Vivant Fine Cheese

 

Vivant is located in Historic downtown Paso Robles at 840 Eleventh Street.It is one block off the Square right next to the beautiful Hotel Cheval. The owner is Danika Reed, a veteran of the cheese business. She opened Vivant in 2006. She holds a degree in Dairy Science from Cal Poly. She gained  experience as a cheese maker for them, as well as a strong background in sales and marketing with Hilmar (one of the country’s largest cheese producers for private labeling and food service). Between Vivant and Hilmar, she worked in a variety of other positions in the cheese business,before opening her own shop.  Vivant’s first incarnation was as a mobile cheese tasting room. Her target customers were local restaurants. Chef’s could come to the truck and taste her  cheeses, purchasing them on the spot.

Vivant is now the Central Coast's premier cheese tasting room, featuring premium, local and imported handcrafted artisan cheeses paired with the finest Central Coast wine and beer. The shop carries about 150 cheeses both foreign and domestic with a nice selection of local offerings.

 

 

They have a lovely shaded outdoor patio where you enjoy a glass of local wine paired with their cheeses or one of their yummy sandwiches.  Their wine & cheese sampler is a bargain at $12.00.  The staff is friendly and very well informed.

 

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They are open Monday, Wednesday , Thursday & Sunday 11:00 – 5, Tuesday by appointment only, Friday & Saturday 11:00-7:00

If you would like to expand your cheese repoirtoire they have a  bi-monthly cheese club.  The shipments have a different theme each month and include tasting notes, suggested wine pairings and recipes.  For more information on the club go here  http://www.vivantfinecheese.com/vivant-fine-cheese-club-signup.pdf.

 

 

  If you would like more information about their services, offerings, or directions go here http://www.vivantfinecheese.com/

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Villa Creek Restaurant & Villa Creek Cellars

 

Wine grapes brought  Cris and Joann Cherry to Central California in the mid nineties, but it was the quality of life that seduced them to stay.  There is something about Paso. They sold their Mexican restaurant in San Diego and put their efforts into renovating  ‘dive bar’ on a prime corner of the downtown Paso Robles city park. The rest as they say is history. In the spring of 1998 the Cherry's opened Villa Creek.

 

They were one of the forerunners dedicated to taking advantage of the area's finest local products.  Villa Creek has created a niche showcasing what they call early California cuisine.   Renowned Chef Tom Fundaro has been working with local farmers since 1998 preparing local, organically or sustainably farmed products in a rustic style that is Villa Creek’s signature.  Not only do they serve innovative fresh local cuisine for dinner they have one of the liveliest bar scenes downtown.

                                                                                                             photo via villa creek website

A limited menu is available at the bar, featuring favorites like carnitas tacos, not nachos, and the shepherds plate.

 

                                         Not Nachos

For the full bar menu go here:  http://www.villacreek.com/menus/index.php

Should you linger after the incredible appetizers, they do have one of the best wine lists in the area and an incredible seasonally tweaked menu.

                                 boneless beef short ribs with sage gnocchi

One of the seasonal favorites that people rave about are the butternut squash enchiladas

                             photo via villa creek website

To see the full dinner menu go here:

The restaurant itself is beautifully decorated creating a lovely early California ambience that complements the food.

 

Okay so they have a fabulous (one of the very first) established restaurant in Paso.   Next they decide they should make wine to complement the farm to table food they serve at Villa Creek.  They are visionaries. They wanted to crank it up a notch.  Villa Creek is one of the few that are in a class by themselves….The winery is not fancy. They have a couple of motley, friendly dogs that greet you when you pull up.  The clincher is the wine…Cris Cherry himself often is pouring..,.He doesn’t ,make his presence known.   Suddenly you realize..hmmm he is the master of the whole operation.   All of their wines are wonderful. The Willow Creek Cuvee is one of the most lauded.  The Wine Spectator Insider gave the 2009  93 points.

The High Road James Berry Vineyard  2009 also earned 93 Points.

We personally love their “Pink” which is a bargain at $14 and always sells out quick.  It is a great summer wine. “Tank fermented saignee shows notes of peach and lead to a rich palate of just ripe strawberries, orange zest and anise. With it’s strawberry flesh hue and light body, Rosé is just as fun to look at as it is to drink.?

Not only is the wine itself wonderful.  The artwork on the bottle is created by the Cherry’s daughter Camille.  And $2.00 from each bottle goes to a wonderful local charity Jack’s Helping Hand that serves ailing and disabled children.  To learn more about it go to www.jackshelpinghand.org.

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