Thomas Hill Organics - ES DOES PASO ROBLES

By Kelly Grace Thomas, Edible Skinny

As the farm to table movement grows in California, we have more and more restaurants focused on sustainable food and organic offerings. While the organic movement brings fresh flavors, many are never pushed to their full potential. Many health-focused restaurants keep flavors simple and sometimes safe, but not Thomas Hill Organics in Paso Robles. Thomas Hill Organics has one of the most innovative and creative menus featuring any farm to table fare. 

 

Thomas Hill Organics, located in the heart of downtown Paso, puts a funky spin on organics creating flirty flavors that tap dance on our palette in fresh, unexpected ways. Thomas Hill offers a dynamic menu offering a variety of imaginative dishes full of savory surprise.

Not to mention, Thomas Hill Organics decor is also a designer’s dream. Owner Debbie Thomas, has a great eye for not only food but decor. The restaurant is decorated with funky light fixtures, one of a kind art, and bright umbrellas that make every color pop. With touches of European accents it reminds us of spring picnic in the plaza meet California casual. Thomas Hill has the perfect patio to sip some wine and soak in the sunshine, all while providing regionally-produced food so fresh it tastes straight from the soil.

Edible Skinny sampled some incredible dishes but was also blown away by the exceptional service. Christine, our server, who has been with Thomas Hill for the past seven years knew the menu and wine list inside and out. Owner Debbie Thomas, shared stories of passion and inspiration.  From hostess, to server, to owner everyone at Thomas Hill Organics anticipated our needs before we even knew we had them, making for a relaxing experience full of bright flavors and foodie fun.

To begin our meal we started with a glass of the 2015 Sea Monster, Eclectic White, a Rhone White, Viognier, Riesling, Grenache Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Blend from Central Coast, CA. This is the perfect sipping wine for a light lunch on a hot day.

The Sea Monster complimented the creative blend of spices and textures in Black Lentil Tacos. It would be selling this appetizer short not say these were the most delicious vegetarian tacos Edible Skinny has ever had. Made from Carrot purée, candied jalapenos, cashews, pickled watermelons, cilantro, coconut this was Bombay meets Nantucket summer vacation. Really complex in Indian sweetness, but also traditional in the New England summer flavors often selected. They were savory enough to satisfy but not too heavy to fill us up.  And we want to go back just talking about them.

For entrees Kat had the Goat Cheese Sandwich. A picnic perfect combo of strawberries, pistachio, balsamic reduction, arugula, toasted whole grain bread. This combo, another perfect vegetarian dish, was creamy and light, with sweet hints of fruit contrasted by the tang of balsamic. Thomas Hill Organic is a master of combining flavors for a full palate of taste. 

 

Kelly, a seafood junkie loved, the Smoked Salmon Sandwich. Made with macerated onion, avocado, blonde frisee, sriracha aioli, on wheat toast. The salmon, sliced and served cold, was a perfect hearty (but cold) hot weather sandwich rounded by the flavor of chipotle zest. 

 

While we were too full for dessert we are positive that Thomas Hill’s we are certain that their olive oil cake  with olea lemon verbina olive oil, seasonal preserve as well as their pumpkin bread pudding with pepita brittle, crème anglaise, caramel are out of this world.

Paso Robles – The Uncharted Wine Getaway

By Kat Thoma, Editor in Chief, Edible Skinny

A few weeks ago Edible Skinny was lucky enough to tour the wine wonders of Paso Robles.  Now we’ve done California vino before with jaunts to Napa, Sonoma, Santa Barbara, and Temecula, but this was our first delving into the world of Paso.  It was an uncharted wine getaway, the perfect excuse for Kat and Kelly to hop in the car and discover all that this growing wine region has to offer. 

 

Paso Robles is located approximately halfway between the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco.  It is a community in the process of defining itself as an independent wine region.  Cabernet is most widely planted grape in the area.  It is primarily shipped North to more notable wine regions such Napa and Sonoma as filler wine; but the times they area a changing.  

The booming Paso Robles wine region is now home to more than 100 tasting rooms and more than 200 wineries.  This translates to over 32,000 acres of vineyards on which about 40 varietals of wine grow.  This expanding wine region now gets 1 million visitors per year (Napa by contrast gets 3.5 million visitors). 

 

The “Templeton Gap,” a notch in the coastal Santa Lucia mountain range, allows marine air to cascade inland and across the Paso Robles wine country.  This cooling influence fosters quality and complexity in the local wines as temperature swings of 50 degrees within a 24-hour period are not uncommon during the late summer months.  About two-thirds of Paso Robles wineries produce less than 5,000 cases. In other words, they are smaller, more boutique wineries.  And so, Edible Skinny delighted in diving into the world of the emerging wine region of Paso Robles.     

JUSTIN Winery

We started our wine weekend with one of Paso’s biggest JUSTIN Winery.   JUSTIN is one of the largest wineries in the area producing 180,000 cases per year on 1,000 acres of property.  

Our server Mark was the perfect pour-er, being present when needed and scare when not (he recommended always to toast from the bowl of the wine glass… “No clink when you drink….”).  Mark noted the “tasting is about trust”  Some of favorites included the Right Angle, a wine that is only available onsite.  As Mark noted, “it’s my Tuesday wine.”

But the most famous wine made by JUSTIN is their Isosceles.  Named after the triangle that has a ratio with two sides of equal length Isosceles is a combination of lots of Cabernet and equal pats Cabernet Franc and Merlot.  Kelly chirped in that the wine “makes me want to be in the bathtub.”  We finished this off with the Isosceles Reserve, an elusive wine as they only make 350 cases per year, making it only available to members of the Isosceles Wine Club.  With a mouth swirling of Blackberry Pucker and Ruby Raspberry Kelly commented, “it tastes like the first day of fall when you build a fire.”