Have an artichoke lunch at Duartes Tavern in Pescadero, a few hours south of San Francisco. This is the first in a series of posts about our road trip down California’s famous Highway 1.
The stretch of Highway 1 immediately south of San Francisco, before you hit Santa Cruz, is pretty but not as spectacular as the Big Sur coast south of Monterey. It’s also fairly rural – we passed very few towns and the road was mostly lined with farms growing artichokes, strawberries or pumpkin. (We were there right before Halloween so we saw a lot of pumpkins lying around in fields).
Pescadero, off Highway 1
On the recommendation of a Twitter friend @bberwyn, who actually lives in Colorado and usually writes about snow, we turned off Highway 1 for a mile or so and visited the small town of Pescadero. It’s a town with two streets, a post office, a general store, a church/community hall, a petrol station and a pub. It’s small enough that you can see where the houses end and turn into pumpkin and artichoke fields in all four directions.
I loved the old-time feel to the architecture, especially the church with its American-Gothic styling. A plaque says the building dates from 1889 and was built for the Episcopalians (Anglicans) and Methodists to share but only served as a church until 1906. It’s now a community centre and meeting hall.
When we arrived I saw the Pescadero post office was running the flag at half mast. Slightly alarmed, I wandered over to look while my husband and his parents refueled the car. It turned out a local Pescadero man had died of cancer. I have every sympathy for his family and friends but I must admit it was a relief for me. The US Postal Service is a government organisation, so I had assumed assumed that someone with a national or international profile had died. I was just glad that President Obama hadn’t been assassinated!
Artichoke lunch at Duartes Tavern
Berwyn’s recommendation, which turned out to be a good one, was to have an artichoke lunch at the Duartes Tavern. We had no trouble finding it – it has a big red sign and it’s directly opposite the petrol station in one direction, the post office in another, and catty corner from a pumpkin field.
The tavern has quite a history – it opened in 1894 and it’s still in the same family. The waiter proudly regaled us with some of this history as he took our order. He told us that in 1894 the price was “ten cents for one whiskey, two bits for three”, but he couldn’t tell us how much a “bit” was. (We looked it up on the iPhone though – it’s 12.5c, so two bits is a quarter dollar).
The tavern has a vegetable garden out back and also buys from local farmers and fishermen. Artichoke is the specialty, featuring on several menu items. We had chilled artichoke hearts with aioli and cream of artichoke soup. Delicious!
Duarte’s Tavern is located at 202 Stage Road, Pescadero CA 94060 (map it). Call +1 (650) 879 0464 for reservations. Open 7am to 9pm daily, except New Years Day, Easter Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
Related posts: Steinbeck country: The Carmel Valley Road
Photo Friday: Monster rocks at Point Lobos
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This is the last week to buy Passports with Purpose raffle tickets. We still need to raise $7,000 to pay for the vegetable garden and water filters for our school. Great prizes are up for grabs and here are the ones with the best odds.
You should check out http://pelicaninn.com/ over the Golden Gate bridge. Nice in the summer for a Sunday lunch.
Thanks for your comment. I’ve heard of that place – will go some time. – Caitlin.
The Escape Pod broke down in Pescadero at 5pm one evening, just as the only mechanic in town was leaving for the day. They took care of me at Duartes – although they didn’t realize it. I sat in the bar reading and chatting with the bartender all evening and had breakfast at the restaurant in the morning.
I always find it amazing that these little towns, like Pescadero, that dot the coastline all seem to have exactly everything that anyone would need to be comfortable – a restaurant, a bar, a general store and a gas station. And, in this case, beautiful landscape.
.-= kimba´s last blog ..February Life Drawing in the East Bay =-.