✨ 🌲 December things ... 🎅🏼 ✨ 📸 1-4: The “Rock 12 Days of Christmas” at @rock12distillery near Lompoc featured holiday cocktails in the tasting room and around the firepit, both offering views of the Sta. Rita Hills and the night sky. (No need to feel FOMO: Santa Barbara County’s first estate distillery is open year ‘round for by-appointment tours and tastings with owners Sarah and Marko Suput. Its copper still was made in Serbia, where members of Marko’s family have been distilling for decades. Ziveli!) 🇷🇸 🍸 🥃 pictured here: A peppermint espresso martini made with @zacacoffee cold brew and an @astermadegoods marshmallow garnish, and the distillery’s version of a Hot Toddy. Featuring the distillery’s estate apple and quince brandies, it was the craft-spirit version of a drink my Dad used to make for me as a kid whenever I had a bad cold. 📸 5: @Frontside_cafe in Ventura celebrated its fifth anniversary early in the month by bringing back two of its greatest-hit specials: the Frontside burger and lemon ricotta pancakes. Love ‘em both, but I love the cafe’s regular-menu Aussie meat pie even more. 🇦🇺 A culinary tip of the hat from Ventura-born chef/owner Joel Huff to his Australian wife and cafe partner, Charne Huff, the meat pie has been on the menu from the cafe’s earliest days, when we were still ordering everything to go and eating in our cars. It’s only gotten bigger and better since then, so, when I heard that local artist @d_e_n_a_i had made miniature ceramic Frontside meat pies as Christmas ornaments for sale at the cafe, I ran down to buy one of each. 🥧 🌲 😉 📸 6: A naughty but nice Bad Santa Cocoa at @rocks_and_drams in @downtownventura . The mix of whiskey, cinnamon and hot cocoa with a maple-mallow foam topper in a petite Santa mug is part of a holiday popup that runs through the first week of January. 📸 7: There’s (almost) nothing that a chile relleno omelet with hash browns and a biscuit from @theworkerbeecafe in Carpinteria can’t fix. . . ⬇️Additional caption info in comments⬇️ . . . . #805foodie #805 #eeeeats #instagood #instafood