Enjoy the Ava While Exploring Paso Robles

Rooftop bar serving stylish Mexican food next to a pool. Lobby bistro with full bar and trendy breakfast dishes. Chef-directed restaurant with moody lights and metropolitan mood. This combination of extravagances in one place was not on the Paso Robles menu until the Ava Hotel opened last fall, bringing to this Central Coast wine country downtown a recognizably big-city hotel experience.

The region’s evolution from drive-through cow town to must-stop on California’s wine circuit continues to move at lightspeed, as the rapid development that’s changed the scene dramatically over the past two decades does not cease. But the 151-room Ava hits a new benchmark, bringing the inclusive, all-you-want style of lodging right to the edge of Paso’s central square.

I can say as much with some confidence because I stayed there three times in its first six months. It’s where wineries are sending their guests, where conferences are converging, and where locals are gathering to check out the latest menu by Julien Asseo, whose Levant-leaning Emre is the third offering he’s created since opening Les Petites Canailes in 2019 and S’Aranella in 2025, both only a five-minute walk away.

I’ve stayed in an opulent two-room, full-bathtub suite, where a couple wine pros and I sipped on bottles before eating upstairs at the Baja-inspired restaurant Esperanza on the Rooftop. Then I stayed in a smaller room amid a multi-day tour that involved eating at Emre, where I started on a Greek yogurt–washed gin cocktail while digging into artfully arranged crudo, amply dressed salad, and smoky Ibérico pork souvlakis. And most recently I stayed there again after winning the Firestone Walker anniversary beer-blending competition — though I was too late for the bar, because it was 9:01 p.m. and the bar closes at 9, even when the rest of the place was buzzing.

That was one indication that we were still in Paso, where the sidewalks roll up earlier than elsewhere. If striving to be a true urban overnight affair, it might be wise to let a hotel guest in for one drink even if they’re one minute late, especially with guests still getting food. And probably fire up the Bloody Marys in the lobby bistro by the morning, too, the lack of which frustrated a conference attendee who ate breakfast next to me one morning while instead drinking Bud Lights.

But those are minor quibbles. That lobby restaurant, the Pine Street Bistro, serves that sort of healthy but hearty enough fare common in San Francisco hotels, and they go all day: BLTs, burgers, and chicken sandos at lunch, for instance, and snacks such as trout dip and crispy chickpea during the evening hours.

If you haven’t made a res at Emre, or just want something casual and al fresco, then Esperanza is your amigo. The seats on couches can be a little awkward when trying to stuff pork belly tacos in your grill, but the welcome effect is that sense of lounging in your friend’s backyard — albeit one with a full lineup of margaritas to explore as well as ahi tostadas and carnitas fries. I wound down one night there at the beautiful bar, which peeks at the sunset on one side and the rooftop pool scene on the other.

Comforts and cuisine aside, the Ava’s allure is that oft repeated adage of location times three. The central square of Paso Robles is more alive than ever, but it’s been a gathering place since the times of outlaw Jesse James and composer Ignacy Paderewski, both former residents. It’s lit up like crazy during the holidays, frequented by all ages of playground users and picnic pros every day, and surrounded by an ever-evolving collection of restaurants and retailers.

Just steps from the Ava’s front door are two newer entries to the downtown wine scene, which has provided a diverse non-driving tasting option for more than a decade now. Hope on Park offers three totally different tasting areas: the casual Sidewalk Bar and the “Creative Space,” which is really two spaces, one like a living room in an art gallery with chairs and couches, the other like an upscale diner, with long banquettes. That’s where guests can trick themselves by tasting wine in opaque stemware, or do vertical cab samplings, or pair wines with new treats from the Hope Provisions Co.

Around the corner is the just-opened Paso Bottle Shop, a public-market-y space featuring tasting rooms for Nenow Family Wines, Midpoint Winery, and Rockbound Cellars, with Hayseed and Housdon across the parking lot. Also coming are a new outlet for Goshi’s Japanese cuisine and a brick-and-mortar location for Chef Rachel Ponce’s restaurant Staviary.  

If you do want to drive from the Ava’s spacious parking lot into the surrounding wine country, the choices remain a bit bewildering. But if you want to focus on just one region, there are a lot of unique experiences happening right now in the Adelaida District. Try eye-opening Greek varieties farmed by Boutz Cellars, catch a lunch tour — possibly in a vintage Range Rover —around the remote Hawks Hill Ranch Winery, pair finely tuned small bites to inventively crafted wines at Le Cuvier, and get to know the friendly yet infectiously passionate couple Varinder and Anita Sahi, who run Copia Vineyards. Tell all of these people I sent you.

A bit closer to town, but still feeling like a world away, Kaleidos Winery hosts homemade and meticulously developed cupcake pairings on the deck outside of their own home, overlooking all of the Willow Creek District. You can’t miss the recently reenvisioned complex that was built as Eagle Castle, then became Tooth & Nail, and now is called The Anderson Paso. A number of top wineries now share a custom crush facility called The Fortress on site  — and they can all be tasted there — but the castle is now a full-on restaurant serving cocktails and Southern-influenced Californian cuisine by Chef Logan Ring.   

If you’d rather skip the wine but still catch the country-meets-culinary vibes, head out to Pasolivo, which just won more awards at the Los Angeles Olive Oil Competition. Oh, and Sensorio is still blowing nighttime minds with its electric light extravaganza, no one can stop talking about the downtown jazz club Libretto, and the Paso Robles Inn just relaunched the Cattlemen’s Bar, under the umbrella of globally renowned restaurateur Charlie Palmer. Yep, even he’s put Paso on his radar.

The Ava makes a solid headquarters for all of this, whether you do it all over the course of a long weekend or just hole up on the property, hitting the pool in between meals at all three restaurants. And don’t miss their ice machines — certainly the coolest thing on site.

See theavahotel.com.