Paso Robles: It's Olive Time

The oil-tasty festival scooches up the calendar, from August to June.

TWO PARTIES, ONE TINY FRUIT: It can be exciting, if a tad frustrating, when you find out two favorite bands are playing over the same weekend but a few hours apart. What to do? The answer is A) be happy that your musical taste is so popular and widespread, and plan your weekend hopping-about accordingly. Nope, there's no B) here, for A) should truly say it all. The same theory can apply to favorite foodstuffs, specifically foodstuffs that are full of legend and flavor and boast many uses. For example, A) the olive. There are some B) choices, when it comes to flavor and legend and multiple uses, but let us focus solely upon the storied small fruit, the pit-rocking icon of tapenade-centered dishes, the glistening goodie that makes its eponymous oil so famous and famously loved. Why the focus? The olive will rule the school in two separate but semi-close places over the first weekend in June, with a Saturday, June 4 party in Los Olivos, and a festival in Paso Robles on June 4 and 5.

FORMERLY OF AUGUST: Indeed, the Olive Festival has traditionally landed in August, but the 2016 party will spread evenly out, like the aforementioned tapenade on a cracker, over an early-in-June Saturday and Sunday. There shall be olive oils to taste, and wine to enjoy, and beer to sip, and an Open Olive Dish Cooking Contest, and gratis Olive Oil ice cream (which almost feels/tastes creamier than the traditional stuff). Shall there be savory eats, too? This is wine country, so count on it. Should you make for Downtown City Park in Paso? That's the picturesque heart of the olive-flavorful festival. Should you start plotting how you'll make both Los Olivos and Paso Robles over the same weekend, much in the way you'd travel to see a couple of favorite bands? Well, the two towns are only about 80 minutes apart, driving-wise, give or take, with a lot to see along the way. Chew on that, olive aficionados, and plot your course.

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