montereycountynow.com/bestof BEST OF MONTEREY COUNTY® 2025 119 EDITORS’ PICKS BEST BIG GAME BLOWOUT Carmel High Beats Lakeside 48-7 To Win Championship Carmel High School Athletics Department (831) 624-1821, carmelhigh.carmelunified.org/athletics To hear the players tell it, the goal for Carmel High’s football team before last season was just to beat Pacific Grove and retain possession of The Shoe, the gold-plated trophy that goes to the winner of the annual game between the two archrivals. They kept The Shoe, they also won every other game they played to post a historic 15-0 record and win the California State 5AA football championship. The school that has fewer than 750 students beat teams from much larger programs and ended the year with the most wins in the history of the Pacific Coast Athletic League. BEST USE OF FRESHLY-PICKED HERBS AND OTHER GARDEN PRODUCE Colleen Kelly Lucia Restaurant & Bar, 415 W. Carmel Valley Road, Carmel Valley (831) 298-5389, bernarduslodge.com Local honey and hand-picked thyme. We’re guessing pastry. Fresh-squeezed lemon juice, egg white and thyme from the garden. Hmm—a meringue? Honey from nearby hives and Meyer lemons, just harvested from the grove outside. It’s for a sponge cake. What? We’re zero for three? Enough of this guessing game! All are ingredients for cocktails at Lucia Restaurant & Bar in the Bernardus Lodge, where Colleen Kelly and her team pick herbs, vegetables and fruits on the property. The honey comes from the resort’s hives. And these ingredients are crafted into some of the most impressive cocktails around. That’s farm to barstool. And it doesn’t get cooler than that. BEST PRIX FIXE MENU THAT IS SO GOOD THAT YOU IGNORE THE OCEAN VIEW Coastal Kitchen Monterey Plaza Hotel, 400 Cannery Row, Monterey (831) 645-4064, coastalkitchenmonterey.com Simon says, “Eat your kanpachi with saffron, spring peas and kinome leaf.” Simon says, “Eat your lamb sourced from the Willamette Valley, served with squash blossom and shishito.” In this case, Simon is the vastly talented Chef Michael Rotondo, who offers a three-course prix fixe menu and a five-course tasting menu (it’s deceptive; the tasting portions are not tiny) during evening hours and a Sunday brunch (with bottomless sparkling wine). The ingredients are thoughtfully sourced, seasonal and local as much as possible. The sourcing and technique show on the plate. These are beautiful presentations with exquisite flavors. So who cares if you are perched on Monterey Bay? “Eat your smashburger.” Hah—didn’t say Simon says. No smashburger—but if he made one, it would be memorable. BEST THING THAT A LOT OF RESTAURANTS ARE DOING THESE DAYS Smashburgers A sandbox is good for one thing, and one thing only: To build a sand castle that you could then smash flat. One could say the same about ground beef. But here’s the thing: For years chefs said that smashing burgers on the grill drained them of juices, the very thing that makes them an American favorite. Funny, though—many of those same chefs prize confit, the process of cooking something in its own fat (otherwise known as juices). Smashburgers fry in their own juices, picking up a flavorful crust along the way. And now that people have figured that out, smashburgers have become perhaps the most common menu item—involving ground beef, that is. So keep on smashing. BEST WAY TO SEE YOUR SIGN Attend a MIRA Star Party (831) 883-1000, mira.org The nonprofit Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy set up shop to do serious astronomical research locally starting in 1972. That’s the same year that Boggle hit the shelves. And we could say we are boggled that MIRA is based in Marina, given that it’s one of the foggiest places with terrible visibility of the night sky—but they also have a 36-inch telescope at an observatory way up high at 5,000 feet on Chews Ridge above Carmel Valley. And they aren’t boggled by Best Place To Rest In a Hammock and Order Empanadas Because They Come With Chimichurri | Café Gauraní
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