CoffeePhilter Senior Member Joined: 9 Feb 2005 Posts: 625 Location: St. Albert, Alberta Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Bricoletta Grinder: Macap
Posted Sat Apr 5, 2008, 10:11am Subject: Santa Ynez Area
Just a little call out to some decent espresso in the Santa Ynez valley for anyone looking as the location is a little obscure. There is a little gift shop on one end of town called Pamela's Country Cupboard with an excellent espresso bar in the back. They are still coming into their own as operators and a make a few mistakes, but their choice of espresso, equipment, and effort to improve technique is coming though in their end product. A bit of room for improvment which will come with some more experience, but easily the best espresso I found in the entire valley.
Posted Tue Jun 17, 2008, 12:12am Subject: Re: Santa Ynez Area
CoffeePhilter Said:
Just a little call out to some decent espresso in the Santa Ynez valley for anyone looking as the location is a little obscure. There is a little gift shop on one end of town called Pamela's Country Cupboard with an excellent espresso bar in the back.
Last week Friday I drove from the bay area to LA on HWY 101 and took a 6-mile detour to visit Pamela’s Country Cupboard, which is located in the Danish tourist town of Solvang which is more than 1000 miles south of Seattle.
Posted Tue Jun 17, 2008, 12:15am Subject: Re: Santa Ynez Area
Inside Pamela’s Country Cupboard is a coffee bar. I noticed that to the right of the espresso machine they have a large Vivace sign! I asked what Vivace beans they used to pull espressos and they said Vita. I ordered a double espresso with high hopes to get something similar to a ristretto that I’ve had at Vivace in Seattle. The beans were not ground to order. When the barista handed me the double 2oz Vita espresso, without crema and pulled in a ten-ounce cup, I let out an involuntary gasp. Barista asked is everything was OK and I said it was fine. If that is how they serve double espressos then I accept that. Actually the Vita espresso was quite tasty, surprising. I asked if they sold Vivace beans. They showed me a bunch of Dolce bags sitting on the shelf. Roast date 3/10!!! (2008 I assume). I visited Pamela’s Country Cupboard on Friday 6/13/08, so these beans are more than three months after roast. Really bizarre to see that since at Vivace in Seattle the roast date printed on the plastic bags show that the beans were roasted only one or two days ago. I didn’t make a fuss over the espresso since if the Vivace sign next to the espresso machine and the three months after roast date Dolce beans doesn’t tell them something than I won’t either. Overall quite an interesting visit.
CoffeePhilter Senior Member Joined: 9 Feb 2005 Posts: 625 Location: St. Albert, Alberta Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Bricoletta Grinder: Macap
Posted Tue Jun 17, 2008, 7:35am Subject: Re: Santa Ynez Area
Thats a shame...they were doing so well when I was there. They must have changed grinders as well since, as they were using a doserless grinder when I was there. And the Vivace was fresh too...I suspect, like many other shops, they just don't get the volume to move the stock.
Another one bites the dust.
Did you get a chance to stop in and see Salvatore'?
I did not visit because I didn't know Salvatore made espresso machines in Solvang. They even have a showroom. I was only one block from the place. I missed that one. http://www.salvatore-espresso.com/index.html
Posted Tue Jun 17, 2008, 4:50pm Subject: Re: Santa Ynez Area
I was Salvatore in March but he wasn't there. However the woman who was there let us in and showed us around. She was quite knowledgeable about espresso machines. His machines looked very nice and I think are quite reasonably priced considering that are pretty much handmade.
I've never found good coffee in this area and usually bring my french press and Maestro with me. There's a place in downtown Los Olivos that does a decent job with Peet's, but I wouldn't venture out of my way to go there. -Sam
Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post
Forum Rules: No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards. No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum. No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum. Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies. Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies. Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts. Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.
![GaryH: Pamelas_1a.jpg](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/39416/Pamelas_1a.jpg", 900, 675, "GaryH: Pamelas_1a.jpg");)
![GaryH: Pamelas_2a.jpg](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/39417/Pamelas_2a.jpg", 850, 638, "GaryH: Pamelas_2a.jpg");)
= No New Posts since last visit 