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.
… A quick heads up – my newsletters will be paused next week while I’m on vacation, so no Lily Belli on Food on Tuesday, May 6, or Eaters Digest on Friday, May 9. They’ll resume the week of May 12.
… The downtown Santa Cruz farmers market is officially moving to a new interim location one block away on May 21. After more than 30 years in its familiar Cedar Street lot, the Wednesday market will relocate to make way for the new library and housing project breaking ground in June.
The market’s temporary new home — stretching along Cedar Street and around the Cruzio building half a block down Church Street — will host the weekly event for the next two to three years as the city and market leaders work toward a permanent site downtown. More info here.
… Watsonville-based Martinelli’s has voluntarily recalled more than 170,000 bottles of its apple juice distributed across 17 states, including California, after detecting elevated levels of a toxic mold byproduct.
No health issues have been reported yet, and the toxin hasn’t been discovered in any other products. The probability of severe adverse health consequences is low, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and S. Martinelli & Company worked with retailers to remove the product from circulation.
The recall affects 10-ounce round glass bottles with a “best by” date of Dec. 5, 2026. They can be identified by the UPC number 0 41244 04102 2, located below the product’s barcode. Here’s the story.
… A new French café opened this week in the former Carried Away location in Aptos. Emilie and the Frenchies offers salads, sandwiches and pastries – including vegan and gluten-free options – inspired by the Provence region of France. Specialities include pan bagnat, a sandwich stuffed with hard-boiled eggs, tuna and vegetables; croque monsieur, an open-faced ham and cheese sandwich smothered in creamy béchamel sauce; Niçoise salad; and baked goods like shell-shaped madeleine cookies.
The café is owned by Céline Molière and Mary Jane Dean, who met 30 years ago when Dean’s family hosted Molière as an exchange student at their home in Santa Cruz. The two became lifelong friends and, eventually, business partners, along with Molière’s wife, Eliz Cervetti.
Emilie and the Frenchies, located at 7546 Soquel Dr., is open Wednesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. On May 7, they’re hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Aptos Chamber of Commerce at noon, with free samples of pastries until 2 p.m.
… Two school fundraisers for foodies are coming up this week. On Friday, the nutrition department at Live Oak School District is hosting its first Farm Benefit Dinner to raise money to establish a working farm and education center on the Del Mar Elementary campus. The entire meal will be prepared by students from neighboring Cypress High School enrolled in Food Lab, an elective class that teaches them about food preparation through creating meals in the school’s cafeteria.
On Saturday, pop-up LiDo Pizza Club and Kin & Kitchen are teaming up for Home on the Coast Range, a spaghetti Western-themed fundraiser for Davenport’s Pacific Elementary School’s FoodLab program, which recently lost federal funding. The five-course dinner includes Neapolitan pizza, pardelle with rabbit ragu and steak tagliata with salsa verde, as well as drinks and live music. The event takes place at the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Posse at 2127 Ocean St. Extension in Santa Cruz from 5 to 9 p.m.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
On April 19, more than 200 people gathered at the Veterans Memorial Building in downtown Santa Cruz to sample eclectic homebrewed beverages like hard cider with prickly pear, traditional absinthe, mead made with blueberries and an herbal beer made with bay laurel, white sage and lemongrass instead of hops. The return of the DIYine Homebrewing Festival after five years marked the first major public homebrewing event in the county since the pandemic, signaling a revival for a hobby that surged in popularity in the 2010s alongside the rise of craft beer. Read the story here.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
The Santa Cruz Mountain Mushroom Festival returns this weekend to Roaring Camp for its second year. Hosted by Moss Landing-based, family-owned mushroom company Far West Fungi, the two-day event celebrates all things fungus with live music, cooking demonstrations, lectures, arts and crafts, a kid zone, hands-on activities and workshops. The food vendor lineup includes Felton café The Grove Cafe & Bakery, Santa Cruz pizzeria Bookie’s and Vietnamese-Cuban café Mariposa Coffee. A one-day pass is $50.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
It’s so easy for my husband, Mike, and I to get caught up in the routines of parenting our two toddlers, and there’s truly nothing like hosting a friend over for dinner to make us feel human again. On Sunday evening, our longtime friend and our son’s godfather, Mario, came over. After he spoiled Marco with an early birthday present, the kids went to bed and the three of us stayed up eating snacks and making pasta alla amatriciana with guanciale Mario gave us, and freshly imported mozzarella di bufala. I endured a little teasing from our Roman friend for making the classic Roman dish with onions, but it was delicious anyway and we stayed up late drinking wine and catching up. It reminded us how important it is to make time for little moments like this that actually aren’t so little.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ Restaurants and bistros in Paris often serve lower-quality wine by the glass to guests than they ordered, especially in touristy areas. The ruse is widespread, and was discovered when a local newspaper sent sommeliers to pose as English-speaking tourists. In the cafés’ defense, they say people never know the difference. (The Times)
➤ Bay Area food website Eater San Francisco released an updated list of 17 places to eat and drink in Santa Cruz. The lineup includes Coffee Conspiracy in Capitola, Emozioni Pasticceria in Soquel and Birichino winery in Santa Cruz. What are your thoughts? (And, if you look closely, you can find four links to Lookout’s coverage in the story.) (Eater SF)