Nostalgic WIN.

I just spent the weekend in a sleepy little town in the central coast.

 

I think I’m in love… Everything about the vacation was so perfect!

My baby sister just started college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and we visited to celebrate her 18th birthday.
The town, San Luis Obispo, is so small that you have to go to the next town to visit a Target, let alone an Ikea. Everybody knows everybody, and says hi to each other in the middle of downtown. And if you don’t get to the general store early, you won’t have any marshmallows for your s’mores because every night, some dorm is having a bonfire ice breaker at a nearby beach.

It’s got a cute college-town flair to it, complete with its own Bubble Gum Alley. The whole alley way is studded with chewed up, aged, discolored gum dwabs. As disgusting as it looks, it’s a popular landmark.

It even has its own yelp page.

This town, there’s a lot of history. History is always good.

It’s the perfect place to chillax.

Everything about this town screams wine country. Grape vines all over the mission, and the air of this historical site smells of juicy sweetness and old dust. There’s three wine stores in downtown alone, and there are several wineries sprawled across the vast land on the way. Billboards that decorate the freeway are almost always for a local winery.

There’s something very nostalgic and comforting here, and it was very difficult to leave. Perhaps it called to my inner rural hillmonkey, since I grew up in a quaint mission town north of San Jose, safely tucked in the hills that surrounds Silicon Valley. Perhaps it’s because I’m tired of driving in the spaghetti monster that is the LA freeway network. Or perhaps, I just don’t enjoy living in the OC much because the air smells like Ambien.

Even the food is nostalgic. There are real diners here: not a Denny’s, not a Ruby’s, but a real diner that serves hearty breakfast foods made with real eggs (no egg beaters here), greasy bacon, and salty ham. The diner is called Louisa’s Place, and it’s been the ‘best breakfast place’ in San Luis Obispo for the last three years.

Twiggy had the Chuckwagon, a dish of eggs scrambled with ham chunks, and a side of homestyle fries. The homestyle fries were meh, soggy, salty, just plain uninspiring, but the eggs were tasty.

Little One had a “number 5,” which to me just looked like a big platter of meat, eggs and some toasts. Definitely yummier than your local Denny’s. As simple as this dish looks, there’s something about having someone else making your breakfast for you that makes it several notches tastier.

I had an eggs benedict. My favoritest of all time is M Cafe’s eggs benedicts, but Louis’s is now officially my favorite eggs benedicts that’s made with eggs. The hollaidaise sauce was tart and surprising light, so I was able to finish everything on my plate. DO substitute fruits for home fries, it’s much more fulfilling and refreshing than the sorry goop of potatoes.

Everything here is hearty… We had breakfast at 8 and were full till well past 2. The meal definitely kept us energized throughout our visit/tour of Hearst Castle (more on that later.) It’s a little pricey, but that’s expected out of the amount of food that you get, and besides, the place is so cute. Totally inomthings approved.

Next up… Hearst Castle and Firestone Grill!

Louisa’s Place

964 Higuera St
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
(805) 541-0227
www.louisasplace.net