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.
… I was driving along 17th Avenue in Live Oak a few weeks ago when a flag bearing the promise of “Mushrooms” inspired me to pull over. As soon as I stepped into the tidy but rather unremarkable storefront of Santa Cruz Mushrooms, Tiffany Phillips, who I later learned operates the business with her husband, Chris Phillips, whisked me away to the back of the shop to see their operation up close.
Behind the plastic curtains of Chris’ handbuilt closets were close to a dozen culinary varieties of mushrooms: stout shiitakes, fuzzy lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms in colors ranging from rosy pink to sunny yellow and a stormy blue-tinged grey.
In addition to their mesmerizing shapes, they were fresh and plump, and some almost glowed with a pearlescent sheen — so unlike the boxes of mushrooms in grocery store aisles that are often dried out or crushed due to travel. When customers come into the shop, Chris or Tiffany cuts the fungi to order, so they never lose their luster, and charges a flat rate of $15 per pound so people can explore different varieties.
After opening in January, Santa Cruz Mushrooms is preparing to expand next year. Read the story here.
… There are signs of life in the former VinoCruz on Soquel Drive in Soquel, which closed in March. Chef Brad Briske and his wife, Linda Ritten, the owners of Home restaurant, located around the corner on Main Street, opened a sister spot in the location over the weekend.
While the restaurant is dinner only, Home Away focuses on the lunch and early evening crowd in a casual setting. It shares the restaurant’s ethos of using seasonal ingredients from producers in Santa Cruz County and along the Central Coast, with a menu of hearty soups, creative salads, a raw bar, satisfying dishes like duck cassoulet and empanadas created by Fonda Felix.
Home Away is currently open for limited days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Starting Dec. 3, it will be open five days a week from Wednesday through Sunday. Here’s the story.
… Seasonal changes are upon several Santa Cruz-area farmers markets. The Wednesday market in downtown Santa Cruz’s winter hours are 12:30 to 5 p.m. It’s open this Wednesday, but will be closed on Dec. 24 and Dec. 31 for the holidays. The Tuesday market in Felton and the Saturday market in Scotts Valley are closed for the season, and will reopen in May.
… Breakfast sandwich sensation Mad Yolks opened its third location – and first one outside of Santa Cruz County – in the Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose earlier this month. Brothers Henry and Peter Wong opened the first egg-themed brunch spot on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz three years ago, followed by a second location on 41st Avenue in Pleasure Point in July.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mission West, Westside Santa Cruz’s self-proclaimed “five-star dive bar,” is changing hands as longtime locals Peter and Krista Cook, along with industry veterans Amy Di Chiro and Jamey Nelson, take over from owners Max Turigliatto and Grant Staudt in January. The new team plans only modest updates while preserving the bar’s funky character and its tradition of local ownership and community connection. Here’s the story from Friday.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
Baker Laurel Tisserand of LaurelBakes Cookies & Cakes is hosting two holiday cookie decorating workshops where they show guests how to create three gorgeously detailed treats. On Dec. 10, the Holigay Gingerbread Cookie Workshop, held at The Neighbor’s Pub in Santa Cruz, focuses on spicy cookies with queer themes ($40-50). At the Gingerbread Cookie Workshop ($45-55) on Dec. 13 at Lito’s Community Cafe and Market in Watsonville, Tisserand will showcase traditional techniques and designs created with royal icing.
NOTED
There is no Eaters Digest newsletter this Friday. I’ll see you back here on Dec. 2 for another installment of Lily Belli on Food.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
If you are cooking a turkey on Thursday, today is the day to start brining your bird. Why do you need to brine it for 48 hours? Because that thing is massive and it’s going to take at least that long for the salt to penetrate all the way through.
Most chefs and foodie-types are fans of dry brining, which involves rubbing a salt and spice mixture into the skin and leaving the turkey uncovered in the fridge for two days. If you’re cooking the turkey in the oven, this method results in wonderfully crispy skin. Wet brining – soaking the turkey in a salt solution – can make the skin too wet for the skin to crisp up, but I think it’s great for other cooking methods. For nearly a decade, we have cooked our turkey on the barbecue after brining it in apple cider, orange juice and spices, and the extra liquid helped keep the turkey moist on the grill. This year, we are trying cookbook author Samin Nosrat’s buttermilk-brined turkey recipe that went viral in 2020 and has lived rent-free in my head ever since.
However you celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful holiday with loved ones. I’m grateful for you.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ Two Santa Cruz businesses got shoutouts in Bay Area media this week. On Friday, Eater SF praised The Laundromat’s San Francisco bagel shop and pizzeria as “one of the city’s best restaurants.” The Laundromat started in Santa Cruz during the pandemic as Holey Roller Bagels, and later changed its name before opening the restaurant in November 2022. Shoppers can find Laundromat’s bagels and schmears at the farmers markets on Saturday on the Westside and on Sunday in Live Oak. (Eater SF)
➤ On Monday, SFGate showed Bookie’s Pizza some love. Located inside craft brewery Sante Adairius Rustic Ale’s Santa Cruz Portal on Water Street, the writer called one of chef Todd Parker’s Detroit-inspired pies “the pepperoni pizza of [their] dreams.” (SFGate)