Irwin Show @ Sesnon Gallery – thru June 11
Come celebrate 25 years of awarding scholarships to top UCSC art students, thanks to the bequest of William Hyde and Susan Benteen Irwin. This year's crop of exhibiting artists includes Raphael Cornford, Richard Desanto, Ellia Sarah Duhart, Luis Flores, Olivia...
Spring = Fava Beans
After a trip to the farmers market last week, I came home with enough grassy-flavored favas to top a dinner of farfalle, pork bolognese and a few slices of Italian sausage. Along with liberal applications of Chianti it helped wash away the existential crises caused by...
Designer Caffeine
Lattés at Verve are just plain gorgeous. Here's proof.
Wine & Cheese Fusion – every Wed in May
It happens @ Vinocruz, after hours. Farmgirls School of Food & Wine. And it is the vivacious brainchild of wine czarina Amanda Rehn and fromagista Tabitha Stroup. The plan is simple and appealing. The duo will work you through the history, nuances, terroirist...
Gabriella Alumnus # 407
Sean Baker, former chef at Gabriella and now in charge of Berkeley's Gather, is featured in the current issue of Sunset Magazine (photo:Drew Kelly). Reminds us of just how creative and fertile that kitchen on Cedar St. really is. Chefs who have paid their dues at Paul...
Galuszka @ Winfield Gallery – through May 30
You might not need an excuse to visit Carmel on a sunny day in May, but here's one anyway. A new show at Winfield Gallery will showcase a new suite of large-scale neo-mannerist paintings by Santa Cruz-based virtuoso Frank Galuszka. Inspired by the themes of...
A Rosé to swill for
The palest blush, the lightest minerality—the new vin gris from Birichino is the single most drinkable answer to your warm-weather wine needs. Well-chilled, it is ready to partner everything from green olives and marcona almonds, to grilled salmon or pizza bianca. A...
Destination Food Accessory: Tomatillo Salsa @ Coldwater
It's hard to make green food look appetizing in reproduction, otherwise you would see a gleaming pool of tomatillo salsa illustrated here. It is the tomatillo salsa from Coldwater (formerly Hawgs) on Mission Street. My favorite appetizer with a cocktail at this...
Jane Eyre
Dark, mercurial, intelligent and yes, dear reader, romantic—the most recent screen version of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is utterly captivating. With its Pre- Raphaelite doorways, its Caspar David Friedrich fog-drenched forests, and its gothic vistas of sight...
Happy Birthday to …..
Marie Waters of La Mesa and Boulder Creek, California - and to Elizabeth Windsor of London and Buckingham Palace!
La Posta
Somehow this neighborhood dining room continues to disarm us. Last night four of us enjoyed a flawless series of plates, from a pizza bianca with crust as thin as a fashion model's thigh to a sensational emerald appetizer of wild nettle sformato custard smothered with...
Easter Eggs Benedict!
Southern-style specialties complete with live jazz this Easter Sunday April 24, fill the menu at Clouds Downtown, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Easter Eggs Benedict! Fried chicken and waffles, bananas foster, endless Mimosas. 110 Church St., Santa Cruz - 429-2000. Or savor...
Tasting Room with a View: Windy Oaks
Make plans for a day in the country - this Saturday April 23 - for a visit to the brand new tasting room at Windy Oaks Estate, in Corralitos. Especially beautiful this time of year, the rolling vineyards above Corralitos now boast a new venue for the Pinot Noirs and...
Source Code powered by Gyllenhaal
Think Inception, Groundhog Day and a touch of The Matrix, and you'll begin to see why this crisp bit of cinematic distraction is more than simply entertaining. Source Code, directed by Duncan Jones, stars a resilient and compelling Jake Gyllenhaal as Sgt. Colter...
Summer on a Plate
Can your chicken do this? La Posta's can. Here is a magnificent salad I enjoyed on Bastille Day, thanks to the kitchen of Katherine Stern, that involved a layer of house-cured King salmon (incredibly rich and buttery), topped with Little Gem lettuces in a creme...
30 Years of Kelly’s
Thank you Kelly Porter Sanchez for deciding three decades ago to do exactly what you wanted to do, and to do it your way. No compromises, no complaints. Congratulations! You've made a lot of people so happy that they barely realized how much went into their favorite...
Luxury Bargain – Windy Oaks pinot splits
We discovered a great way to have our Pinot and drink it too, so to speak. These half-bottles of Windy Oaks Estate Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains 2007, are available at New Leaf for a mere $18.99. You can enjoy the complex licorice and black cherry spice of...
La Honda’s Dreamy Sauvignon Blanc
An elegant Sauvignon Blanc, 2009Â by bay area winery La Honda, made from Sonoma grapes. We loved its infusion of stargazer lily and cantaloupe, its middle of grassy minerals and grapefruit, and its crisp citrusy finish. We loved the way it partners Black Forest ham...
Joey’s @ the Jersey Shore
If you had told me I would have to go to the Jersey Shore to experience manicotti so good that it would make a goodfella cry, I would have told you to "fageddaboudit." But I did. And at Joey's, a big, friendly, non-designer pizza and pasta joint in Manahawkin, NJ, I...
Last Sushi @ SFO?
Maybe I'm catastrophizing, but you know. . . .So we're taking the red-eye to Philly and need something to hold us until dawn. Presto! Tomokazu, a nicely-run sushi bar in the International terminal at SFO fit the bill nicely. We shared some sake, spicy tuna tekka...
Art on a Plate
When in Philly, I always try to stop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (yes, the same one whose monumental front steps were immortalized in Rocky). I visit the van Eyck St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, the magnificent Roger van der Weyden Deposition, and then...
No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf
Santa Cruz-based author and coffeehouse habituée, Carolyn Burke, has done it again. Deepening her reputation as an historian of French modernism, Burke has published an accessible and richly-detailed saga of the life, loves and career of French chanteuse Edith Piaf....
Pinot Paradise – March 26 & 27
Don't miss next week's Pinot Paradise festival, March 26-27, which begins with a self-guided tour of the region's pinot-producing wineries $25, and culminates on Sunday with the Grand Cruz Tasting at Villa Ragusa in Old Town Campbell ($55/65). Find all the details you...
Telos Delosil @ Gabriella
The chef with the intriguing name has moved into the top slot at Gabriella, after a year getting to know the kitchen and clientele. We sampled some of Delosil's beautifully presented plates last night and came away smiling. Gorgeous beets, gemlike Dungeness crab...