Eating along the PCH, highway 1

[luhkee]

Heading up to Mendocino and taking the 1 all the way. Looking for recommendations between there Santa Cruz . Really anything delicious and unique, from taco stands to fresh oysters and farmstead fine dining. And anything between the coast and the 101, as we don't have any plans but to eat and eat. Pigs feet and foie to tacos and fries, picnic table to michelin, what are your favorite countryside finds?

[Windy]

Today's NYTimes Travel section has northern Sonoma and southern Mendocino eats.

[bbulkow]

The fish shacks in princeton-by-the-sea. Go down to the docks and see an actual fishing fleet, I think one of the restaurants allows you to bring in fish that you've bought there. There was a thread there recently. In HMB, Pasta Moon always gets good marks - although I'm not sure it's so unique, being Italian. One amusement is the taco bell with the best view ever, which is the one in Pacifica.

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Pasta Moon
315 Main St., Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

[budnball]

Glad I'm not the only one who stops at this Taco Bell. The view is great and worth the price of a Taco Bell meal!

[BernalKC]

Two bakery options for you: Wild Four Bread is about 10 miles inland from Bodega Bay. Well worth the detour. Twofish Baking Company is another good bakery in Gualala, just a bit of Hwy1 in Sea Ranch. Twofish keeps actual bakers' hours - something unusual among Bay Area bakers for some reason - which means that they open early, they tend to run out of the best stuff early, and they're closed by 3. But check them out if you can.

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Wild Flour Bread
140 Bohemian Hwy, Freestone, CA

[wolfe]

Point Reyes Station, Bovine Bakery, Cowgirl Creamery, Brick Maiden bread at the grocery store and a quick side trip to Marin French Cheese (20 miles out and back). Seat down eats at Olema Inn, Pinecone Diner and Osteria Stellina.

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Marin French Cheese
7500 Red Hill Rd, Petaluma, CA 94952

Cowgirl Creamery
80 4th St, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956

Olema Inn
10000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Olema, CA 94946

Bovine Bakery
11315 Shoreline Hwy, Point Reyes Station, CA

Osteria Stellina
11285 Highway 1, Point Reyes Station, CA

[luhkee]

Radness. Looking forward to Buttermilk Fried Quail at Olema now. I buy lots of cheese from Cowgirl, so we are planning on stopping in and saying hello. Thanks for the other tips as well.

[nocharge]

You might want to stop by Hog Island Oysters in Marshall.
http://www.hogislandoysters.com/farm/...
BTW, the PCH is the portion of Highway 1 between Dana Point and Oxnard. Other portions have different names.

[nicedragonboy]

Gorilla BBQ in Pacifica.

[Windy]

Try a search on "Sonoma" on this board for lots of recent threads. There's also a Mendocino thread on the California board for starters.

Tomales Bay is full of oyster farms and places to eat them--Hog Island, the Marshall Store.

BTW Highway 1 isn't called PCH north of Malibu or maybe Santa Barbara. You'll get a lot of blank stares.

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Marshall Store
19225 Hwy 1, Marshall, CA 94940

[luhkee]

Thanks, definitely planning to stop in Tomales bay...And I realized the PCH reference was influenced on my recent years down here in Venice after I posted!

[BernalKC]

You'll pass by San Francisco. I hear there are good eats there.

[luhkee]

I've been told that once or twice... ;)

I am from NorCal and do a pilgrimage once or twice a year, but it has been a very long time since I have stuck to the coast. This trip is all about staying out of the city and closer to the headlands and mountains. Also, being a lifer in the restaurant business I am keen on finding farms, cheese mongers, wineries etc that might be off the radar and wouldn't mind me dropping by for some enthusiastic sampling of their goods...

[PolarBear]

Since you mentioned btw 1 and 101, and wine, might consider heading east from Stewart's Point to Healdsburg and checking out the lesser known wineries. Here's a couple of threads from the wine board.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/799567

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/797920

[ETA] http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/805034

Great restaurants in H'burg and surrounding area (Geyserville, Windsor, etal) and gorgeous return trip to the coast along the Russian River on Hwy 116.

[ROCKLES]

Stop in Pescadero and get some artichoke bread from Arcengeli grocery
and/or eat at Duarte Tavern. We always get extra artichoke bread and freeze it for later meals.

[pamf]

Also in Pescadero, Harley Farms goat dairy. Visit the goats, stop by the tasting room, in addition to a line of cheeses they also make soaps and lotions.

The founder is active in Slow Food and while they are not a restaurant they have occasional farm dinners there. The schedule is on their web site.

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Harley Farms
205 North St, Pescadero, CA