Sweet Eats
How to ruin your diet on the Central Coast
By Don Sonderling
Yearning for something sweet during your drive? From Ventura County up through Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County, there are plenty of small, gourmet, artisanal sweet spots to stop at and satisfy your craving. Whether it’s creamy ice cream or gelato, a piece of delicious hand-made chocolate, a freshly baked pastry or cookie, or even something more exotic like a Turkish delight, you have plenty of choices to sweeten up your road trip.
Ventura County
Tondi gelato. Photo by Melisa M Robledo
Tifa Chocolate and Gelato in Agoura Hills (just a few miles from the Ventura County line, with additional locations in Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, and Camarillo) is the place for gelato, artisan chocolates, and fresh-baked cookies. With 24 gelato flavors to choose from — 12 staple flavors and another 12 that rotate — the hand-crafted selections will take your salivary glands on a delightful journey. If you are a chocoholic like I am, the dark chocolate is screaming your name. But don’t overlook the other flavors, like coconut almond chip, pistachio lemon curd, and salted caramel. And, for the purest: vanilla bean! All the gelato is made fresh in each store.
And then there are the cookies! Store-baked and available in flavors such as chocolate chip, s’mores, and peanut butter cup, they will put you in a sweet state of mind. And let’s not forget the chocolates; indulge in their extensive selection of handmade artisan chocolates, including truffles and bonbons.
Tifa Chocolate and Gelato is at 28888 Roadside Dr, Agoura Hills, and several locations on the Central Coast. Find them and more at tifachocolateandgelato.com
Rori’s Artisanal Creamery is a must for the ice cream lover. There are eight locations, six of which can be found along the Central Coast, but I stopped at the Main Street location in Ventura. This family-owned operation was founded in 2011 by Rori Trovato, who wanted to make gourmet ice cream the way her grandmother used to. As Rori says, “The only way to make it pure is to make it pure,” and to “allow the ingredients to speak for themselves.” They source the freshest ingredients locally, including milk and cream from a Central Coast dairy. There are no hormones or antibiotics, and the cows are grass-fed. It all culminates in a difference you can taste. The milk chocolate chunk with salted caramel is highly recommended but visit Rori’s and make your own flavorful discoveries. My personal goal is a Rori’s road trip, hitting each store from Camarillo to Arroyo Grande!
Rori’s Artisanal Creamery is at 286 E Main St, Ventura, and many other locations on the Central Coast. Find them and more at rorisartisanalcreamery.com
Top This Chocolate, located harbor-side in the Ventura Harbor Village, couldn’t have a more beautiful location to explore and enjoy truly artisanal, handcrafted chocolates. This is a chocolate lover’s nirvana/Shangri-La/dream. Shana Elson opened her gourmet chocolate shop in 2019; a year later, in 2020, the pandemic struck. Shana quickly pivoted her operation with online ordering, curbside pick-up, and shipping. The quality of the chocolates and service spoke for themselves, and Top This Chocolate quickly became a pandemic comfort food. And no wonder — only the best and purest ingredients are used here, and the cocoa is fair-trade certified, non-GMO, and gluten-free.
There is an almost never-ending variety of chocolates to choose from, including bars, individual squares, and chocolate-covered Oreos, to name a few. You can even create your own customized chocolate. Choose from more than 50 topping choices to add to your dark chocolate (vegan), sugar-free dark chocolate (vegan and keto), milk chocolate, and white chocolate. As a wise man once said, “There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles.” Enjoy your visit to this unique chocolate store.
Top This Chocolate is at 1559 Spinnaker Dr, Suite 109, Ventura. For more: topthischocolate.com
Santa Barbara County
Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolate, located on E. Haley St. in Santa Barbara, will simply assault your sense of smell and get your salivary glands working overtime when you walk into their store. Talk about gourmet, artisan chocolates! The display case is a vision of true artistry. At first glance, the shiny, colorful, hand-painted, and glazed dark chocolate truffles look like glass marbles. Trust me, they are sinfully delicious. Owner and chocolatier Michael Orlando started this chocolate business in 2010 and opened the retail location in 2016. Orlando sources the best cocoa beans from farms worldwide (Africa, Caribbean, South America) and brings them in, where they are processed from beans to delectable chocolate. Check their website and sign up for one or more fascinating in-house chocolate tours.
Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolate is at 428 E Haley St, Santa Barbara. For more: twentyfourblackbirds.com
LOKUM is an entirely different experience. Its two locations — one on State Street in Santa Barbara and the other on Higuera St. in San Luis Obispo — serve up simply mouth-watering exotic goodness in the form of baklava, Turkish delight, Turkish coffee, teas, and more. LOKUM’s Turkish delight comes in various “rolls” consisting of nuts and fruits, from which you can cut a piece off and pop in your mouth. Of the samples I tried, my favorite was the brownie chocolate hazelnut Turkish delight.
LOKUM offers gorgeous gift boxes to match their delicious goodies. Photo courtesy LOKUM
And then there’s the baklava! LOKUM offers several selections of this traditional Turkish dessert. With a history dating back to the Ottoman Empire, baklava has been pleasing the dessert lover for over 800 years. The chocolate-lover in me heard the chocolate pistachio baklava calling my name.
LOKUM is at 1019 State St, Santa Barbara. For more: lokumsb.com
Lilac Pâtisserie (located right next door to LOKUM on State Street) is a dedicated gluten-free bakery and café that “redefines what gluten-free means.” This is the place to go for indescribably delicious cakes, cookies, bread, and treats. Come in for breakfast, brunch, or lunch for sweet treats that taste as good as they look. Serving the community since 2015, Lilac Pâtisserie creates the ultimate artistic sweet treat pleasure — surprisingly sans gluten.
Lilac Pâtisserie is at 1017 State St, Santa Barbara. For more: lilacpatisserie.com
Tondi Gelato, on State Street in Santa Barbara’s Paseo Nuevo, is described as a mom-and-pop store. In 2021 owner James Haskins (aka Tondi) opened up shop, offering authentic Italian gelato using all-natural ingredients for their rotating collection of recipes. Tondi’s gelato is made from scratch, on-site, every day. The ingredients are all-natural, with many fruits and other ingredients sourced from the local farmers’ market. Tondi does not use the word “artisanal” lightly, and “pure” and “natural” are not buzzwords here; they are what you taste. Dairy-free and vegan options are also available. If you love pistachio or hazelnut (as does my wife), this is your place to indulge. A taste of Tondi’s mint chip, made from fresh mint, not extracts, is a fantastic experience.
Tondi Gelato is at 401 Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara. For more: tondigelato.com
On the opposite end of State Street in Santa Barbara is Menchaca Chocolates, run by husband-and-wife team Pete Menchaca and LeAnne Iverson. They have created a haven of chocolate goodness and artistry. Let’s start with the obvious: chocolate! Pete makes these artisan chocolates in-store with ingredients sourced from Guatemala and Ecuador. Chocolates are organic, micro-batch, handmade, vegan, and scrumptiously delicious. Choose from various bars, truffles, bark, dipped mangos, and more. This is more than a chocolate culinary experience; it is a mouthwatering chocoholic dream.
LeAnne — a former art teacher and the mastermind behind Menchaca’s colorful, creative wrappers — has created a fantastic chocolate art experience for chocolate lovers. Her Chocolate Bar & Art Workshop allows you to make your own chocolate bar creations. Choose from 30 different toppings and three different flavorful chocolates, then design and paint your own one-of-a-kind chocolate box (under the artistic guidance of LeAnne) to hold your chocolates! Not surprisingly, these workshops have become quite popular, so reservations are required.
Menchaca is at 4141 State St E-1, Santa Barbara. For more: menchacachocolates.com
San Luis Obispo County
Negranti ice cream. Photo by Taryn Dudley
As you step out of your car near Old West Cinnamon Rolls in Pismo Beach, the aroma will instantly get your salivary glands going. Welcome to the “Old West.” You won’t find anyone packing six-shooters here, but you will find the best darn cinnamon rolls you have ever tasted, made the same way founder Betty Clemens has made them for her family and neighborhood kids for decades. Betty still comes to the store daily to ensure that everything is “just right,” so you can take a delicious step back and savor true deliciousness.
