Christina Waters

The food at Gabriella has never been better than it is now with Bradford Briske in the kitchen. The word “young” comes to mind when you meet the new chef at our downtown dining treasure, but “accomplished” is the word for Briske’s gorgeous food.

The best plate of pasta I’ve had outside of Italy is Briske’s housemade squid-ink fazzoletti - a silken, wide-body pappardelle - bathed in an inspired sauce of tomato, garlic, mint and Calabrian chili. The outstanding pasta was tossed with tender local calamari, fat nuggets of Dungeness crab and slices of scallop. It was so good I went back last week and finished off another bowl.

From a superb opener of scallops on a cushion of fennel puree, to a whole roast (more…)

Back when most people grew their own crops and made their own sauces, pies and jams, some gifted artisan with a slow hand and an open heart might have made this jam. (Shown here on my breakfast table already half-consumed along with coffee, eggs, toast and butter.)

Damson plums — organic ones — and sugar. That’s all Heidi Schlecht used to stir up this deeply rewarding preserve of late harvest fruit, more tart than sweet, whose flavors go all the way into a new dimension. For $10 or so you can obtain a 9.8oz jarful of last summer, spread it on some toast and pretend its the 19th century when flavor trumped convenience and quality ruled.

I get mine at the Westside Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. But you can find these handmade organic jams at Schlecht’s River Cafe & Cheese Shop too.

Unti - a label to remember. This blush creation of grenache and mourvedre is crisp, complex, spicy and somehow ethereally robust. It’s made from Dry Creek Valley grapes and you can sample it at Gabriella. Nothing less than a complete revelation.

Imagine a cross between a blanc de noir and sunrise over the Sierras. Yes. Like that.

Update: Kinch Won!

Sizzling Saucepans! Chef David Kinch of Manresa battles chef Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America. Tune in on Sunday, March 15 to see if Kinch’s two Michelin stars can take the heat!

Chef/surfer Kinch of Manresa, Los Gatos, will challenge celebrity chef Flay on the popular Food Network cooking competition TV show. You know how it works. Based on a secret theme ingredient, each show features a challenger chef competing against a resident Iron Chef for an action-packed hour of intense, competitive cooking that will hopefully impress a panel of discerning food critic judges. Kinch will be joined in Kitchen Stadium by his talented chef de cuisine John Paul Carmona, and his former chef de cuisine James Syhabout. David Kinch cooks adventurous new contemporary cuisine at his Michelin-starred restaurant Manresa, while Bobby Flay is best known for his Southwestern style of cooking and his flair with a barbeque grill. Which chef has the chops to rule? Tune in to the premiere of the Flay vs. Kinch episode on Sunday, March 15. The episode repeats at various times during the week. Check listings for local show times.

Come meet winemaker Bradley Brown, of Big Basin Vineyards, and sample some of the assertive, engaging, terroir-driven Pinot Noirs he is creating up in the mountains above Boulder Creek.
Here he is working his way through 50 SC Mtn pinot noirs. Brown joined a dozen of his oeno-colleagues last week at an all-pinot noir tasting and vetting at the historic one-room schoolhouse-turned-winery, Burrell School Vineyards.

At Soif’s new Local Winemaker Tasting Series, Brown will pour his newly-released Big Basin vintages on Saturday March 28, 5:30-7pm. The event happens upstairs where there will be appetizers of crostini, salami and cheese as well. $20/person, with a $10 refund when you purchase, oh and you will, $60 or more.

Reservations are strongly recommended, call (831)423-2020 or e-mail luke@soifwine.com to sign up. Soif is still located at 105 Walnut Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz.

If you thought that Soif was simply a brilliantly-stocked wine store and glamorous boite, then think again. Soif not only serves enlightened, affordable lunches but now - gasp! - it is offering Salad Lyonnaise ($9) for lunch. A complete euro-meal in a single dish, the fabled Lyonnaise involves frisée, vinaigrette, crispy bacon and a fried egg on top. You pierce the egg and voila!, the rich yolk drenches the greens in unctuous protein.

Panini and quiche and other goodies too. Lunch. Soif. Walnut Avenue. Weekdays. And to sign up for Soif’s two-part Santa Cruz Mountains pinot noir classes, see post below.

Randy “The Ram” Robinson is a broken-down hack, prolonging his former pro circuit glory days with the help of drugs, booze, pain-killers, and sheer grit. As embodied by former wunderkind Mickey Rourke, The Ram is a born loser who knows how to do just one thing — thrill the suckers who want to see blood. And that thing has taken a shattering toll on his aging body and squandered soul.

The Wrestler is about as close to the center of that blood-splattered ring as most of us will ever get, and director Darren Aronofsky dives into the low-rent New Jersey wrestling circuit like a Quentin Tarantino in his prime. Rourke gives himself utterly to the camera, every scar, every trick, he doesn’t flinch about revealing his character’s sweetness, good-heartedness, despair and decline. While it’s his outrageous physical appearance — the stringy blonde locks, the mangled muscles — that we’re supposed to read, it’s Rourke’s husky, intimate, desperate voice that stayed with me long after the film was over and The Boss was singing over the credits.

The grey northeast never looked more wasted or (more…)

Once upon a time a great American filmmaker named Alfred Hitchcock owned a 19th century estate on acres high above Scotts Valley. Today that same rugged land is home to Heart O’The Mountain winery, where Bob Brassfield, and his son Brandon, craft some mighty examples of Santa Cruz Mountains terroir.

The very first vintage of Heart pinot noir was 2005, and the 2006 is tasting incredible. A half hour after opening, this big wine offered black cherry, redwood bark, granite and a backbone of cloves, sitting smoothly (if tightly) in a web of tannins. By the second day, the Heart O’The Mountain 2006 Estate Pinot Noir had opened into a sumptuous middle of loganberry, perfumed by old roses.

Trivia factoid: Bob Brassfield was one of the original (more…)

Terrific news for Westside lunchers — O’mei is open for lunch, Tues-Sun 11:30-2pm. But wait, there’s more! The “O’mei Express Menu” is priced for the real world, starting at $5.95 and topping out at $7.95. And how is it? Inventive, tasty, quick and cheap.

We tried it on Day 2 and came away full and happy. The meal began with a small plate of al dente broccoli in a bracing soy-sesame-garlic dressing ($2), while sipping hot green tea served in a bistro tumbler and a mega-glass of tart-sweet hibiscus cooler. Then came lunch. (more…)

Tasting wines is rugged, grueling work. But I don’t mind. Especially when it involves dozens of the Santa Cruz Mountains increasingly notable pinot noirs, and especially in the company of the winemakers themselves. (Jim Schultze of Windy Oaks considers the second flight.)

From what I tasted yesterday up at the atmospheric Burrell School Vineyards schoolhouse, the upcoming Pinot Paradise Grand Cruz tasting event will be something to remember. You owe it to yourself to come and sample wines that just get better, and exhibit more finesse and consistency with each year.