Where Do the Locals Eat?

Touch of Paso

This is probably the first question I ask when I'm visiting a new town and want to eat. We are budget travelers, but still want a good meal when we eat out. If you find yourself in the same boat while visiting Paso Robles, let me suggest two places where you can get a good meal in Paso Robles without spending a fortune.

Touch of Paso Restaurant in Paso Robles

The first, pictured above, is Touch of Paso. It's on 14th Street and Pine, right across 14th Street from the antique stores I wrote about yesterday. It took a few years here before I discovered it because I had not yet met many of my fellow Paso Roblans. It was only after I moved my mother to this area in 1995 and she began to meet people that she took me to Touch of Paso. I've been going back ever since.

Touch of Paso is only open for breakfast and lunch, and it closes at 2 PM, so you have to plan accordingly. It's best to get in by 1 because some foods can become less available close to closing time. If you go there for lunch after church, it's likely to be crowded and you may have to wait.

You can get a great breakfast there, and they make wonderful cinnamon rolls. The lunch menu has a variety of soups, salads and sandwiches to suit every taste. All is reasonably priced. You can read about the history of the building and see the menu on the Touch of Paso website.

China Gourmet

If it's after two and you're hungry or if you just prefer Chinese food, you will want to try the China Gourmet Restaurant in the Albertson's shopping center on Niblick Road, on the east side of the bridge. It's only a ten-minute drive from downtown, and there is plenty of parking. We won't eat Chinese food anywhere else.

China Gourmet, February, 2015, © Barbara Radisavljevic

Shopping Centers are a Short Walk from the Wilderness or the Farms in Paso Robles

Urban East Paso Robles

Paso Robles is a diverse city of 30,000 people who like a small town atmosphere in or near an incorporated city. Some prefer to be inside the city limits with city services. Others prefer a more rural life. These two lifestyles are often lived very close together.

In this photo you see the sign welcoming people taking the first freeway exit into Paso Robles from the north onto Spring Street or Niblick Road. To get to the shopping centers with Albertsons or Walmart as anchors, one turns right at the end of the ramp onto Niblick Road. To go downtown to the smaller businesses and civic center, one goes straight onto Spring Street from the light.

My Paso Robles home is in the housing tract of Riverbank which you see between the two green areas. It is right behind the Walmart center. The green area in the foreground is Larry Moore Park, our little bit of wilderness in the city by the Salinas River. From the park you can access the river or hike along the Salinas River Trail that is wild on one side and developed on the other.

If one continues east on Niblick road past the shopping centers and the high school one will reach Creston Road with yet another grocery shopping complex on one corner. But if one continues to go straight and around the curve to continue east, one will be in wine country with some small farms in a flash. I took the photo for the poster below at a sheep farm in that area. Please click the photo for purchase information.

 Sheep Grazing in Green Pasture Near Pond Poster

Pigs in the City -- Almost!

As a resident, I can walk in any neighborhood I choose with just about any kind of scenery I want  by driving no more than ten or fifteen minutes from home. So I have the best of all worlds, as much as anyone can in a city.

If you keep following this blog you will soon see some  fabulous scenery as we explore wine country, downtown, and some of the small farm areas. One of those areas is a short walk from my Riverbank home. In about six blocks I can be in the country watching horses, goats, sheep, and even pigs.

A Pig on a Small Oak Lane Farm  in Paso Robles

I took this picture on a walk over the weekend to that rural area on Oak Lane.
From where I live, only a few blocks away, you'd never know this area of small farms was there. You have to leave the tract to find it.

Here's another photo from Oak Lane. This home had chickens among its animals.

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