We slept in a bit during our one full day in Carpinteria. At around 7ish we decided to head on out. Like I mentioned in my previous post, we were staying about three quarters of a mile from downtown Carpinteria. On this morning we decided to do sort of a loop……we headed down what we thought was the strangely named Dump Road. At the end of the road is a lovely view of the ocean and the Carpinteria Bluffs Trail. Turns out that there was an actual garbage dump here until the mid-1950’s! Before that there was Asphalt Mining done.
I know….you look at this and think “what the heck”?
Well, Carpinteria is home to natural asphalt seeps….otherwise known as tar pits. Earning the name Carpinteria Tar Pits. One of five asphalt lakes in the world and second in size to the La Brea Tar Pits!
We could see traces of it during our walk along the trail and also in Tar Pits Park.
Though we weren’t going to do any intense “hunting” for tar…..
Use of the tar goes back to pre-European times as the Chumash people, some of the original inhabitants of the area had many uses for tar.
We kept walking along the trail, finally coming to a parking lot, road, then an RV Park…all along the shoreline.
We crossed over Carpinteria State Beach which ended at Linden Avenue which we consider “main street” of the town. We then headed up to Carpinteria Avenue passing all the little businesses…most of them closed at this time, along the way.
I was sad to note that one of the few businesses that I had heard about in Carpinteria, Robitaille’s Fine Candies had closed at the end of 2024.
We made our way back to our room freshened up for a bit and then headed out. I know of a few people whose family had property or would always go to Summerland during the winter. So, I thought it would be interesting to take the drive up there. We took the short drive up and parked on Lillie Avenue. The street is full of little boutiques, shops, and some charming buildings.
The Missus enjoyed stopping in and doing a it of shopping. Things seemed quite mellow, if a bit gentrified.
We decided to stop at Field + Fort and have lunch at the Cafe there named Feast. Field + Fort had some pretty upscale and expensive stuffs to sell…..it was fun to browse and of course, the Missus got JJ some stuffs from here.
The Cafe is right next door. The Missus looked over the menu and had a seat with JJ…..
While I went in to order.
The menu seemed quite “hipster – upscale” in offerings……
Anyway, I ordered a sandwich and one of the salads from the very nice young lady and we sat…and waited…and waited….20 minutes in, the Missus went and did more shopping….She came back out and I was still waiting. 45 minutes later our order was ready.
The Broccolini and Romesco Sandwich ($16) sounded interesting.
This place loves their pickled onions…the actual salad was our favorite thing about this…though the bread….a simple levain was nicely toasted, though it really lacked the flavor of a decent sourdough.
The “crispy” broccolini was just roasted and while slightly crunchy not crispy…and there were two stalks lying in the middle of the bread for the whole sandwich. This was more like and arugula, crisp broccoli leaf sandwich with a overly sour Romesco sauce.
The Missus does enjoy Her cauliflower; so we got the Roasted Cauliflower Salad ($15).
This was fine, though the cauliflower seasoning was on the bitter side. It’s like something I could make at home.
Well, the food Feast was nothing to go out of the way for. Things looked pretty simply put together so that 45 minute wait? But at least it wasn’t a overly heavy lunch! And the Missus enjoyed shopping at Field + Fort.
Feast: The Cafe at Field + Fort
2580 Lillie Ave.
Summerland, CA 93067
We headed back to the car. And there was one more stop I wanted to make on the way back to Carpinteria!