A Fall Day in Paso Robles: Where I’d Take Friends Visiting Town

A Fall Day in Paso Robles: Where I’d Take Friends Visiting Town

When friends visit Paso Robles for the first time, there’s a temptation to fill every available hour.

Breakfast at 8. First tasting at 10. Another winery at noon. Lunch. Two more tasting rooms. Dinner.

By the end of the day, everyone has seen a lot of Paso Robles without having much time to enjoy any of it.

That’s not how I’d do it.

If friends were coming to see me this fall, I’d give them a few places I enjoy, plenty of time between stops, and a reason to get out into wine country without spending the entire day racing from tasting to tasting.

Here’s where we’d go.

Breakfast at Touch of Paso on Pine Street

We’re starting downtown.

Touch of Paso on Pine Street has the kind of local breakfast feel that makes sense at the beginning of this particular day. Sit down, order coffee, have breakfast, and catch up before deciding how quickly everyone wants to move.

I also like starting here because when breakfast is over, you're already where I want you to be.

Downtown.

There’s no need to get back in the car yet.

Walk Downtown Paso Robles and City Park

I’d head toward Downtown City Park next.

If you’ve only seen Paso Robles from the highway or driven straight from your hotel to a winery, spend some time walking downtown.

This is where you start getting a sense of the town itself.

Walk around the park. Take Pine Street and some of the surrounding blocks. Look through the shops that catch your attention. Stop somewhere because it looks interesting rather than because it appeared on an itinerary.

Paso has changed quite a bit over the years, and downtown now has a mix of longtime local businesses, tasting rooms, restaurants, shops, and places that give you an excuse to linger.

You don’t need three hours.

You also don't need to rush through it in 15 minutes.

Lunch at Jeffry’s Wine Country BBQ

By lunch, I’d head to Jeffry’s Wine Country BBQ.

This is more my speed for a day with friends.

Good barbecue. A courtyard patio. Sit outside if the weather cooperates.

More importantly, lunch doesn't become a production.

That's helpful because we're saving the afternoon for wine country.

I’d rather sit around the table for a while than finish lunch and immediately start checking the time because our next reservation is in 12 minutes.

Spend the Afternoon in Paso Robles Wine Country

You can’t bring someone to Paso Robles for the first time and never get them out among the vineyards.

For this particular day, I'd consider DAOU Vineyards.

Part of the reason is the setting.

Getting out of downtown and climbing into the hills changes the view quickly. Vineyards stretch across the surrounding countryside, and you start to understand why so many people associate Paso Robles with wine even if they know very little about the area itself.

Once we arrive, I want to sit.

That's an underrated part of wine tasting.

You don't have to turn an afternoon in Paso wine country into a competition to see how many wineries you can visit before dinner.

Pick a place. Taste the wine. Talk. Look around.

If you're enjoying yourself, stay awhile.

There are plenty of wineries in Paso Robles, and everyone has favorites. This isn't meant to be a declaration that there's only one place worth visiting.

It's the day I'd plan for friends.

There's a difference.

Take the Long Way Back

This might be my favorite part.

Don't automatically ask your phone for the fastest possible route back into town.

If the timing works, take your time driving through wine country as the afternoon light starts to change.

Paso Robles has plenty of those stretches where you have vineyards on one side, oak trees on the other, and rolling hills ahead of you.

Fall makes that drive particularly good.

You don't need an official scenic overlook or a designated sunset destination. Sometimes the view through the windshield is the point.

Dinner at Les Petites Canailles

After spending the afternoon outside town, I’d head back downtown for dinner at Les Petites Canailles.

It changes the pace again.

Breakfast was comfortable and local. Lunch was barbecue on the patio. The afternoon was spent looking over wine country.

Dinner can slow down.

Les Petites Canailles brings French cooking into the middle of Paso Robles, and it's somewhere I'd choose when dinner itself is part of the evening rather than fuel before another activity.

This is also where I'd make a reservation rather than leave things completely to chance.

Sit down. Order what sounds good. Talk about the day.

Nobody needs another stop afterward.

What I Want Friends to See About Paso Robles

Wine is obviously part of Paso Robles.

A big part.

But when someone visits me, I don't want them to leave thinking Paso is a collection of tasting rooms connected by roads.

I want them to see downtown in the morning.

I want them sitting outside over lunch.

I want them to understand how quickly you can leave town and find yourself surrounded by vineyards, hills, and oak trees.

And I want them to experience the pace of living here.

That's also why I wouldn't pack six or seven stops into one day.

There will always be another winery.

Another restaurant.

Another reason to come back.

For one fall day, I'd start with breakfast at Touch of Paso, spend some time walking downtown, eat barbecue for lunch, head into wine country for the afternoon, and come back for a long dinner.

If the sunset catches us somewhere along a Paso Robles backroad on the way home, I'm not pulling over to check what we missed on the itinerary.

That's the itinerary.

Amber Johnson, Founder
Pillar Real Estate
805.835.3425
[email protected]
1345 Park St. Paso Robles, CA 93446
DRE# 01925434