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.
… In Santa Cruz County, “Casalegno’s” is associated with two entities: a generational family farm on Old San Jose Road, and a historic country store and farmhouse next door at the intersection of Laurel Glen Road. With the name — the “g” is soft, like “lasagna” — emblazoned in blue and white across the front, it’s impossible to miss as one zips north from Soquel on winding, redwood-lined roads.
This fall, Casalegno descendants are uniting the store and the farm for the first time in two decades, and aim to revive it into a community cornerstone.
Matt Kotila, whose mother was a Casalegno, and wife Marissa will reopen it in September, and plan to highlight local products from nearby family farms, everything from fresh fruits, vegetables and cider to eggs, milk, meat and homemade goods like pasta, pickles and sauces. Customers will also be able to pick up coffee, cold drinks, snacks and prepared items like pre-made sandwiches. Here’s the story.
…On Sunday, La Placa Family Bakery closed the doors of its Ben Lomond location in preparation to reopen in Scotts Valley as La Placa Italian Cuisine. La Placa 2.0 is taking over the former Casa Nostra restaurant on Mount Hermon Road, which closed in December 2024. It will continue to offer Sicilian pastries and baked goods, along with fresh pasta, pizza, espresso, desserts and more. Opening date TBD.
… Event company Collective Santa Cruz is teaming up with influencer Daniel J. West of Double Meat Please for a food festival featuring their favorite eats.
The Best of the Best All-Star Fest will be held at Highway 17 Studios in Santa Cruz on Sept. 5 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. with 80 vendors, including restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, food trucks, pop-ups and more. To date, Double Meat and Collective have released few details about the event, but based on Collective’s five-part 2025 Extra Tasty Tour and holiday Mega Markets in the old Logos building last winter, and West’s infectiously fun and informative Instagram videos, I’m looking forward to finding out more.
There might also be another Lookout tasting tour in the works … I’ll keep you posted!
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… With the annual Watsonville Strawberry Festival behind us, it’s time to look forward to another South County agricultural event: the Testicle Festival. This smaller, more (ahem) intimate event celebrates the county’s ranching tradition while raising funds to support the next generation of farmers with an unusual offering: unlimited plates of Rocky Mountain oysters – fried bull testicles – dipped in a variety of homemade sauces.
The family-friendly gathering takes place at Estrada Deer Camp outside of Watsonville on Aug. 29 from 3 to 7 p.m. with a raffle, live music, and cow pie bingo. Tickets are $75 for adults and $30 for kids, and include unlimited “oysters” and a full tri-tip dinner.
I went to the festival in 2023 and spoke to hostess Loretta Estrada and grandson Zachary Estrada, the sixth generation to operate Estrada Grassfed Beef, one the last cow-calf operations in the county. Check out the story here, in case you missed it.
… Starting this week, Seabright restaurant La Posta is hosting Seafood Thursdays throughout August with fish-focused specials and wines by the glass. If the Murray Street Bridge closure is getting between you and the Santa Cruz Harbor, this might be the spot to get a summer seafood fix.
… Westside craft butcher El Salchichero sells artisan sausages and sustainably raised meats at five weekly farmers markets, and now it’s also offering stuffed sausage rolls every other week at the Saturday morning farmers market in Santa Cruz. Your next opportunity is Aug. 15. Follow the shop on Instagram to learn about seasonal flavors and enjoy some, um, suggestive marketing. Wiener puns abound.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
Soquel beer garden Beer Thirty Bottle Shop & Pour House is throwing a 12th Anniversary Beer Fest this Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. featuring 30 of its favorite breweries, live music, food and merch. Tickets are $50 in advance and $65 at the door for unlimited samples. Eats will be on hand from Bubb’s Burgers, Taquizas Gabriel and Sleight of Hand Pizza, with Jam & The Buttered Biscuits among the musical acts.
NOTED
Santa Cruz food entrepreneur Clarice Owens, founder of snack company Pescavore Seafood, is set to return to court tomorrow to determine whether she will stand trial on Aug. 17. Owens faces two felonies for stalking stemming from online harassment and more than 20 misdemeanors for violating restraining orders against multiple individuals. Lookout will post an update tomorrow.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
We’re getting tomatoes in earnest in our garden — wide, fluted beefsteaks, yellow dewdrop-shaped grape tomatoes, lipstick red cherries and round early girls. My children love picking them, although I haven’t been able to get either adventurous Cecilia, 3, or skeptical Marco, 5, to try one yet. More for me and my husband, Mike. We eat them every way we can: in simple side salads, as a main course with fresh mozzarella, avocado and green goddess dressing, in sandwiches, dropped into soups and sauces, and eaten out of hand while they’re still warm from the sun. Later, when the avalanche comes, we will can and freeze them.
The whole garden is transitioning into late summer. We pulled the cucumber plants out after making gallons of pickles. I tamed the overgrown bok choy by harvesting most of the leaves, blanched and froze the greens for soup and stir-frys and made a batch of kimchi from the stems. I blended parsley, chives, basil and mint into a nutty sauce — my Italian husband won’t let me call it pesto — topped with olive oil and froze it in jam jars. I’m buying long, slender eggplants at the farmers market every week and eagerly watching my own miniature fairy varieties ripen. Ah, August.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced plans to open a city-owned grocery store in all five boroughs that would sell produce, meat, dairy and other staple foods at prices about 30% below typical grocery stores, with the first location expected to open in the Bronx by late 2027. The initiative aims to improve affordability, but some business groups have raised concerns about unfair competition. (Associated Press)
➤ Two people have died in connection with cyclospora, marking the first deaths in the national outbreak that has sickened thousands. Both individuals had serious underlying health conditions, and death resulting from cyclosporiasis is uncommon, said the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services yesterday. (Associated Press)