Napa Valley, watch your back

MARY McNAMARA’s article featuring the Dolphin Bay Hotel in Shell Beach was excellent [“Cushy on the Central Coast,” Weekend Escape, Aug. 6].

She also might have mentioned the hotel’s excellent Sunday brunch ($29), which offers good selections, well-prepared, with well-trained servers. They even check to change silverware during the meal.

Of course, we have many more excellent hotels, motels and restaurants here in the central part of the Central Coast, (Pismo, Nipomo, Santa Maria and Orcutt) including Giuseppi’s and Rosa’s in Pismo Beach.

To paraphrase Robert Parker’s judgment of our vineyards, it is only a matter of time until our area’s vineyards and cuisine surpass those of Napa Valley.

DAN DAVIS

Santa Maria

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YOUR story on the Central Coast was indeed a city slicker’s typical weekend getaway, but mostly I couldn’t help but sympathize with the family’s search for takeout food in the little town of Shell Beach.

Fear not! Shell Beach has a wonderful Italian market [DePalo & Sons] two doors from the Dolphin Bay Hotel with all sorts of cold and hot food prepared fresh daily that would have filled the gap. It was right under their noses.

Our experience on the Central Coast is this: Downtown Pismo Beach is fun, but Shell Beach is R&R; at its finest.

RAY AND ROXIE HOLM

Westlake Village