This article is clearly biased against seniors in Santa Cruz. I’m 74 years old and angered by the paragraph, “Many longtime homeowners remain in houses they bought decades ago, often without affordable down-sizing options nearby. Meanwhile, younger families struggle to enter the housing market.” “We’re seeing seniors kind of trapped in those homes while young families don’t have a place to move into”, your quote from Greenberg. Have you considered that those seniors WANT to stay in their homes, “not trapped” as the quote you used stated. In addition, can these young people actually afford to pay the property taxes to get into a new home?
Michele Philibosian
FUNDING FELTON FIREโS TURNAROUND
Last July, Santa Cruz LAFCO flagged concerns about Felton Fireโs financial viability. For 80 years, the portion of property tax for FFPD hasnโt changed. As other districts voted in supplemental funding, Felton leaned on pancake breakfasts and Santaโs Shelves. Costs kept rising; call volume tripled since 1999 to 900 per year; the 72-year-old station needed maintenance, and a mostly-volunteer staffing model was hit by economic and regulatory pressures.
LAFCOโs report caught the attention of the FFPD Board and the community. In the year since, the district has had a remarkable turnaround, led by a part-time chief, who got his start at Felton Fire decades ago at 18.
These recommendations from LAFCOโs report have been implemented or will be initiated once a proposed benefits assessment passes this month – if Felton voters approve it:
โ New staffing model in line with current best practices – 24/7 paid staff supported by a strong cadre of volunteers.
โ Recruitment of a full-time chief with adequate compensation
โ Improvements to the 72-year-old station and timely repair/replacement of vehicles; the assessment will cover vehicle replacement and free other funds for the stationโs physical needs.
โ Improved community outreach – remote access for Board meetings, revamped website, and nine town halls in four months led to a 95% rating for transparency in LAFCOโs June 2026 countywide report on local fire districts, the highest in our area.
โ Additional funding – the success of FFPDโs proposed special benefits assessment will be determined when votes are tallied on July 24.
FFPD has protected Felton for nearly 100 years and kept us safe during the CZU fire. We have an extraordinarily high participation rate in Firewise. If any town has the will to save our fire district, itโs Felton. Letโs vote YES on the assessment.
Joni Martin | Felton
MISSING PET
Every day dogs go missing. This one is different: our family dog Taffy – a tricolor corgi – vanished from our yard in La Selva Beach on July 4th at 5:18 PM, and her GPS collar recorded exactly what happened. The tracker’s timestamped data shows she went from standing in front of our house to traveling 4.87 miles down San Andreas Road in 8 minutes – 36 miles per hour. No dog runs that fast; she was picked up by a passing vehicle. Minutes later, her tracker came off near Beach Road and Highway 1, where we recovered it in the roadside brush. Taffy is still missing.
We’ve filed a report with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff and we’re not looking to accuse anyone – whoever picked her up may have thought she was a stray. There’s a reward, no questions asked. Taffy has been the center of our family for four years, and we just want her home.
Please share this, and one of them may have seen something on San Andreas Road between 5:15 and 5:30 PM that day. For more information: https://shorturl.at/PnV0f
Thank you for considering it.
Dave Kennedy | La Selva Beach
CAYUGA STAGE
Thanks to Lucille Tepperman and the staff at Good Times for the lovely article on our homegrown performance space. Very helpful to get the word out!
One small (BIG) detail: the article never once mentioned our name! We have a name. We are “The CAYUGA STAGE” friends! (No- not ‘The Cayuga Vault’. That venue is gone to history.) Hard for interested parties to look us up if they don’t know what we are called! We host performances every week in our lovely garden until mid-October.
The highly anticipated summer season of Santa Cruz Shakespeare outdoor productions begins with Much Ado About Nothing on July 16, Macbeth on July 17, and Fences by August Wilson starting on July 30.
On September 5 Noel Coward’s Private Lives begins, followed by The Last Five Years, a musical by Jason Robert Brown on Sept. 12. Thanks to Artistic Director Charles Pasternak’s devotion to repertory casting, we’ll see many favorite players return to the outdoor Grove this season. The actors bring it all to life, but before they even step onto the stage their directors help sculpt the performances.
