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.
… La Bahia Hotel & Spa, heralded as Santa Cruz’s first luxury accommodation, finally opened this week after more than three years of construction, and four decades of planning among the City of Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz Seaside Company, which owns the property, and Ensemble, its management partner.
Monday, in addition to welcoming its first overnight guests, two of the three public dining areas opened: Low Tide Bar & Grill, a casual lunch and dinner spot, and Pearl, the lobby bar. (High Tide, a dinner-only second-floor restaurant, is set to open on Friday.) Hotel management wouldn’t share any details about the menu ahead of time, so I eagerly stopped in for lunch, and then came back at 4 p.m. when Pearl opened for a cocktail.
While Pearl sparkled with fun craft cocktails and elegant little bar snacks, Low Tide’s opening menu fell short of the high expectations crafted by La Bahia over the past few months. Dishes like blistered shishito peppers ($20), a grilled Castroville artichoke ($16), grilled mahi mahi tacos ($22 for three) and Neapolitan-style pizzas have appeared on other area menus for years. At a business that aims to transform and elevate Santa Cruz’s tourism industry, I expected more innovation. Read the full story here.
… On Friday, after backlash from employees, Verve Coffee Roasters removed the 5% service fee it instated at its coffeehouses, saying in an internal memo that it was “confusing” to customers. To recap: Verve added the surcharge automatically to all guest checks (although customers could ask to have it removed), and stated on a sign that the fee would go toward health benefits for full-time employees. Coffeehouse workers revealed to Lookout that nearly all of them are part-time, and therefore don’t receive health benefits. Nevertheless, they were on the front lines to interact with customers who were irritated with the fee, and reported lower tips.
The tensions over the fee exposed dissatisfaction among some Verve workers. Last Monday, three Verve coffeehouses – the Pacific Avenue and Fair Avenue locations in Santa Cruz and a location in San Francisco – announced that they intend to unionize, seeking better wages, benefits and more respect from management.
… Free two-hour parking is available in the Seabright area of Santa Cruz at all metered spaces. The change is among a number of measures passed last week by the city to support area businesses, which report dramatic decreases in sales due to the closure of Murray Street Bridge. Water taxi service has also been extended through September. The free ferry crosses the harbor on Thursdays from 5 to 9 p.m., Fridays from 3 to 8 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Chef Jeffrey Wall – who led Alderwood in Santa Cruz from 2018 to 2023 – and majority owner Ciera Kash have joined forces to revive Johnny’s Harborside, a 20-year-old seafood restaurant in the Santa Cruz Harbor. Together, they have transformed the previously struggling neighborhood haunt with a fresh menu, new systems and a renewed focus on consistency and hospitality. The reimagined offerings blend Wall’s fine-dining expertise with approachable seaside favorites, aiming to secure the restaurant’s future while honoring its community roots. Here’s the story.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
The 42nd annual Capitola Art & Wine Festival is happening throughout Capitola Village this Saturday and Sunday. For two days, artists, craftspeople, food vendors and wineries line the streets, showing off their talents. The festival is free to enter. To taste wine, purchase a 2025 festival glass for $20 and tasting tokens. This event is hosted by the Capitola-Soquel Chamber of Commerce and raises money for the chamber.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
My husband, Mike, snagged two spots on a salmon fishing charter out of Emeryville last week. In case you missed it: This summer, the sport salmon fishing season opened for the first time in two years for brief two-to-four-day intervals each month in June through October. But the July and August dates were canceled after fishers exceeded the quota for those dates in June.
Mike is an avid fisher, and was thrilled to fish for what he considers “the king of fish.” He caught one salmon on Friday, and was given another by someone else on the boat who had caught more than the limit of two fish per person. On Saturday, he went out again, but unfortunately didn’t get any bites. Still, we have about 15 pounds of beautiful filet vacuum-sealed in our freezer, and we have been feasting on fresh fish for two days.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ The New York Times listed two local woman-owned wineries on a list of “10 California Wine Producers Worth Getting to Know Now.” The writer praised winemaker Megan Bell’s skilled use of “oddball” varieties like picpoul and cabernet pfeffer at her Santa Cruz-based winery, Margins Wine, and Terah Wine Company’s Terah Bajjalieh’s balanced, energetic, food-friendly wines. (The New York Times)
➤ Coffee prices reached a record high in July, with an average price of $8.41 per pound, a 33% increase from a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Volatile weather reduced harvests in key growing regions like Brazil and Vietnam. Sourcing should improve, but 50% tariffs levied on products from Brazil are likely to exacerbate the issue. (CNBC)