Cue tastes like The Sweetness with fresh rosemary, pistachios and hot honey; the Barking Dogs with dill pickles, cup-and-char pepperoni and “ranch dust”; and The Mushroom Hunter, International Pizza Expo Throw-down Traditional Class Winner in 2024 thanks to shiitake, king oyster and clam box mushrooms, plus thyme and lemon zest.
Pogonip Pizza (222 Cardiff Place, Santa Cruz) has soft-opened with such hard-charging flavor combinations, realizing third-generation Santa Cruz restaurateur Ryan Thompson’s brick-and-mortar dream after P-nip’s run as a pop-up.
“We’re easing into things with a limited menu while we fine-tune the details,” the PP opening announcement reads. “Come hungry, come patient—we’re learning as we go.”
The lineup of wood-fired sourdough pizzas ($18-$23.50)—note the High Street Local with tangerine-chili-cured green olives, stracciatella, spinach and scallion sauce, or the Santa Carla with zucchini, garlic kimchi and Aleppo pepper—will make that patience challenging.
“Pizza is a good canvas for whatever you want to work with,” Thompson says. “And we have so many good food influences in Northern California.”
Debut hours are 4:30-8:30pm Wednesday through Sunday, dine-in or takeout, pogonip.pizza.
REAL CULTURE WARRIORS
Feb. 22 marked International CSA Day, a crispy-fresh celebration of farmers, farm support organizations, and local eaters who are about the Community Supported Agriculture life. This February also heralds 10 years of Santa Cruz Permaculture. “Looking back and looking forward, we’re more committed than ever to our mission of reconnecting folks to the land and nourishing the community through regenerative agriculture and holistic education,” SCP’s weekly newsletter declares, while teasing upcoming decade celebrations, also to be shared via the newsletter. In the meantime, Dave Shaw leads a free one-hour class 10-11am Sunday, March 1, at Mountain Farm & Feed Supply in Ben Lomond, centered on ways “to design for Earth care, people care, and abundance.” Noon-1pm every first Thursday of the month, SCP also hosts Zoom sessions that provide a thorough overview of permaculture concepts and applications, santacruzpermaculture.com.
PATTY CAKES
In case you miraculously missed the cover story, the ninth edition of Santa Cruz Burger Week lands this week with its biggest lineup yet, and sizzles Feb. 25-March 8, with specials for $15, $18 or $20, crave-level classics and adventurous new recipes alike. What the cover feature doesn’t do is challenge you to take a look at the drippy, triumphant and detail-driven creations local restaurants have come up with and not try at least one (of 30+!?),
SantaCruzBurgerWeek.com…S.F. Beer Week overlaps with S.C. Burger Week, and flows until March 1, with a range of local craft savants participating, sfbeerweek.org…Tidbits from the bigger bay: Not long after Anheuser-Busch announced it would be closing its Fairfield facility and halting production in the Bay Area Feb. 22, the world’s largest brewing company put its 170-acre Budweiser factory on the market…Hayward, Calif., resident Juleon Cotillon may have to quit his day job to make more of his invention, The Buck Fifty, a tray that attaches to your Costco shopping cart to cradle your $1.50 hot dog and soda, $19.69 on Etsy and Shopify…Historic Oakland ice cream parlor Fentons Creamery announced it’s offering The Town’s own 20-year-old figure skater “ice cream for life” in the wake of her Winter Olympic Games gold medal…You didn’t anticipate American fashion model and TV personality Gigi Hadid taking us out, but here we are: “I always say, ‘Eat clean to stay fit; have a burger to stay sane.’”
