So, Matt turned 36 over 2 weeks ago at this point (March 6th, to be exact). Sooo meant to get this post up earlier, but you know how that goes ;). For his celebration dinner, we went to CUT, a Wolfgang Puck steakhouse in Beverly Hills. It is in the Beverly Wilshire hotel (the one that was on Pretty Woman), which is a very niiiice hotel. I don't even want to think about what a room costs there. It was very posh. Anyways, the steakhouse was great, too. I don't usually like Wolfgang Puck concepts, but this was an exception. We ordered their signature steak, the New York Sirloin, and it was cooked perfectly and tasted oh so good! :)
Yummy (and quirky) food at CUT :)
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| These are their bread sticks - weird |
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| Fancy asparagus app |
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| Yummy, yummy steak, grilled veggies and some super creamy polenta |
Santa Barbara
For Matt's birthday weekend, we went to Santa Barbara, only about 2 hrs away from LA, and we fell in love!! Santa Barbara is amazing! Definitely going back - we hope to make it our "weekend getaway" place.
When we first got there, we hit Cold Spring Tavern for lunch. I had read about this place on TripAdvisor. It is tucked up in the mountains about 20 minutes north of Santa Barabara. It began as a stagecoach stop in 1886 and has been kept up/protected by its owners to maintain its original look/charm/etc. It was such a fun place to visit, and the food was good, too!
After lunch, we headed into Santa Barbara. Apparently, the thing to do in Santa Barbara is wineries. We were a little disappointed when we heard this because we had only booked an overnight trip, which really isn't enough time to travel to wineries. HOWEVER, a lot of the wineries (and I mean a lot) have a tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara, which is just perfect :) SO, you can basically go on a wine crawl within about a 1-2 block radius in the "Funk Zone" (an area of downtown dedicated to wine tasting rooms, breweries, restaurants, and art rooms) - cool, huh? :)
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| Oreana Tasting Room - my favorite |
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| Santa Barbara Winery Tasting Room |
The next morning, we went on a warm, sunny and lovely beach walk ending at Shoreline Park, which had great views of the city. On our way back from the park, we had breakfast on the beach at Shoreline Beach Cafe.
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| Shoreline Beach Cafe for breakfast on the beach |
That afternoon we hit a local brewery, the Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company, for some darn good beer! In fact, we bought 2 6-packs to take back home with us. After the brewery, we also stopped by two of our favorite tasting rooms to get some bottles to take back home with us, too!
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| Yummy beer flight! And super cool way to present it :) |
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| Our Santa Barbara take-home goodies :) |
After the brewery, we had lunch on Stearns Wharf and then headed out of town. On the way out of town, we made a quick stop by the mission to admire the historical architecture.
Stearns Wharf
Santa Barbara Mission
Our first Santa Barbara experience was just a quick, overnight trip, but it was sooo great. The weather was even better (somehow!) than what we have here in LA, the pace was relaxing with a fun vibe, we had some good seafood, great wine and great beer! Also, as we drove around the rest of Santa Barbara's downtown area, we realized that we just scratched the surface of what the town has to offer - which is why we are going back again and again :)
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| Panoramic view from our hotel room |
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| Panoramic from Shoreline Park |
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