There’s a new wine bar in San Luis Obispo in the historic Creamery district called Foremost Wine Co. Their goal is to make great wine accessible to the masses. We brought some friends to join us and check them out last week. We all loved the place from top to bottom!
It is an extremely welcoming and warm environment, with rich wood and iron adornments. The main room is very well designed with a touch of greenery on one side displayed on a vertical garden wall and a large half circle bar on the other side – an inviting space to enjoy wine and a bite with newfound friends. If you’re looking for more of a bar atmosphere, you can sit in the adjacent room where there is a long bar and small tables.
What brought me here was the mention of their chef, Julie Simon, who was previously the chef in Paso Robles at Thomas Hill Organics. I have always been fond of her unique dishes and farm fresh ingredients so I was excited to see what she had developed for Foremost. I was not disappointed! The menu is made up of mostly small plate items with a few family style main entrees. In my opinion, this is the best way to eat allowing you the opportunity to taste several items and keep the portion size in line with your appetite.
The menu came with a clear sheet overlay offering suggested wine pairings. What a great idea!
Our first items were:
Polish Style Meatballs-stepladder pork, roasted beet purée, Coriander pesto, kefir, toasted almond
Juniper Cured Arctic Char-créme fraiche, blueberries, gin, radish, dill
Dungeness Crab Cakes-crème frâiche, black garlic, strawberries, pea tendrils, coriander, lime, ginger
Next, we moved on to:
Market Salad-butter leaf lettuce, market vegetables, lemon poppy seed vinaigrette
Parisian Gnocchi-fine herbs, green vegetables, parmesan, chanterelles
Black Kale + Avocado Salad-walnut vinaigrette, valdeon, poached egg
And finally:
Miso Glazed Black Cod-tat soi, furikake, dashi, sesame
Salinas River Ranch Pork Platter-daily preparation, market vegetable
Sweets:
These were the three desserts that we shared, a caramel budino, bread pudding (it was my birthday…) and layered lemon curd cup. As you can tell by my meager description, dessert is generally not my favorite item, but these were all yummy.
We can’t wait to return and try out other wine and menu items. I’m guessing this will be my new fav spot in SLO and I feel it calling me back already! I would be hard pressed to tell you my favorite items of the night as everything was amazing! I believe that the savory food did surpass their desserts in my opinion, however that is standard for my taste preference anyway so take it with a grain of salt!