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.
… Over the past four years, the two-person event company Collective Santa Cruz has become known for diverse, maximalist community events with bold themes, ranging from Festival of Champions – a riff on the Summer Olympics complete with a 3-mile fun run – to a ravey, haunted, glow stick-infused Halloween rager at Moe’s Alley.
This summer, organizers Jalen Horne and Kendall Denike are launching a monthly series of five events focused on another unorthodox concept – the five basic tastes: sweet, bitter, sour, umami and salty. The Extra Tasty Tour kicks off Saturday with the return of Collective’s dessert festival, Sweet Home Santa Cruz, at Humble Sea Brewing Co. on the Westside. All of the events are free to enter. Find out more about this delicious summer series here.
… Over the past 20 years, 7th Avenue restaurant Harbor Café’s nostalgia, quality service and contemporary cool factor have created a cult following. Ringed with palm trees, bamboo and passionfruit vines, the outdoor patio has the scrappy, hand-hewn charm of a surf shack, an oasis of caffeine, cocktails and Benedicts.
In April, Harbor Café had a changing of the guard when the new owners – husband and wife Justin and Jessica Foust and business partner Hollis Oatey – purchased it from longtime owner Daniel Voskoboynikov. But aside from the presence of the new owners at the café, customers likely won’t notice any changes to their brunch routine. “Dan built this into what it is: an awesome, iconic place in Santa Cruz. Our No. 1 thing is to try not to mess this up,” said Justin Foust. Read the story about this brunch superstar here. (P.S. Get the Capri-Fun nonalcoholic cocktail ($7) and the Cali Bene ($19.95), Harbor Café’s most popular brunch item.)
… Despite a rumor that it has closed, Bittersweet Bistro is indeed open. Since online Bay Area news site SFGate posted a story in January originally headlined “Bittersweet: Santa Cruz’s only Michelin-recognized restaurant abruptly closes,” the Aptos restaurant has received “hundreds of calls of messages” asking if it is closing.
The article was about a different restaurant entirely – Alderwood in Santa Cruz, and the word “bittersweet” was lifted from a social media post announcing the closure – but it caused confusion locally. SFGate has since changed the headline, but according to Bittersweet Bistro marketing manager Katelyn Thomas, the damage was done. “Bittersweet Bistro is not closing,” said Thomas in an email to Lookout. “We are open and continue to serve our community, as we have for over 30 years.”
… This Friday, The Penny Ice Creamery will host Hoops and Scoops, a just-for-fun community event, at its Aptos Village location, from 4 to 7 p.m. Everyone is welcome to participate in hula hooping and watch performances from community groups. There will also be a “little hoopers” space for young children. Participation is free – bring your own hula hoop and receive free toasted marshmallow fluff on a scoop of ice cream.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
Outstanding in the Field is kicking off its 24th season with two outdoor dinners in Santa Cruz County. On May 28, the first luxurious dinner takes place, for the first time, on the Capitola Wharf. On May 31, the traveling series heads to Mariquita Farm outside of Corralitos, where the very first farm dinner was held in 1999. Founded in Santa Cruz by Pleasure Point native Jim Denevan, this international company aims to bring diners closer to their food and the people who produce it. Tickets are $385 to $395 per person, depending on the venue. (The event on the Capitola Wharf is sold out.)
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
My husband, Mike, and I splurged on filets and collars of fresh Alaskan king salmon at H&H Fresh Fish Co. over the weekend for an at-home date night in our kitchen after our kids went to bed. We are – and I take no joy in saying this – complete snobs about fish, particularly salmon. Mike is completely to blame. A Santa Cruz native, he’s fished his whole life in the area, and during the early years of dating and our marriage, he would regularly bring home stunning silver-sided, fuchsia-fleshed salmon caught in Monterey Bay. For the past two years, the salmon fishing season has been closed to recreational and commercial fishers (it will open this year for sport fishing for a handful of days), and we’ve mostly gone without our beloved salmon – to us, nothing really compares to the hyperfresh fish Mike would catch.
The Alaskan salmon is a new product for H&H, available at the shop in Santa Cruz Harbor. It’s not cheap – $38 per pound for filet – but it’s so flavorful and tender. I don’t think you could get any better unless you caught it yourself – and those days are few and far between.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ In one of the most bizarre pieces of food writing I’ve read in recent memory, San Francisco restaurant critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan describes how famed chef Thomas Keller asked her to leave The French Laundry, his three-Michelin-starred Napa restaurant. What follows is an unorthodox evening that raises questions about the relationship between fine dining establishments and the people who review them. (San Francisco Chronicle)
➤ After a tragic shooting in 2019 and financial woes that led the festival to go dark in 2022, the Gilroy Garlic Festival will return this summer. The longstanding event will be held July 25-27 at Gilroy Gardens’ South County Grove. Only 3,000 people will be admitted per day, and tickets must be purchased online in advance. (NBC Bay Area)