This season’s directors spoke with me about the ideas and attitudes they bring to the work we will enjoy over the next few months.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Directed by Charles Pasternak, this is a favorite famed for the sparring and sparkling wordplay between its pugnacious lovers, Beatrice and Benedick. And yes, the title tells you absolutely nothing about the action. Acid-tongued Beatrice and confirmed bachelor Benedick engage in some juicy repartรฉe before being tricked into romance. Claudio and Hero, on the other hand, are in love from the beginning. These lovers are tricked into breaking up because bad guy Don John has spread plenty of malicious gossip. The truth is ultimately revealed, and there’s a happy ending complete with a double wedding.
You’re directing one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. How do you approach something like this in a way that will keep it fresh for those of us who know the play? Charles Pasternak: It’s interesting. On one hand, with Shakespeare’s more famous pieces like this, we always have to start by checking our assumptions at the door. So many assumptions come to us through theatrical tradition. I think one of the most famous examples is the famous Romeo and Juliet balcony scene. But Shakespeare doesn’t say anything about a balcony. We just know that Juliet is on an upper level. It’s important for us to take a close look at the text itself.
I love this play, and of course, it has the great Beatrice and Benedick, but one thing that has really struck me is that the love story of Beatrice and Benedick is the subplot. The main plot is the planned marriage between Claudio and Hero, and the deception that throws that off the rails.
The decision to come back together is an interesting and difficult decision, especially for modern audiences. We struggle to forgive Claudio. We struggle not to pity poor Hero. But the play really seems to be asking us to forgive and to give them another chance.
The play contains many potential miracles, but the two miracles in the play that are really speaking to me. First of all Benedick’s decision to abandon the world of men, the military world, to choose Beatrice and the domestic world.
We assume that just because he loves her, it is an easy thing. But it runs contrary to everything this play has told us about the world of men returning from war and what honor means to these men. I really do feel like some of our assumptions are wrong, and that’s been a major part of the process of preparation and rehearsal.
I’m wondering how much influence the actors have in terms of directing the text? I work very actively with my actors and with my company, and I’m very open to their feedback. Once I cast somebody who I believe can play one of these amazing parts, I have to embrace their habits, their artistry, their instincts, their choices, and try to shape them into a cohesive whole. So I want my actors to bring all of themselves to the work.
You need to have ego to do that, and to believe that you can live up to these great characters, and you also must have the humility to remind yourself that it’s not about you, it’s about the playwright, and I really see my job as a director as the sort of in the middle, the interpreter between the playwright and the actors. I don’t want my actors to be automatons; I want them to be active participants in the story, but I will need to make the final decision at multiple points.
ย I hear you saying that it can be fluidly interpreted back and forth, perhaps, but in the end, do you let the text itself tell the story? That is always my goal. I cannot always say I succeed. In rehearsal, inspiration strikes, we get an idea, we try something, maybe it’s very charming, maybe, maybe it’s a moment we like that’s definitely going to get a laugh. Then we have to check ourselves and ask, okay, but is that laugh in the service of this story? Are we cheating the story a little to get the laugh? I think a lot of Shakespearean productions have failed in this regard.
I think Shakespeare is intensely accessible, and I think audiences sort of continuously prove this to us. They’re smarter than we think, and our audience, who has been leaning in and doing this for 45 years now, especially canny.
You’ve worked with many of these same actors for several seasons now. Does that make directing this show easier and more interesting, or more dangerous because you know them all so well? I think it makes it easier and more interesting. I passionately believe in the company, and sometime the next few years I intend to formalize a company here at Santa Cruz Shakespeare, and part of that I’m sure will be many of the people you’ve seen, right? It’s the same reason a hometown team will often beat an all-star team. These people have now worked together year over year. We evolve together. We learn together.
We always need some new blood every year. But there is a core group that to me becomes pillars of the work, and that adds a lot of work to my plate in terms of planning, but I think it’s worth it, but I absolutely think it’s worth it, or I wouldn’t do it.
DOUBLE TROUBLE Witches Patty Gallagher, Carolyn Ratteray and Renรฉe Torchio MacDonald deliver bad news to Macbeth, Dan Donohue. PHOTO: Santa Cruz Shakespeare
MACBETH, DIRECTED BY PAUL MULLINS
This is the high-powered masterpiece containing all those timeless speeches we tried to memorize in high school. “Out damned spot,” “life’s but a walking shadow, .” “double, double toil and trouble.” And who could forget the witches’ prophecy about Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane or their greeting to Macbethโ”something wicked this way comes.”
