Also highlighted are Fillmore & Western Railway trips from Fillmore to Santa Paula and then back again, as well as restaurants - Familia Diaz and the Santa Paula Coffee Company in town, as well as La Fondita Restaurant & Bakery in Fillmore. Sunset urges readers to “Savor past and present on a spring visit to Fillmore and Santa Paula,” and includes photographs and a map in the one-page article.Being included in the article came as somewhat of a surprise to Ros Turner, who with her husband Jon owns the Santa Paula Coffee Company. “When I spoke to them they seemed to be hearing about Santa Paula more and more,” including the Vinick campaign among various other mentions of the city in the media. David Zaitz, the Sunset photographer, told the Turners that writer Norman Kolpas had eaten at the Santa Paula Coffee Company.“Two months later the photographer called and told us… we were really happy about it,” as well as the photos – alas, not used – taken of customers seated outside. “I would have liked it to focus on Santa Paula more,” but Turner believes that the widespread exposure has brought new customers, as “we’ve had a lot of new faces just from town the last week or so.”
Sunset magazine: Santa Paula and Fillmore highlighted for Day Trip
February 24, 2006
Santa Paula News
There are worse things than being known for lemons, oranges and lattes, the introduction of the Santa Clara River Valley to readers of Sunset magazine.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThere are worse things than being known for lemons, oranges and lattes, the introduction of the Santa Clara River Valley to readers of Sunset magazine. Santa Paula and Fillmore were highlighted in the Travel/Southern California Day Trip section of Sunset’s March issue, a boost for the tourism hungry cities.Being listed in the perennially popular magazine is also a coup for Santa Paula’s favorite son presidential candidate, Sen. Arnold Vinick. The Sunset feature starts with a nod to Vinick, noting that the fictional politician portrayed on “The West Wing” has “good taste in hometowns: He was raised in Santa Paula, in Ventura County’s still-rural Santa Clara Valley.”Sunset touts a visit to the Santa Clara River Valley as a “step into the past, when lemons and oranges and oil ruled Southern California, and every bend in the road gave views of green hillsides glazed with mustard flowers.” Sunset recommends a visit to the Santa Paula California Oil Museum – the article notes that the state’s first oil gusher was struck nearby in 1867 – and the unique offering from Limoneira Company, the opportunity to “ramble through the groves and packinghouse of one of California’s largest working lemon ranches.”
