The county’s tiniest town is also its coolest, from the food to the art to the antiques.

Even if miniscule Moss Landing was limited to merely its most famous facets – the cioppino, blackened scallops and fresh oystersat Phil’s Fish House (633-2152), the stuffed prawns, guacamole and margaritas at Whole Enchilada (633-3038) and the billiards, jukebox and stripper pole at Moss Landing Inn (633-9803) – it would still be awesome.

But it’s so much more.

Like Haute Enchilada restaurateur Kim Solano once told the Weekly, “We have this undiscovered little jewel – you can pull off the highway and be transported into this little world.”


To study the jewel is to discover a place that’s more of a trip than a town. Even though it’s equidistant between Monterey and Santa Cruz, its beautiful expanse of beach seems to stay empty (as territorial surfers prefer). Character drips from abandoned boats, wildly colorful art and rafts of fuzzy otters. More marine-lab knowhow calls it home than any other place on the planet, thanks to Moss Landing Marine Labs and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The fishing industry remains strong (albeit diminished), the iconic gas plant is still the heart of Peninsula power, and no fewer than three different bodies of water – the amazing Elkhorn Slough estuary, picturesque harbor and locally adored beach – attend a town only about half the size of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Its most prodigious per-capita wealth might be its personalities, from an unofficial mayor doling out Lotto tickets and cheap sunglasses to a harbormaster with a glorious public service résumé, red hair and a single sea leg. And come this Sunday, July 28, booths will almost outnumber the people who live here (around 200) at the annual Antique Street Fair.

But I’m here for the food and drink. Fortunately Moss Landing – in addition to all its other bizarre bounty – quietly delivers the best stop for bargain produce by the bay, the coolest cafe breakfast for those in the know, a divine semi-secret beer “bar” and some of the top Thai food in the area code, each as flush with character as the wider town.

That lineup includes the avalanche of $1-a-bag avocados, Central Valley nuts, seasonal greens from the surrounding fields and endless artichokes that is the Farm Fresh Produce stand (633-3636).

Next door, Whole Enchilada Marketplace (632-2628) was already a hub for fresh “Moss” smoothies ($3.99), solid El Clucko and Power Plant sandwiches ($6.99-$7.49), artisan snacks and small-batch spirits. Now four rotating craft taps pour for $3 a pint; right now it’s Rogue Dead Guy, Black Prince Porter, Humboldt Brown and Kona Big Wave. And Friday night tastings like this weekend’s organic Girasole Vineyards session offer free wine tastes across varietals plus nibbles 4-7pm.

Castroville artist/food enthusiast Andrew Jackson is the one who turned me onto the storybook, red-and-white Moss Landing Cafe (633-3355) up the street because of its Moss Landing Fry – with bacon, onions, mushrooms and oysters or squid ($9.95 plus hash browns and toast) – which he drives over to eat twice a week. (The deep-fried artichokes, $6.95/dozen, are also legendary.)

Just yards away, Lemongrass Thai (633-0700) deserves repeat visits for its tasty union of authentic curries and local seafood – think Thai ciopinno and pumpkin panang curry with shrimp, scallops and mussels (both $17.95) – and $3 bottled beer all day. On our Friday stop we had to accelerate things to catch Camper Van Beethoven in Santa Cruz, so we stuck to a Firestone Double Barrel Ale draft ($3.95), terrific sweet yellow corn cakes ($5.50) and traditional mieng kham ($6.95), a pile of roasted peanuts, lime, shallots, ginger and shaved coconut wrapped in lettuce and topped with a piece of prawn. (But we still took time to say hi to the parakeets in the strangely muraled back patio.)

