Rethink Restaurants–Roots on Railroad

**Originally written pre-COVID19**

Have you ever looked back on a moment and thought, “Wow, I was in the right place at the right time”? Well, this serendipitous encounter happened to my travel buddy and I a couple of weeks ago. Because we can and should, we decided to spend the day together discovering the best places on the Central Coast to wine, dine, and explore. Our entire family loves camping so our end destination was San Simeon to check out one of the campgrounds near Hearst Castle that we have been hearing a lot of great things about.

The first leg of our little date day began in Paso Robles. Paso Robles is just busting at the wineskins with gourmet eateries, upscale boutique hotels, and, oh ya, wineries. Our first stop was Ancient Peaks because their Instagram post that morning was about $1 glasses of Rose. We figured that if Rose is all day then getting to the tasting room at 11:00 wasn’t too early to start our day. We enjoyed an amazing glass of cold Rose on their soft, outdoor seating area soaking in the warmth of the sun. By now it was about lunchtime, so we headed into Paso Robles and passed by an extremely cool looking corner that used to have the famed pizza joint, Chubby Chandlers. It was packed with people which is always a great sign. The day was bright and sunny but not too Paso hot. We found a place to park which is no small feat on a holiday Friday. The city of Paso charges for parking all over the city but they do offer a two-hour free parking pass. I registered my license plate and got my free parking pass and we headed over to the corner of 13th Street and Railroad. 

Roots on Railroad shares this corner of Paso with The Backyard, a family-friendly (and dog-friendly) outdoor beer garden and social meeting place located in the heart of downtown Paso Robles in the artsy Railroad district owned by a couple, Amy and Russell Baker. I will talk more about the Backyard in a later blog.

Roots on Railroad is the work of Chris Beckett, former Executive Chef of the famed Fish Gaucho in Paso Robles and Katie Castillo, the mastermind behind Roots Derailed, a healthy food prep delivery service. Mind you I did not know this scrumptious little tidbit when we decided to eat lunch. It wasn’t until after, when I began doing a little digging for this blog, that I discovered Chris and Katie just opened on this day. Now you understand what I said about being in the right place at the right time!

To help describe the culinary experience Chris explains, “we are not a food truck and we do not offer table service. We do offer highly sourced ingredients, served at high-end restaurant standards with more affordable pricing that is family-friendly.” I do believe that Chef Chris knows a thing or two about high-end restaurant standards. He has done his time in many high-end restaurants from Pasadena to Yountville. He has also assisted in opening several popular restaurants on the Central Coast. His passion and curiosity for food began at nine years of age when Chris would create his recipes. These recipes would be perfected while training at Le Cordon Bleu. His lobster mac and cheese is ripped from a page out of his cookbook.   “My philosophy with Roots On Railroad is revisiting street food and celebrating food quality while offering it at a modestly prepared price point.” Chef Chris told Matt of Hoot n’ Annie Wine Country. (http://www.threeadventure.com/hootnannie/2019/10/04/qa-with-chris-beckett/)

Roots on Railroad is made up of four buildings on the corner lot. The buildings are containers converted into very cool spaces. The kitchen container is covered with grey stucco and is precisely placed at a 45-degree angle to the corner making a very hospitable entrance. Place your order at the window and grab a number. The last sentence sounds so simple, “place your order”, but the food is described so well that you want to order everything on the menu. The lobster roll sounded amazing and the gentleman that shared our table ordered it and said it was heaven. We opted to split the smash burger, an in-house ground beef chuck, short rib, and brisket seared on the flat top grill, with grill glitter and American cheese, butter leaf lettuce, house-smoked heirloom tomatoes on a toasted brioche bun. I am salivating as I relive the amazing flavors bouncing around in my mouth. The smash burger is served with house-made potato chips. I am certain those are amazing, but we opted for the truffle fries. Of course, to off-set the glorious fries, we ordered the Harvest Salad, a generous portion of quinoa, butternut squash, mixed greens, goat cheese, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, pickled red onions lightly dressed with a maple dijon dressing. 

You can also order the Harvest Salad as a meal by adding chicken. After placing our order, we excitedly ambled out to the outdoor space which is a shared patio with The Backyard. The Backyard is where you get your adult beverages.

The food was just positively unbelievable. I rank this burger as the top two on the Central Coast. What would have made it number one on my list you may wonder. If I would have ordered my own instead of splitting with my bestie.

According to the Roots on Railroad website, they have ceased serving food at this time but will open back up when it is safe to do so and when the county has given the go ahead. Until then, plan your visit now. Roots typically serves Breakfast Friday – Sunday 8 am – 11 am and Lunch & Dinner every day 11:00 am – 9 pm.