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.
… There has been a lot of news coming from the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf over the past week.
Tuesday afternoon, the Santa Cruz City Council unanimously approved plans for a new restaurant on the wharf. At the meeting, restaurateur Mark Gilbert presented a preliminary design for Miramar, a two-story restaurant at the former site of Miramar Fish Grotto, which was demolished in early 2020, and the current home of Humble Sea Brewing Co.’s seasonal pop-up beer garden. The council also agreed to create a lease – something that Gilbert told me Monday was crucial to moving the project forward – but will finalize the terms at a later date.
Gilbert also owns wharf restaurants Firefish Grill and Woodies Café, and said that Miramar’s price point would hit somewhere in between higher-end Firefish and fast casual Woodies. He hasn’t decided on a concept yet, but doesn’t plan on emphasizing seafood – on Monday, he told me he was considering Italian.
The plans for the two-story restaurant include outdoor dining on the top and ground floors, an exhibition kitchen, a pizza oven, a chowder bar and oyster bar. Construction could begin early next year. More on that here.
… Last week, Gilbert and fellow wharf restaurateurs Cindy Pawlak and Scott McPherson, who own Stagnaro Bros. with four other family members, told me that the wharf collapse and subsequent closure during the holiday season dealt them a hard blow. Both estimate that they lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of vital income during the otherwise slow winter season. Read the story here.
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… While I was on the wharf, I had some chowder. But while clam chowder is an iconic lunch near the water, especially on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, most options offer more vibes than flavor. The exception is the made-to-order seafood chowder at Firefish Grill. It has it all: loads of seafood in a creamy, flavorful broth, plus fried potato wedges and major curb appeal.
The price – $28.95 – was noted and discussed by some readers, who shared their thoughts with me on Instagram and via email. Is $29 too much to pay for soup?
It’s no surprise to anyone that menu prices have increased over the past five years. Entree prices between $25 to $40 at a sit-down restaurant have become the norm. If the dish is seafood, or in a touristy area, or near the water – this seafood chowder ticks all three of those boxes – then the price is higher.
I believe that part of my job is to direct people to where I think their hard-earned dollars will be well-spent, and make an effort to cover both high-end and affordable options. In this case, this chowder was absolutely delicious, and so substantial that I couldn’t eat the whole bowl, even though I wanted to. With the gorgeous views from the dining room, I considered it a lovely meal.
Here are my thoughts – feel free to email or text me with yours.
… Last Tuesday, Alderwood Santa Cruz, the city’s only restaurant listed in the prestigious Michelin Guide, closed its doors. The downtown restaurant announced its decision on Instagram.
A reason wasn’t specified, but news of the flagship restaurant’s closure comes after a turbulent year and a half for Santa Cruz Sky, Alderwood’s parent company. The news also comes amid the departure of several flagship downtown Santa Cruz tenants, and a difficult environment for the restaurant industry nationwide. Read the story here.
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ON THE MENU
Santa Cruz’s Izakaya West End and Capitola’s East End Gastropub have a new little sister. Tortilla Shack, a chef-driven fast-food restaurant, opened last week off Soquel Drive near Dominican Hospital. The restaurant offers custom burritos, quesadillas, bowls and nachos with dozens of options for toppings and fillings, as well as tortillas pressed and griddled to order. Watch for the story later this week.
NOTED
The first Santa Cruz Pizza Week starts Wednesday and runs through Feb. 8. In a similar format to Santa Cruz Restaurant Week and Santa Cruz Burger Week, 25 participating restaurants throughout Santa Cruz County will offer special menus and discount pricing during the event. No reservations needed – view the list of restaurants at santacruzpizzaweek.com.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
My husband, Mike, and I snuck out after our kids went to bed – thank you, Mom, for babysitting – to get pizza. Not just any pizza: a pie smothered in freshly shaved black truffles at Mentone in Aptos. This $54 item is a seasonal offering, as is the white truffle pizza ($97), which occasionally graces the menu at superstar chef David Kinch’s Franco-Italian restaurant in late fall and winter.
The otherwise simple pizza – if such a thing can be said about such an artistic and scientific creation, baked by professionally trained pizzaiolos in a custom oven – was showered in almost translucent slices of black truffle, imported from Périgord, France, that same day, manager Sean Fyock told us.
The ethereal aroma, a mix of toasted nuts, soil, and an indescribable “something else,” was divine. I found myself sifting through the memory of the meal for hours after. When I’ve tried black truffle in other ways, in oils or salts, I’ve found the flavor to be too aggressive, with a kind of unappetizing slickness. After enjoying the “real thing,” in a fresh and simple presentation, I’m closer to understanding the passion behind this luxury fungi.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ President Donald Trump’s immigration plans could have a devastating effect on California’s wine industry, and one grower said it feels like they are “preparing for war.” In Napa Valley, immigrants make up 73% of the agriculture industry, and around a third are undocumented. (San Francisco Chronicle)
➤ On Sunday, San Francisco’s famed Sam Wo Restaurant closed indefinitely. The 117-year-old Chinatown institution was known for its straightforward fare and late hours. After failing to secure a buyer, chef and part-owner David Ho decided to retire. (CBS News)