San Antonio Winery & Malbec

It was a beautiful day to enjoy a great lesson on Kylie. She was feeling good and that is always a great way to start off my day.


I've been wanting to check out San Antonia Winery ever since I heard about it. It is the last of more than one hundred producing wineries that once lined the Los Angeles River Basin. They survived Prohibition by providing wine for the sacrament to the Catholic church. The Winery was founded in 1917 by Santo Cambianica and has been in continuous operation for over 80 years. They buy their grapes from various vineyards throughout California and make the wine here in downtown LA.

It was pretty crowded BUT we got excellent service for the wine tasting, which is free. It has a Spanish mission-theme atmosphere and the wine is onnly so-so. I think I am spoiled by wine tasting in Santa Ynez. We tried four wines 1) San Simeon Pinot Noir, Monterey 2) San Simeon Petite Sirah, Paso Robles 3) Maddalena Zinfindel 4) San Simeon Syrah (Limited Bottling), Paso Robles, 2004

We passed on the restaurant which looked like cafeteria style. You walk in and on the table is a display of cellophane wrapped dishes featuring their menu items of the day (real food). It's an odd way to present food and didn't look very appetizing. I do not know what they do with all that food at the end of the day but I hope they eat it or donate because that is a lot of waste if they don't.

One more stop in LA...
World Trade Center Memorial at the LAFD's Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center in Elysian Park. The 23-ton, approximately 22-foot tall steel column was originally part of the lobby structure of the World Trade Center. Believed to be the largest remnant of the attacks on the west coast, it now rests safely on reinforced concrete pilings that sink nearly 30 feet below ground at the LAFD's Training Center.
We headed back to Pasadena to Malbec, new Argentinean cuisine, which had been recommended by friends. It did not disappoint! We sat outside along Green Street. We started off with Costa Patagonia (Grilled Shrimps, Calamari, and scallops served with a paprika garlic sauce). Tender and delicious. I had the Sole and Chad had the Skirt Steak Chimichurri. They were both prepared perfectly, the service was personable and friendly. The waiter recommemded a malbec wine and it was also a good choice. We enjoyed it so much, we made a reservation for Mother's Day next week.

Is it wierd that I took pictures of our food?

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