One Of California’s Last Authentic Beach Towns
To travel back in time along the California coast, all you have to do is go to Cayucos about half an hour south of Hearst Castle. Heck, maybe time just can’t find this tiny community!
By Kevin Wilkerson, Editor & Publisher, PubClub.com
In Hermosa Beach, where I live, five out of 10 old beach houses along the beachfront path have been torn down and replaced by $10 million personality-less spec homes. A few blocks away the decades-old Mermaid bar is now a personality-less Slaters 50/50 burgers and beer restaurant where the brews are $8.25 a pop.
Next door in Manhattan Beach, high-end shops are lining the downtown streets surrounded by restaurants I cannot afford (one place sells a basic Greek salad, with no meat in it, for $15).
I was driving through Long Beach the other day and noticed a big, modern (ugly) glass building was going up at the corner of Ocean and Shoreline, no doubt an expensive apartment/condo complex.
I could go on an on about how modernism and money is taking over the our beach cities but there is at least one place along the California coast where time has stood still.
It’s Cayucos in Central California, half an hour down Highway 1 from Hearst Castle and about 40 minutes from the robust wine country of Paso Robles.
Actually, maybe time hasn’t forgotten Cayucos; perhaps it just can’t find it!
Compared to Cayucos, Morro Bay and Pismo Beach, two small towns just to the south, are virtual thriving metropolises. They have stoplights, for example.
You can walk from one end of Cayucos to the other in 15 minutes. It has a great taco shop in a gas station. It has a saloon for a bar (Old Cayucos Tavern) and an old fashioned breakfast place that has trucker hats hanging from the ceiling (The Sea Shanty). It has motels, not high-rise hotels.
And, as far as I could tell, no greedy real estate companies buying up old houses and turning them into multi-million spec homes or condos.
If you put this town in the South, it would be a redneck speed trap along a back highway. But in Central California, it’s a jewel by the sea.
It has an ocean. A beach. Sunsets.
And it has its luxury side, too. The On The Beach Bed & Breakfast is nice. Very nice. Across the street is another B&B, Cass House. Its Cass House Grill is close to 5-star dining.
The Butter Brown Cookie Company is so famous for its salt cookies people order them from all over America.
But it’s not overcome with these type of businesses. Hey, I like luxury. I just don’t like it to be the only option, certainly not in places that were once full of character instead of cash.
Like Hermosa Beach.
Kevin Wilkerson is the founder of PubClub.com, an award-winning journalist and nightlife expert who has covered destinations, events and nightlife for more than two decades. While working as a newspaper reporter, he received an Associated Press award for investigative journalism.
Next Stops On The PubClub Central California Party Bus!
• Why Cayucos Is California’s Most Overlooked Beach Town
• Three Days Along The Central California Coast
• Wine Tasting Near Hearst Castle
• Hearst Castle, The PubClub Tour
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