by Christina Waters | Mar 5, 2008 | Food, Home |
Along Park Street, the main – and only – drag in atmospheric (read: funky) Alameda, there are dozens of bars and an increasing number of coffee places. My favorite is Julie’s – 1223 Park St., – where the house specialty is scones and home-made clotted cream, aka Devonshire cream.
I joined filmmaker Saul Landau there a few days ago and we sat in one of Julie’s vintage nooks outfitted with velvety couches and over-stuffed chairs and swilled excellent espresso. The currant-laced scones are in a word, perfect. Tender, yet beautifully baked to just the point of brown crustiness, they are rich and delicate. The generous portion of cream that comes with the scone is the stuff of true oral fantasies. Almost obscenely rich, tart and creamy – this wonderful topping is what butter wants to be when it grows up. Naughty butter!
by Christina Waters | Mar 5, 2008 | Art, Home |
Abstractions – an ambitious and colorful exhibition of original artwork opens this Friday at a quartet of Santa Cruz County Banks throughout the county. Inspired by energy, emotion, and the environment, seven women artists explore the expressive qualities of line, shape, and form in these abstract explorations.
Artists Beth Shields, Barbara Johnson, Sara Friedlander, Wendy Barrett, Cheryl Doering, Barbara Kreitman, and Sarah Healey, are all showcased in an exhibit curated by Joan Blackmer.
Artists’ Reception March 7, 2008, 6-8pm at Santa Cruz County Bank 325 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz. (above, Shields, Blue & Orange Mantra)
On view M-Th, 9am-5pm, Fri 9am – 6pm, the show continues through May 23rd 2008 – at Santa Cruz County Banks throughout the county.
Capitola- 819 Bay Avenue
Santa Cruz – 325 Soquel Avenue
Scotts Valley – 4604 Scotts Valley Drive
Watsonville – 595 Auto Center Drive
by Christina Waters | Feb 26, 2008 | Food |
In a room that smelled like paradise I watched a woman adding intricate lettering to the top of a freshly-made birthday cake.
Find out where I was.
In the March 5, Metro Santa Cruz.
by Christina Waters | Feb 26, 2008 | Food, Home |
To Die For!: Giving new meaning to the word “chocolate,†was a spectacular chocolate budino tart I shared with friends on the night of the recent lunar eclipse. The place was A16 (see the current Condé Nast Traveler), on Chestnut Street in San Francisco. A long, lean series of rooms, the red-hot Italian dining spot is crowned by a pizza oven and house-made salumi. But the budino. Jeez Louise.To-die-for (yes, it IS time to revive that useful phrase).
We began with shared plates of an erotically-textured burrata with crostini and an order of ciccioli – a house specialty terrine of pork that was nothing short of stupendous. No fussy presentation – but the flavors were intense and joyful. We shared a salad of slightly warm yellow beets and marinated fennel, topped with shaved pecorino. God! Our wine was a bottle of round and spicy Cusumano Sagana 04 Nero d’Avola from a menu of Italian wines that is deep as well as wide. A full page just of Sicilian reds! Okay, calm down Christina. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Feb 26, 2008 | Art, Home |
Recent paintings by Tom Maderos – plein air and still life specialist – will fill the interior of Gabriella Cafe starting on March 10. The show, which continues through May 5, will show off Maderos’ expressionistic skills with oil on canvas. If Diebenkorn had painted the Santa Cruz coast, the effect might be close to the luscious composition of Maderos’ color-saturated work. (“El View Lodge” shown here.) Like those of the Bay Area school of the 1960s, Maderos’s flat picture plane is rich with sensuous color, unexpected spatiality and the figurative pushed almost to abstraction. Unfussy, almost effortless (at least in appearance) these artworks will keep diners company as they enjoy the edible artwork of chef Sean Baker.
Maderos’ paintings are also available, “to go,” if you get my meaning. I have one of his austere floral studies hanging in my office.
Gabriella Cafe – 910 Cedar Street in downtown Santa Cruz.
