Why on Earth are you spending the weekend in Merced? After checking the crime rates and cringing, I asked myself the same thing. The newly renovated El Capitan Hotel on the corner of Main and M streets is a modern white building with nods to its art deco past incorporated into the design. Looking around, there are no clear signs of the crime rate that had me spooked. The streets are clean, cleaner than the streets of downtowns I frequent. Andrea, who works for the hotel, sits across from me.
Platters overflowing with pork chops, barbecue chicken and elote corn cobs cover the table β bourbon and honey cocktails, too. Andrea tells me between sips that she grew up in Merced and that the hotel used to be boarded-up. I ask what she did for fun, and she says her friends would typically hang out near the creek. A white farmhouse sits adjacent to vast farmland and inviting vineyards. They grow everything under the sun, even grapes for pinot noir, despite them not doing so well in the Central Valley heat.
At a table outside the farmhouse, they serve guests fresh salad and pasta with sauce made from the tomatoes and garlic they grow on the farm.
They pour an array of wines β merlot, chardonnay, a brut sparkling wine and the zin which I agree is best. When the chef comes by our table to say hello, he admits the bread is his favorite too. I tried everything on the menu, trading bites with neighbors, to make sure I experienced it all.
It was delicious, but the bread β something about the bread is special. Saturday morning, while I brace myself for the distillery tasting to come, I shop downtown Merced. I make it back just in time to catch the shuttle to Corbin Cash Distillery in nearby Atwater.
