What’s your favorite animal? For this zoophile, it’s an impossible question, one on the level with: What would be your last meal?
But Napoleon Dynamite had the right idea with his lion and tiger mix, “liger.” Maybe there’s a way to stuff the ballot, covering more than one inspiring creature.
With that in mind, I hereby submit my favorite animal: Bad Animal (1011 Cedar St., Santa Cruz), because it’s three organisms in one. A universe-traversing used book store with a penchant for, per its website, “the wild side of the human animal”; an uncommonly curated natural wine bar, flowed by co-owner and ++ palate Jess LoPrete; and a restaurant that can claim partial credit for three of the coolest Santa Cruz restaurants in recent memory.
For the record, those three (in chronological order) are: Bookie’s Pizza (1315 Water St.), as pizzaola-creator Todd Parker was BA’s first chef; The Midway (1209 Soquel Ave.), which came to life after chef Katherine Stern served as BA’s first culinary artist-in-residence; and Hanloh Thai (brick-and-mortar in process), which was resident #2 and earned a place on the LA Times’ Best 101 restaurants.
Now Bad Animal is returning to its original in-house bistro production—debuting this Friday, Jan. 9—with a familiar soul running the show.
Chef Nick Hahn arrives fresh off a year at Michelin-starred n/naka in Los Angeles, but before that he worked with Hanloh at Bad Animal as chef de cuisine.
He’s looking to energize what Bad Animal’s social media calls “a very Santa Cruz take on the current Parisian bistro scene” with influences born of his Korean-Brazilian heritage. One dish he’s workshopping takes classic mussels and pancetta in white wine with shallots and adds a captivating kimchi-gochujang chili compound butter.
When asked what he’s most excited to do upon his return to Bad Animal, Hahn doesn’t overthink it.
“To be able to tap into the amazing produce and seafood available in Santa Cruz,” he says. “And to cook the best food possible for the people of Santa Cruz!” badanimalbooks.com
BRAND NEW FEELING
With 2026 here, some foodiesphere progress comes with a new law to provide a little more sanity for Californians who order through delivery apps such as DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub. Under Assembly Bill 578, food delivery companies must give customers full refunds to their original payment methods when orders are tardy, screwed up or unconsummated (instead of a credit), and—gloriously—also must deploy an actual person for customer support. Delivery apps also have to share an itemized breakdown of pay and fees, and can’t use tips or gratuities to offset driver base pay.
QUICK ’N’ YUMMY
Venus Spirits Cocktails and Kitchen’s Rio del Mar outpost (131 Esplanade, Aptos) has a promising new chef in Sarah Bargetto, an alum of celebrated Trestles (316 Capitola Ave, Capitola), and her new menu includes additions like braised short ribs with leek-infused potato purée, and smoked salmon mousse on house focaccia, venusspirits.com/vsckbeachside…As of this week, the commercial crab season has begun on Monterey Bay! (The recreation season launched a few days previously.) Hallelujah, hwildlife.ca.gov…The best new-to-me “epicurean” news of the year so far: CuppaPug is a real business in England, with the operating idea that customers can sip coffee, hang with a “grumble” of pugs and support pug rescue efforts, cuppapug.com…William James: “I will act as if what I do makes a difference.”
