Edible Vibe Check
The task was daunting: Check out six new food establishments; 1,500 words; make it sing so it won’t be confused with ChatGBT (that last bit was mine).
Then inspiration struck. How about visiting each place to get a feel for it? Kind of like a “vibe check.”
I don’t drink, and there were a few wine-tasting establishments. So I enlisted my husband and we set out. We visited each Edible-curious spot, and completely subjectively—but with the help of employees and owners—came up with a brief description. A vibe, if you will.
We had so much fun. We bought the least expensive items—except for that $18 glass of wine my husband ordered. (Yes, it was worth it.) My husband was introduced to wine tasting in a way that made it accessible and fun. There were some great noshes and sips, even on a budget. But the best part was the people.
Butter and Fold 2126 E. Thompson Blvd. Ventura
Vibe: Family-friendly neighborhood coffee shop with a French accent on pastries. Ooh la la!
Midmorning on a sunny Thursday, there was a steady stream of customers—some solo, some with a friend, some with a kid in tow. According to owner Gina Galileo, the “crowd of customers created a higher demand than we projected and we needed additional staff to produce for the demand.”
Galileo says she got her passion for pastries from studying under Stéphane Tréand in Cosa Mesa. Tréand has earned the Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (MOF), award, which is the “highest honor given by the president of France to a professional in an individual trade.” Galileo says she’s bringing that French sensibility of specificity and quality to her small shop in the corner of the historical San Clemente Apartments building.
One challenge has been increasing quantity, while maintaining the perfectly layered, and tender, pastry dough that is the backbone of her various delicacies, without compromising. “I don’t want to make thousands more pastries if there’s any decrease in quality.” To that end, only the best ingredients are used. “We use Shepherd Farms eggs from the farmers’ market because the yolk from organic pastured eggs is a really rich yellow,” she says.
As the shop grows, Galileo hosts “brioche variety hour after our croissant morning case. We are expanding our menu to correlate with the time of day to bring warm pastries from the oven to the customer bar at various times of the day.”
Vibe: Neighborhood bar. Like Cheers, but with wine. And not in a basement.
The crowd at the Midtown Ventura hot spot—or maybe more a chill spot—just brims with connections, as the hum of conversations undulates—OK, a bit much. But the sound is definitely pleasant.
That’s as it should be according to employees Meghan MacGeorge and Shelley Burgon, who were standing in for owner Alexis Wade, who was working behind the scenes elsewhere.
“Alexis wanted to have a neighborhood bar that was a comfortable place to have wine,” says Burgon. They are offering more and more chilled reds and sparkling wines, along with fun, new orange wines. And according to Wade, whom we contacted later, “I’m expanding the craft beer selections, [because] paramount to my ethos is having a place where everyone feels welcome.”
The offerings the day we visited included: La Ferme Rouge, a rosé made with Cinsault grapes; orange Glassmaker Sauvignon Blanc; sparkling Mirgin Cava Gran Reserva, Parellada y Macabeo, Pansa Blanca and Camillo Donati Lambrusco. “The wine list rotates roughly every two to three weeks,” says Wade.
“These are all-natural wines from Europe, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria—just everywhere,” says MacGeorge.
“I think they’re somewhat adventurous,” says Burgon.
“Definitely,” says MacGeorge. “Some wines are more adventurous.”
Draft beers included Trumer Pils pilsner, Chief Peak IPA and Dos Topas from Topa Topa Brewing Company and Shiner bock.
“I have such an immense sense of gratitude for everyone who works with and for me at Buddy’s,” says Wade. “It wouldn’t be possible without my crew who has zigzagged with me as I still get my footing while steering this ship.”
“It’s just a lot of buddies working at Buddy’s,” says MacGeorge.
Vibe: Casual Ojai patio with a carefully crafted intentional menu.
The whole thing at Tres Hermanas is New Mexico cuisine with a focus on red and green chiles from the “Land of Enchantment.”
Chef Kaanan Tupper—who goes by Tupper—has been crafting the dishes for a while. “I’ve worked on the menu for a year with invaluable input from Sophia (co-owner) and Melanie Welcher, head chef at Deer Lodge. The main source of chiles for many of the dishes is the fresh red and green chiles grown on a farm in New Mexico near the Rio Grande. Sometimes people object to the spiciness of their dish. But you can’t nail down the spiciness of the chiles. Sometimes it’s more and sometimes it’s less,” says Tupper, who tested his various trial runs at the venerable Deer Lodge, which is owned solely by Sophia Miles (while she shares ownership of Tres Hermanas with husband Will Withrow).
