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.
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… Sad news in Aptos: After 38 years, Cafe Sparrow will close at the end of the week. The last day of service is this Sunday.
Chef Donnie Suesens co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Bailey Suesens, and her parents, Bob and Julie Montague, who purchased the restaurant in 1989. Donnie blamed rising costs and inflation in an Instagram post announcing the closure, and says it’s “not a feasible task” to keep the restaurant open anymore.
The overhead costs for everything from labor to utilities to ingredients have increased about 60% since the Suesens took over managing Cafe Sparrow in 2021, he says. “Instead of burning money to operate the restaurant without the clientele that we need to pay the bills, we’re pulling the plug,” says Suesens.
… A new chef, wine director and general manager have all converged at Mentone, one of the best restaurants in Santa Cruz County, in the past year, and they’re leading the Michelin-noted restaurant into its next phase. Head chef Jason Grubbs has returned to the Central Coast from the Midwest, and is eager to work with local ingredients. Wine director Emma Bavera has expanded Mentone’s wine list from 50 titles to 400 and added wine classes, among other things, and general manager Sean Fyock is looking forward to serving guests at Little Beach, Mentone’s seasonal outdoor lunch pop-up, which reopens Memorial Day weekend.
During my conversation with Mentone owner and famed chef David Kinch, he told me that the people that he works with are the driving force behind many of his projects. “[At Manresa, his three Michelin-star Los Gatos restaurant, which closed at the end of 2022], I had a lot of really great, talented people working for me. And instead of them working with me until they could no longer be challenged or compensated and then moving on, I realized I had to learn how to create opportunities for them to come into the family,” says Kinch. “Every place we open from Manresa Bread to The Bywater to Mentone has been to create more opportunities for people who spend a lot of time with us.”
Check out the full story here.
… The Picnic Basket has reopened on Beach Street in Santa Cruz after five months of renovations. The café is part of Santa Cruz-based restaurant family The Glass Jar, which includes The Penny Ice Creamery. The updated space has a larger, more light-filled floor plan, says Rahul Bhambhani, the director of operations. The team has added a grab-and-go marketplace stocked with prepared food like fresh salads, sandwiches, sweet treats and beverages ideal for grabbing on the way to the beach across the street. More info at thepicnicbasketsc.com.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
In the latest from the Live Oak farmers market, the nearby Live Oak School District agreed to consider moving the market to a nearby school at a district board meeting last week. The district and market organizers will look at all six schools in the district to see if any would be an appropriate new home for the market. The Live Oak market will leave its home of 22 years at the East Cliff Village Shopping Center at the end of April after it was unable to agree to new lease terms with property owner Swenson Builders.
ON THE MENU
A new mushroom-themed festival is coming to Santa Cruz County. The Santa Cruz Mountain Mushroom Festival will take place on May 4-5 at Roaring Camp in Felton, with two days of live music, panel discussions on fungi, mushroom-themed cooking demonstrations, food, art and kids activities. I spoke with the team at Far West Fungi, the Moss Landing-based mushroom farm that created the festival, on what the inaugural event has in store. Look for a preview later this week.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
The Food Truck Friday summer season kicks off this Friday at Skypark in Scotts Valley from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Eight local food trucks and pop-ups will offer everything from ice cream and cookies to Neapolitan pizza and quesabirria tacos. All of the proceeds from the beer and wine garden will benefit Scotts Valley Educational Foundation, a nonprofit that supports Scotts Valley schools. More info in Lookout’s BOLO events calendar.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
My husband, Mike, and I love to garden and are slowly transforming our outside areas into a space where we can do that. Last spring, we finally scraped away the lava rock garden in the front yard, demolished a dilapidated shed and concrete pad in the southern corner of the backyard and laid down a thick layer of arbor mulch for the winter. This spring, we planted fig, apple, peach, apricot, lemon and lime trees. Watching bright pink blossoms bloom on our small but proud peach tree is just as satisfying as I knew it would be. This weekend, we’re getting dirt delivered for the three new garden beds Mike built, and then the real fun will begin.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ TikTok and Instagram have helped students become masters of slow cookers, easy-bake ovens, portable electric burners and cutting boards, and created a new era of dorm-room cooking. When I was in college, “cooking” meant reheating a leftover burrito in the common room microwave. Now, students are making everything from filet mignon and Thanksgiving dinner to budget-friendly meals like tofu curry. (Civil Eats)
➤ Meghan Markle has released her own strawberry jam, the first product from her new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard. Only 50 jars were released to celebrity friends. Apparently, “posh jam” is the new haute trend for the wealthy elite. No wonder people joke about eating the rich. (The Daily Beast)