Paso Robles Wine: Burbank Ranch

About a week or so ago we decided to head into the new tasting room called Burbank Ranch in downtown Paso Robles after having lunch at Pappy McGregor’s. Now, I do not regret having lunch at Pappy’s, and I never will, but I had no idea Burbank Ranch served food!!

What’s This? Burbank Ranch is Open Downtown?

That’s right, a new tasting room downtown occupied by a winery that we were not very familiar with and to top it off…they serve food. I can’t wait to get back in there and try it out one of these days. It seems they have some other goals, like expanding the kitchen into a full kitchen as well as potentially trying to get some local beer poured in there too.

Kudos to them for going for the gold!

Don’t get me wrong, I love our tasting rooms in Paso Robles but it’s always nice to see people trying new things and pushing the envelope a little bit; especially for Burbank Ranch, being in a great location like they are now on Park St., where the Paso Wine Center used to be.

The flip side of things is that this model may be hard to sustain but the gentleman we chatted with, Stephen (National Sales Manager), seemed ready and willing to take on the task. I hope it works for them because I think Paso needs that little bit of “different” in the downtown area. We have amazing restaurants, art, tasting rooms, and shops…why not a full service wine tasting room that offers, wine, food, and possibly beer?

All that aside, they changed the spot up quite a bit. When Paso Wine Center was in there one wall was filled with those wine dispenser machines and now that it’s gone they’ve filled that side with chairs and love seats. There big photos on the walls now and the tasting bar is closer to the front entry. There is seating on the front patio to taste, drink, or eat which is always the thing to do in Paso Robles.

This is paradise after all, might as well enjoy it from a patio!

After emailing with Stephen (National Sales Manager), I got some more info:

As of right now they are “small plates (limited menu)”, “sort of Bistro style”.

He also went on to say, “However, that being said we are targeting to close the tasting room for a week beginning August 5th to begin Phase 2 construction on our kitchen.  The demolition of the office will be loud so we have chosen to shut down for a week so our Contractor can get through that portion without having to deal with start/stop work hours around our schedule.  We believe we will have the tasting room portion back open by August 12th but without food. The overall goal is to double our kitchen size with a full pass through sized window completed by the end of August.  This will allow Chef Nic to execute not only her current menu as designed, but give her the equipment and flexibility to offer Entrée sized creative dishes, such as seared scallops over squid ink risotto…. Not to mention, various fish and unique meat dishes. We will also be adding 3 local beers to our list.”

Burbank Ranch is 83 total acres with 44.5 acres planted with 16 different varieties.

That’s all for now, be sure to check out Burbank Ranch when you’re downtown!