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EAT THIS: THE BEST THING I ATE IN 2024, AND WHAT I WANT TO EAT IN 2025
The best thing I ate in Santa Cruz County in 2024 was a butterflied rockfish at Emerald Mallard in Felton in July. Chef Lance Ebert – known by many from his pop-up days from 2020 to 2023 as SC Bread Boy – grilled the whole fish over a Japanese yakitori, infusing the succulent flesh with smoke, and finished it with a salad of bitter frisée, pressed coins of summer melon and a tangy, salty tomato and caper sauce vierge. It was dynamic, powerfully flavorful, and a thoughtful “glow up” of one of Monterey Bay’s most humble fish.
Other dishes that stood out from last year: a simple but perfect celery salad with toasted walnuts and shaved parmesan at Buzzo in Soquel; fluffy focaccia sandwiches stuffed with seasonal fillings at Melrose Café at the Westside and Live Oak farmers markets; house-made gelato at Emozioni Pasticceria in Soquel; and buttery California-caught raw Pacific bluefin tuna – now considered a sustainable seafood choice – at H&H Fresh Fish Co. in the Santa Cruz Harbor.
What do I want to eat more of in 2025? For starters, I’d like to see crave-worthy vegetarian cuisine enter Santa Cruz County’s mainstream. Newish spots like Pretty Good Advice and Mariposa Coffee have gone all-in on vegetarian menus. The Grove Cafe and Bakery, which calls itself “plant-foward,” and seasonally focused The Midway in Santa Cruz show how vegetarian and vegan dishes can be woven seamlessly into a menu that also includes meat and dairy. Classic spots like Charlie Hong Kong in Santa Cruz and Dharma’s in Capitola still offer dynamic meat-free meals. (I wrote a guide to my favorite vegetarian spots last year, if you missed it.)
But too often, the plant-based options I see on menus look like afterthoughts rather than interesting dishes in their own right. Anecdotally, I’ve met readers who say they don’t go out to eat in Santa Cruz because they’re vegetarian. And last month, Bookshop Santa Cruz cookbook buyer Stefanie Berntson told me that vegetarian cookbooks are her biggest sellers. Many restaurants are missing out on this opportunity.
The same goes for alcohol-free drinks. It’s been well documented that more adults are drinking less or abstaining from alcohol entirely, but that doesn’t mean they want to stop going to breweries and bars. It’s time for these establishments to stock up on interesting booze-free drinks, especially since it’s one of the fastest-growing sections of the beverage market and there are more choices than ever. Sorry, but a few insipid flavors of LaCroix sparkling water isn’t going to cut it anymore.
I also asked local chefs whose restaurants opened in 2024 for their restaurant and food trend predictions for Santa Cruz County for 2025. Watch for that story next week. What do you want to see more – and less – of in the coming year? Email me at lily@lookoutlocal.com or text me.
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.
- New luxury hotel La Bahia includes 2 restaurants, 2 bars open to the public (Lookout)
- County opens applications for commercial home kitchens (Lookout)
- Bookshop cookbook buyer Stefanie Berntson shares 30 years of wisdom, and her favorite books (Lookout)
- Jimmy Carter was the first president to tie diet and disease together – and it got him in hot water (Food & Wine)
