Outside of Santa Barbara, up the San Marcos Pass, there is a former stagecoach stop. The Cold Spring Tavern, built in 1868, brings one back in time to the Old West.
A scenic drive led to this now popular restaurant where reservations are needed. We had lunch reservations set for 11:30 a.m., as soon as it opened.
It sits all by itself on this old stagecoach route, on Stagecoach Road. We found parking in the rocky, rutty unpaved parking lot that held about ten cars. After the lot is full, cars line the streets for a long way…which was the case by the time we left.
I love eating outdoors, and this restaurant offered outdoor seating, but I thought it would be more of a unique experience to eat inside this original tavern. It had multiple, small rooms.
We were led to a room with a stone fireplace, and the fire was blazing. It was windy and cool outside so the fire felt good, and added much to the ambiance. We had the room to ourselves for a short while. We placed our order and sat back to relax in this unique and quiet setting. The food was tasty.
We know friends from Northfield who were married at the Cold Spring Tavern, back in 1973. We thought of them while we were there.
After lunch we drove another route home, through wine country and then back to Santa Barbara, along the Pacific Ocean.
It was fun California day trippin’.