Pacific Coast Highway Food Road Trip: Highway 1

Pacific Coast Highway food is a coast-long mix of Santa Maria style barbecue, artichokes from Castroville and whatever the harbors land. California State Route 1 runs well over 600 miles from Dana Point to near Leggett, and the food changes with the farms and fishing towns on each stretch. Plan a dish for each region and expect to eat in towns, not on the cliffs.

What is Pacific Coast Highway food, and where is Highway 1?

California State Route 1 is a major north-south highway along most of California's Pacific coast. Parts of it are called Pacific Coast Highway, Cabrillo Highway, Shoreline Highway or Coast Highway, and the stretch through Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties is the one most people mean by Pacific Coast Highway. It begins at Interstate 5 in Dana Point and ends at U.S. 101 near Leggett in Mendocino County.

For a food trip, treat it as three roads in one: the southern cities of Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties, the central coast with its farms and ranches, and the cliffs and redwood coast to the north.

What is Santa Maria style barbecue?

Santa Maria style barbecue began in the mid-nineteenth century in the Santa Maria Valley of Santa Barbara County, where Californio ranchers hosted spring feasts for their vaqueros and cooked meat over earthen pits of hot coast live oak coals. The original cut was top sirloin. Tri-tip, a triangular bottom sirloin cut, became the favorite later, after a local butcher helped popularize it.

The meat is seasoned with salt, black pepper and garlic, then grilled slowly over red oak coals on an iron grill that is often raised and lowered with a hand crank. Traditional sides are pinquito beans, fresh salsa, a tossed green salad and grilled French bread dipped in melted butter. Many kitchens also serve Portuguese linguiça. Pinquito beans, a small pink and white bean, are considered native to the valley and are its local specialty. The California Central Coast food guide goes deeper.

What are Castroville artichokes?

Castroville, near Monterey Bay, calls itself the Artichoke Center of the World. Artichoke fields run along the road in the Salinas Valley, and roadside stands sell them fresh. If you only buy one thing on the way, buy a bag of baby artichokes, and ask how the stand recommends cooking them.

Ask at any stand what is in season, because the coast's farms feed the coast's kitchens. The best food on the road is often the plainest: a farm stand, a fish counter or a table in a harbor town.

What should you know about Big Sur and Highway 1 closures?

Between San Luis Obispo and Carmel the road follows the Big Sur cliffs for a long, slow stretch. It took years of construction in the early twentieth century, it includes the arched Bixby Bridge, and it is an official National Scenic Byway.

The road also closes. Landslides and storm damage have shut stretches of Highway 1 for months at a time, and repairs to slides and bridges can take a long while. Check road conditions with Caltrans before you set out, and have an inland route as a backup. Services on the cliff stretch are sparse, so buy lunch and fill the tank before you go in.

How do you plan a Highway 1 road trip around food?

Split the trip into stretches of two to three hours, and plan one meal in each. In the south, pick a taco or a seafood counter. On the central coast, pick the barbecue and a farm stand. In the north, pick a chowder or a bakery in a harbor town. Keep dinner flexible, because small coastal towns often close early.

Ask each place what the kitchen buys locally, and write it down. On a road this long, a list of three places per region, with a note of the distance between them, keeps the day from becoming a scramble. The Route 66 food road trip page shows the same method on a different road.

How can Mosey help you keep a Highway 1 trip list?

Start a Mosey list for the whole drive and add a note on each stop: the town, the dish you want and the closing time. Share the list with the people in your car by link, so everyone can add a place they spot. Follow friends who have driven the coast to see where they rate and save.

As you eat, rate the dish by name and add tags that remind you what stood out. Rating five different places of one kind earns the Sampler mark, and the Dishes page shows what people are rating near you.

For more, browse the US food guides and the Los Angeles taco truck guide.

What should you remember before you drive the coast?

Fog, slides and holiday traffic slow the road, so build in time. Carry water, snacks and a paper list in case phones lose signal in the canyons, and tell someone your rough plan on the longest stretches.

Open the Mosey app, start a Highway 1 list and rate each dish as you eat it.