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.
Stay in touch with me by text throughout the week – I send text alerts every time I publish a story. And you can text me back! Share your thoughts, send tips and give feedback. Sign up for texts from me here. Thanks to those of you who’ve already subscribed! Check out all of my food and drink coverage here.
… I have an exciting announcement: New Lookout Santa Cruz merch just dropped, perfect for you or the foodie in your life. Introducing the Lily Belli Apron!
Yes, that’s me. The hottest new kitchen essential is available free to new annual members, signing up at our special Valentine’s (or Galentine’s) price – $114 for the first year of Lookout – and offered to all our current members, for $30. (Existing members, reach out to membership@lookoutlocal.com to get yours.)
I’m not sure I’m allowed to call something with my likeness on it “cool.” But if you’ve read my food and drink coverage over the past 2½ years at Lookout, clearly we have something in common: We love good food. The idea that some part of me is there with you in your kitchen while you prepare a meal for family and friends warms my apron — I mean, heart — strings.
You’ll be able to pick up your apron at Lookout HQ, our new office right across the street from Bookshop Santa Cruz and above Toque Blanche on Pacific Avenue. We’re setting our first pickup date for Feb. 15, and I’ll be there to greet you. Need to pick it up sooner? Email membership@lookoutlocal.com to set up a time.
Happy cooking, and thank you to Lookout’s members – new and continuing – for your support!
… A new style of pizza is coming to Santa Cruz, a city with a seemingly bottomless appetite for ‘za. Former Mentone pizza chef and accredited pizzaiolo Francesco Ramunno is opening his own restaurant, Rustico Italian Street Food, in the former home of Planet Fresh Gourmet Burritos at the corner of Locust and Center streets. At Rustico, Ramunno will focus on thin, rectangular Roman-style pizza and Italian street snacks like arancini, or stuffed fried rice balls, and focaccia with a range of toppings, and plans to open mid-February. Read more on Lookout.
… Event company Collective Santa Cruz launched a new website last week that aims to help people discover and find pop-up events and small businesses. At Collective Social Club, visitors use an online calendar focused on pop-up events in the area, and get to know these local micro-businesses via a directory. Learn more about the launch here.
… Waterfront restaurants remained relatively unscathed from the weekend’s deluge, compared to recent storms. Sean Venus, owner of Venus Spirits Cocktails & Kitchen Beachside and Venus Pie Trap in Rio Del Mar, was without power as of Monday afternoon and had to transfer his cold storage offsite. Mark Gilbert, owner of the Dolphin Restaurant at the end of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, told me “it doesn’t look good” for the little diner; it closed at the end of December after a storm surge damaged four pilings directly underneath it, and several more were damaged last Sunday. Capitola restaurants did not report any damage. Check out a recap of the recent storm from my colleagues Max Chun and Hillary Ojeda and myself – and stay safe!
TEXT ME
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Chef Nick Sherman, chef/owner of Capitola’s Trestles, has launched a new restaurant with chef and business partner Shawn Ryberg. Cavalletta serves rustic but elevated takes on classic Italian and Italian American dishes, with a focus on wood-fired pizzas and pasta. I had an amazing meal there a couple of weeks ago at one of its soft openings, and now Cavalletta has announced an official opening day for this Thursday, Feb. 8.
NOTED
New Leaf Community Markets is now accepting Electronic Benefits Transfer Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (EBT SNAP) benefits online when ordering organic groceries through online delivery service Instacart. Customers will be able to enter their EBT information as a form of payment in their profile. “With transportation often serving as a barrier to the grocery store, New Leaf hopes to increase access to organic and natural food throughout the Central Coast by enabling online grocery shopping and delivery,” said New Leaf in a media release. More info at instacart.com/ebt-snap.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
There’s Valentine’s Day, and then there’s Gal-entine’s Day, a holiday to celebrate female friendship. Two local businesses are offering events for the lovely ladies in your life this Saturday, Feb. 10.
The Grove Café and Bakery in Felton, together with neighbor Cindilly, is hosting a four-course Galentines Dinner for $90 per person, with a $30 optional wine pairing. The courses include “Girl Dinner,” a snack, cheese and charcuterie board, and beet and ricotta ravioli with a Meyer lemon poppyseed beurre blanc. Tickets at thegrovefelton.com.
And Humble Sea Brewing Co. is throwing a Galentine’s Day party featuring more than 30 womxn-owned or -operated breweries, fermented beverage producers – think cider, kombucha and wine – and vendors, including Ashby Confections and Yakitori Toriman. More info on Instagram.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
I understand that all this rain, ultimately, is a good thing, and I should be grateful, but as a parent of two children under 3, it would be nice if we had some indoor infrastructure to get us through this wet weather. On Sunday morning, with the rain pouring down and my children already crawling all over each other and us, I was frantically Googling for ideas. Libraries? Mysteriously closed on Sundays. Our beloved Children’s Museum of Discovery? Also closed on Sunday. Costco?? The power was out.
Thankfully, our friends texted us the solution: breakfast at Gilda’s on the wharf. We rolled in from the wet morning and grabbed booth seats along the windows. Five children under 4 all loved watching the waves roll in, and the servers could not have been sweeter. And, I have to say they make a pretty good stack of pancakes. It was exactly the solution we needed, and I think it’s our new rainy-day tradition.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ The absolutist approach to climate-friendly eating has not worked, says writer Eve Andrews. Cutting out all animal products is not necessarily the best route for the planet, she says, and isn’t gaining many new fans. She offers a compromise and says that chicken can be part of a climate-conscious diet – we just need to eat less of it. (The Atlantic)
➤ Read this before you reach for a plastic water bottle. New research shows that humans are consuming hundreds of thousands of microscopic pieces of plastic each time they drink a liter of bottled water. One researcher compares the plastic shedding from the bottle to the shedding of human skin (yuk!). (The Washington Post)