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. Check out all of my food and drink coverage here.
… A Monterey Bay nonprofit released a historic report earlier this month on the state of the area’s fishing industry, offering data that takes a closer look at fisheries, number of boats and infrastructure at the Monterey, Moss Landing and Santa Cruz harbors.
The nonprofit Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust produced the Monterey Bay Commercial Fisheries: Status and Trends Report with help from researchers at UC Santa Cruz, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station. It looked at data on fishing activity from 1981 to 2024, with a detailed focus on the past 14 years.
The findings show that while Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor is the smallest and most shallow of the three, it’s also the most diverse and supports more vessels than Moss Landing or Monterey. And the smaller size of Santa Cruz fishers’ boats and businesses allowed them to adapt somewhat nimbly when its traditional fisheries were dramatically restricted. Read the story here.
… On that note, bluefin tuna — once highly endangered and redesignated by scientists in 2024 to be a sustainable choice — have returned to the coast of California, and last week Santa Cruz’s H&H Fresh Fish Co. purchased an enormous 446-pound bluefin caught off the coast of San Diego. It is the second-largest bluefin ever landed in California, H&H said. Images and video of the fish, which they butchered at the shop in the harbor, are on their Instagram page. Over the weekend, they offered a range of products, from sashimi platters and poke to loins and blocks of chutoro and otoro. Some cuts are still available at the harbor shop and H&H West on Santa Cruz’s Westside.
Chef Jeffrey Wall at Johnny’s Harborside, located above H&H, jumped at the chance to offer this special fish on the restaurant’s menu. On Friday, he offered four courses featuring different cuts of bluefin as a special fixed-price menu for $65 — and sold out within 30 minutes.
I was lucky enough to experience the menu, and was blown away by both the sumptuous textures and flavors of the bluefin, and Wall’s preparations, including a tuna tartare with luscious drops of gelled egg yolk and crisp Asian pear, and lightly grilled otoro topped generously with uni and served over white grits.
While Johnny’s has used fish purchased from H&H for over a year, since Wall joined the team last summer, more collaborations like this could be in store in the future.
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… A special event at Evergreen Cemetery in Santa Cruz this Sunday aims to create connections with history through food. On Oct. 4, Picnic of Memory will take visitors on a tour of important persons in the historic cemetery, followed by a picnic among the graves featuring thoughtful bites that incorporate different edible links to the past.
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History artist-in-residence Liz Birnbaum, creator of the foodie dinner series The Curated Feast, created the experience, and chef Jessica Yarr of The Grove Cafe and Bakery in Felton is making the picnic baskets. The event is sold out, but you can read more about it here.
… Homeless Garden Project released the menu for its fall Sustain Supper on Oct. 24, held from 3 to 6:30 p.m. at the Natural Bridges Farm in Santa Cruz. Made by Monterey Bay chef Adam Young, four courses include a harvest salad made with produce from the farm, Thai-spiced black cod curry with roasted pumpkin and quince, several appetizers and dessert provided by Soquel’s Sugar Bakery. Tickets start at $188.58, with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit’s work training programs for unhoused participants.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Verve Coffee Roasters workers across six Bay Area cafés, including two in Santa Cruz, have reached a tentative union contract after nearly 10 months of bargaining, with guaranteed hours, advance scheduling, wage increases and other workplace protections. The agreement also includes what union leaders call industry-first provisions for an extra $5 per hour in sick pay to offset lost tips and limits on how Verve can use artificial intelligence to make decisions about employees. Read the story here.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
Celebrate the season this Saturday in downtown Santa Cruz at the Harvest Festival. This free, family-friendly event offers classic fall fun sponsored by downtown businesses, from throwback carnival games and activities, a mechanical bull, a wreath-making station, a petting zoo and lots of treats like churros and popcorn. The festival goes from noon to 4 p.m. on Church Street.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
It was a good week for fishing at the Belli house, too. My husband, Mike, went fishing out of San Francisco Bay on Friday, and came home with many pounds of rockfish and lingcod. I love having fish he’s caught ready in the freezer for quick dinners, and these local white-fleshed fish are perfect for tacos, ceviche, chowder and coconut curry.
On Sunday, we brought a few filets over to my in-laws’ house, where I fried them in the pan with plenty of olive oil and served them with an easy sauce vierge with olives, and chopped late-summer tomatoes, parsley and basil from the garden. My picky 5-year-old, Marco, passed on the fish, but adventurous 3-year-old Cecilia ate several helpings: “Fish, please, mama!”
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ Apparently, no one wants to cook anymore. Prepared-food markets are booming as busy consumers increasingly choose fresh, ready-to-eat meals over cooking, takeout and delivery. The trend is fueling a new kind of gourmet grocery store that functions as a one-stop kitchen, with sales of prepared foods rising even as overall grocery shopping slows. (Grub Street)
➤ The internet exploded this week over a controversy surrounding a Massachusetts lesbian bar’s mask policy. The business, Last Ditch, announced on Instagram on Aug. 31 that it would loosen its mask requirements for one night, making them optional, angering patrons until the decision exploded into a full-blown crisis. The details are even stranger than fiction. (The Boston Globe)