Quick Take
At The Midway, which opened at the end of 2023 in Santa Cruz's Midtown neighborhood, chef Katherine Stern says creating a menu based almost entirely on what’s available from nearby farms, just “makes sense.” Around 95% of her ingredients come from the Monterey Bay area and Central California, inspiring a constant flow of new dishes as the seasons shift.
It took living for two years in Scotland, where vegetables with California-caliber quality were rare, to turn chef Katherine Stern’s interest in sourcing ingredients locally into an obsession. In 2009, she returned to her home in Santa Cruz “with new eyes,” she said, and a new culinary focus on the produce she once took for granted.
That year, Stern became the head chef at La Posta, a Californian-Italian restaurant in the Seabright neighborhood, and the biweekly trip to the farmers market became an integral part of creating the menu, she said. After 10 years, she embarked on her own enterprise and launched The Midway as a stall at two weekend Santa Cruz farmers markets, sourcing from the farms that surrounded her in savory and sweet breakfast and brunch creations such as buckwheat pancakes with blueberries and maple pecans, and bagels topped with smoked black cod, pickled zucchini and capers.
At the end of 2023, Stern established The Midway as a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the Midtown neighborhood of Santa Cruz, offering lunch on Monday, Thursday and Friday, brunch on the weekend and dinner five nights a week. In the cozy, light-filled space two doors down from the Rio Theatre, with beautiful wood finishing crafted by her husband, she transforms the bounty of nearby farms into elegant and comforting entrees, bright salads and vibrant small plates.
While many of the best restaurants in Santa Cruz County source at least some of their ingredients from local farms, few share Stern’s commitment to creating a menu based almost entirely on what’s grown and produced within Central California. She estimates that she sources 95% of her ingredients – even pantry items such as honey, sea salt, capers, walnuts and miso – directly from farmers and Monterey Bay-based purveyors.
Occasionally, Stern sources from environmentally sustainable farmers outside the area in order to secure premier ingredients, such as stone fruit from organic orchards in the Central Valley, or because an item, like beef or lamb, isn’t available locally. Some distributors, including Santa Cruz-based Ocean2Table, might bring foraged ingredients or wild-caught fish in from Northern California, but by and large, what ends up on her guests’ plates was grown or raised within a few miles of the restaurant.
To Stern, sourcing as locally as possible just “makes sense.”
“Not only are we following what the season has to offer, but it means that the ingredients are superbly fresh. And nothing has to travel very far,” she said. “Whenever something is grown or produced locally, I will try and use it.”
With this hyper-seasonal philosophy comes a unique set of challenges. There’s limited space for storage at the 850-square-foot restaurant, and producing items like yogurt, jam, creme fraiche, crackers and bread in-house is time-consuming. Because fresh ingredients appear daily, Stern constantly makes small changes to The Midway’s brunch, lunch and dinner menus. That means that even well-loved dishes cycle out frequently, but Stern believes that flow is a part of her process.
“There is anticipation as the year progresses and you know the next thing is coming. And then, as the weather changes or the rains start, the cycle begins again and it’s time to change focus,” said Stern. “It forces me to accept that the seasons are fleeting.”
The current shoulder season between late summer and early fall might be the best time to appreciate this transition at The Midway, where sweet, late-season tomatoes, peppers and chilis mingle with heirloom apples, pears and early winter squashes.
One recent evening, I dragged a thick-seeded sourdough cracker through an impossibly silky baba ganoush-like eggplant dip ($14) sprinkled with nutty pistachio dukkah, while sipping a zippy Spanish albarino ($15). Creamy chicken liver mousse ($16) – sourced from Fogline Farms near Pescadero – was spread over thick slices of sourdough levain, and topped with crunchy shaved fennel, dill and candylike agrodolce grapes. In the tomato salad ($17), intensely flavored heirlooms mingled with earthy marinated beets and snappy green beans.
I am no stranger to winter squash-stuffed pastas, but I’ve never encountered one as tender as Stern’s delicata squash ravioli ($27). Dotted with a tangy-sweet apple mostarda and deeply roasted Brussels sprouts, it sang with cozy autumnal flavors. Another entree of grilled pork ($28), also from Fogline Farm, with long, mild Jimmy Nardello peppers and caramelized Black Mission figs, clung to summer sunshine.
The meal ended with a slice of rich, dark upside-down cake with pears ($13) and a scoop of tart frozen yogurt, hinting at deep fall and winter flavors to come. Winter fruits such as pomegranates, quince and persimmons are on the horizon, along with the greens and chicories that prefer cooler weather, said Stern.
Stern takes inspiration from other places that she’s lived, including Italy, Scotland and Portland, Oregon – where she attended culinary school – to create her menu, but struggles to define her personal culinary style. She feels that many of the words and phrases thrown around by restaurants and chefs, like “farm-to-table,” “seasonal” and “local,” feel like clichés. Sometimes, they’re not even accurate, she said. To her, this way of cooking runs much deeper than a trendy tagline; it’s the result of deep personal connections created over nearly two decades.
“Over the years, I’ve formed relationships with the farmers and producers that I buy from. I talk directly to them about what they have available and what they’re growing. We talk about the weather and how it is affecting harvest or a planting schedule. They tell me what is coming up or what will be winding down,” said Stern. “I will go pick up my order or will hand-pick things off of their table. It is a direct relationship.”
1209 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz; 831-427-7187; themidwaysantacruz.com.
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