A swift-moving saga of destiny, destructive ambition, and murder. Lots of murder. Extra credit: the murderous Macbeths are played by actors Paige Lindsey White and Dan Donohoe, married to each other in real life.
You’re directing one of the best-known plays in the English language. How do you tackle that perceived familiarity? Paul Mullins: These big plays, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo, Juliet, Lear, yes, they are terribly well known, and this one especially. A good portion of our audience is very familiar with it, but possibly doesn’t really know it. But I think more than anything, you’ve got to make sure that you cast the best people you can.
These are set plays. What does change is the way it looks, and who’s saying it. So, I think, especially in Shakespeare plays, some of that freshness is about having people who are good at communicating his poetry. And I’ve lucked out this time, because these people are great.
I try to remember that a lot depends on the connection. We are coming out there to tell a story in front of a group of people, and of course, we want it to be cool and look neat and be fun to watch, but still it’s really the words we’re using to make this connection.
So you ultimately let the text tell the tale? You have to. I think most of what we do in the theater is to let the actor say the words well and get out of the way. People will go to a big Broadway musical if it’s the spectacle only that they’re looking for. I think, especially in a play like this, a small one you know, that’s what’s interesting to be intensely focused on hearing the words.
Yes, it’s a fascinating thing that they don’t get old. That’s fabulous.
Is there a Paul Mullen signature style of directing that you apply, or do you actually invite the collaboration of the actors in shaping what we’ll see? Yes, yes. I think that’s part of my role. I don’t think there is a style I have, but of course, for anyone who directs the play, because there are choices that involve something about taste. Is that something I like? Do I like that person? Do I like the way that looks? Do I like those things?
We’re in a theater, and you know, there comes a moment, and that moment is the opening night, when you’re leaving it in the hands of the people who really tell the story, which are the actors. They will be with it ’til the end.
By the time of day one rehearsal, you and the designers know more about the play than anyone else, and hopefully by the opening night, the actors on the stage know more about it than anyone else. It is hopefully literally a collaboration that is reasonably equal.
Paul, were you in on the casting for this play? Because you’re casting a repertory season, you’re casting three plays at the same time. So Charles, as the artistic director, has a lot to say about that, as he should.
I know Charles wants everybody to be not only satisfied but excited about the 20-odd people that end up in this company. In the rehearsal room, you’ll know some people, some people you won’t know. But yeah, you have to trust them ultimately.
Even if that’s not what I wanted, but it’s who they are, so you make peace. We’re not in a world where very often people get fired, right? So you need to reach an agreement with each other that works.
I sense this is probably why people keep asking you back again to direct. I want it to matter more than anything in the world, but I also want to remember that it’s a play, and that we are going to get up there and pretend this story, and then we’re all going to leave. So we need to be completely committed, and at the same time realize that this won’t be the solution to world peace, but I wish it would help.
What thrills you most about this play? I think in a play like this, why we do these plays, is because comedies, tragedies, romances, they all talk to us about this human condition, and the reason we’re still doing them 400 years later is that they’re deep and insightful. This play has so much, so much to say about the corrupting nature of ambition and power, and the chaos and destruction that is created by tyranny, and these things are potent, and these things are alive in our lives right now.
What thrills me about the play is doing it with these people. I’m thrilled and so excited to watch them start to tell the story.
FENCES
Susan Dalian directs August Wilson’s gut-punching study portraying a Black American blue-collar worker, Troy Maxson, who articulates the desires so many never dared to dream. Written in 1985 but set in the 1950s, a pivotal moment in American history between Jim Crow and the dawn of the Civil Rights movement, this Pulitzer Prize-winner is loaded with raw and poetic dialogue. You’ll need to fasten your seat belt
I read the play in one sitting, and it had me in tears. It’s stunning. Susan Dalian:Yes,it’s complicated, it’s complex, it’s stunning in the true sense of the word.
