Birthdays are my FAVORITE — I love all the planning, celebrating, and cake-eating. My hubs golden birthday was this year, so I decided it was time for a big birthday surprise. In honor of the 26th birthday festivities, I put together a weekend getaway to one of our all time favorite cities, San Luis Obispo! The weekend itinerary included beer, sandwiches, barbecue — basically anything I could think of that Elliot loves! While our SLO trips typically involve lots of wine & cute cafés, I wanted to put together a weekend that was guy-focused (ok, there was still some wine involved though). Read on for my favorite tips for the best guy-centered things to do on the Central Coast!
The weekend started off on Friday with a tour & tasting at Firestone Walker Brewing in Paso Robles. If you haven’t stopped at their flagship campus yet, make sure you do so next time you’re on the Central Coast! Over the years their brewery has gone through some major expansions, so it was fun getting to visit and see all of the progress.
After the tour we checked into our darling room at The Butler Hotel. This gem can best be described as Airbnb meets hotel; it’s an intimate self-service hotel with impeccable design. We were in Room 5 (important to note if you want one of the quieter rooms!), and were greeted with complimentary wine in the lobby. I would highly recommend this spot if you’re looking for a local spot to stay — one of my favorite parts of the trip was cozying up in the living room with a glass of wine, listening to old records! They have a complimentary mini breakfast in the morning as well complete with muffins, fruit and personal French press coffee. Their garden patio was a great spot to sip Saturday morning mimosas, too!
Next up on the agenda was SLO Craft Beerfest! We headed to the Madonna Inn Expo Center and spent the afternoon trying all of the craft beer, cider & bites we could imagine. I’m pretty sure Elliot was in beer heaven.
The rest of the weekend consisted of eats & drinks at our favorite spots around town. We stopped at Libertine Coffee Bar for coffee (also a brewery that brews wild ales) and discovered that breakfast tots are a thing, which seemed like the most boyish breakfast I could think of. Sidecar Cocktail Co. was our Friday happy hour spot, which can’t be beat with $7 craft cocktails. And since the weekend was basically all about beer, we managed to stop at a few of the brew spots in downtown SLO including SLO Brew and Barrelhouse. We also had one of the best brunches of all time at Granada — if you’re looking for a fun avo toast you MUST try theirs! And of course a trip to SLO wouldn’t be complete without stops at our two local favorites, Lincoln Deli & Firestone Grill.
So there you have it — the ultimate guy’s weekend in SLO (as planned by a wife lol). If there’s one thing I learned from this whole trip, it’s that this may have been my first & last planned surprise! I found myself losing sleep over it all since I didn’t want to keep it a secret!
Best Guy Weekend Spots in SLO
• Firestone Walker Brewing Company
