Eaters Digest is delivered as a free newsletter via email, as well as on our website. Sign up for texts from me to get an alert the moment it’s in your inbox. To read the full story, click here to become a Lookout member – and access all of Lily’s food and beverage reporting.
EAT THIS: GELATO AT EMOZIONI PASTICCERIA
One of the joys of reporting on the food and drink culture in Santa Cruz County is seeing talented, hardworking business owners and chefs evolve. Take chef Crescenzo Pellicia and his business partner Michele Tartaglia, the owners of Emozioni Pasticceria. Three years ago, Lookout started reporting on chef Enzo, as he’s called by friends and fans, when he opened a bakery serving traditional pastries from his home city of Naples, Italy inside Lago di Como restaurant in Live Oak.
From the start, the elegant, beautifully crafted babà, sfogliatelle and opera cakes set him apart from other bakers in the area. He dabbled in seasonal desserts as well, like tall, domed panettone, one of just a couple of local bakeries to attempt the complicated holiday treat.
In March, Pellicia and Tartaglia opened a bakery on Porter Avenue in Soquel Village, offering pizzas in addition to glossy treats. In the months since, they’ve grown slowly but deliberately, never wanting to overextend themselves too quickly in order to make sure they can consistently offer the products that, they say, regular customers return for again and again.
Now, they’ve added a new treat to their menu: homemade gelato, in eight to a dozen flavors ranching from pistachio, coffee or chocolate chip-flecked stracciatella, to fresh cantaloupe, lemon and mango ($5.50 for a small cup, $9 for a large cup with two flavors). Pelliccia proudly uses only organic products and sources the fruit locally, going as far as to seek out the best melons himself in Watsonville in order to get the boldest flavor.
Gelato is hard to find outside of a few Italian restaurants in the area, and there are only one or two spots where you can walk in to get a cup on a hot day. None of them are using the high-quality ingredients and evoking the wonderful flavors and smooth texture that Pelliccia is. It’s a standard I’ve come to expect from chef Enzo, but one that still delights every time.
2841 Porter St., Suite B, Soquel; 831-334-6820.
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 the food news stories from Lookout that you might have missed, plus important news from beyond our borders picked by yours truly.
Ask Lookout: Will the beer garden in the old Wienerschnitzel lot on Soquel Avenue ever open? (Lookout)
West End’s Japanese makeover: Izakaya reimagines the gastropub (Lookout)
‘It’s not easy’: This San Francisco brewery is closing after 10 years (San Francisco Chronicle)
These 5 Bay Area Restaurants Just Got Added to the Michelin Guide (Eater SF)
