It’s not often you order every single appetizer available—and each one bends the bounds of what you expect, in the best way.
But so it went at my penultimate visit to Bad Animal (1011 Cedar St., Santa Cruz). To be fair, there were only three starters, which has changed, but they were glorious: a cheese-and-bread understated creation bursting with umami born of melty gruyèere made with Fruition porter (aka “a Welsh Rarebit”); a citrus salad that sang with ancho chile zing and herb-spiked brightness and a pair of kimchi-Fogline pork croquettes that look cute and basic then prove rich and textural.
Those items are long gone from celebrated Brazilian-Korean-American Chef Nick Hahn’s menu but that’s a good thing, because he’s letting what he gets at the Santa Cruz Farmers Market that unfurls nearby every Wednesday (among other farm-fresh stops) dictate what he’s working with.
Asked about a few of his favorites, he rattles off prized producers like Blue Heron Farms, Dirty Girl Produce, Four Sisters Farms, Blossoms Farms, Schletewitz Family Farms and Live Earth Farm.
“We do the rounds,” Hahn says. “I love all the farms and try to support as many as I can.”
That makes midweek a great time to visit—if you can get a seat.
When I stopped by last week the place was packed and our group didn’t have time to wait it out, though if you do that’s not a bad sentence to receive, because you can explore Bad Animal’s sublime used and rare book selection, ideally with a glass of wine from the curated, obscure and natural-leaning lineup of small producers.
The tasty update on the food menu: Hahn’s mini-and-mighty appetizer list has tripled in size.
“We’re a little more settled in now,” says Hahn, who took leadership of the kitchen at the start of the year. “I was able to expand the team and build them up, so I figured we had more capacity to expand the menu, which was always the goal—and [the starters] are a side to the menu we do because I want people to try a bunch of things, share things, and experience different flavor profiles and textures that make eating really fun.”
Now Marin Miyagi oysters, snap peas with labneh and dukkah, plums with chèevre and sorrel, “radishes + butter,” speckled tomato-and-cucumber salad, artichoke-and-maitake-mushroom crostini, halibut-chili crisp crudo, summer squash cavatelli, and cheesy gougères all await, at least as of last week.
Don’t let the modest dish titles fool you. Hahn has a gift for turning simple and fresh into complex and OMG.
Turbo tastes
The upcoming Annual Santa Cruz Mountains Brewgrass Festival co-ferments live bluegrass and Americana music beneath the redwoods, with craft beer from regional breweries, local food trucks, and family-friendly action, headlined by Sam Bush and Jesse Daniel, with additional acts Rainbow Girls, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, Dominique and the Diamonds, Deep Thicket Dwellers, plus an optional VIP Tasting Train—yes, you read that correctly—from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with beer tastings and live music from Wild Iris, all happening Aug. 1 at Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, scmbrewgrassfest.com… High Tide, the upscale restaurant at Santa Cruz’s new La Bahia Hotel & Spa, is giving Santa Cruz residents with local ID 10% off Sunday through Thursday, labahiahotel.com… World Central Kitchen has again rapidly mobilized, this time to Venezuela to support earthquake victims, wck.org… A big camp-out benefit for EcoFarm, Hoes Down 2026: 35 Years of Digging Deep, is now set for Oct.3, 2026, at Full Belly Farms in Capay Valley, eco-farm.org… Flavor hack: Bake homemade tortilla chips by brushing on a touch of your chosen oil and some seasonings for easy (and healthier) flavor than frying…As baker/author Abby Jimenez writes in The Friend Zone: ““The only things you like sprung on you are snacks.”