You’ve got a magnificent vehicle to work with. Yes, I do. I have wanted to direct an August Wilson play or be involved in an August Wilson play throughout my career. I was really lucky to be able to be exposed to him in an art high school in the โ80s, where I had an amazing program there, a drama teacher who brought people into our world like August Wilson. And then later on in college, I got to meet August Wilson during a talk back. Standing next to greatness, I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
The language alone is a little bit rough at first, and this is a very small ensemble. How does that factor into your handling of it? I think it’s an intimate play. I like intimate plays that let you really dig a little deeper.
I often refer to August Wilson as our modern Shakespeare in ways. The way that he tells stories about people and language and poetry and rhythm. He was an artist and a poet before he was a playwright. That influences his plays.
He’s captured a rhythm found in Black American culture. It’s not real life, it’s still theater, but like Shakespeare, like Arthur Miller, he’s able to tell these stories poetically. And through that lens, we get a peek into the complexity of love and family, and this man, specifically this black American man, in the middle of the 20th century. He’s right at that crux of history.
Why do actors enjoy working with you? I think it’s because I was an actor, I am able to talk to actors in a way that I know will be helpful for them to access what it is that we need to find in order to tell the story, in order for them to create their character.
I love actors, you know. I see that they’re all different people. I enjoy getting to know who they are as people, so that I can figure out what’s the best way to work with them, and in that way, I am very flexible. I’m not like you all have to come in and meet me in the way I do it. After all, they’re the ones who are going to be out on the stage at the end of the day; the only imprint I leave behind is the spirit of collaboration.
How much influence do the actors have on how you work in rehearsal, and ultimately, the finished product? Can we call it a collaboration? That’s so interesting, because as the director, I am eyes and ears, and I keep the book. I am making sure that we are being true to the play that was written, through my interpretive lens. The actors are the vessels. I can’t dream of doing this work without collaborating.
Same with the design team, same with the production team, and my stage manager. We are all collaborators to make this thing; I don’t see it as I’m the director with the almighty last word.
So you trust your actors. Yes. I often defer to the actors. I want to empower them that way, because then I get the best work out of them, and of course, they get the best work out of themselves.
I mean, they’ll have to perform this over and over and over again, so I want them to feel like this is theirs, that it’s something that they can sustain. I’ve not worked with any of the actors before, and that’s always fun. Derrick Lee Weeden, who plays Troy Maxson, is a well-known, well-revered treasure trove of the American theater, so to have him in this cast is amazing.
Paul Mullins, Susan Dalian, and Charles Pasternak guide the plays of summer. PHOTO: Brad Kava.
CHARLES PASTERNAK
Recent work with SCS: Vincent in Vincent, co-director of A Christmas Carol, director of Pericles. Charles has served as the artistic director of SCS since 2023. Over the past three years Charles has more than doubled SCSโs offerings, adding a 2-show fall repertory, A Christmas Carol, and a spring show to our traditional 3-show summer repertory. During Charlesโ tenure, SCSโs yearly budget has grown by over a million dollars, and ticket sales are up over 25% across the board. He was the founding artistic director of The Porters of Hellsgate Theatre Company in Los Angeles, which he ran for fifteen years.
PAUL MULLINS
Paul returns to Santa Cruz Shakespeare, where he has directed A Midsummer Nightโs Dream, The Importance of Being Earnest, King Lear, Twelfth Night, The Agitators, Pride and Prejudice,Loveโs Laborโs Lost, The 39 Steps,Hamlet and Henry V. An associate artist at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, where he has acted and directed for thirty years, h. He has also directed plays for The Old Globe, Chautauqua Theater Company, Jewel Theatre Company, The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC., Dorset Theatre Festival, Portland Stage Company, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, American Stage, The Yale School of Drama, NYU Grad Acting and The Juilliard School.
SUSAN DALIAN
Dalian’s bio: For SCS: Hamlet in 2024; Troilus and Cressida, Henry VI Part 2 and Richard III for Undiscovered Shakespeare. Recent credits: Primary Trust (Boise Contemporary Theater); Antigone X, Blue Stockings. Sierra Classic Theatre: Macbeth, As You Like It, Outside Mullingar, The Merchant of Venice, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and A Midsummer Nightโs Dream. Associate Artistic Director at PlayPenn in Philadelphia. Professional acting credits in regional theater, film, and television, including Tamar in The Rape of Tamar (dir. Paul Whitworth) at SSC.
