Stolen Away to Port Costa

Last weekend our friend Greta kidnapped us for a few hours and dragged us to Port Costa. Totally against our will! (Juuuust kidding!) We had no idea where it was, what it was, or why we were going, but boy were we surprised when it turned out to be the kitschiest and teeniest little town we’ve ever seen!

Our first stop was Port Costa’s only coffee shop, which is located inside the town’s only hotel, The Burlington Hotel. Greta introduced us to the owner Earl who, for all we know may be the town’s only Earl. I wouldn’t doubt it. Earl made us three glasses of his delicious pour over coffee. Caffeinated, of course, because the town refuses all decaf coffee, a ban that has my full support! What’s the point in decaf coffee? I will never understand, nor do I want to try.

The cafe serves just a few things: pour over coffee, tea, hot cocoa, pound cake and cornbread drizzled with honey made by Earl and his partner, and (OMG) bacon. What more could you really need, right?

Earl was nice enough to open the hotel for us so we could poke around.

The 130 year old hotel was rumored to have once been a brothel, hence the ladies’ names on the door. And double hence my inviting stance in the photo above. If I were an old-timey lady of the night I’d totally be raking in the dough with that ankle cross.

Next door to the hotel is the Bull Valley Roadhouse, also owned by Earl and his partner. I really wish we could have eaten here, but Mark had a shoot to get to later in the day so we weren’t able to stick around for dinner. We’ll be back for brunch though because, well, I’ll just copy and paste some of the menu items here for you:  fried chicken tenders and cheddar waffle, honey butter, maple / cornmeal and rye waffle, fuji apple, toasted almond, sea salt caramel, whipped cream / slow roasted llano seco pork stew, bloody butcher corn polenta, tomatillo, guajillo chile, sour cream, fried egg. Need I say more?

The Port Costa Village Hat Shoppe. I don’t wear hats, so this place did little for me. You might wear hats, so it may be worth your time. Also, secret bottles of liquor seem to be placed around the shop. You might be into secretly drinking liquor AND wearing hats. If that’s the case this is the shop for you, my friend!

Walking into the Theatre of Dreams really was like walking into a dream world. The best way I can describe it is part Nightmare Before Christmas, part Mary Poppins, part Big Fish, part Wizard of Oz. Does that make sense? Probably not, but just trust me on this one. I wish Mark would have taken more pictures but he was sort of scolded by the lady running the shop for attempting to do so. Apparently the artist is afraid of people not giving her proper credit and ripping off her designs. So let me just say, Wendy Addison of Theatre of Dreams in Port Costa, California: your shop is fantastical.

Next we headed over to the Warehouse Cafe. This biker bar/restaurant/tiki shop/arcade/vintage store is pretty….well, over-stimulating is one way to put it, I guess. There’s a 16 foot stuffed polar bear on display in a giant glass case and they have over 300 different kinds of beers. So bears, beers, bikers. This place has it all.

Port Costa, you totally weird town, you. I can’t wait to kidnap a group of unsuspecting visitors and drag them back here!