New downtown SLO restaurant features creative cocktails, tasty bites and a music vibe
A new downtown restaurant and cocktail bar in San Luis Obispo has opened in the old Sidecar location — and the owners are familiar faces to many locals.
Robin Wolf, a SLO native who ran for City Council in 2020, and her husband Matthew Hanson, who grew up in Los Osos, have launched Highwater — with the motto “Cocktails. Eats. Tunes.”
The new business launched about a month ago with a soft opening at 1127 Broad St., Suite B, two doors down from Big Sky Cafe. Sidecar moved from that location to 1040 Broad St.
The Highwater owners are music lovers, especially rock ‘n roll, and their drink menu is loaded with titles that pay homage to their favorite artists — a “Strawberry Fields Forever” (Beatles) vodka cocktail, an “Island in the Sun” (Weezer) rum drink, and “Rebel Rebel” (David Bowie) habanero tequila.
In keeping with the theme, the decor features a host of famous musicians — with Bowie prominently depicted on the wall behind the bar (Wolf is such a Bowie fan she got a tattoo on her arm the day the musician died).
The owners carefully choose the music played in the background as people dine and chat.
“Part of the dining and drinking is the ambiance, and music is a part of that,” Wolf said. “We really wanted to bring it to the forefront.”
The business features an eclectic menu, including the Reuben lumpia (corned beef, sauerkraut, Gruyère Swiss cheese and Russian dressing) and classic fondue (grilled market vegetables, pretzel bites, Grover Beach sourdough and hot links).
The business was a vision the owners had cultivated for “roughly the past decade,” after they’d opened multiple restaurants for others, Wolf said.
“We want people to know we are a restaurant with an amazing bar program,” Wolf said. “I want to give Chef Nick DeShon’s food all of the credit it deserves. If you take a look at the menu, you’ll see why. We want people to have an amazing dinner and cocktails.”
New York and SLO County
Wolf, 41, and Hanson, 46, spent 10 years in New York City entrenched in the food and beverage industry before returning to their roots in SLO County.
Wolf said the cocktail scene in New York City was in full swing during their time there, and the experience has served as an inspiration ever since returning to their roots.
Wolf has won awards for her concoctions, such as the New Orleans-based Tales of the Cocktail Foundation’s “Official Cocktail” of the Year in 2019, during a period when she oversaw the “cocktail czar” bar program of The Hatch Rotisserie & Bar in Paso Robles.
“You would be hard pressed to find a city that does dinner and drinks better than New York,” Wolf said. “We got to live there during this resurgence of a cocktail movement when people really started caring about drinks again and doing them well. That’s really where I cut my teeth, and it kind of has informed everything I’ve done ever since.”
Wolf said that she and Hanson “moved out to New York to be actors, which meant that we were waiters and bartenders. ... The nice thing about being in New York is that we were there in our 20s, which is really the best time in life to live there.”
Before launching Highwater, she also spearheaded the SLO Bitter Co., a craft bitters company.
Hanson’s experience in restaurant management includes opening the James Beard Award-winning Tertulia in New York.
Wolf said that living outside of SLO helped the couple gain new appreciation for the Central Coast.
“SLO is a really special place, but I think having the experience of leaving home and experiencing a different kind of life was really great in learning to appreciate it even more,” Wolf said.
Wolf, who ran unsuccessfully for SLO City Council in 2020 in support of socially progressive causes and small business, said she’ll dedicate the next couple of years to her restaurant and bypass the 2022 election, but “look out for me in 2024.”
Wolf currently is a member of the city’s Promotional Coordinating Committee, an advisory body.
Food and drink menu
Deshon, the head chef, has a background working at the Hatch and various eateries in Las Vegas, among businesses elsewhere.
“(DeShon’s) projects span the U.S. and include work with Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand and culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Los Angeles,” Highwater’s website notes.
Highwater dishes range in price from a $10 pickle plate to $42 fried chicken. Other entree options include fish and grits, beef bourguignon pot pie, and duck confit lasagna.
The dishes are designed to be creative, seasonal and fun — with appetizers dubbed “Debut Albums” such as mighty cap mushroom doughnuts (with raclette and chive) for $18 and barbecue beef short riblets (with turnip, Carolina gold rice and arugula) for $19.
Cocktails are $14 each and incorporate unusual flavors, some of which come from the kitchen, Wolf said.
“I really like to use culinary ingredients in cocktails that may seem a little out of the norm for some people,” Wolf said. “Some people may look at things like carrot juice or fennel or infusing with tea or making a shrub with chamomile and that may be a little surprising.”
Wolf said: “There are people doing amazing things in SLO (with drinks). This just happens to be my style.”
Business opening
Wolf said the space “checks the boxes” of being downtown and the right size for their operation, with the opportunity to open patio seating, which they plan to set up in the future.
The name Highwater came from multiple inspirations, including the “highwater mark, which is the best you can hit,” and the “cheeky term for booze during Prohibition” and “if the pandemic taught Matt and I anything, it’s this is what we want to do come hell or highwater.”
Highwater is open Wednesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. until close and for brunch on Sundays.
Guests can sit at the bar or dining tables that line the building’s walls.
Guests are asked to make reservations as space tends to become limited, Wolf said.
This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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