Then there’s Solano, who has taken the last decade and a half to create the funkiest fusion of art and food this side of San Francisco in Haute Enchilada (633-5843). She’s apparently not content with a dining room and patio spilling with color on the walls, superb halibut Machu Picchu ($26) on the plate, dynamite chile poblano bisques in the bowls ($3.95-$6.95) and “paloma” tequila-juice-agave cocktails in 20-ounce goblets ($14): She has converted a back-lot tin warehouse into a Social Club space bursting with more art and arranged for dancing, dining and drinking – which means weekends come increasingly stacked with tastings, dance classes and live music. The next event is this Saturday, July 27, with lively soul singer Mark Banks ($10 cover), the bar serving and the full Haute menu available in the club building – ahead of Sunday’s big antique fair.

Solano stands outside of the new space to reflect on the vivacity she’s seen evolve as she was born into the Whole Enchilada-Moss Landing Inn family and spent her life here helping cultivate it.

“We have a multitude of wildlife,” she says. “We have great restaurants, a total destination for eco tourism, birding, sailing, kayaking, artists coming nonstop, and it’s peaceful.”

She pauses, smiles, and adds this: “I think we have it all.”

QUICKBITES

•If the live graffiti, DJs, bands, VIP arena, craft beers and 100 wines weren’t enough, the debut WineFest ($40 in advance) at the Fairgrounds Saturday, July 27, also rolls out Sweet & Mellow, We Sushi, Shackmobile and Tricycle Pizza food trucks.

•The 88-second Cajun blackened salmon is somehow as good as it sounds at Big Sur Roadhouse (667-2264). Get tasting notes and pics of a half-dozen dishes on the blog.

•Mundaka (624-7400) officially debuts its Pinxtos Room this weekend with free Basque-style bites for anyone sipping the fly Spanish wines that will rotate through each week. Also, now that Ody’s Tavern can’t keep its lease, Gabe Georis has dibs, and is going in cahoots with brother Nico on a clever bar concept tentatively called Analog (that may change). Low down on the blog.

• Treehouse Cafe (626-1111) hopes to open Sunday, July 26, for breakfast and lunch in Stonehouse Terrace on San Carlos in Carmel, from the same Fadi Alnimri who brought you the Greek-leaning Athena Cafe in Mid Valley and Sakana Sushi in downtown Monterey. (He’s since sold both; Athena remains as strong as ever.) His brothers are behind International Cuisine in P.G. and Dametra Cafe in Carmel; now he’ll apply his own around-the-world approach. Breakfast is all-American – pancakes, Benedicts, best on the patio – from 7:30am, then a mix of Thai, Mediterranean, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Greek. “I can do all this stuff,” he says. “I’m a chef. I love to cook. When I do it from my heart, it comes out awesome.”

•Chef Dylan Bae and Manager Jinhee Park are working to open Sushi Time in the old Pho King in Seaside. Blog has the deets.

• Hallelujah. There is actual (albeit minor) buildout at the Sand City Independent. Developer Patrick Orosco says builders are working out layouts that allow for retailers, bakers and other services in one place, while shopping prospective tenants. “A game of Tetris,” he says. The next Indy pop-up dinner ($25/adult, $10/kid) is 5-8pm Thursday, Aug. 1, with Bigoli Pasta plus Local Catch Monterey seafood, Happy Girl pickles, Sarah Kabat and Michael Marcy wines and Post No Bills beer.

•Kim Stemler is new executive director for Monterey County Vintners & Growers. The 21st Winemakers’ Celebration comes Aug. 10, www.montereywines.org, 375-9400.

• Mi Pueblo (1-888-997-7717) filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Details… on the blog.

•Carmel Belle (624-1600) deploys a pop-up 7pm all the way to 1am Friday, July 26: Custom ramen (starts at $8), beer ($5) and great chefs hand making everything (Sierra Mar’s Yulanda Santos and Elizabeth Murray). Yum.

•Jason Giles, exec chef at Jacks (649-2698), has a new summer menu – and partners with J. Lohr Wednesday, July 31, for a $65, four-course surf-and-turf. Nice value.

• “Food is universal,” James Beard said. “[It] breaks down barriers.”