Table of contents for Waters of the West 2021 in Sunset

Maybe it was the sea air and the strange way it can make food taste better than it does inland, but I’ll never forget the sea urchin fed to me by Stephanie Mutz, the legendary urchin diver who supplies some of the best restaurants in the country with uni (seastephaniefish.com). I was at the Cultured Abalone farm in Santa Barbara, where a million abalone grow, their pearlescent shells shades of turquoise, lavender, and rose (culturedabalone.com). Living alongside the abalone are thousands of purple sea urchins, a species that’s increasingly pushing the prized red sea urchins out of their territory. Pulling the purples from the ocean and finishing them here makes but a dent in rebalancing the populations, but the results are preposterously delicious. Fed a steady, impeccable diet of seaweed…

We’re professed fans of Japanese outdoor brand Snow Peak. With minimalist aesthetics and a subdued color palette, the brand’s collection of apparel, cooking equipment, tents, and other outdoor gear is both elegantly technical and just darned good-looking. When we found out they were opening Takibi, a camping-inspired restaurant across the street from their United States headquarters in Portland, we started researching flights to PDX. While the space, designed by local architecture firm Skylab, is meant to evoke the feeling of camping (a wood-fired hearth, airy wide open spaces, abundant exposed wood, folding camp chairs and tables on the patio), the results are anything but themey. That wood-fired hearth turns out Japanese-influenced dishes like grilled miso-marinated trout and koji-cured amberjack from kaiseki-trained chef Alex Kim. The beautiful, expertly made cocktails are…

Vietnamese iced coffee (cà phê sữa đá) is everything you’d want in a summer drink. Made with strong coffee and sweetened condensed milk served over ice, it’s roasty, fortifying, creamy, refreshing, and unforgettable. While it’s everywhere in its home country, in the United States it’s never quite gone mainstream. But a trio of California companies is looking to flip that on its head, with a focus on high-quality ingredients, modern brewing methods, and adaptations to American ways of coffee-drinking. “I want a Vietnamese coffee that I could sell in Whole Foods” is how Debbie Wei Mullin recalls the beginnings of her company, Copper Cow Coffee. “It has to be organic, it has to be no chemicals or artificial ingredients. And people laughed at me—they were like, ‘That doesn’t exist.’” That…

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When real-estate developer Anyeley Hallová approached Thomas Robinson of Lever Architecture about updating her family’s Prairie-style house in Northeast Portland, the frequent collaborators were already communicating in a kind of shorthand. For years, Robinson and the Lever team had been working with Hallová on a number of projects with a sharp focus on sustainability, and on providing economic opportunities for minority communities in the Portland area. So it was no surprise they were quickly on the same page with a plan to preserve a grand old clinker brick home, in a culturally significant Black neighborhood, without turning it into a fusty restoration. “The house was built in the 1920s, and owned by the African-American family of one of the first longshoremen in the area,” say Hallová, who is Ghanaian-American and…

Achingly beautiful Tomales Bay sits at the nexus of so much that embodies the Northern California culinary dream—abundant seafood, artisanal cheese, organic farms on picturesque rolling hills with views of the sea—and Nick’s Cove and Cottages is where it all coalesces on a perfectly ramshackle jetty jutting out into the sea. Ever since a Croatian immigrant named Nick Kojich opened a little seafood restaurant in an old herring-curing facility and started renting out waterfront cottages by the night, road trippers on Highway 1 have had a place to eat shrimp cocktail, gaze out at the water, and enjoy a view that’s barely changed for 90-some years. But what has changed is the quality of the food, an evolution jumpstarted in the late 1990s when Bay Area restaurateurs Pat Kuleto and…

Food-obsessed travelers tend to romanticize culinary epiphanies in faraway places: eating Hokkaido scallop at a Ginza sushi spot in Tokyo, fresh anchovies on a sun-dappled deck on the Amalfi coast, cuttlefish in the bustling Boqueria market in Barcelona. But with summer here and international travel still iffy, it’s the ideal time to dive into the piscine pleasures—and otherwise—of California’s central coast. Restaurants new and old have reopened, the fishing industry is bouncing back, and boutique hotels are cropping up along the 101 and Highway 1, making a seafood sojourn easier than ever. To maximize views, meals, and city stops, set aside three to five nights, bookend your trip south in Santa Barbara and north in Santa Cruz, and you’ll never have to drive much longer than three hours. Hug the…

