A Grand Olde Tyme in Julian

Just back from a weekend away in San Diego County’s Julian, California, where we puttered through antique stores, strolled through golden grasses, sipped homegrown wines…and ate our fill of apple pie.

For us, it’s fair to say that Fall has finally fallen.

For my birthday, which was just last week, I asked Adam if we could go apple picking.  Rather than looking to recapture my childhood, I was hoping for a taste of autumn with no need of a plane.  What I’d had in mind was a day in Riverside County’s Oak Glen; what I got was a lot more fun.

In investigating Oak Glen, Adam found that basically…there were no more apples.  The Southern California apple season has been getting shorter in the last decade, and the harvest is now pretty much tapped by the second weekend in October.  (Early September is your best bet for a great haul.)  Julian, though, still claimed to have some apples for the picking, so he decided to make a weekend of it for us.

To reach Julian from L.A., you take the 5 South to the 78 East, an approximately three-hour drive.  From San Diego, it’s closer to two hours:  Take the 8 East to the 79, and follow signs to Julian.

In order to accommodate both us and our Corgi, Toby, Adam (with the help of his trusty assistant, Lucas) found dog-friendly Julian lodgings at Orchard Hill Country Inn.  The Inn has a separate, fully-restored 1920’s Cottage which ostensibly sleeps four, but it proved the perfect homey, cozy spot for the three of us to stretch out and unwind.  It practically hugs you when you walk in the door.  There’s a full kitchen, one bath, and a DVD player, and trust us:  You haven’t lived ’til you’ve watched Katt Williams: The Pimp Chronicles, Pt. 1 in a country-cute living room.  (Thanks to my friend Samantha Corbin-Miller for the hilarious birthday present.)

In addition to proximity to the Inn, the adorable Julian Tea & Cottage Arts and Blue Heron garden shop (2116 3rd Street), the Cottage features a driveway parking spot.  The curb lip is pretty high and parking is best managed with only the driver’s weight, but you’ll still be grateful:  During the busy month of October, it can be a real challenge to find street parking in Julian.

This time of year, the biggest draw to this small, sleepy town isn’t so much its Gold Rush-era storefronts as it is pie.  Apple pie, apple pie al la mode, apple-pumpkin — you can keep going, Forrest Gump-style, all day long.  By noon, visitors are lined up as many as 40 deep in front of the Julian Pie Company, Mom’s, the Julian Cafe & Bakery, and Apple Alley.

By 4:30 in the afternoon last Saturday, lines had disappeared from the first three…but so had the pies. But Adam braved the queue at still-hopping Apple Alley, and now that we’ve sampled the dense, cinnamon-y just-plain-apple, it’s fair to say we can die happy.  (Someday.  Many, many years from now.)

While in the heart of Main Street, we sampled the (disappointing) barbecue at the Bailey Woodpit (2307 Main Street); we loved the wood-plank front porch and the bacon-baked beans, but on our $15 plates, the biscuits were leaden, the chicken dry, the ribs fatty, and the BBQ sauce thin and lacking in spark and spice.  A visit to the Julian Cider Mill, though, wiped the slate clean; bright, sweet and $1 a cup, the apple cider here is spectacular.

We had started our day with apples and wine on the brain, heading over to Julian Orchards Drive.   Patrick Brady, the vagabond Irish farmer/sculptor of Raven Hill Orchard had assured Lucas by phone just the day before that he’d be open for picking; however, arriving early on Saturday, we found the dwarf trees here all but bare.  Brady had tart green apples for sale by the bag (which we bought, out of misplaced guilt), but the only fruit we found in the wild were tiny, bruised and had already fallen to the ground.  Turns out, though, that Corgis love to not only chase apples…but to munch them, as well.

Consoling ourselves with a little local wine, we headed one minute down the road to the Menghini Winery, one of the oldest vintners in these parts.  Eschewing oak barrels for casks of gleaming stainless steel, Menghini offers several wines that vary widely in quality.  While they’re very proud of their one-note syrupy dessert wine, only the unusual, berry-tinged syrah was a winner for us.  Back up and across the road from Raven Hill, the family-owned J. Jenkins Winery was even less inspiring; the Dolcezza apple wine is little more than fizzy fruit water, and most of the single-grape varietals are so rough they should be declared salad dressing.  But Adam stayed on until the (literally) bitter end, and (in a continuation on a theme) declared their smooth syrah a success.

Heading back into town along Highway 78, Calico Ranch Orchard was hopping, chock full of apple fans on the pick.  However, we were daunted by the melee in the parking lot and the rows, and besides…we’d just bought a whole bag of apples.  We stopped instead in Wynola Junction Antiques & Collectibles, a hodgepodge of historical treasures. This is the perfect place to find a 1930s diamond ring, an Italian marble mortar & pestle, 400 different kinds of salt and pepper shakers, vintage cameras or an authentic Hamburglar cookie jar.

We (sadly) missed out on the nearby Trains & Toys shop, but enjoyed the cheery Mitchell Studio next door, featuring the stunning handmade glass and ceramic creations of local artist Charlotte Mitchell.  We waffled over having dinner at the adjacent Jeremy’s on the Hill, run by a 22 year-old Cordon Bleu graduate and featuring seasonal produce, but ultimately chose the elegant fare (and drive-free location) back at Orchard Hill.

Continued in
Whiling Away at Lake Cuyamaca
and
Desert California: From Anza-Borrego to the Salton Sea

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