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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… After four postponements, the Dungeness crab season will finally open locally this Thursday, with restrictions. Crab fishers are able to use only 50% of their gear, in the hopes that less gear in the water will protect whales and other sea life that can become tangled in the lines. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that 27 whales were injured or killed in lost crab fishing gear in 2023.
A 50% gear reduction is “the minimum we can survive on viably,” says local crab fisher Tim Obert, who believes that getting fishers out on the water will actually help prevent entanglements. Read more here.
… Most of the restaurants along the coast recovered quickly after the storm surge at the end of December, but the fate of the Dolphin Restaurant at the end of the Santa Cruz Wharf is still uncertain. Several pilings under the restaurant fell during the storm, and a piling cap – essentially a long wooden beam – supporting the restaurant was damaged, leading to a partial collapse of the decking.
Either the damage can be fixed, and the restaurant will be able to reopen in a few months, or the city will have to demolish it to make more extensive repairs. If that happens, owner Mark Gilbert says it could take three to four years for the Dolphin to reopen. Read more Lookout.
… Gayle’s Bakery & Rosticceria in Capitola is undergoing a major remodel, and will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Starting Thursday, the team will operate a “mini-Gayle’s” from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily in the espresso bar area while the remodel is underway. The construction will take about three weeks, said owner Gayle Ortiz in a media release.
During that time, coffee drinks, wine and beer; popular bakery and deli items; and a grab-and-go case will be served. Hot food won’t be available. Guests can sit in the café and patio. The front doors will be closed – use the entrance through the café or side patio.
It’s been more than 30 years since the interior of the 46-year-old bakery and restaurant has been updated. “We’re super excited about getting new showcases, back counters, bread shelving and a new floor in our production area,” says Ortiz.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
My hunt for the best vegan eats in the county continues. On Friday, I shared the entirely plant-based Detroit-style pizza and maitake mushroom “wings” at Bookie’s Pizza, located inside Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Santa Cruz. “We try to make a pie that appeals to vegans, not to people who want a meat substitute,” chef Todd Parker told me. Read the full review on Lookout.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
The 44th annual Ecological Farming Association Conference is this week at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove in Monterey County. EcoFarm is the oldest and largest organic farming conference west of the Mississippi, and draws organizations and farming professionals from near and far for four days of cutting-edge conversation and collaboration in the realm of sustainable farming. The event runs Wednesday through Saturday. Go to eco-farm.org to view the keynote speakers and schedule.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
A reader sent me this comic by Lynn Johnston, asking how my family was adjusting to the vegetarian lifestyle. To recap: I gave up meat for January, and am focusing on eating more plant-based meals at home and at Santa Cruz County restaurants. Now more than two weeks in, here’s how things are going behind the scenes in the Belli family kitchen:
I do almost all the meal planning and cooking in our home, so I asked my husband, Mike, if he wanted to join me. He said yes, that he “could definitely eat more vegetables,” and eats enough Jack’s burgers and Taqueria Vallarta burritos for lunch with his coworkers to give up meat at home. Us grown-ups have been eating vegetable-heavy chow mein-style noodles, roasted vegetable grain bowls and hearty salads; Mike has complained only about one lentil-based soup I made that won’t be getting a repeat performance. If he’s feeling extra hungry, he throws an egg on it.
Cecilia, my 10-month-old daughter, eats everything in sight and almost as much as the adults. I’ve yet to find a food this adventurous eater doesn’t like, so she’s eating modified versions of what Mike and I eat.
But Marco, my 2½-year-old son, is eating what he always eats – which is not very much. He’s such a selective eater that I couldn’t justify cutting meatballs, sausage and scrambled eggs off of his already very short list of acceptable foods. And the idea that he would even touch a vegetable that wasn’t hidden in a smoothie is laughable. I do dutifully put a piece on his plate because the parenting professionals tell me that if I do this, at some point down the road – if I cross my fingers, answer three riddles, light a candle, and pretend like I don’t care if he does or he doesn’t – he will someday happily eat broccoli and carrots.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ Kissed By An Angel Wines is opening a second tasting room on 7th Avenue in Santa Cruz. The 1,100-square-foot space is a fraction of the local winery’s production facility, and it plans on hosting live music in addition to wine tasting. Check out the grand opening on Saturday, Jan. 27, and learn more in Lookout wine writer Laurie Love’s latest column. (Lookout)
➤ Iconic roadside restaurant Pea Soup Andersen’s temporarily closed its flagship Buellton location, about 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles, but details are slim. The owners said that the 100-year-old restaurant is “closed for redevelopment,” but did not say for how long or what that development would look like. The Santa Nella location, off Interstate 5 southeast of San Jose, remains open. (NBC LA)