We passed on the available tequila flights in favor of Arnold Palmers, which we quaffed with the coated chips. The chips were a revelation. Red chile sauce slathers each blue corn tortilla chip, which is then sprinkled with cojita cheese and served with chile lime cream. The flavors dance together, with the smoky sauce taking the lead while the cojita adds a briny saltiness, all chased down the heat-taming crème sauce. If such a basic menu item offers such a lovely gustatory experience, how would the rest of the menu taste, we wondered.
During the year that Withrow spent managing the development of the restaurant, there was some controversy and a petition objecting to the restaurant name and menu having committed cultural appropriation. The objections targeted references to the iconic Three Sisters of New Mexican cuisine, which represent the companion planting of corn, beans and squash that was used for centuries. Miles is appreciative of the concerns, taking each one to heart, and credits much of the cuisine to the various cultures that led to the creation of the menu. She is letting the menu speak for itself—an appreciation of all cultures celebrating and merging their various experiences.
Vibe: Easy elegance in a bright open space, and a patio with chandeliers.
According to owner Vincent Pillard, they’ve lightened up the walls and opened up the space in the Shoppes at Westlake Village spot that formerly housed The Gallery Restaurant.
“Before, it was dark. We’ve opened up the room. We’ve added wood and created a clean look,” says Pillard, who also owns SLATE: Steak, Sushi and Cocktails in Camarillo.
Modern Kitchen will borrow from Slate, with its emphasis on steak and liquor, before finding its own niche, he says. “Modern Kitchen guests are more wine-forward. We’re looking for a good balance here of wines to cocktails, and steaks to other food that we have in Camarillo. We’re trying to spot trends beforehand.”
Pillard says he tries to keep his ingredients as local as possible, noting that produce is local because it’s better, and seafood is as fresh as is available.
Vibe: One-man show offers a tutorial on wine and fierceness.
Of all the places we visited, this was my husband’s favorite. We ordered a small flight that my husband could taste and I could sniff. Owner Nigel Chisholm seemed taken aback by my husband’s complete and total lack of knowledge about wines, before recovering and springing into action, offering a sip of a Pinot Gris/Chenin Blanc blend. Chisholm says he blends his wines to create a more European sensibility, effectively taming the “fruit forward” California wines.
“This is super clean. Super fresh,” Chilsholm said of the fruity white wine. Next up was a 2022 Rousay Pinot Rosé that was “hard to explain,” he said, before going on to explain. “It’s like a red berry melted gelato but without the sweetness.”
With each description, my husband was entranced. He was finally tasting wine and understanding what it’s about.
“Usually at tastings, they just put down a glass with the name and walk away,” says my husband.
Chisholm says his aim is to give everyone a relaxing and enjoyable experience. This is clear as he flits around his artfully decorated tasting room, engaging everyone. It’s like being at a party of an excellent host. No one is left out.
My husband leaned into the wine tasting. He’d never felt this comfortable. Up next was a Cabernet/Grenache blend where “the grapes were crushed together. This is a silky wine with tannins for a hot summer day,” says Chisholm, before displaying his family’s Scottish castle and his toothful boar family crest.
This isn’t Chisholm’s first Ojai restaurant, having owned The Village Jester and the Vine.
“I want to get rid of snobbish wine tasting,” he says. “People are afraid to go to a wine tasting, afraid they’ll be judged. I’ve cut through that.”
Vibe: Hidden gem is a cozy family affair.
At our final stop, the wine education continued now that we knew the questions thanks to Nigel Chisholm. Where the wines of Fero Ferio were bold, the Wildflower wines offered another point of view.
“I keep the alcohol content between 11% and 13% because I like my wines to be light and fresh,” says host Natalie Albertson as she gives my husband another white wine, an Albariño, which she describes as having “a grapefruit and apricot taste with a salty salinity that is drying like a red wine.”
The Albertsons—husband William helps out—make their wines in the back of the winery, which is located off of Market Street in Ventura’s industrial area. The area is fast becoming a magnet for various tasting rooms, Albertson says. The two children, Cooper, 10, and Poppy, 7, are upstairs watching TV as mom and dad work.
The final wine of the evening was a 2022 Wheeze that was almost purple and smelled like blueberries. “This is light, like a Beaujolais Nouveau,” says Albertson. “I use a lot of ancient techniques.”
Her passion for wine led to the opening of the stand-alone winery. Before, Albertson was driving from Carpinteria to Los Angeles, delivering her wine. “Now everyone comes to me. It’s just nice to be here,” she says.
