Fog sometimes gets to me. When you live on the notoriously foggy Monterey Peninsula in central California, as my parents do, fog can factor into your existence at a several-days-in-a-row level—so you’d better have a Plan B. Mine is Carmel Valley.
Just down Highway 1 from the turnoff to Carmel by the Sea, I take a left on Carmel Valley Road, and into a whole other world—one that’s reliably sun-soaked no matter how soupy the mist at home. It's also a world that’s altogether less calibrated to tourists, and more about farm-fresh food, boutique wines, and vintage shopping for the neighbors. The big name resort hotels out here—Quail Lodge, Bernardus Lodge, Carmel Valley Ranch—are undeniably lovely; but the real character is in the valley’s smaller, independent establishments. Here are a handful of my favorites that I recommend to every visitor.
Earthbound Farm Market and Farm Stand
You’ve seen the logo on endless bags of fresh washed greens all across America, and even overseas. This is where the famous organic brand got its start, on two-and-a-half acres in 1984, and it’s one of the sweetest places on the Peninsula. Old rusty iron beds out in front of the farm stand are planted with Elysium and petunias, there are crates of root veg stacked outside the door, and inside, you'll find every manner of Earthbound Farm-packaged edible, from the aforementioned salads to muesli, jams, cookies and more.
You'll even find a lunch counter in the back, with a make-your-own-salad bar and "panini of the day" specials. The homemade muffins and organic filtered coffee are a morning catch-up ritual for me and my mom; we grab one, head for the outdoor patio and lawn, and admire the view of neatly planted and tilled rows of flowers and vegetables. If you have little ones, they can roam in the herb garden, planted like a maze for maximum delight. (7250 Carmel Valley Road; 831-625-6219; 8am-6:30 pm daily.)
Georis Tasting Room
I recently penned another paean on this website to the genius of Walter Georis, a Belgian who moved to Southern California in the 50s and came north to settle here in the Valley more than four decades ago. He’s pretty amazing: a writer, painter and gallerist, singer and guitar player, restauranteur and, most famously, winemaker. His eponymous tasting room on Pilot Road, housed in a 1930s adobe right at the entrance to Carmel Valley Village, is a little Aladdin’s cave of the pretty, quirky and wonderful. The tasting flights are standardized and simple, and come with some fine local cheeses and crostini prepared next door at his restaurant, the Corkscrew Café.
The great part is that the place doubles as a highly idiosyncratic boutique: you can take home Nigel Slater cookbooks, striped linen market-shopping bags from France, or Mexican pottery. If it’s too chilly to sit outside, the cavernous fireplace will be lit; you can perch next to it as you sip.
Lokal
You wouldn’t intuitively look for a slick, delicious, innovative bistro run by a sous chef emeritus of one of Spain’s finest restaurants in a nondescript shopping complex in rural California. But that’s Lokal, Brendan Jones’s little joint on Center Street. Jones grew up in nearby Colchagua but made his bones in fine kitchens across Europe, culminating in a stint at Mugaritz, in Spain’s Basque country, in his late 20s.
I found Lokal only recently—he opened it in early 2012—but it’s top of the list now. There’s a burger with fries cooked in duck fat, but also one of the yummiest “house salads” I’ve ever had: greens topped with tiny delicate root veggies roasted brown, with raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and succulent popcorn-sized yellow and red tomatoes, with the whole thing dusted in crushed toasted pistachios and sea salt. If you’re a beer snob, you’ll rejoice in Jones’ almost laughably obscure list of micro-micro-micro brews.
Garland Ranch Regional Park
The great outdoors is one of the real privileges of living here and I make a point of allocating lots of time to reveling in it whenever I’m home. There’s no shortage of famous hikes in state and national parks along the Big Sur coast, from Limekiln in the south to Point Lobos, just below Carmel-by-the-Sea, in the north.
Garlands is more of a locals’ place. It’s a perfect marriage of long, easy walks in very pretty eucalyptus and sycamore-dotted flats, and serious mountain-interior hiking (its 4,460-odd acres extend into uninhabited parts of the Ventana Wilderness, which stretches to the Pacific Ocean). There are Native American habitation sites and 19th-century clapboard settlements to explore. My favorite hike is the one up to the mesa, where there’s a small pond in an open savanna ringed by beautiful old oaks and pines. Takes about an hour, requires you to break a sweat but not kill yourself, and rewards you with 180 degree views of wooded, unspoiled California landscape.