Kimpton Armory Hotel Bozeman The luxury hotel in the heart of downtown Bozeman was built in 1941 to accommodate the Bozeman National Guard. Today, the Armory retains many of the original structure’s Art Deco elements, which blend effortlessly with Kimpton’s signature amenities. Exceptional service, handsome rooms and suites, and a rooftop bar and pool overlooking the surrounding mountain ranges make the Armory an easy choice. armoryhotelbzn.com. All Valley Anglers Outfitting Co. Our incredibly smooth trip on the Madison River wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for our river guide, Gene White, owner of All Valley Anglers. A lifelong fisherman who calls the Madison Valley home, White provides tailored fly-fishing adventures on southwestern Montana’s rivers and lakes. Half- and full-day packages, as well as exclusive lodging, are available. Options…

To love riding bikes is not the same as being a cyclist. I watch narrow, Lycra-clad women and men pedal fiercely up steep roads and think that what they’re doing has nothing to do with enjoying the day on a great bike. My sentimental journey with bicycles began in childhood, like most of them do, navigating town from a banana-seat model that had tiny ants painted on the chain guard. Later, a red ten-speed offered a taste of freedom, a way to get to the public pool and then my first job at a grocery store. I rode to my first college football game propped on a handsome senior’s handlebars. In my twenties, I won a pair of Schwinns in a raffle, and lugged one of them up and down…

LIVEWIRE COCKTAILS CO. Honeydew Collins (7.5% ABV) Los Angeles, California The Honeydew Collins, created by Los Angeles bartender Joey Bernardo, is an elevated spin on the piña colada. Coconut, honeydew, lime leaf, and elderflower balance out the gin and make for a cocktail that tastes like a day at the beach. ZADDY’S Corpse Reviver (4.5% ABV) Petaluma, California A take on the original Corpse Reviver from the 1800s, Zaddy’s replaces the traditional brandy with gin to make the drink lighter and adds orange, lemon peel, fennel, nutmeg, and coriander for punch. At only 100 calories, this is a guilt-free canned cocktail to enjoy all summer long. COCKTAIL SQUAD Whiskey Ginger (5% ABV) Boulder, Colorado Cocktail Squad has packaged up the classic whiskey ginger with organic ingredients and clocks in at…

When Andrew Bird and Katherine Tsina moved into their home in Los Angeles, a vaguely Craftsman 1920s house typical of the mashup architecture of the era, the backyard was, as Bird puts it, “a bit confused.” Having gone through many iterations over the decades, it was dotted with fruit trees, a neglected patch of grass, a massive avocado tree, an abundance of wisteria, and various incongruous plantings. It was lush and overgrown, “like a romance novel,” says Bird. Bird, the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter, and Tsina, a fashion designer, wanted something that better suited their aesthetic. They longed for a calming retreat in the middle of the city that channeled the feeling of a countryside vacation, specifically an Etruscan house where they spent part of a summer in Tuscany. Plus, they wanted…

When it comes to buying, furnishing, and even painting houses, Jeni Maus is an act-now-think-later kind of person. It’s a tactic that serves her well—most of the time. Maus has honed these speed-round, impulsive skills on buying trips around the world, from Round Top, Texas, to Belgium, where she’ll snap up shipping containers full of chairs, tables, and accessories for Found Rental Co., her Fullerton, California–based home staging, prop, and event rentals business. “On my first buying trip to the Brimfield Antique Market in Massachusetts, my husband and two kids dropped me off at 5 a.m. and picked me up at 6 p.m. I spent $6,000 and couldn’t burn through that money fast enough,” she says. Even the decision to start the company was made in minutes. Her husband, Joel,…

