Win tickets to see Lisa Fischer & Grand Baton at the Rio Theatre on SantaCruz.com
Chicano Batman collects their favorite sounds—including some eclectic retro movements—into soulful musical stew
FOLLOW US
Be Our Guest: Lisa Fischer & Grand Baton
TRAVELLING ILLS
Few bands have a theme song. Local heavy alt-rockers Travelling Ills do, but they kind of did it backward, since the song came before the name.
Bear Supply
City Council clarifies use for armored police truck
Odonata Wines
Easter is coming up this weekend, the perfect excuse to treat yourself and your loved ones to a little bit of bubbly with Easter brunch—and a special bubbly at that.
Ella’s at the Airport
I have to admit, it took me two tries to find Ella’s, despite the obvious location in its name: Ella’s at the Airport. I was expecting a stand-alone building, but it’s actually right there in the terminal, in the same space as former restaurants Props, Zuniga’s and the Belly Landing. (No, you don’t have to go through metal detectors to dine.) After a soft launch, it celebrated its grand opening last week.
Ella King, 42, who has run the successful Café Ella in Watsonville for seven years, has taken a big risk with a fine-dining establishment in a place with no pedestrian or drive-by traffic. But the food and the view are making it a choice destination. It’s been packed for lunches, dinners and Sunday brunches. And Saturday, there was some major fly-by traffic, as a group of 20 African-American pilots from a club called Red Tails flew in from all over the state for lunch.
Highlights include wood-fired pizza, panini sandwiches, comfort food and sustainable, high quality dinners. Prices range from $13 for a burger or pasta for lunch to $26 for a steak at dinner, with plenty of veggie options.
What’s your philosophy for the new place?
Ella: There are no steam tables here. When we say it is made from scratch, it is fully from scratch. Even the french fries! Our food is local. We want to be the ambassadors of the Pajaro Valley. We feel this is really the heartbeat. You have Carmel stretching over there and Santa Cruz over here, but Pajaro is the center, the belly. Our meats come from Freedom Meat Locker, the local meat butcher; our seafood is sustainable; our vegetables are grown right here. There are very few places in South County making authentic food.
What should my first meal here be?
Ella: We have a nice variety of foods, thoughtfully executed. We have organic salads, soups made from scratch. We use onions, garlic, fresh vegetables, nothing pre-made. We even squeeze the lemon into our vinaigrette. I think our thin-crust pizzas are exceptional.
What can you do to get people to try a new location?
Ella: Mostly right now it’s word of mouth. A lot of people know our other café and have come because of that and told their friends. We will start advertising also.
100 Aviation Way, Watsonville. 728-3282 ellaswatsonville.com. PHOTO: Tiffany Ella King sources all of her ingredients locally for her new fine-dining restaurant, Ella’s at the Airport. BRAD KAVA
Reaching Out
LGBT hero Barney Frank comes to Santa Cruz to discuss his four decades of revolution through consensus
Closer to Home?
A close look at ambitious goals to end chronic homelessness regionally
Critical Mask
Comics remain both relevant and marginalized
Be Our Guest: Lisa Fischer & Grand Baton
Win tickets to see Lisa Fischer & Grand Baton at the Rio Theatre on SantaCruz.com There's a video of the mid-'90s-era Rolling Stones performing "Gimme Shelter" in Amsterdam. Jagger and company are doing their thing, but toward the middle of the song, vocalist Lisa Fischer takes center stage and proceeds to kill it with her incredible...
TRAVELLING ILLS
Few bands have a theme song. Local heavy alt-rockers Travelling Ills do, but they kind of did it backward, since the song came before the name. “It wasn’t really intended it to be a theme song,” says singer Cassandra Cronin. “It’s actually how the band got its name. I wanted to write a pop song....
Bear Supply
City Council clarifies use for armored police truck A rally outside Santa Cruz City Hall last week featured City Councilmember Micah Posner, the Raging Grannies, who brought their singing satire, and comedian Richard Stockton. They gathered shortly before the March 24 City Council meeting to ask councilmembers to give back the controversial BearCat armored vehicle purchased...
Odonata Wines
Easter is coming up this weekend, the perfect excuse to treat yourself and your loved ones to a little bit of bubbly with Easter brunch—and a special bubbly at that. This soft pink Sparkling Rose of Sangiovese 2011 from Odonata Wines is absolutely gorgeous, overflowing with flavors of cherry pie and a touch of cream, plus...
Panel Discussion
After 39 years in business, the owner of Santa Cruz’s Atlantis Fantasyworld looks back at how comics have evolved Few know better than Joe Ferrara, owner and operator of Atlantis Fantasyworld, how much comic books have changed over the years. He opened his shop 39 years ago, ages before every blockbuster film in the theater was...
Cape Ear
Chicano Batman collects their favorite sounds—including some eclectic retro movements—into soulful musical stew At first glance, Chicano Batman seems like the latest in a long line of inventive Mexican-American bands from East Los Angeles, with one foot boogying in the mythic past while the other strides into the polyglot future. But a closer look reveals a...
Reaching Out
LGBT hero Barney Frank comes to Santa Cruz to discuss his four decades of revolution through consensus We may have misplaced the hallowed path of give-and-take that once made the U.S. Congress one of the most dynamic political bodies on earth, but if we’re interested in retracing our steps, we need only look to one of...
Closer to Home?
A close look at ambitious goals to end chronic homelessness regionally Both the Santa Cruz City Council and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors have approved a visionary plan to end chronic homelessness by 2020, but it’s unclear just how the plan’s goals will be accomplished. The plan aims to get chronically homeless people...
Critical Mask
Comics remain both relevant and marginalized I wish to make a complaint. There are exceptions, and I’ll try to name them, but most mainstream media coverage of comics sucks the air out of the room. And this in a time when the lively medium needs all the help it can get. One of the bigger...