Eaters Digest is delivered as a free newsletter via email, as well as on our website. Click here to become a Lookout member – and access all of Lily’s food and beverage reporting.
EAT THIS: FARMERS MARKET BAGEL AT LA MAREA CAFE
When you’re lucky enough to live in a gorgeous place like Santa Cruz County, it’s normal to occasionally become a little jaded to the sparkling seashore and the moody redwoods. I think it’s actually important, because when the beauty of the landscape does inevitably turn your head and smack you across the face, it hits twice as hard.
I found myself utterly gobsmacked standing on the still-new Capitola Wharf on the first sunny day after a week of rain, the bright sunlight twinkling joyfully off bright blue water. I took it all in – the candy-colored bungalows, the peaceful, compact village, crowned by a wreath of Victorian houses and stacked summer homes. I was there to meet with Outstanding in the Field founder Jim Denevan, and talk about the dinner planned on the wharf on May 28, the first event of the season. A Pleasure Point native, even he was a little dazzled at the sight.
After our talk – watch for the story in early May – I decided it was a good day to walk to my favorite little café in the village, La Marea. At this darling, postage stamp-sized restaurant on Capitola Avenue, across the street from Trestles restaurant, co-owner Jayne Droese makes sourdough pan pizza and sourdough bagels, and tops them with seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. The crunchy and springy farmers market bagel ($12) is topped with herby cream cheese, pickled onions, cucumber and dressed pea shoots on a thin, chewy sea salt and sesame bagel.
Droese shares space with Syllable Coffee, where owner Vincent Covarrubias makes excellent coffee and, per my request due to a recent matcha obsession, a matcha latte with oat milk and organic blueberry syrup.
More than the treats, it was a delight to catch up with Droese and Covarrubias, who, aside from being talented creators are also just very kind, greeted customers by name and made hot chocolate on the fly for an excited little girl. Yes, our home is beautiful, but the real reason we live here is people like this.
311 Capitola Ave., Capitola; jaynedoughpizza.com.
BEST OF THE WEEKEND
Santa Cruz County food & drink events to put on your calendar.
This Sunday, Lookout is hosting a wine tour in Santa Cruz’s Westside neighborhood, home to dozens of wineries, breweries, restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries and retail shops. The event is open to Lookout members and hosted by me, food and drink reporter Lily Belli. We will stop by three nearby wineries – Madson Wines, Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards and Margins Wine – and enjoy bites from local restaurant Izakaya West End. Tickets are $10. Note: This event is sold out, but stay tuned here and in my Tuesday newsletter to be the first to know about upcoming Lookout gatherings.
NEWS OF THE WEEK
ICYMI – here are food news stories from Lookout that you might have missed, plus important news from beyond our borders picked by yours truly.
- H&H Fresh Fish Co. plans second seafood market on Santa Cruz’s Westside (Lookout)
- Grocery shoppers will feel the tariffs first in the produce aisle (The New York Times)
- How the latest wine tariffs could crush the wine industry (Food & Wine)
- The world’s most beautiful Taco Bell reopens when the world needed it most (Eater SF)
