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Eat this: Glazed kampachi appetizer at Alderwood
Alderwood’s new executive chef, Mikey Adams, launched his new menu over Father’s Day weekend, and it bears no resemblance to the menu customers at the downtown Santa Cruz restaurant have come to know over the past four years.
Gone was the list of à la carte prime cuts of beef, some reaching into triple digits in price, which were its foundation under Alderwood’s former chef, Jeffrey Wall, who departed in March. The additional sauces and sides – available for a supplemental fee – disappeared, along with most of its raw bar and all of its former flaships: the hen of the woods, the potato wedges, and the burger.
In its place, Adams’ menu is a compact list of three fresh oysters, five appetizers and five entrees, plus two “reserve” dishes – a salt and pepper barramundi with ramps ($50) and a rib-eye with porcinis and black truffle jus ($95) – and three desserts.
In effect, it feels like Adams has loosened the tie of Alderwood’s shirt, and appears to be trying to cultivate a more relaxed atmosphere at Santa Cruz’s only restaurant mentioned in the Michelin Guide.
My favorite dish of the evening was the kampachi appetizer ($16). A dark and delicate nori cracker somehow supported slices of blush-colored raw yellowtail, its buttery flesh briefly kissed by Alderwood’s live-fire hearth and amplified with vivid green herbs and heated bites of Fresno chili, while a zingy avocado sauce anchored the briny cracker to the plate.
Read my full review of my meal 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 the food news stories from Lookout that you might have missed.
Hot dog! Here’s where to enjoy the best hot dogs of the summer in Santa Cruz County (Lookout)
Toque Blanche partners with French cookware brand Le Creuset on new shop (Lookout)
The reel deal: Behind the scenes with Santa Cruz’s first food influencers (Lookout)
Ask Lookout: Is the old (but new) shopping center on Mission Street close to reopening? (Lookout)