(Left) Bar Le Côte. (Above) Dreamcôte

by geneva Ives

About once a month, usually on a weekend day when we have nothing particular to do (and I’m avoiding the laundry), we bundle into the car and take the 154 from Santa Barbara to Los Olivos . Sometimes we bring the dogs with us, sometimes not .

Los Olivos has a small downtown with no stoplights and more than two dozen wine-tasting rooms . We’ve been visiting for over 15 years and are wine club members at few places, but there’s still always something new to discover .

Our last trip was particularly spontaneous . At 11:30, someone asked the inevitable: “What’s for lunch?” And by noon we had booked a 12:45 reservation at Bar Le Côte, picked up a friend, and were on our way .

If you haven’t been to Bar Le Côte yet, this is your sign to go . It’s simultaneously gorgeous and casual, serving some of the best seafood in Santa Barbara, albeit from a rather landlocked location* .

“Dining at Bar Le Côte should be fun,” said chef and co-owner Brad Matthews . “I love when the dining room is full and ‘Lighting Girl’ by Nancy Sinatra is blasting through the speakers . We want our guests to be in a positive, rocking atmosphere while enjoying Morro Bay oysters and whole roasted fish .”

After a heat-busting lunch of chilled peel-and-eat shrimp, some crispy sea bream sandwiches, and a bottle of Blanc de BLC made exclusively for the restaurant by Justin Willett of Tyler Winery — plus the kiddo’s yummy fish n’ chips that we stole bites of — we strolled two blocks over to Dreamcôte .

Owned by local winemaking couple Britt and Ryan Zotovich, Dreamcôte is side project for both of them, a home for small batches of wine and cider that focus on rarer, locally sourced fruit . The tasting menu varies widely and changes often, emphasizing the Zotovich’s “life is short, drink what you like” motto .

This visit, we lucked into a cold, refreshing prickly pear cider (Britt says it pairs excellently with tacos) and took home some of the last bottles of 2020 Gamay .

Asked what she likes about Los Olivos, Britt shared, “There’s so much to explore in this town . Check out Jedlicka’s for western wear, duck into Nella for the best pesto tagliolini, and grab a glass of equally delicious Gamay at Storm or Story of Soil .”

We headed home for a nap after this, but I can vouch for all of the above . Happy exploring!

P .S . A kind of funny joke when you consider that this story features two businesses with “côte” in the name (“côte” is French for a few things, including “side” and “coast .