News, notes and recommendations from around Santa Cruz County food & drink, via Lookout correspondent Lily Belli.
Local Business
Posted inBusiness & Technology
Santa Cruz County business filings: Week of March 10, 2025
The latest Santa Cruz County business filings of anyone conducting business for profit under a fictitious business name.
Posted inFood & Drink
Eaters Digest: Breakfast at the Silver Spur Watsonville
“For me, going out for breakfast is like going to a steakhouse,” Lily Belli writes. “It’s a special occasion, and I go big.” And this week, she heads to South County to chow down at newly opened Silver Spur Watsonville.
Posted inFood & Drink
Best of Santa Cruz County food & drink events, March 7-13
Lookout food & drink correspondent Lily Belli highlights top events happening around Santa Cruz County in the coming week, plus more listings from Lookout’s BOLO events calendar.
Posted inFood & Drink
Soquel’s Silver Spur opens second location in Watsonville
Beloved Soquel breakfast and lunch spot Silver Spur opened a second location this week, in the East Lake Village Shopping Center in Watsonville. The new restaurant offers the same menu and specials as the original, but aims to add beer and wine, including mimosas, within the next month. It joins Ozzy’s Pizzeria, Fruition Brewing and Staff of Life Market in the shopping center, a growing food hub of locally owned businesses.
Posted inBusiness & Technology
This week in Santa Cruz County business: Joby moves closer to launching passenger service, Moss Landing restaurant owners sue over battery plant fire
In her weekly roundup of local business, Jessica M. Pasko reports that Santa Cruz-based Joby Aviation is eyeing late this year or early 2026 for carrying the first passengers aboard its electric air taxis. She also has news on the aftermath of the Moss Landing battery plant fire and national honors for Santa Cruz Metro, plus names, numbers and events to know.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
From funding to free speech, local non-commercial radio reckons with Trump 2.0
Two prominent non-commercial radio stations in the Monterey Bay area – KAZU and KSQD – are facing the second Trump administration with different concerns, the former with the threat of the withdrawal of federal funding, and the latter with worries about free speech.
Posted inFood & Drink
Eaters Digest: Beef koubideh burger at Laili
Downtown’s Laili Restaurant is participating in this year’s Santa Cruz Burger Week, and it’s worth stopping in, Lily Belli reports in her Friday newsletter. She also has foodie event recommendations and news you might’ve missed.
Posted inLatest News
Ask Lookout: What’s the status of humpback whales in Monterey Bay and Dungeness crab fishing gear entanglements?
Humpback whale populations have increased, but a change in migration patterns has them staying in Monterey Bay during the traditional winter season of crab fishing. With more entanglements and a lawsuit in 2016, the state has delayed crab fishing season every year since and fishers are hoping for a solution.
Posted inBusiness & Technology
SwellCycle, creator of sustainable surfboard tech, nets new funding to expand to more industries
With an injection of $1 million, the Westside’s SwellCycle aims to pivot from a focus on selling boards directly to consumers to instead working with surfboard shapers and licensing its technology to “micro-factories” to produce the surfboards.