Home Away leans into casual fun with bold dishes in a cozy, counter-service space

Home Away, a daytime spot from the owners of Soquel’s Home, is the culmination of several ideas that husband-and-wife team Brad Briske and Linda Ritten have bounced around for years but didn’t quite fit the traditional dining setting of their 9-year-old restaurant. 

At the new sister location around the corner, which opened officially on Wednesday, they spotlight food and beverages from longtime friends and collaborators, offer homemade creations such as marinated olives and sausages for takeout, and a counter-service format that’s more accessible price- and time-wise than a sit-down dinner. 

“We’re really, really excited,” Ritten told Lookout when they announced the project in May. “It’s been Brad’s dream for a long time. It’ll be a fun way for us to expand and utilize more ingredients and different styles of food.”

Throughout the restaurant, Briske and Ritten highlight products made by longtime friends – all notable producers in their own right. Tanuki Cider, brewed by Robby Honda in Watsonville, is on offer on draft and in bottles at the bar, under the watchful gaze of his raccoon-like logo painted in black and white on the far wall. From the case, guests can order Fonda Felix empanadas to take home or eat in, made by chef Diego Felix – Briske and Ritten’s brother-in-law – in Santa Cruz’s Westside neighborhood, and chicken raised by Caleb Barron at Fogline Farm in Pescadero, marinated in fresh herbs and lemon. 

This space doesn’t have a full hood or stovetop, just an oven, but Briske and his team are able to make items like the rich chicken noodle soup with tiny round fregola sarda pasta and kale ($7 cup/$12 bowl) at the restaurant just a few steps away, and finish them to order at the bistro.

From a customer standpoint, Home Away has a bonus over Home: the opportunity to watch chef Briske do his thing in the open kitchen from a seat at the bar. At the restaurant, Briske’s stunning, hyper-seasonal small plates and entrées emerge camera-ready from the kitchen, so it’s fascinating to watch him compose dishes like the ocean nachos ($18), layering homemade potato chips with fresh herbs and crème fraîche, spoonfuls of neon trout roe and a flurry of shaved bottarga, before placing it on the marble counter. 

“I didn’t want it to be a bar like a wine bar – more like a food bar,” said Briske, who said he enjoys that direct connection with his customers. He said he plans to split his time between Home Away during the day and Home at night, while entrusting the bulk of the dinner service to his seasoned sous-chefs while his new spot gets underway.  

Briske and Ritten opened Home in 2016 in a longstanding restaurant location on Main Street that previously housed Theo’s and Main Street Garden & Café. Over the past decade, Briske has leaned heavily on ingredients sourced from nearby farms and the Central Coast, as well as whole-animal butchery, including making his own cured meats such as prosciutto and salami. Dishes at the restaurant change frequently, often daily. 

That ethos is also ingrained at Home Away, where a rotating menu is written on butcher paper and affixed to the wall, and dishes like a bowl of tripe in red sauce ($10), made with beef stomach sourced from Stemple Creek Ranch in Tomales, emphasize Briske’s commitment to using the whole cow. For tripe fans, this dish is a must-get, and for those who might be hesitant to test the waters of the world of offal, this is a good opportunity to dive in. A fiery, Roman-style tomato sauce amped up with mirepoix clings to the edges of the frilly, vaguely slippery tripe. It’s meltingly tender – Briske said the secret is a long simmer with a vanilla pod to balance out any earthy flavors. 

A snack of whipped lardo ($6) is another example of an ingredient with humble beginnings elevated to a dish so serene it gives you pause. “I buy a lot of whole pigs from Stemple Creek,” said Briske, and he uses the fat in non-vegetarian cooking throughout the restaurant, from searing steaks to making ragu. Inspired by a trip to northern Italy, he rendered, cooled and whipped the lard with butter, fresh and roasted garlic and rosemary, finishing it with a dusting of slightly sweet crushed walnuts to create a silky, ethereal spread for homemade crackers. 

Both the tripe and the lardo, as well as the fresh sausages stuffed with broccolini and pine nuts in Home Away’s case, were on the original Home menu almost a decade ago, but they were a little too simple for the fine-dining experience, said Briske. “I’m just pulling out old things and making them new again,” he said. “I think they work better in a more casual setting.”

This week, there was also plenty of seafood available, including a raw bar with fresh oysters, marinated mussels with fennel and chili oil ($16) and rockfish ceviche in an apple-celery aguachile ($16). A vegan trumpet mushroom “poke” was a moody marriage of earthy mushrooms and seaweed salad with tamari, mirin and truffle. 

While there is plenty at Home Away that feels familiar for visitors to the original location, from the taxidermy on the walls to the Santa Cruz-area beverages on tap and the commitment to seasonal cuisine, it offers fresh delights, and perhaps more opportunities for frequent return visits. 

4901 Soquel Dr., Soquel. 

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