2014 July PASO Magazine

BUSINESS
What’s happening
on Main Street?
By Chris
Weygandt Alba
The best idea our city founders
put on the map, when they made
a map of Paso Robles 125 years
ago, is the park they planted in its
heart. It has served as the gathering
place of all Roblans since
Roblans began.
That Downtown Park explodes
with festivities this month, starting
with a bang on the 4th of July —
an all-day celebration with fireworks
that kicks off a summertime
series of festivals, free concerts, and
even a feast of pancakes.
PANCAKE ALERT! If you
want in on the flapjack feast (described
below), score a free ticket
from a downtown merchant by
July 23.
On Friday evenings, bring your
lawn chairs and gather around
the bandstand for the Concerts
in the Park from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Enjoy dinner in one of our fine
downtown restaurants or take advantage
of the hors d’oeuvres offered
in the park.
The Central Coast Lavender
Festival on Saturday, July 12,
celebrates one of the world’s most
versatile herbs, brought to you
by the Main Street Association
and Central Coast Lavender
Growers Association. The downtown
park will be filled with lavender
growers, lavender products,
live music, artisans, children’s activities,
and festival vendors from
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Lavender, like grapes and olives,
grows well in our Mediterraneanlike
climate. Highly prized for of
its multiple uses, lavender is an
emerging agricultural crop for
local commercial growers. Festival
seminars will show you how to
grow, distill, and use this aromatic
perennial, which is so powerful
that its essence can be detected in
your blood within five minutes of
rubbing it on your skin.
You’ll find a surprising array of
goods created with lavender, in addition
to oil, lotions and salts. The
culinary herb appears in lavender
honey, lavender tea, lavender cooking
spices and dipping oils. You can
experience the flavors of lavender at
the Victorian lavender tea garden,
with refreshments like lavender
lemon sorbet and lavender cookies.
Lavender is far more than a perfume.
It can tackle ailments too. Its
flowers and essential oil pack over
150 compounds with antiseptic,
antibiotic, and sedative properties.
Herbalists use it to treat anxiety,
depression, insomnia, wounds, digestive
problems, headaches, fevers,
rashes, sprains, and burns. It’s a disinfectant
and bug repellant as well.
For more information, call Main
Street at 238-4103, or visit the
website at CentralCoastLavender
Festival.com. To find out more
about lavender, visit centralcoast
lavender.com.
July also dishes up a time-honored
tradition and the best breakfast
in town: The Free Pancake
Breakfast, July 24, 7:30 - 10:30
a.m. in the downtown park, commemorates
Community Pride Day
at the Mid-State Fair.
Downtown merchants team up
with the Mid-State Fair and local
Granges to serve fabulous flapjacks
and all the fixin’s free of charge,
but there’s a catch:
You must have a ticket, and tickets
must be obtained in advance.
Before July 24, you’ll find free tickets
at all the downtown shops displaying
the “Free Pancake Breakfast”
sign in their windows.
So get thee downtown! It’ll be a
hot time in the old town in July!
Bruce Williams
Jeb Brown
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER
Registered Representative
Specializing in
• Retirement Planning • Income Planning
BLAKESLEE & BLAKESLEE is
committed to providing objective,
personalized financial planning advice
offering a wide variety of financial services.
(805) 239-4388
544 12th Street, Paso Robles
Member FINRA
• Education Planning
Member SIPC
July 2014, Paso Robles Magazine 53