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A quick heads-up – my newsletters will be paused next week while I’m on vacation, so no Lily Belli on Food on Tuesday, May 6, or Eaters Digest next Friday, May 9. They’ll resume the week of May 12.
EAT THIS: BREAKFAST SMASH BURGER AT DANI O BAKESHOP
A new bakeshop is on the rise, bringing golden loaves of sourdough and organic pastries to restaurants, cafés and farmers markets throughout Santa Cruz County from a home base inside the Capitola Mall.
If you haven’t heard of Dani O Bakeshop yet, just give it a couple of months. Word of 35-year-old baker Danielle Orlando’s airy yet chewy croissants, twisted sugar-dusted “cruffin” morning buns and well-structured sourdough bread – all made with organic ingredients, healthy fats like butter and olive oil, and without refined sugars – has spread like a ball of cookie dough in a hot oven since the bakery opened inside the food court at the mall in September.
Orlando’s bread and pastries are available on the menus at restaurants like the Grille at DeLaveaga, Suda and Marea Sol Café on Beach Street in Santa Cruz, but it’s worth a visit to the Dani O headquarters on the weekends to experience a new brunch offer: the breakfast smash burger ($12).
This is an ooey-gooey breakfast sandwich of the best sort. A smashed Italian sausage patty is layered with melting Gruyère cheese, a fried Glaum Egg Ranch egg and smothered in a vinegary sage chimichurri. Somehow, it’s all contained with the fragile edges of a buttery homemade croissant.
If you go, order in advance through the Dani O Bakeshop website, if you can. Since she launched the sandwich in March, Orlando sells out almost every weekend.
Read the full story about this rising star baker here.
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.
NEWS OF THE WEEK
ICYMI – here are food news stories from Lookout that you might have missed.
- Cooking, foraging have their place at Santa Cruz Mountain Mushroom Festival – even as interest in psychoactives blooms (Lookout)
- Santa Cruz VegFest vegan festival coming to county fairgrounds (Lookout)
- Martinelli’s recalls apple juice distributed in 17 states, including California; no illnesses reported (Lookout)
- Eaters Digest: Gelatin Glow tea bombs (Lookout)
