toscano
Hotel and the Casa Grande Servants Quarters.

The Mission and associated Sonoma Historic Sites Park is open 365 days a year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Sonoma State Historic Park
363 Third Street West
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 938-9560
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The interior of Adobe Road Winery, including their delicious wines.

Adobe Road Winery - I have a confession here to divulge: for all the years of residing next door to the most famous of the Bay Area's wine countries, I really was not much into wine tasting or drinking. My spouse and I have visited wineries since we've been together, but they never have been approached as enthusiastically as our pursuit of breweries.

Not that this visit to Adobe Road, located in the heart of Downtown Sonoma will change this tendency, but this was perhaps my first wine tasting where there was not a blah wine in the bunch. This was also a wine tasting that will guarantee a return visit at some point.for us.

This winery tasting room (the main winery is located in Petaluma), located on the main plaza in downtown Sonoma, is part of the boutique wine hobby/business of Kevin and Debra Buckler. Their prime business lies in auto racing, started in 1992 with the founding of their The Racing Group (TRG) race team (they now race under the banner of TRG-Aston Martin.) The Bucklers' have been quite successful at this prime venture, concentrating mainly on the Gran Turismo (GT) racing circuit with a brief dalliance with the NASCAR circuit in the late 2000s.

Their winery, started a few years after the founding of the racing team, has both received the same level of passion from the Bucklers and seen its own measure of success with highly-rated wines and various awards. On this visit, we had only been intending to grab a bottle of their old vine Zinfandel for my father-in-law, who had been wowed by it on a previous visit to the area. But as we got closer, we began to start thinking to ourselves, "Well, we're here...why not taste what they have?

Adobe Road Winery offers a standard tasting on weekdays of $15 and a tasting of their reserve wines on weekends for $25; both those fees are waived if you decide to purchase some wine. Our visit this day came with two bonuses, the first in the form of our host. Alec was a wonderful host, engaging in both his humor as well as his knowledge of the winery and the wines we were sampling. Our second bonus came in the day we visited: since we came on a Monday, we found out that the there were leftover wines from the premium tasting from the weekend. Since the wines would simply be tossed out due to oxidation, we were able to sample their entire available collection.

At the end of our wine tasting, my spouse and I agreed we could have been happy purchasing ANY of the bottles of wine they had for sale. Our fortune to sample the premium wines worked out for both us and Adobe Road, as we walked out with a bottle of their delicious Cabernet Franc along with the requested old vine Zinfandel for my father-in-law. This Cab Franc will definitely be a wine we save for a very special occasion.

Adobe Road Winery (Tasting Room)
481 1st Street West
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 939-9099
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Breakfast with Dr. Breakfast: The Inaugural Columbus Food Adventures Breakfast Tour (Pt. 2)

(Note: Part 1 of this report can be found at this link)

Our tour group continued the inaugural Columbus Food Breakfast Tour, hosted by "Breakfast with Nick" blogger Nick Dekker, at a place that offered an ethnic twist on the first meal of the day.

Clockwise from Top Left: Cuco's Tacqueria sign; the Mollete Roll; Cuco's chilaquiles;
the newly installed outoor patio; a shelf of hot sauces for sale

Cuco's Taqueria: This Mexican eatery on the Northwest section of town started off over a decade ago as a market with a food takeout counter in the back; in fact, you can still pickup some assorted market items at their Henderson Road location, However, Cuco's has in roughly a decade's worth of existence emerged from those modest beginnings into a full service restaurant that is still evolving; the latest upgrades completed late this summer have added an extra dining area and an outdoor patio to their total dining space, and they have launched a food truck to introduce their eats to even more Columbus diners.

Cuco's offers the restaurant-goer the added bonus of both American and Mexican breakfast standards at fairly inexpensive prices (items range from $5 to $8.) On this day, our tour participants were treated to their rendition of traditional chilaquiles and a mollete roll. The chilaquiles, tortilla strips cooked in salsa verde and topped with eggs and cheese, were a hit with everyone; even owner Juan Martinez admitted it was his favorite dish during his chat with the group. The mollete reminded me a bit of the Stouffer's French Bread pizzas I gobbled as a kid, except freshly-made with typical Mexican cuisine ingredients.

My spouse and I had the pleasure of visiting Cuco's prior to the tour and sampled two of their other breakfast items on that visit. Our host Nick had actually considered my choice that day, the Oaxaqueña, for sampling on this tour, but decided against it. It was a wise decision: these tasty potato enchiladas, topped with a black bean sauce, with lettuce, tomato and sour cream on the side, is a definite tummy-filler and wouldn't have been the best on day already full of food. My spouse opted for the El Tapatio, a platter containing a very nicely spicy chorizo and potato mix served with two barbacoa tacos and refried beans.

