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.
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… What’s it like to open a business in Santa Cruz? For winemaker Megan Bell, the journey to establish a tasting room on the Westside in Santa Cruz was harrowing and nearly bankrupted her business. It took Bell 483 days to complete the permitting process for her 120-square-foot tasting room, which does not serve food and shares a public bathroom with other suites in the building. She feels Santa Cruz’s permit system is stacked against entrepreneurs like herself. “The only businesses that can afford to have a place sitting empty like this is a national chain,” says Bell. “If the city wants to support local businesses, they need to fix the system.”
In this story, I laid out Bell’s process step by step, spoke to a local architect who called Santa Cruz’s system “the worst” in the county, and got a behind-the-scenes look at the issues plaguing the building department. Read it here.
… Every week, the Market Match program allows hundreds of people in Santa Cruz County using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits – the modern equivalent to food stamps – to stretch their dollars for fresh fruits and vegetables at local farmers markets. But a recent budget proposal from the state slashed the funding for this vital program. Now, local farmers market organizers, including Nicole Zahm from Santa Cruz Community Farmers’ Markets and Jesus Madrigal from the Watsonville farmers market, are sounding the alarm. Read more here.
… Menu trend alert: Last month, Seabright Social in Santa Cruz launched a new menu, and, among other changes, started offering most of its menu items à la carte – aka, without sides – in order to keep menu prices down and allow diners to customize their meals, owners said.
Then, I visited Dharma’s in Capitola. It also recently retooled its menu and opted to remove sides from its burgers, sandwiches and other items, for the same reasons. And, while at The View at Chaminade for Santa Cruz Burger Week, I was surprised to see that none of its burgers or sandwiches came with sides, either.
I can see the benefits of this A La Carte Trend – lower prices and less food waste being chief among them – as long as the value of the entire meal holds up. And I can understand why restaurants would use this strategy as a tool to manage stubbornly high food costs. Diners, have you seen other restaurants in the area? What do you think of this trend?
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Craft beer drinkers, take note: Pleasure Point brewery New Bohemia Brewing Co. closed on Feb. 25 after nine years on 41st Avenue. Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing reopened on March 1 after an ownership change at the end of January, although food service is forthcoming. And Watsonville Public House is now open in downtown Watsonville.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
The NEXTies – one of Santa Cruz’s most exciting awards shows – is back! Save the date for May 17 at 5:30 p.m. at Woodhouse Brewing & Blending in Santa Cruz. Lookout is co-hosting this event with Event Santa Cruz for the second year in a row, and we are accepting nominations for community members who deserve to be recognized. Do you know a rising star in the food world? Nominate them and get tickets to the event at eventsantacruz.com. Honorees will be announced later this month.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
This week, I’m just going to tell you straight – there’s not anything exciting happening in my kitchen these days. We are cycling through our rotation of meals, filling in with burritos from De La Hacienda in Santa Cruz and boxes of Goodles macaroni and cheese when we don’t feel like cooking. As a food and drink reporter, I always aim to have something glamorous or interesting in my back pocket to share with you, but this week had us kind of down. Honestly, I blame the weather. There are only so many cozy, wintery meals I can cook before I start rolling my eyes. I want sunshine! I want spring! I want asparagus and green peas and first-of-the-season tiny strawberries. I want freshness and warmth and no more rain! Until then, I’m fighting against seasonal affective disorder and lacking much culinary inspiration. Anyone else feeling the winter blues, foodwise? What do you cook when you need to get your mojo back?
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
➤ In Gaza, food preparation has been inhibited due to a lack of fuel sources. Wood from trees is difficult to find, and propane and other fuels aren’t allowed into the country. So, chef José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen created a highly efficient new cook stove that runs on wood pellets, a small solar panel and a car battery. (Fast Company)
➤ Less than three years since inspiration hit to concoct a better canned cocktail, Nick and Jamie Sanyal are winning awards for their West Peak sparkling spirits and expanding operations from their base in Santa Cruz’s Sash Mill to 200 accounts throughout California and Colorado. (Lookout)