The Funk Zone and Urban Wine Trail

The Funk Zone is where Santa Barbara lets its hair down. Wedged between Highway 101 and the beach, a few blocks east of State Street, this former district of warehouses, fish-processing sheds and boat shops was taken over by surfboard shapers, artists and winemakers, and it is now the city's most walkable, most social neighborhood — and the urban end of Santa Barbara County wine country. The Urban Wine Trail is the draw: more than twenty tasting rooms within strolling distance, where producers whose vineyards lie over the mountains in the Sta. Rita Hills and the Santa Ynez Valley pour their wines in town, so you can taste the region without a designated driver. The roster includes names like Riverbench, Fess Parker, the Santa Barbara Wine Collective, The Valley Project, Margerum and Barden, and Santa Barbara Winery, each with its own style from sparkling to Syrah. Between pours come breweries (Figueroa Mountain Brewing, Validation Ale), cocktail bars, the giant murals and a fourteen-foot silver spoon that everyone photographs, vintage and surf shopping at Mollusk and LOVEWORN, the three-story Blue Door antique mall, and food that punches far above the neighborhood's size: Loquita's Spanish tapas (a Michelin Bib Gourmand), Lucky Penny's wood-fired pizza, Helena Avenue Bakery, the Lark, and Silvers Omakase, which holds a Michelin star. Walking it is free; tastings are pay-as-you-go. Pace yourself, eat between rooms, and let the afternoon run into dinner.

The neighborhood's character comes from its in-between location. Cut off from downtown by the freeway and the railroad, the blocks south of the tracks stayed industrial and cheap long after the rest of Santa Barbara gentrified, which is why surfers and artists colonized them first and why the wineries followed — a tasting room needs foot traffic and rent it can afford, and the Funk Zone offered both. The result is a district that still has scrappy edges and street art beside polished tasting bars, with the Amtrak station at its western edge and Stearns Wharf two blocks away. Change has come fast in the last decade, including hotels on its fringes, but the tight grid of low buildings keeps it human-scaled.

Working the trail: tasting rooms generally open from late morning into the evening, but hours vary by producer and day, so check the two or three you most want before you go and treat the rest as walk-ins. A sensible plan is three or four rooms in an afternoon, splitting flights if you are sharing, with food in between — Helena Avenue Bakery or Lucky Penny early, tapas at Loquita or dinner at the Lark to finish. Weekend afternoons are busy and festive; weekday afternoons are when pourers have time to talk you through vineyards and vintages. Most rooms pour a mix of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the cool western hills and Rhône varieties like Syrah and Grenache from the warmer valley, which makes the trail a fast education before (or instead of) a day over the mountains. Note that one producer, Pali, is pouring at a temporary Anacapa Street address while its main room is renovated.

Beyond wine: the murals and installations reward a slow walk with a camera, MOXI (the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation) is a hands-on science museum with a rooftop that makes this a workable family zone by day, and the surf and vintage shops are some of the best browsing in town. Free walking tours and food tours run here too — book the food tours in advance. Families should enjoy it by daylight; after dark the tasting rooms and bars set the mood. For couples, it is the single best Santa Barbara afternoon: a beach walk, a few flights, the sunset from the wharf, dinner without moving the car.