Once upon a time an astute cement tycoon named Henry Cowell acquired 2,000 acres of meadowlands and redwood forests overlooking the Monterey Bay. Through some strategic dealing, salted with a bit of horse trading, those acres became in 1965 the ninth campus of the University of California, and in the twinkling of an eye the fame and fortunes of a sleepy resort town awakened.
The tastes of a world-traveled faculty inspired an upswell of gourmet, ethnic and upscale dining spots that soon made the town famous throughout the state. India Joze not only created a stunning diversity of menu items but also created the annual Calamari Festival, attracting media attention from the East Coast as well as San Francisco.
O’mei restaurant’s spectacular Chinese fusion cuisine began as a cafe at Kresge College on the UCSC campus before enjoying several decades on Mission Street, though it closed after a controversy over the owner’s donation to a white supremacist organization.
Mobo Sushi fed the entire downtown. Cindy Lepore’s Seychelles made us all crazy for Mediterranean flavors.
The taste for ever more plentiful and chic coffee spots led to the coffee & pastry empire called Kelly’s. Lulu Carpenter’s thrived through several incarnations, including the brilliant coffee lounge it is today. Saturn Cafe fed directly into student appetites with inventive and seriously cheap breakfast and lunch dishes. Not to mention that in-house photo booth. Breakfast with its student-friendly pricing became a hit. Zachary’s has offered Mike’s Mess to those with big appetites for many decades.
Gabriella Cafe and its auteur chefs continue to host a university clientele. Walnut Avenue Cafe developed a cult following, and much later Cafe Brasil became an incubator for student romances, and downtown’s Mad Yolks has lines on weekends. Soif proved one of the most popular salons for university colleagues from the minute it opened in 2002. Its sister restaurant, La Posta in Seabright, continues that tradition.
UCSC grad student Andrew Sivak of Bad Animal co-founded his high concept wine bar in a bookstore, in 2017. Stripe is another downtown business launched by an entrepreneur who studied Art at UCSC.
With each expanding cohort of newly enrolled students, the demand for affordable housing grew louder. And with that demand, rents in and around UCSC increased. And increased. With more students came a proliferation of pizza parlors, taquerias—and food trucks—and craft beer outposts. The white-tablecloth golden age that gave Santa Cruz L’Oustalou and Pearl Alley Bistro may have gone. But the more casual dinner spots such as Hula’s, Lupulo and Hook & Line moved in.
Proximity to the campus resulted in the vibrant population of dining and drinking establishments on the Westside. Small high-concept places like Bantam, Vim and Venus Spirits & Kitchen host the university community and its families. Totoro Sushi, Copal, Avanti and Taqueria Vallarta have added spicier restaurant energy, replacing Vasili’s, La Mission and O’mei.
Over the years, deepening diversity brought the richness of multi-ethnicity to the campus, and to what was once a conservative beach town. Cultural richness continues to flow from the City on a Hill into every aspect of town life, from media (this paper is owned by a UCSC graduate) to craft beer and coffeehouses.
The debut enrollment of 1965-66 numbered roughly 650 students. Twenty years later that number had swelled to 6,800. By 1998 the campus enrollment hit 10,000, and today it exceeds 17,000 students. UCSC’s students and faculty tumbled into this small seaside resort, its growth accelerated by their needs.
Just the mention of Lepore’s Seychelles makes my mouth water; the other places in this article, not so much. To each their own, of course.