Paso Robles, CA — When you live in the Bay Area, it’s almost automatic that a visit to Wine Country typically means a jaunt to the Napa or Sonoma regions.

Paso Robles Wine Country, on the other hand, may be in the opposite direction. Yet it really isn’t that much farther away in driving distance, especially if you live in Silicon Valley. Even better, it possesses a charm all its own.

I was reminded of that earlier this month when I was invited as a guest of the newly opened The Ava Hotel in Paso Robles. It’s part of the upscale Curio Collection by Hilton.

The location can’t be beat. The Ava is just steps from downtown Paso Robles, which reminds me a lot of Sonoma, with its boutiques, tasting rooms, and restaurants surrounding a central public square.

The hotel possesses a breezy, California vibe with its contemporary decor punctuated by lots of greenery, black metal accents, glossy tiles, and light wood trim. The lobby is especially inviting with deep couches that face a two-sided fireplace that warms up the courtyard patio out front, too.

Like a tasteful, minimalist city apartment, the guest rooms are done up in black, white, and gray tweed.

The hotel has three dining establishments: Pine Street Bistro, past the lobby, that serves breakfast and lunch; EMRE, a wonderful, upscale Mediterranean restaurant; and Esperanza on the Rooftop, an outdoor bar-lounge on the second floor just past the hotel’s pool.

We started our evening at Esperanza, which beckons with its lively bar and relaxed seating, plus fireplaces and long, extended fire pit. At this time of year, it can be pretty chilly, dipping into the low-40s at night. Although Esperanza is covered overhead, it is still open-air on the sides. And while there are overhead heaters, there are too few of them to keep all patrons in the large space comfortably warm. Hopefully, more heaters will be installed.

You can nosh on chips and salsa, Baja fish tacos or make a full meal out of the burger or shrimp burrito.

Wash it down with a Sun-Kissed Margarita ($18) with the blend of tequila, Aperol, aloe liqueur, and lemon juice that’s garnished with a creamy kiwi coconut water foam.

Then, it was time for dinner at EMRE. Hotel restaurants can be hit or miss, with so many of them being okay but nothing memorable. EMRE was such a pleasant surprise. But then it shouldn’t be when you consider that it was created by Chef Julien Asseo, who not only operates two very popular Paso Robles restaurants — Les Petites Canailles and S’Aranella — but is also the former executive chef of Michelin two-starred Restaurant Guy Savoy in Las Vegas.

The restaurant had opened only three weeks before I visited, but you would never know it from how well the food was prepared.

Hummus ($12) is rich and creamy, and boasts the extra touch of crispy chickpeas scattered overtop. Baba ghanoush ($14) is not only smoky but full of umami from black garlic. Zaalouk ($14) is a delectable tumble of crisp and custardy fried eggplant pieces with chunky roasted tomato and cilantro.

When Asseo realized the kitchen didn’t have the bandwith to make its own pita, he hunted high and low until he found the perfect pudgy soft ones from New York that he brings in and serves splendidly warm, of course.

The Emre Salad ($17) is wonderfully fresh, sharp and bright with gem lettuce from Santa Maria’s Babe Farms, crunchy Persian cucumber slices, kalamata olives, feta, a shower of fresh herbs, and a tangy tahini vinaigrette.

The fettucini ($34) is hand-made by nearby Etto Pasta Company, which you should definitely drop by to pick up some fresh and dried pasta to take home. This is pasta in all its dreaminess, supple, silky and creamy with blue crab, lemon, and a butter sauce infused from the flavor prawns.

Peek into the open kitchen to spot the live-fire grill fed by red oak wood that will entice you to order a souvlaki or two. Two skewers are $40; four skewers are $80. For the prime beef, add an extra $8. Same for the large prawns, an additional $6.

The platters are wheeled to the table on a trolley, where a server will slide the proteins off the skewers and onto serving plates atop sangak flatbread to soak up all the natural juices. We sampled the prime beef, Jidori chicken, Kurobuta pork, and shrimp. All were juicy and delicious, with nary a piece overcooked.

The skewers are served with crunchy sumac pickles, spicy zhoug, and creamy tzatziki to dress things up.

A great side dish to accompany all of this is the crispy potatoes ($14), dressed up with creamy, garlicky toum and sweet-spicy harrissa muhamara.

Everything is enjoyed family-style. However, the bread plate at your setting doesn’t necessarily provide ample room to hold the food you help yourself to very well. Hopefully, the staff will switch those out for more salad-plate-sized place settings.

For dessert, the dark chocolate panna cotta ($14) was satisfying, but a bit of a misnomer. While it was deeply chocolatey, the consistency was more dense and torte-like than the wiggly-jiggly one expected.

The Deconstructed Cheesecake ($15) was indeed that with a shower of crispy, golden kataifi shreds covering a mound of what tasted like whipped, airy creme fraiche with maybe some cream cheese in it. While there was candied orange and pistachio, too, it might have benefited from some citrus supremes or a syrupy citrus compote to add more contrast.

For breakfast at the Pine Street Bistro, you order at the counter, get a number, and take a seat at the counter, table, or sofa, where your food will be brought to you.

Pastries, including classic croissants and blueberry muffins, come from the very fine Back Porch Bakery in Atascadero and San Luis Obispo,

You can even get one of those croissants stuffed with ham, a 64-degree egg with an oozy yolk, and a slick of hollandaise in a Croissantwich ($16).

The omlette Lorraine ($20) is fluffy and filled with bacon, onion, and melty Swiss cheese.

I couldn’t get enough of the Bananas Foster pancakes ($16), a stack of fluffy pancakes topped with slices of bruleed bananas, a cloud of whipped cream, and crunchy macadamia nuts.

For lighter appetites, there is a granola bowl ($12) that consists actually of a very generous amount of Greek yogurt topped with a sprinkling of house-made granola and a drizzle of lavender honey.

The next time you think of heading to Wine Country, don’t forget that a very fine one in Paso Robles also beckons.

More: A Visit to Paso Robles, Part II: Michelin-Starred Six Test Kitchen