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.
… Woodstock’s Pizza in downtown Santa Cruz is undergoing a major renovation, and plans to reopen the first week of June. When it’s done, the new focal point will be a four-sided bar in the center of the restaurant, plus an expanded patio and arcade.
Since it opened on Front Street in 2007, the 200-seat pizza parlor has served only beer and wine, but the San Diego-based chain has already added bars with liquor to its restaurants in Davis and Chico and seen positive results, marketing director James Glover told me. More details on this Wednesday.
It’s interesting, because alcohol consumption overall is down nationally post-pandemic, and Gen Z in particular leans sober. So I thought cocktails were on their way out, but locally that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, cocktails are approaching trend status, with new restaurants like Hook & Line and Obló Cocktails & Kitchen (in the former Café Mare spot) putting their bar programs front and center. And places like Ulterior, located upstairs at Motiv, and After Hours inside 11th Hour Coffee on Center Street, are catering to a younger crowd. Cocktails will also be a cornerstone at Mission West owner Max Turigliatto’s upcoming Alley Oop Lounge in the former Poet & Patriot space next to Kuumbwa Jazz Center.
Are you participating in cocktail culture? If you are, where’s your favorite place to grab a drink these days?
… Remember the movie “Field of Dreams,” where a farmer builds a baseball diamond in a cornfield? At Del Mar Elementary School in Live Oak, a team of educators, dieticians and farmers is doing the opposite of that – they’re working to turn an old baseball field into a working farm for Live Oak School District. The project has been approved, and is in the early stages of seeking funding. If it’s completed, it will join just three other school farms in the state, and would be a consistent source of produce for the district, an educational site for students and a community hub.
This is a follow-up story to one I wrote in March about the district’s incredible nutrition program, which already incorporates from-scratch cooking, student participation and produce from local farms. Be sure to give it a read if you missed it.
… Most of us are on social media a lot these days, and, like the rest of the online world, Santa Cruz County is home to a small but mighty crew of food influencers. These personality-driven social media accounts share their recommendations on where to eat and what to order, usually on Instagram and TikTok.
I want to know – what local food influencers do you follow? Have you ever been inspired to go out and try something based on a post? And restaurant owners – have you ever seen a reaction from your customers (good or bad!) based on something they saw on social media?
Email or text me for possible inclusion in an upcoming story. Thank you!
TEXT ME
Want to stay on top of the latest local food news? 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 here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Full Steam Dumpling chef Andy Huynh is a master at laboriously layering flavors in his broths and sauces to create bold show-stoppers, all while drawing from hyperlocal ingredients. The current late-spring, early-summer menu at the ramen- and dumpling-focused restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz is a collection of warm-weather dishes, like silky, nutty sesame noodles ($14) and a tropical-flavored “mai-tiki” salad ($14) with juicy pineapple, bitter frissé greens, fried maitake mushrooms and an addictive nuoc cham-style dressing. If you go, don’t miss the chilled tsukemen ramen ($20.50), which you eat by dipping long, cool strands of ramen noodles into a thick, gravy-like broth. Read more in last week’s Eaters Digest.
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
There are just three local Outstanding in the Field events this year – usually there are five or six – and they’re all taking place the first week of June. The first one is this Saturday at Everett Family Farm in Soquel, followed by an event at a secret cove in Pescadero on June 6 and a dinner in Davenport at Sea to Sky Farm on June 8. Artist and Santa Cruz resident Jim Denevan founded this now-international luxe event series more than 20 years ago, with the goal of bringing guests closer to the origins of their food.
The idyllic Everett Family Farm has hosted many times. This Saturday, chef Santos Majano of Hook & Line in Santa Cruz is cooking up a multicourse, family-style feast served along the creek, with Birichino winery providing drinks. Tickets are still available for $385 per person at outstandinginthefield.com.
LIFE WITH THE BELLIS
My family and I finally – finally! – planted our garden over the weekend. We spent Saturday hauling the soil delivery from the street to fill the garden boxes, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen 3-year-old Marco so happy. He got his own toy wheelbarrow for his birthday last month – he is just that kind of kid – and was completely in his element. On Sunday, we picked out seedlings at the nursery and planted a few different kinds of tomatoes, eggplant, hot peppers, lettuces, herbs and pumpkins, plus marigolds and blueberries. Marco dug holes, planted flowers and manned the hose. Cecilia, our 1-year-old, made mud pies.
It’s been a long time coming. When we first started dating, my husband, Mike, had an incredible garden, and we loved taking care of it together through the first year of our marriage. But we haven’t planted one since the pandemic, having children and moving to a new house that has needed lots of updates, especially in the yard. Now, it feels like a core piece of our home has finally clicked into place.
FOOD NEWS WORTH READING
Business is finally booming again at San Francisco’s landmark Ferry Building, and nearly all of the fancy foodie storefronts inside are once again full. But one important restaurant tenant is not renewing, and a new government plan to raise the landmark building to protect it from sea level rise would necessitate a multiyear closure at some point in the future. Can this iconic food destination endure? (San Francisco Chronicle)