We asked readers to nominate the best of various things in a host of categories, and thousands of responded, giving us a reference guidebook to everything you need to know about our county of some 300,000 people. I had a ball putting this together and despite years of experience here, I learned a lot about so many places and things I have missed.
Our writers added even more categories finding people, places and things they thought few knew about, and again, I learned about great things from them. (Who knew about fairy circles? Not me, and Iโve hiked all over.)
I think this is an issue youโll want to save all year round for when you are looking not for the average things around town, but only the best. It will also be invaluable when visitors come to town and you want to show off all the wonders of Santa Cruz County.
Best of Santa Cruz is our love letter to all of it.
So take your time. Explore a little. And let Santa Cruz surprise you โ the way it always does.
Best Place to Learn How to Use AI Agents While Eating Pizza
Pleasure Pizza (Downtown)
Santa Cruz has always been a place where unlikely worlds overlap. Surfboards and startups, artists and engineers, beach culture and tech curiosity mix in ways that feel completely natural here. At Pleasure Pizza downtown, those worlds donโt just occasionally collide โ theyโve found a regular home.
Pleasure Pizza has been part of the Santa Cruz food scene since the 1990s, known for New York-style pizza and a laid-back Pacific Avenue atmosphere. But under the ownership of Sol Lipman, the place has quietly become something more: a community hub where independent business owners, UCSC students and AI-curious locals gather to figure out what this technology moment actually means for them.
Lipman hosts Pie Fi, a recurring series of AI-focused events that feel nothing like a conference panel and everything like the best kind of argument about ideas over food. Recently that meant 23 people gathered while Bookshop Santa Cruz owner Casey Coonerty Protti opened up her business โ her systems, her challenges, her data โ and challenged the room to imagine what AI could unlock for a 60-year-old local institution. By the end of the night the room had pitched subscription services and data tools that could save her staff hours daily. A hackathon with much better food.
Lipman also mentors UCSC students and sponsors community events that treat the shop as a platform for civic tech energy. The pizza itself is genuinely great โ always a veggie and meat option by the slice, friendly counter service, zero pretension.
Sometimes a slice and the right host is all you need. Josh Logan
Best Restaurant that Makes You Double-Check Youโre Still in Santa Cruz
Chocolat
Santa Cruz has plenty of great casual dining, but every now and then a restaurant makes you pause and wonder if youโve wandered into a different city entirely. Chocolat, tucked along Pacific Avenue downtown, reliably has that effect.
The restaurant centers on French-inspired cuisine and a thoughtful wine program, bringing a style of dining that feels genuinely continental against the backdrop of a beach town. The menu builds around seafood, seasonal vegetables and rich sauces, with desserts that stay true to the restaurantโs name. Chocolate plays a starring role, and it earns it.
Part of the charm is atmosphere. Chocolat manages to feel refined without ever feeling intimidating โ the rare combination that separates a good dining room from a great one. Couples celebrate anniversaries here. Friends meet for slow dinners and a second bottle. Visitors discover that Santa Cruz has a more sophisticated culinary side than they expected, and locals are reminded of the same thing.
Downtown Santa Cruz restaurants tend to lean casual and coastal, which makes Chocolat stand out even more. Walking in after a day at the beach or an afternoon on Pacific Avenue, the shift in mood is immediate. The space asks you to slow down, linger and actually sit with your meal rather than rush through it.
For a city that sometimes undersells its own depth, Chocolat is a quiet argument that Santa Cruz has always had more going on than the postcard suggests. Joshua Logan
Best Place to Drink Local History
Martinelliโs Company Store & Tasting Room
Martinelliโs has been pressing apples in Watsonville for more than 150 years. Thatโs not a marketing hook – itโs just the fact, and the Company Store & Tasting Room on Harvest Drive lets the fact speak for itself. The building sits next to the companyโs production operations, part retail shop, part informal museum, and the combination works because neither side overwhelms the other.
Shelves hold the familiar eagle-embossed bottles that have been showing up on holiday tables for generations – seasonal flavors, limited releases and branded merchandise alongside the classics. The tasting bar is where most visits slow down. Guests can sample rotating selections of juice and sparkling cider, compare blends and learn how the company sources its apples from the farms surrounding Watsonville. Photo displays and short exhibits trace the companyโs growth from a small local producer into a nationally recognized name without losing the thread back to the Pajaro Valley.
