Quick Take
Home restaurant in Soquel Village has opened Home Away, a casual daytime bar and market around the corner from the original restaurant, serving seasonal small plates, soups, salads and local beer, wine and cider. After a soft opening with limited hours, the new spot will expand to a Wednesday-Sunday schedule starting Dec. 3 and will add grab-and-go items in January.
Last weekend, a popular fine dining restaurant in Soquel Village opened a casual lunch spot around the corner from its original location.
Six months after Lookout reported that it would open a new location inside the former VinoCruz wine bar on Soquel Drive, Home restaurant opened Home Away, a daytime bar and market, on Friday. Like the 9-year-old restaurant, the Home Away menu is highly seasonal and sources ingredients primarily from area producers, with small plates and hearty soups and salads, along with beer, wine and hard cider on draft.
Home Away is currently in a soft opening, with limited days and hours. After opening on Friday and Saturday, it closed on Sunday due to a plumbing issue, but plans to reopen this Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Starting Dec. 3, Home Away will open five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday. While Home serves dinner only, Home Away offers lunch and small plates into the early evening, with no official dinner service.
The Dec. 3 grand opening is the day after chef Brad Briske’s birthday, he noted. “It’s kinda like I got myself a new restaurant for my birthday,” he said.
Briske opened Home in 2016 with his wife, Linda Ritten, and became well known in the area for his focus on hyperlocal, organic and seasonal ingredients from the Central Coast and California. Home Away will continue the same ethos with a more casual vibe. Although the new spot doesn’t have a full kitchen, its proximity to the restaurant means that dishes like duck cassoulet and butter beans ($21) and tripe with tomato demi-glace ($10) can be prepared in the main kitchen and brought over daily.
An opening menu posted to Home’s Instagram page on Friday included a raw bar with Marin Miyagi oysters ($3.50 each) and a vegan trumpet mushroom ceviche ($10). Guests can order charcuterie plates with meats cured in house, as well as chicken liver pâté and house-marinated warm olives ($10).
There are also creative salads, like a kimchi Caesar with breadcrumbs and sea lettuce vinaigrette ($12), and hearty soups, including a white bean soup with kale in a Parmesan broth, and chicken noodle soup with tiny round fregola sarda pasta, available by the cup ($7) or the bowl ($12).
Home Away will also offer special empanadas created by chef Diego Felix of Fonda Felix — Briske and Ritten’s brother-in-law — with stuffings like cauliflower and beef tongue.
The bar features Watsonville-made Tanuki Cider on tap, as well as draft beer, Santa Cruz-area wines, including canned wines by Santa Cruz-based Birichino, and alcohol-free options.
Grab-and-go items made by the restaurant, including fresh pastas, pasta sauce, olives and charcuterie, will be available at Home Away in January, said Briske.
4901 Soquel Dr., Soquel.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.