Food & Wine (and pie, oh my)

Borrego Springs, California: Rinse and repeat - another perfect day in Borrego Springs. Warm and no wind! I could get used to this.

This afternoon we drove our Honda about 30 miles up into the mountains to the cute and touristy community of Julian. Julian sits at 4000 feet elevation and has the perfect climate to produce apples. Shops and restaurants in the town promote their product with ciders, apples, apple pie, fritters, donuts, candy apples, dried apples, apple tea, apple muffins... well, you get the idea. Julian is a town with a theme.

The view back to Borrego Springs from the road to Julian

Our first stop was four miles past Julian to the little village of Wynola to have lunch at a new restaurant, Jeremy's on the Hill. Local boy does good, Jeremy Manley, graduated from the Cordon Bleu in San Francisco and returned home to open an up-scale restaurant. The menu items are classic, with many interesting twists and turns. Prices are reasonable and our friendly server, Carly, provided excellent service.

We started with a creative appetizer - Brie and Mango Quesadilla with Avocado, Lime and Jalapeno:

Brie and Mango Quesadilla


DT ordered the "Haight Ashbury Mushroom Burger with cheese, shrooms and psychedelic mustard"


I ordered a veggie entree -
Artichoke and Potato Au Gratin with Austrian Gruyere and Balsamic reduction.

Our server also brought us a little taste of the local apple wine from J. Jenkins Winery on the wine list. I was certain it would be too sweet for my liking, but didn't want to leave the area without sampling this unique offering. The wine tasted of apples, but did not have the strong apple flavor like a sparkling cider. It was light and not as sweet as I had thought. The J. Jenkins Pinot Grigio was a delight!

Luckily, I was smart enough to bring a cooler along because much of our lunch came home with us. Jeremy's on the Hill was a great choice and we wish him great luck in his new endeavor.

Horse-drawn carriage ride in Julian, California

But that didn't prevent us from one more treat. As long as we were in Julian, we stopped in to the Julian Pie Company. We split a piece of their classic pie and bought a frozen take-and-bake apple pie to take home.

The Julian Pie Company


Classic apple pie from the Julian Pie Company

Then we had to plunge back down the hill to Borrego Springs... we needed to get back because the RV park was hosting a wine tasting tonight. Burp.

The Springs at Borrego RV Resort wine tasting

It wasn't so much a wine tasting as a free social hour for the Happy Campers. The park provided cheese, crackers, a fruit platter and meatballs along with four different wines to taste and purchase. If you didn't want wine, they had beer! We had a good time chatting with our fellow campers and brought home a few bottles of Napa syrah.

Six o'clock and we were done for the day. No dinner for us tonight! It was another great day on the road. Until my next update, I remain, your well-fed correspondent.

RV Park: The Springs at Borrego