The atmosphere is unhurried. Locals stop in before the holidays or to pick up a bottle worth giving. Out-of-town visitors fold it into a Central Coast day without needing to commit much time. Staff know the products and the history and donโt oversell either one. What makes it work is the absence of performance. The Martinelliโs Company Store & Tasting Room is a shop that happens to carry more than a century and a half of agricultural context on its shelves. You can learn something, taste something or just grab a case on your way out. Joshua Logan
Best Pie Worth the Drive
Gizdich Ranch Pie Shop & Deli
The drive into Gizdich Ranch does some of the work for you. Orchards and open fields line the approach, and by the time you park you already have a reasonable sense of what kind of place it is. The family established the farm in the 1930s. The Pie Shop & Deli came later, housed in a rustic building that fits the property without trying to prettify it.
The menu stays focused: pies, sandwiches, simple lunch items. Gizdich is known for fruit pies, and olallieberry gets mentioned most by regulars and first-timers alike. The case rotates with the season – apple, berry and other varieties moving in and out depending on what the ranch and the surrounding Pajaro Valley are producing. Frozen pies are available for people who want to take something home and finish it themselves.
During harvest, you can pick berries, apples or pumpkins before walking in for a slice. That sequence – field to fork in the span of an afternoon – isnโt something you can fake, and Gizdich doesnโt have to. Picnic tables outside fill up with families, cyclists and road-trippers who are in no hurry. The ranch still operates as a working farm first. The Pie Shop & Deli exists as an extension of that, not the other way around. The pies are good because the fruit is good. Itโs a simple proposition, and it holds up. Joshua Logan
Best Taco that Resets Your Standards
Tacos El Jerry
Tacos El Jerry is on East Lake Avenue, a corridor built for people who live and work in Watsonville rather than for people passing through. The restaurant is small. Counter service, a modest dining area, a kitchen that doesnโt stop moving. The regulars know what they want before they get to the front.
The menu runs the classics: al pastor, carne asada, carnitas and rotating specials. Warm tortillas, chopped onion, cilantro, lime, salsa on the side. The toppings donโt vary much because they donโt need to. Portions are honest for the price, which makes ordering three or four different meats across as many tacos the obvious move for anyone who hasnโt been before – and for most people who have.
The kitchen moves fast without cutting corners. Busy lunch hours and slower evenings both get the same result, which is rarer than it should be. That consistency is exactly what turns a taco spot into a regular stop. In Watsonville, Mexican food isnโt a niche – itโs central to how the city eats. The bar is high and largely invisible to outsiders who arenโt paying attention. Tacos El Jerry operates inside that context without calling attention to it. No signs explaining authenticity. No social media moment engineered into the setup. Just tacos worth coming back for, which is the oldest and most reliable recommendation in the book.โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ Joshua Logan
Best Place to Find a Hidden Labyrinth / Fairy Circle
Inside Wingspread, Near Aptos
This one is going to be intentionally loose. Because to find a hidden labyrinth / fairy circle, you gotta be in a mindset thatโs more โgo with the flow discoveryโ than โGoogle maps destination.โ But hereโs the gist: get yourself to the intersection of Mar Vista and Searidge in Aptos. Pause to enjoy the cute community garden at the corner of Cedar and Poplar, then hop on the railroad tracks heading toward Capitola. After a while (remember, keep it looseโฆtrust your instincts), youโll see a well-worn path that peels off to the left. Take it. After another while, look for a little path that creeps off to the right. Take it. And thatโs when the magical labyrinth appears, replete with rock-balancing pedestals, a makeshift altar at the center with intriguing offerings and one of the most peaceful, serene settings you can possibly imagine. Meditate. Chant. Dance. Howl. Do your thing. When youโre done, you can head back the way you came and then hit Seacliff for Marianneโs Ice Cream, Castelliโs Deli or Manuelโs for Mexican food. But if youโre feeling especially adventurous, you can take the path out of Wingspread toward the ocean and hike down to New Brighton State Beach โ then make your way back to Seacliff along the shoreline. Heads up: that trail down is rugged and steep in some spots, but if youโre reasonably fit and wearing the right footwear (i.e. not flip flops!) itโs very doable and the experience is worth it. Joan Hammel
Best Beach Walk that Turns Into a Cocktail (Or Two)
Seacliff State Beach to Pixie Deli & Good Eats
So you and a friend are going to just โtake a walk on the beach.โ Fresh air. Get some sun and some steps in. Maybe solve a few of the worldโs problems while youโre at it. You come down the Beachgate stairs near the Cement Ship and fall into an easy pace. Along the way: pelicans cruise by at eye level, kids make a run for it and still get their pants soaked, dogs are on their fifth game of โone last throw,โ and thereโs a rotating cast of golden-hour IG photo shoots. Very wholesome.