Currently a third-generation Pismo Beach icon (owned and family-operated since 1972), Old West Cinnamon Rolls are handmade and baked fresh daily. You may have to stand in line for a bit before you get to the counter, but the wait will be worth it. You must try the original, but my favorite is the cream cheese frosted roll. Go on, splurge!
Old West is at 861 Dolliver St, Pismo Beach. For more, see oldwestcinnamonrolls.com
The Brown Butter Cookie Company, founded in 2008 by sisters Traci and Christa Hozie in the quaint Central Coast town of Cayucos, is truly an American Dream success story. Sixteen years after they started, there are not only cookie shops in Paso Robles (2013) and San Luis Obispo (2019) and an online store, but the business has also been featured in such esteemed publications as The New York Times and Sunset Magazine.
All three retail locations offer samples when you walk in! And in the Cayucos store, you’ll have the added bonus of seeing cookie production in the works. The Paso Robles storefront is a regular stop of mine every time we visit the area. We love their seasonal cookies, and of course, their assortment of the original brown butter sea salt cookie flavors (cocoa, zesty lemon, and pecan) makes it difficult to leave the store without a bag for ourselves, family, and friends. Recently introduced is Brown Butter Frozen Custard (ice cream), with the “haunting flavor of our Original Brown Butter Sea Salt Cookies.”
If you consider yourself a “cookie monster,” you must stop at one of Brown Butter’s boutique cookie locations. Enjoy the taste of these melt-in-your-mouth morsels and the friendliness of the staff. Taste, savor, buy, and enjoy. You’ll be back!
Brown Butter Cookie Company’s Cayucos location is at 98 N. Ocean Ave. For other locations and more: brownbuttercookies.com
Mama Ganache Artisan Chocolates, on Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo, serves up handmade artisan chocolates produced with love from organic and fair-trade chocolate and ingredients. Family-run and community-oriented, there is a special selection of yummy chocolate bars where a percentage of each bar sold is contributed to California State Parks. Mama Ganache also contributes to Project Hope and Fairness to benefit African cocoa farmers. Stop by for samples and take home a selection of these artisan goodies (including vegan choices). Their chocolate truffles, bark, bars, and chews will sweeten your day. This is a chocoholic’s dream. Also, on your travels, visit the Taylor family’s other stores: Reimers Candies, Gifts, and Ice Cream (in Avila Beach) and The Swedish Candy Factory (in Solvang).
Mama Ganache Artisan Chocolates is at 1445 Monterey St, San Luis Obispo. For more: mamaganache.com
Negranti Creamery — “ewe” will love it! With several locations on the Central Coast (Tin City in Paso Robles, Atascadero, and San Luis Obispo), you can experience fresh, handmade, artisanal, small-batch ice creams. What is unique about this creamery is that the vast majority of the ice cream is made from sheep’s milk! With a commitment to sustainable agriculture and sourcing from family farms, you will taste the freshness in each flavor. Committed to organic cows and sheep milk and not using artificial dyes or additives, these homemade ice creams are just like Grandma used to make. Negranti has a selection of core flavors (such as my favorites, peanut butter chip, strawberry basil, and salted brown sugar) but also rotates flavors for the season, such as harvest pumpkin.
Negranti Creamery can be found in several locations on the Central Coast, including in Tin City at 2989 Limestone Way, Paso Robles. Find them and more at negranticreamery.com
Wow, talk about a sweet visit on your drive up Hwy 101 from the Ventura County line to Paso Robles. Indulge in one or more of these artisanal sweet treats on this scenic and delicious trip along the Central Coast. After all, don’t you deserve to be spoiled?
Don Sonderling is a freelance writer covering California’s unique wine, food, and adventure lifestyle from Ventura up through the Napa Valley and beyond. He may be reached at donsonderling@gmail.com