Welcome to Lily Belli on Food, a weekly food-focused newsletter from Lookout’s food and drink correspondent, Lily Belli. Keep reading for the latest local food news for Santa Cruz County – plus a few fun odds and ends from my own life and around the web.
… On Saturday, New Leaf Community Markets opened its newest grocery store in the Gateway Plaza on River Street in Santa Cruz. The 29,000-square-foot market is New Leaf’s largest grocery store to date, and offers similar services and layout to the Capitola market that opened last fall.
The most noticeable update is to the prepared and made-to-order food sections, which take up about a third of the store. The area includes double-sided hot and salad bars, a juice and coffee counter, barbecue station, poke station, bakery and seating for 30 people. The produce is also at the front of the store, rather than the side, and the seafood, meat, bulk bins, wellness and booze areas are the biggest of any of its stores.
While this market is just over 2 miles from the Westside location, brand manager Lindsay Gizdich told me that New Leaf isn’t aiming to capture shoppers from that side of town at the River Street store. Rather, the company hopes to bring new customers from the Santa Cruz Mountains and drivers on nearby Highway 1 passing through on their way home from work. And, updates are coming to the Westside market, including a poke and sushi bar. “Every time we find something new that works, we try to add it to our existing stores and expand the offering in those stores,” Gizdich said.
… Employees at three Verve Coffee Roasters locations – Fair Avenue and Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, and a café in San Francisco – will vote this evening on whether to form a union. If a majority of workers vote in favor of collective bargaining, they will enter into negotiations with owners Colby Barr and Ryan O’Donovan for better wages and working conditions. I’ll have an update for you on the outcome of the election tomorrow.
… Soif Wine Bar and Merchant is moving forward – slowly – with renovations to the historic Dr. Miller’s building and former Caffe Pergolesi at 418 Cedar St. in downtown Santa Cruz to accommodate a restaurant and wine bar. On Sept. 17, city project planner Rina Zhou presented plans for an exterior remodel to the Historic Preservation Commission on behalf of business owners Alexis Carr and Andrea Eckhardt.
The updates are fairly minor: create an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant access path around the back of the building; replace the non-historic front porch steps and porch railing – both built in 1986 – to meet building code requirements, and rehabilitate the deteriorated front entry; and replace the Dr. Miller’s sign on the Elm Street side of the building with one that says Soif Wine Bar in the same font. The other more noticeable and iconic historic Dr. Miller’s sign facing Cedar Street will stay.
The commission approved the plan, with the note that it would like to see an alternative design for the porch railing that uses wood, rather than the proposed steel.
… Mark your calendars: the 12th annual Open Farm Tours returns Saturday, Oct. 11, and Sunday, Oct. 12. A total of 16 Santa Cruz County farms will open their doors for tours, u-picks, tastings and special events. All of the farms are organic and implement sustainable agricultural practices – and it can be fascinating to see their work up close and firsthand.
This year, the weekend is divided geographically, with tours at seven South County farms on Saturday and nine North County farms on Sunday. For $25, the Friends & Family pass allows entry for one car (up to five people) to every event on both days. The event is family-friendly, with many farms offering kids activities. Find more information at openfarmtours.com.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
In a win-win for the city and anyone with a sweet tooth, an established area candy and chocolate maker is moving into a long-vacant downtown Santa Cruz storefront. Jennifer Ashby, owner of Ashby Confections, is taking over 1207 Pacific Ave., the former location of Joe’s Pizza and Subs, which closed in 2018, and next door to Pacific Cookie Company. Ashby is working to transform the 2,000-square-foot space into a production kitchen and a retail space for her chocolates, truffles, brittles and fruit candies. She told me she aims to be open by Easter.
Over the past 21 years, Ashby has built her reputation on carefully crafted sweets made with organic chocolate, dairy and fruit from local farms. She currently sells around 100,000 pounds of candy every year through wholesale accounts at area grocery stores, online through her website, and at farmers markets and events. Read the full story here.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
Cookbook author Joshua McFadden, who won a James Beard award for “Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables,” is coming to the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn on Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. with his newest release, “Six Seasons of Pasta.” This time, McFadden will show readers how to use store-bought dried pasta to create seasonal dishes at home. Each $48 ticket includes admission and a copy of the book. This event is hosted by Bookshop Santa Cruz. More info here.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
Just want to give a quick shout-out to my husband, Mike, who has earned an almost daily cup of free coffee at Java Junction in the Seabright neighborhood over the past few weeks by correctly answering a trivia question. The coffeehouse offers a 12-ounce cup of joe – worth $5 – to anyone who knows that day’s trivia. Questions range from “What type of clouds produce thunderstorms?” to “What’s the most common tree in the U.S.?” and “When was the Santa Cruz Harbor built?”
He and his construction crew, who are building a house in the area, stop in every day. Mike tells me that he gets it right nearly every time, and this is absolutely hilarious to me because while he’s rather shy and doesn’t typically like games, he absolutely kills at trivia. Meanwhile, my toxic trait is that while I consider myself pretty well-read and clued in to current events, I am not only horrible at trivia, I’m the type of team player who will emphatically insist that my answer is correct, only to almost always discover that I’m wrong. So, no free coffee for me.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ The Santa Cruz Mountains got a shout-out by none other than Vogue this week. The nationally circulated magazine wrote a story extolling the virtues of our wine region, local hotels and activities. Wine producers Thomas Fogarty, Madson Wines, Alfaro Family Vineyards and Storrs got a mention, among others. (Vogue)
➤ Trendy dirty sodas have gone from niche to commonplace over the past 15 years. The drinks use soda as a base, to which syrups, cream and other ingredients are added, and can be found at grocery stores and retail outlets nationwide. “We’re doing for soda what Starbucks did for coffee,” said one creator. (CNBC)