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EAT THIS: BLACK TRUFFLE PIZZA AT MENTONE
Last week, I sent you to check out a $29 seafood chowder on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, and today it’s all about a $55 pizza smothered in black truffles at Mentone in Aptos. We are really living large over here.
Owned by chef David Kinch – who ran three-Michelin-starred Manresa in Los Gatos for more than 20 years – Mentone is a more casual but no less thoughtful Franco-Italian restaurant in Aptos Village. The menu focuses on traditional dishes from the Italian Riviera, as well as bubbling, skillfully crafted Neapolitan-style pizzas.
The black truffle pizza is offered during the late fall and winter months when truffles are in season. On the evening I was there, manager Sean Fyock told me that the black truffle had been flown in from Périgord, France, that same day. When the simple pizza – no red sauce, just mozzarella, ricotta and a touch of garlic and marjoram – was presented at the table, he showered it with nearly translucent slices. They fluttered in the heat, filling the area with a romantic aroma and drawing oohs and aahs from nearby tables.
Truffles have more aroma than flavor, but there’s a reason they’re revered around the world. I found myself lingering over the bouquet like a wine, parsing over the smells of toasted walnuts and forest floor. Like caviar on potato chips, truffles on pizza turned out to be a genius highbrow-meets-lowbrow pairing.
BEST OF THE WEEK AHEAD
Below, find a curated list of the best food and drink events in Santa Cruz County for the coming week. At the top, I share my picks of unmissable local happenings.
The Lookout Santa Cruz app is available now in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Learn more here.
NEWS OF THE WEEK
ICYMI – here are the food news stories from Lookout that you might have missed.
- Veteran restaurateurs open fast-casual Tortilla Shack in Santa Cruz (Lookout)
- Santa Cruz City Council OKs plan for new wharf restaurant Miramar
- After six turbulent years, Alderwood Santa Cruz closes its doors (Lookout)
- ‘Scarier than COVID’: Wharf collapse cost nearby restaurants hundreds of thousands of dollars (Lookout)
