New downtown SLO tasting room ‘takes the intimidation out of wine.’ Take a look inside
San Luis Obispo County is home to more than 200 wineries across 17 distinct grape growing areas.
Now you can taste wine made in all 17 areas in just one place: Region.
Nestled under Hotel San Luis Obispo in downtown San Luis Obispo, Region operates as a third-party wine tasting room, showcasing 26 wineries from across San Luis Obispo County.
The new Morro Street business sells products from wineries that either do not have their own tasting rooms or have more remote locations.
“We’re trying to fill that void and gap in the wine industry between very small producers and very large producers,” said Johan Eide, co-founder and owner of Region. “Our whole goal is to make tasting local wine approachable.”
How wine tasting at downtown SLO business works
Region offers 50 locally made wines on tap with dispensers that are activated by cards. Customers can choose to try a taste, a half glass or full glass of wine.
Wine bar employees are available to give recommendations or tell customers more about the various wines as well. If a customer is thinking about visiting a specific area, employees can help them try wines to figure out which wineries they’d like to attend.
Region highlights a different winery each week — offering specialty flights, opportunities to meet the winemaker and food pairing events.
“We connect wine drinkers with winemakers,” Eide said.
Wineries pay Region a membership fee, and all profits made from bottle sales go straight back to the wineries.
Region expands to SLO County from Sebastopol
Region opened its first location in Eide’s hometown of Sebastopol in Sonoma County just before the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, Eide said.
As Cal Poly graduate, Eide said, he’s considered San Luis Obispo a second home. So when Hotel SLO asked if he wanted to expand Region to San Luis Obispo, it felt like “a perfect fit,” he said.
“I always wanted to find like an excuse to move back because I just love it here on the Central Coast,” he said.
It took about two years for Eide and his team to open Region in downtown San Luis Obispo. They networked with wineries throughout the county to see if they wanted to join the tasting room.
“It’s a chess game because I could totally have all west Paso (Robles) producers,” Eide said. “But then you don’t really represent the region, so you have to pick and choose and see who’s going to be a good fit to represent the region.”
Region opened its doors in April, with a soft opening on April 13 and fully opening April 20.
On top of starting the wine bar, Eide and some colleagues did the woodworking inside Region, including creating a light fixture that resembles Bishop’s Peak if it were upside down.
Eide said he wanted Region’s tasting room to have the energy of a craft brewery, with the goal of making wine tasting approachable, casual and easy.
“It takes the intimidation out of wine,” Eide said.
Region is open noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, noon to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, call 805-329-3855 or visit drinkregion.com.
This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 9:02 AM.
