At the northern end of Santa Barbara County, Los Alamos, California is gaining renown across the state for its seven-block downtown bursting with a burgeoning wine scene, impressive restaurants, and buildings that resemble a movie set from an old Hollywood western. The site of a former stagecoach station and depot for a defunct narrow gauge railroad, the town has long been a stopover point for folks traveling up and down the Central Coast. Just feet from U.S. Highway 101, Los Alamos is worth a stop during any coastal California road trip. Its surprisingly vibrant little downtown might even end up being the highlight of a longer journey. Note that a number of businesses in Los Alamos are closed on weekdays.
1. Drinking on Bell Street
The rolling hills around Los Alamos are striped with rows of grape vines and stuck with vineyard stakes like an individual pierced with acupuncture needles. Oenophiles can sample the products of local vineyards at a few laidback tasting rooms located on Bell Street, the town’s main drag. Frequency is a little winery with big ideas. Owner/winemaker Zac Wasserman makes a tasty GSM, a blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre varietals, while also collaborating with musicians and artists for his Artist Series wines where his collaborators design the bottle art. Casa Dumetz Wines and its adjacent Babi’s Beer Emporium are perfect for a couple made up of a wine aficionado and a craft beer enthusiast. The winery, owned by winemaker Sonja Magdevski does a good Grenache, while their beer bar has six craft beers on tap, a selection of bottled beers, and a beer garden.
2. Eat Lunch at Bell Street Farm
Bell Street Farm’s rotisserie pork sandwich is quite simply one of the best lunches you’ll ever eat. The crispy, fatty piece of pork is counterbalanced with a fresh and sweet slaw composed of crunchy apple and jicama strands. The menu served in this high ceilinged building with painted brick walls also includes a meatloaf sandwich, a house pate sandwich, and a soup of the day, among other delicacies. Don’t take our word for it; the users of Yelp proclaimed this lunch-only restaurant and market one of the nation’s best places to eat in 2015.
3. Go Antiquing
Along with wine tasting rooms and restaurants, Bell Street is lined with several antique stores. The Los Alamos Depot Mall is the only surviving depot of the narrow gauge Pacific coast railway, which ran through town from 1882 into the late 1930s. Some of the over 80 booths in this long building deal in collectibles from that era. Housed in the oldest original building in town, Gussied Up Antiques is a 10-room former residence that also brings the past into the present with vintage clothing, antique quilts, and other remnants from another era. The owners plan on transforming the store’s porch into a local history exhibit in the future.
4. Explore the 1880 Union Hotel