THE LAST TIME Emma Goodwin was at the apiary, a swarm of bees flew up the sleeves of her shirt and stung her up and down the arms. “The pain was unbearable,” the co-owner of Malibu’s Surfrider Hotel remembers. She kept two bowls of ice water at the front desk to dunk her arms in between checking in guests. “I’d look up with my arms soaking in these big bowls and say with a smile, ‘Welcome to the Surfrider!’” Such is the glamorous life of the hotelier behind the hotel that in the past few years has established itself as one of the most quintessential Southern California coastal retreats. Today Emma is keeping her distance from those hives as she crouches in the brush with a pocket knife, trimming bunches of…

With a flick of his wrist, Eduardo Garcia slingshots the bait meticulously fastened to his fly-fishing rod 40 feet upriver. The flexible, antenna-like rod catapults the weighted line with ease. Standing knee-deep in Montana’s Madison River, Garcia lands his cast with precision in a patch that, just moments before, was brimming with surfacing trout enjoying a feast of ghost flies. Each bank of the river reverberates with a chorus of red-winged blackbirds, their song a symphony joined by the soothing, ever-present rush of the Madison. Beyond one bank, an expansive grassland stretches for miles until abruptly confronted by snow-capped peaks that loom over a distant herd of whitetail deer in full gallop from an unseen instigator. On the other, the gurgling croak of a raven announces the predator’s robbery of…

“Absolutely my favorite way to cook fish for fish tacos is pescado frito,” says Garcia. “My father taught my brother and me, as his father taught him—six known generations of fishermen! Any whitefish like snapper or bass will work fine. Our family favorite is the Rocky Mountain whitefish, a member of the trout family that can be sustainably acquired throughout its native home in the Rocky Mountains. The fish is scaled, scored, and rubbed with sea salt and lime before being fried whole in a sea of crushed garlic. The crispy meat is pulled and wrapped inside a warm corn tortilla with habanero salsa. This is Papi’s Pescado Frito, and once you’ve eaten one with your hands it becomes something never to be forgotten.” SERVES 4 TO 6 1–2 whole…

SAND HARBOR STATE PARK, LAKE TAHOE “It’s one thing to look out and see Lake Tahoe, but it’s a complete other feeling being able to experience it on the water. Looking at the crystal blue emerald waters and big mountains around you. or kayaking or paddleboarding Tahoe this is an easy put in spot. Come summer, I pack my Lakeshore paddleboards, sunscreen, and personal flotation device. The pro move is to get there early, like 7 a.m., before the parking lot is full. The east shore has some of the best views. You can paddle for miles on a good day. Afterwards, hit Moe’s Original BBQ for the best wings and cold beer right on the lake.” LAKE SABRINA, CALIFORNIA “I was procrastinating driving back to L.A. and saw a…

All Regions HARVEST Freeze excess vine-ripened tomatoes for winter use. After washing them, cut out the cores, cut them into quarters, and place them on a cookie sheet so the pieces don’t touch. When they’re frozen, transfer them to bags or containers for use as desired. The peel will slip off easily when the tomato pieces begin to thaw. MAINTAIN Hoe planting beds regularly. Just a few minutes per week can keep a garden bed weed-free and prevent hours of hand weeding later. We like the diamond hoe, which cuts on both push and pull strokes. If you use overhead sprinklers, water very early in the morning so leaves dry out during the day. Foliage that stays wet overnight is vulnerable to fungus and diseases. Plus, watering before dawn reduces…

TAKE IT ON THE ROAD “I’m always looking for thrift stores around me wherever I am, on vacation, a work trip, on a road trip,” says Maus. “I literally search ‘thrift stores near me’ and there’s always something.” FORGET A SHOPPING LIST Don’t go into a shop, flea market, or antique store with the intent of finding something specific. “I keep my eyes and my options open,” she says. “And I never, ever think, Where can I put this? If I love it, I buy it, and surely I will figure it out.” USE YOUR GUT AS YOUR GUIDE “If I take a second look at something, I buy it,” Maus says. “If I take too much time contemplating an item, then I know I should walk away. Don’t overthink…