La Posta blew me away last week with the best, most satisfying dinner in town, thanks to new chef Katherine Stern.
Don’t even think twice, just get over there. Authentic Italian dinners made with complete confidence — amazing value for the moderate pricetag.
For mouth-watering details, read my review in this week’s Santa Cruz Weekly.
Brad Briske (pictured here) still turns out astonishing dishes at Gabriella, which remains open (thanks to voodoo sacrifices and an astute tax attorney). We were once again rendered speechless by lunch last week showcasing designer pizza, hand-made cured meats and natural beef burgers. Oh and dessert of pound cake with orange zabaglione that was TDF.
Valentine’s Day at the Cellar Door. No prix fixe that evening, just romantic, candle-lit small plates by Charlie Parker, such as…. * Kumamoto oysters, with Meyer lemon granita & dill creme fraiche * Roasted lobster, artichokes, sunchokes & Buddha’s Hand * Bacon-wrapped galantine of rabbit, green garlic, young roots & prunes* vanilla-chocolate tart, burnt caramel ice cream & sea salt.
For even more romance, the Bonny Doon Vineyard folks are including live music by the Magnolia Jazz Band. Yes, by all means, make reservations.
Joseph Schultz is offering an intense,whirl-wind Greco-Turkish cooking course on Feb 23 at New Leaf on Ingalls St. 5:30-8:30pm, details at New Leaf website. Learn the tricks of the masters at this cooking class with the mastermind of the late lamented India Joze restaurant.
Dynamic maestra Nicole Paiement dazzled packed houses in San Francisco last weekend with a series of ingenious performances of Wozzeck, Alban Berg’s stormy psychological opera blending surrealism and modernist atonality.
Paiement and company worked with a newly-adapted score for chamber orchestra, a move that created greater intimacy of sound. The audience felt drawn into the harrowing story portrayed in the jewelbox Yerba Buena theater. Berg’s great opera of class anger and cultural schizophrenia — created in the years just after the Great War — was given a riveting (more…)
Here’s how we handle it, this winter/recession thing.
Beans, rice and Italian sausages (all natural pork made by New Leaf).
Add a big glass of Bonny Doon Vineyard‘s excellent Sangiovese, a few candles (yes, David, we still dine by candlelight every night), and voila!
Jeff Emery’s splendid Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard wines just continue to find traction, most lately with the judges of the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Emery’s robust Graciano 2007 bearing his Quinta Cruz label, took Best of Class & Judges’ Choice awards in the “Other Red Varietals†category. The big, spicy Graciano — often blended with Tempranillo in distinguished Spanish wines — offers complexity, rounded dark berry notes and plenty of grip. At $28 it makes a confident partner for game meats and spicy pastas. Available at the winery, 334-A Ingalls St., on the Westside,  as well as your favorite stores.
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Katherine Stern has worked expert magic on the menu at La Posta. Since the richly resuméd chef came on board a few months ago, things have gotten very interesting at the chic Seabright dining room.
Contemporary Italian cooking. Deeply burnished flavors. Uncluttered presentation.
E.g. an intensely tangy Meyer lemon crostata, with mascarpone.
La Posta – open for dinner Tues-Sun – at 538 Seabright Avenue.
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.