Cuco's Taqueria
2162 W Henderson Rd (Northwest - Google Maps)
Columbus, OH 43220
(614)538-8701
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Clockwise from Top Left: Co-owner Hilda Garcia-Mandriotti and tour host Nick Dekker speak
to the tour group; the Barnstormer Diner sign; the unusual sight of the V-22 Osprey on the runway;
and the mini-version of their famed Gutbuster

Jack and Benny's Barnstormer Diner: This diner, located at the Ohio State University Airport along West Case Road near the Sawmill Drive corridor, had already earned a regular spot on our breakfast rotation with its straightforward yet solid diner-style breakfast fare as well as unique location before our visit this day. The various omelets, wraps and special items (like their chorizo scramble) we've eaten are all well made and reasonably priced.

But even though one might think they know a fair amount about a place on a Columbus Food Adventures tour, the hosts usually come through with more interesting insight. Here, our host Nick added plenty of such, explaining that current owners Geno and Hilda Garcia-Mandriotti, proprietors at the typically jam-packed Columbus breakfast institution Jack and Benny's, jumped at the opportunity to acquire this space when it became available, mainly due to Geno's love of flying (in fact, he earned his pilot's license at the OSU Flight School in the 1990s.) In doing so, this Peruvian couple basically brought the same menu from Jack & Benny's over to the Barnstormers space, and created a typically much more relaxed and less hectic experience for this eatery's diners as compared with its Old North Columbus-located older brother.

A neat surprise on this visit was the use of the observation tower, a feature of the airport we had not known about before, to sample our food. Members of the public can visit the airport to watch planes takeoff and land (a couple families with excited kids were viewing the planes on this sun-laden day); getting to sample the Barnstormer's signature Gutbuster and Buckeye pancake in this space made it an even more fun experience.

Jack and Benny's Barnstormer Diner
2160 West Case Rd (Northwest - Google Maps)
Columbus, OH 43235
(614) 292-5699
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Clockwise from Top Left: Auddino's Storefront; tray of chocolate chip cannoli;
Ray Auddino whips up some cinnamon twists for the tour group; the delectable Doughssant

Auddino's Bakery: This bakery, the last stop on our tour, was a complete surprise to my spouse and I in the fact that we never knew it was there. I personally had driven around that curve on Fishinger Road at the Mill Run Shopping Center many times and had never seen Auddino's storefront until the CFA Tour Van pulled into its parking lot on this day.

Indeed, this bakery, essentially the expansion eatery of the original Auddino's that has been providing wholesale bread products to Columbus retailers at its current location since 1990 (the original bakery itself started in 1968), has been open at this location for more than two years. For my spouse and I, it felt like we had stumbled upon this place by accident on our own.

Inside, the tour group was treated to cases of all manner of delicious looking pastries; gelato, coffee and packaged baked goods are also available to diners. We found out later from Taura, the bakery's co-owner, that lunch items such as sub sandwiches, salads and take-and-bake pizzas are also available.

Tour-goers got to sample their Auddino's breakfast sandwiches on bagel or croissant bread. While these were good (much better than any fast-food version for certain,) the jewel of this visit was their famed Doughssant, a glazed croissant that head baker/owner Rosario "Roy" Auddino has been putting on the shelves since 1991 and way before the so-called "cronut" made its debut (word of warning: do not try to order the "c" word in this bakery.) This sweet treat, explained Roy, is a difficult thing to get right, but it's heaven when you do get a good batch.

This particular batch was good, real good. By this time of the tour, all of us were pretty stuffed from the other samples we had eaten, but most everyone made room for at least one piece of the Doughssant.

Roy topped off the day by giving the group an impromptu treat: a baking demo showing how he turned what were essentially dough scraps into useful (and tasty) cinnamon twists. These flaky toppers, baked up in barely over 10 minutes and fresh from the oven, were packed in a box for the group for our trip back to the start. They had cooled down just enough by our arrival to provide one more tasty reminder of a very successful inaugural Columbus Food Adventures Breakfast Tour.

And oh yeah, we will be back very soon to Auddino's...mmmmm, Doughssant.

Auddino's Bakery and Cafe
3560 Fishinger Blvd
Hilliard, OH 43026
(614) 850-0099
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2019 Update: Auddino's Mill Run location closed at the end of December, 2014. However, the bakery still sells its goods from a small cash-and-carry store located at its main production facility at 1490 Clara Street in the Milo-Grogan neighborhood.

Also, Nick Dekker (aka Dr. Breakfast) has added a Brunch-related excursion to your numerous tour options with Columbus Food Adventures.  For more information regarding those, please visit the Columbus Food Adventures' website.