Hot Tomatoes!
Amish Gold, Amish Paste, Ananas Noir, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Aunt Ruby's Cherry, Azoychka, Barad's Yellow, Basinga, Berkeley Tie Dye, Big Beef, Big Rainbow, Big White Pink Stripe, Black Cherry, Black Ethiopian, Black from Tula, Black Krim, Black Plum, Black Prince,...
Personal Favorite
Purists beware! I love this stuff even though it lacks the required shade of political correctness, the highest possible cacao content and the appropriate "save the world" branding. It's just killer Swiss dark chocolate that comes in tiny plump squares filled with...
Major Hoax
It’s such a pleasure to watch Alfred Molina work — his powerful, expressive face can register sensuality (Diego Rivera in Frida), cunning (Cardinal Aringarosa in Da Vinci Code), and delicious evil (Dr. Ock in SpiderMan). So facile an actor is he that he almost...
New Lulu’s
The coffeehouse is new - but the building isn't. That's Lulu's @ The Octagon, a sparkling new palace of caffeine sleekly tucked inside the 19th century Hall of Records building, corner of Front & Cooper Streets. Already doing a brisk business with espresso-lovers and...
Quick Fuse
The walls will sizzle at UCSC's Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, with a rare selection of work from UCSC faculty, entitled FUSE. The selected work explores the influence of digital media and technology on the artists’ practice. Work from FUSE will travel to Japan as...
Exemplary Contemporary 2007
Exemplary Contemporary 2007: 'The Sea Around Us: Depictions and Imaginings.' Long title, but lots of great images fill this year's Exemp Contemp exhibition. Artists from UCSC and the Central Coast will show prints, sculpture, and painting all riffing on the theme of...
Tandy Does Utah
Outside Blake's Window, directed by Tandy Beal, with music by Jon Scoville, opens April 12-15 in Salt Lake City on the elegant Repertory Dance Theatre at the new Jeanne Wagner Theatre. Original cast members from Santa Cruz, (Paula Bliss, singer, Rock Lerum, fire...
Easter Island
Here's what happened at our breakfast table this Easter weekend — an explosion of chicks hatched out of one of our soft boiled eggs! Egg-xactly.
Tapas @ Bistro Al Mar
Thank God! After years of waiting for something more like the Westside's old Aldo's Cafe (brainchild of the original Sestri chef), our waiting is over. Bistro Al Mar specializes in tapas so authentically Old World we thought we were in Madrid last week, sharing a...
Quickies
For those of you who've been emailing me, the answer is Woodstock's Pizza, Inc. That's what's going in to the old Erik's Deli space on Front Street. . . . And hold the April 22 date: Santa Cruz' own irrepressible, culinary performance artist Jozseph Schultz is wok'ing...
Lulu’s @ The Octagon, . . .
will be open by the time you read this! So rush out and take a look at the wrap-around banquettes, the central espresso hearth and the spiffy revival of Santa Cruz' original, old Hall of Records building, corner of Cooper & Front Streets. The new Lulu's will be the...
Designer Chocolate: Part 1
We've been busy test-driving the new glut of designer chocolate bars popping up faster than wannabe fathers of little Daniellyn. We've been swilling the outrageous 60% cacao dark chocolate with orange from Chocolove for the past year. And it still rules. however,...
Getting Stokes
As in Stokes Adobe, in old Monterey. From my seat in one of the many rooms of this lumbering old adobe — each room with three-foot walls, each room with its own fireplace — I could spit on a half dozen of the oldest buildings in California. Those would be the...
Old Monterey
The Stokes Adobe, built somewhere in the 1840s, has always been one of the impressive old landmarks of Monterey's brief stint as Capitol of California. Not only are the 3-foot thick adobe walls still atmospherically intact, but the food - Stokes is also a restaurant...
Easter Exposé
The name “Easter†honors the Anglo Saxon goddess of dawn, whose favorite animal companion was the hare. Now hares, like rabbits, aren’t exactly known for celibacy (to whit, the high school expression, to “bang like a bunnyâ€), hence they make the perfect...
Top Salad
Having eaten more than my fair share of these sensational salads, I figured I'd better confess: I have a serious thing for the Heirloom Spinach Salad at Avanti. You would too if you could see just how perfectly loaded with that mineraly fresh spinach flavor (Popeye...
Rose Fever
Orin Martin knows roses. Big time. Martin is the manager of UCSC's Alan Chadwick Garden, and he's been growing astonishing heirloom roses in Santa Cruz for decades. Author of A Rose Primer: An Organic Approach to Rose Selection and Care, Orin Martin will share his...
Bistro Al Mar
Here's a tasty idea that Westside gourmet grazers can get behind. It's the new Bistro Al Mar, the fresh new re-incarnation of the corner cafe in the Almar shopping area (Almar, off Mission). Gone is the ambidextrous noodle shop, and in is a tapas-intensive...
Viva Vintners!
Think of them as wines that re-invigorate the whole idea of the world's second oldest profession. Now that I have your attention, I owe it to all of you who call yourselves wine-drinkers to remind you about the next opportunity to tour, sample and schmooze with...
Something Tasteless, Just for Fun
This charming piece of urban apochrypha comes from an anonymous source, by way of Santa Cruz native Donna Blakemore. La Donna, currently Vice President for Development at San Francisco State University, should know better. (The views contained in this press release do...
Gabriella Does Burgers!
Lunch at Gabriella with Gayle Ortiz — of Gayle's Bakery & Rosticceria — satisfied my on-going cravings for loads of local gossip, plus fresh, seasonal culinartistry by chef/earth goddess Rebecca King. How was I to know that I'd find the best burger I've had in a...
Heart of Glass
Annieglass always knocks me out. The sensory thrill is total at this temple of artful glass tableware, accessories and jewelry. Just looking in the window makes me feel good. Well Ann Morhauser not only makes art, she supports the arts. For many years now she's been...
Parkhouse in San Diego
Every time I visit my great friend Laurel, we stop for a mid-day feast at the Parkhouse Eatery, always buzzing with action and sensationally intense flavors. Eccentric and colorful, like the bohemian University Heights neighborhood itself, Parkhouse occupies a funky...
San Diego Museum @ Balboa Park
I love beautiful Balboa Park — you can always separate the great cities from the wannabees, by their parks. The Spanish Baroque "leftovers" from the 1915 Panama-California International Exposition, fill Balboa Park with graceful buildings and tropical gardens...