Quick Take
Four-year-old Santa Cruz brewery Woodhouse Blending & Brewing is moving forward with a satellite location in a small Westside shopping center near the entrance to UC Santa Cruz. The pizza restaurant and taproom was approved by the city’s zoning administration on Wednesday, and could open in early 2025.
A new satellite location for Santa Cruz-based brewery Woodhouse Blending & Brewing is planned for a small commercial center near the base of UC Santa Cruz, and could open early next year, said owner Will Moxham.
The 1,500-square-foot restaurant, named simply Woodhouse II on project plans, will go into a vacant space in a shopping center on Cardiff Avenue, off High Street, about a quarter-mile from UC Santa Cruz’s east entrance at Bay Avenue. Located deep within the Upper Westside neighborhood, it’s a mile from the nearest commercial corridor on Mission Street and would be the only restaurant and bar in the area. Other tenants in the center include a 7-Eleven, a dog-grooming business and a laundromat.
The taphouse and restaurant is a partnership between Woodhouse owner Moxham and chef Ryan Thompson, a Santa Cruz native and Pizza My Heart alum. Thompson has already held several pop-ups under the name Pogonip Pizza Co. at Woodhouse to showcase the Neapolitan-style pies made with naturally leavened dough and topped with local ingredients. It will be a satellite location for Woodhouse, and serve a menu of Woodhouse beers brewed at its flagship location on River Street, as well as wine, cider and alcohol-free beverages, according to a sample menu submitted to the city.
The restaurant will open in the morning at 8 a.m. for espresso drinks, including some unconventional flavors including an ube latte, rose water and cherry blossom latte and dandelion mocha. It will close at 10 p.m. and will include both indoor and outdoor seating.
On Wednesday, the project was approved at a city zoning administration meeting after some residents of the neighborhood raised concerns about potential noise impacts and parking.
At the meeting, architect Rebecca Friedberg of Synapse Design Studio suggested the restaurant would be an improvement to the neighborhood and counteract loitering and littering issues reported in that area by converting an unused space into an outdoor dining area.
Woodhouse has applied for an incidental event permit and plans to potentially host occasional acoustic music or a comedy night. “It’s not going to be anything like Woodhouse, where we have music every weekend,” said Moxham.
The project still needs approval from several other local government agencies, including the building department and the health department, before it becomes a reality.
Zoning administrator Samantha Haschert expressed support for the project, saying, “I agree that it will help to revitalize that commercial center and create more of a presence there that will help with some of the other impacts that maybe some of the neighbors have been experiencing.”
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