Welcome to Lily Belli on Food, a weekly food-focused newsletter from Lookout’s food and drink correspondent, Lily Belli. Keep reading for the latest local food news for Santa Cruz County – plus a few fun odds and ends from my own life and around the web.
… You’d have to have a heart of stone to walk into Emilie and the Frenchies and not be charmed. Lifelong friends Mary Jane Dean and Céline Molière opened the Aptos café in early May in the former Carried Away location – next to home decor store Outside In, in the same shopping center as Pacific Coffee Roasting Company and Companion Bakeshop – and the inside has metamorphosed into a francophonic patisserie bedecked in rosy pink and olive.
It’s adorable, like a quirky, cheerful fantasy of some French counterpart located somewhere in the south of France. But the pastries, baked treats, sandwiches and salads are direct interpretations of what’s served in real-life restaurants in Provence, from croque monsieur – the ultimate French grilled cheese with creamy béchamel sauce – to seafood-and-vegetable-stuffed pan bagnat – and dozens of cookies, cakes and tarts.
The story behind Emilie and the Frenchies is as heartwarming as the restaurant’s ambiance. Read it here.
… Regan Vineyards Winery – winemaker John Bargetto’s stunning side project outside of Corralitos – is open for tastings by reservation only May through November. Bargetto has been farming this vineyard for more than 30 years, but opened it up to the public only three years ago. I was one of the first visitors in 2022, and was thrilled by the ocean views from the top of the hilly spot, as well as Bargetto’s hospitality, knowledge and enthusiasm during a tour of the site.
Since then, he’s released half a dozen more varietals, including a robust nebbiolo and a skin-contact white wine, as well as pinot noir, merlot and chardonnay. It’s kid-friendly, but wear your hiking boots. Tastings can be booked in advance at reganwinery.com.
… Thank you to the Lookout members who joined me for a mini-tasting tour at Sweet Home Santa Cruz, a dessert festival hosted by Collective Santa Cruz at Humble Sea Brewing Co. on Saturday. Twelve members and I stopped by five select vendors – Dani O Bakeshop, Gelatin Glow, Cracked Cookies, Emozioni Pasticceria and Classy Trash Bar – to enjoy a custom sample of a special treat, before staying to enjoy the rest of the event.
Watch this space – and become a member! – to attend future Lookout gatherings with me.
… Every year, shoppers at New Leaf Community Markets vote on which Santa Cruz County nonprofits will receive donations from New Leaf’s Envirotokens program – for every bag that a customer brings in, they receive a token to give to the nonprofit of their choice on the way out the door. Every token is worth 10 cents, and over the years, New Leaf has donated more than $1 million to local charitable causes.
The voting period to choose which nonprofits will receive Envirotokens for the next year is open now through June 17, and is specific to each market’s location. Go to newleaf.com/vote to cast your ballot.
… New happy hour alert: Starting this week, longstanding downtown Santa Cruz restaurant Chocolate offers a Taco Happy Hour on Monday through Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m, and all afternoon on Fridays from noon to 6 p.m. Tacos are $5 each, and margaritas with fresh-squeezed lime juice and premium tequila are $10 each.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
After a two-week delay, the downtown farmers market is officially moving to its new location this week. The last day at the parking lot on Cedar Street between Lincoln and Cathcart streets is this Wednesday, May 28. Next week, it will resume one block up Cedar Street between Walnut Avenue and Church Street, and continue half a block west on Church Street, making an “L” shape by the Cruzio building and stopping before it reaches Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church. The market will also take over the parking lot next to the downtown Santa Cruz Public Libraries branch, known as Lot 16.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
Celebrate plant-based cuisine and animal welfare at Santa Cruz VegFest this Saturday, May 31, at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. Expect more than 100 exhibitors showcasing vegan food and treats; cruelty-free fashion and beauty shops; speakers discussing health, nutrition and environmental issues; local beer, wine and hard cider; live music and comedy; and cooking demonstrations. Tickets are $5 in advance and $10 at the door. Proceeds benefit Little Hill Sanctuary, an animal sanctuary in Royal Oaks.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
My family and I put our vegetable garden in over the long weekend. While my husband, Mike, has gardened his entire life, we’ve had a hard time getting back into the groove since we had kids. Last year, Mike built three garden boxes and we filled them with plants, but aside from the lettuce, nothing really did that well. This year, we’re determined to get our mojo back. We planted one box of tomatoes, a few miniature eggplants, hot peppers, cucumbers, chard, three different kinds of lettuce and lots of herbs. We also added a pomegranate to our growing collection of fruit trees, which now includes lemon, avocado, plum, apricot, peach, fig and apple trees.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ The U.S. Department of Agriculture is canceling grants that provide school meals for almost 800,000 children and other sensitive groups worldwide. The aid, made possible by the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Nutrition Program, has been cut from the White House budget for 2026. (Civil Eats)
➤ In response to the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again effort to remove artificial dyes from the food supply, some companies are preemptively replacing dyes in their products with coloring derived from plants ahead of the bans. But extracting dyes from natural sources and achieving long-lasting color is much more complex than mixing chemical dyes. “It takes a lot of red cabbage to replace Red 40,” said one food safety expert. (NPR)