Summer Bounty

At Rosewood Miramar Beach, one of America's most celebrated wine programs finds its heart in family-style dinners, local farms, and the simple act of passing plates.

By Lily Dougherty

Something shifts in the time it takes me to walk through the grand lobby of Rosewood Miramar Beach, through the courtyard, and out to the chef’s garden. The manicured grandeur of the five-star hotel transitions into herb beds, ocean views, and a long table set for strangers who don't know they're about to become friends.

The culinary team had just received word that Caruso's, the property’s signature Michelin-Starred restaurant, was awarded the Wine Spectator Grand Award for Outstanding Wine and Culinary Program, one of the most coveted distinctions in American dining. It wasn't the focus of the evening—nobody made a speech, nobody mentioned it twice—but the pride was there. Director of Wine Rob Smits shook every guest’s hand upon arrival. He remembered our names all night and even remembered guests from weeks prior. So did everyone else. Smits has a charisma that makes a gathering feel smaller and warmer without appearing to try.

That's the spirit behind the Bounty Dinner Series, designed explicitly to feel like the opposite of the world the Miramar team inhabits professionally. Casual, communal, unpretentious. Assistant Director of Food and Beverage Arturo Gubau put it best: “We get to cook the food that we want to eat.” Grand Award or not, it shows.

At the Bounty Dinner I attended on June 18th, the wine partner was Holus Bolus—a husband-and-wife project 22 years into making small-lot wines with grapes sourced from various Santa Barbara County vineyards. Peter and Amy weren't just the names on the bottle. They were there, moving around the table, pouring each wine themselves, talking through the story behind every glass with anyone who wanted to know—which was everyone. The lineup moved from a bright 2024 Roussanne from Bien Nacido to a lively Santa Rita Hills Gamay to a Presqu’ile Syrah, but what lingered most were the stories behind them. Amy told me that she and Peter still practically touch every grape themselves, a hands-on philosophy that feels increasingly rare and immediately apparent in the wines. Rob and Head Sommelier Alfie Wang, whose enthusiasm for all of it is completely unperformable, alongside Peter and Amy, made the entire table light up. The evening felt less like a formal wine dinner and more like a very good party at someone's exceptionally well-stocked home.

The food arrived in waves on shared platters, always family style, which is entirely the point. When a platter of charred Murray Farm stonefruit with stracciatella lands in the middle of a table, people reach across each other, make eye contact, and say oh, you have to try this. Walls come down over beet moutabel and Ventura Dock squid. Conversations that started as polite introductions became strangers sharing life stories. By the time the wood-roasted rack of lamb appeared with black mission figs and garden mint, everyone had found friendship in the simple act of passing plates.

Executive Chef Edgar Beas's menu reads like a love letter to the Central Coast—Root Farm, Regier Farm, Mendoza Farm, named as if provenance is the point, because it is. Much of the produce comes from the hotel's own chef's garden, the same one adjacent to the long wooden tables we’re sitting at. The three courses are, passed family style, each paired with a different wine poured into one of the five glasses placed before each guest. Crudo and stonefruit and squid give way to herb focaccia still warm from the oven, followed by a little gem salad in bonito dressing with sourdough croutons, conchiglioni al forno with wagyu ragú bianco and chanterelles, lamb, and farm-roasted toybox squash with zucchini blossoms and Santa Barbara pistachios. 

Each dish tastes specifically, unmistakably of here—of this soil, this season, this particular stretch of California coast. Dessert is a Regier Farm yellow peach crumble with lemon verbena chantilly and caramelized Payne walnuts.

Due to high popularity, dates have been expanded and the Bounty Dinner Series now runs once or twice a month through November. It’s an evening that begins with a walk through one of the most beautiful hotels on the coast and ends with a feast built from ingredients grown yards away—overseen by a freshly Grand Award–winning team who somehow still make you feel like a guest in their home. It is, right now, the most exciting table in Santa Barbara.

By the time we leave, I've made friends I hadn't arrived with. Rob hugs everyone on the way out. Alfie is still laughing about something at the far end of the table. Peter and Amy are deep in conversation with the last guests standing. The garden is dark, the ocean is somewhere behind the train tracks, and I am already looking up the next date.