Say it with me: Freedom tastes good.
Mom-and-pop Switch Bakery & Bistro (1016 Cedar St., Santa Cruz), which debuted earlier this year with the tagline “We love your guts,” is liberating those with ingredient sensitivities to elements like gluten and dairy in delicious ways.
The inspiration for Joshua and Amanda Bradley arrived at home in the form of a dad with a celiac diagnosis and a baker-chef-mom who wanted to navigate the resulting restrictions while still keeping four daughters interested in what was on the plate.
The returns were too good not to share.
Now the popular items in the welcoming, colorful and airy downtown space include a flagship vanilla cake with raspberry Swiss meringue, indulgent cheesecake, chocolate-lovers cake, marshmallow brownies, focaccia pizza, fresh breads, and a rotating lunch menu with sandwiches, samosas, more pizzas and soups.
For a Surf City food community that’s long been one of the more progressive in the country, this feels like a crucial—if not outright incredible—addition.
MASSIVE BARGAINS
Bruno’s Bar & Grill (230 Mt. Hermon Road, Scotts Valley) has to be one of my favorite discoveries of the year, and not just for their signature ⅓-pound burgers (like The Heat Meister and The Bad Boy) and legendary Bloody Marys (including The Big Bastard, a 40-ounce banger decorated with a half chicken, among other accouterments, for six people minimum), though those are a sight to behold. What keeps locals coming back on a weekly basis—helping create a Cheers-like vibe—are insane values, made all the more helpful when gas is hitting atmospheric price points. On Wings and Whiskey Wednesdays, for instance, a basket of wings runs $7 (instead of $18 normally) and Jameson, Jim Beam and Jack Daniels are $7 too. Meanwhile husband-and-wife owner-operators Rogelio and Joanna Guzman stock a ton of daily and weekly specials (starting at $10)—on top of a relentless entertainment schedule.
If that all wasn’t enough, they’ve also got a rooftop lounge, speakeasy space, pool table and a big screen TV that helped it earn Best Sports Bar from Good Times readers (on top of Best Burger – Scotts Valley, Best Patio Dining – Scotts Valley, Best Restaurant – Scotts Valley, Best Bar Food, and Best Bartender for Richie Mann). In a word: Wow. brunosbarandgrill.com.
TAP WISDOM
Bay Area Brewers Guild Executive Director Sayre Piotrkowski is foaming up at food reporters (again), asking for more insightful coverage of industry acquisitions, and he’s got a great point to make. The key thesis of his latest “Beer & Soul” Substack: “Most beer coverage treats the industry as either a business beat (mergers, acquisitions, expansion) or a trend piece (non-alcoholic, slushies, whatever is ‘next’).
Neither is inherently wrong, but both tend to miss the underlying dynamics that shape how people actually engage with beer,” beerandsoul.substack.com…The awards lunch for the first ever Santa Cruz Vegan Chef Challenge happened at La Posta (538 Seabright Ave., Santa Cruz) after Good Times went to press, but I’ll have a look at the winners here next week…
One of my favorite nearby/far-out wine regions gets its close up this weekend as Paso Robles Wine Fest flows May 15-17, pasowine.com…The Santa Cruz Warriors’ Swishes for Dishes initiative, in collaboration with Kaiser Permanente and The Athletes’ Corner, donated 84,365 meals to Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County through this season, the team just announced, after increasing donations from 10 to 15 meals per point scored in their sixth year of the program, santacruz.gleague.nba.com…American Protestant clergyman and academic leader Douglas Horton, preach us out: “While seeking revenge, dig two graves—one for yourself.”