Then the shift happens. Someone mentions being a little hungry. Someone else casually notes that Pixie Deli is right up the way. No one even misses a beat โ you just hang a left up to the little walkway and cross over the river like this was always part of the plan. Five minutes later youโre on the patio with a canned cocktail or a chilled bottle and something yummy to nibble on. Thereโs sand on your ankles and your sunglasses never came off. The ocean you were just walking beside is now your view. Someone sighs and says, โdangโฆhow lucky are we?โ
You do eventually walk back — slightly slower and a lot chattier. Some of the best beach walks are about the exercise. This one is about that AND the 2-drink upgrade. Joan Hammel
Best Tibetan Detour (Without the Jet Lag)
Land of Medicine Buddha
As you pull off Prescott Rd., within minutes you are hit with a thought: wait, wasnโt I just at Taqueria Los Gordos on Soquel? How did I get here? The parking lot looks like any other trailhead. Until you notice the enormous prayer wheel — the one everyone spins at least once, even if theyโre not entirely sure of the protocol.
The trail starts out like any other Santa Cruz hike — redwoods, filtered light, pine needles crunching under your feet — and then you round a corner and thereโs a huge white stupa rising out of the trees, prayer flags strung between trunks, and scenery that looks like it belongs on a different continent.
Itโs not subtle. It stops you mid-sentence the first time you see it. You keep walking, but now youโre scanning for the next surprise because each one reveals something special: shrines tucked into the hillside, complete with photos, coins and curious offerings, more flags and prayer wheels. Thereโs a sense of being transported. Regular hikers and retreat guests pass each other without much talking. Everyone moves a little slower, like the solemnity of the place is recalibrating us.
The mind-blowing part isnโt just the setting — itโs the proximity. Five minutes ago you were in traffic on Soquel, thinking about lunch. Now youโre standing in front of a 39-foot stupa in the middle of an enchanted forest trying to process the fact that this is maybe 12 minutes from your house. Itโs the most reliable way to leave town without actually leaving town. No jet lag. No plane ticket. Just a short drive and the slightly unbelievable realization that this spectacular, spiritual, awe-inspiring place exists right here in our gorgeous redwood-filled backyard. Joan Hammel
Best Dog-Park Without Being a Dog Park
Beer Thirty Patio โ Soquel
Dogs of all kinds are all over the place. The talking is just as likely to be human-to-dog as human-to-human. You probably know the dogโs name but not their ownerโs. It seems like every other person has a collapsible water bowl hanging from a D-clip on their belt loop.
You came to meet friends for a drink and now you are on your knees saying โhi buddyโ to a lovely Golden Retriever who is even more charming than its owner.
Entire conversations happen about age, breed, personality and where they were rescued from. No one asks what anyone does for work. No one cares about politics right now.
Youโre holding a beer in one hand and scratching a strangerโs dog with the other. Also: the beer list is excellent, the food is genuinely good and the people behind the bar are as friendly as the dogs — which is saying something.
Thatโs it. Thatโs the whole place. You and your dog should go. Joan Hammel
Best Place to Watch the Ocean Get Eaten by the Fog
Natural Bridges โ West Cliff
Everyone talks about the green flash at sunset. Meanwhile, out at the west end of Natural Bridges, the ocean is getting eaten by the fog in the middle of the day.
You just wanted some fresh air and a scenic walk, when suddenly the marine layer slides in low and the horizon starts to go.
Then it keeps eating. The far end of the cliff loses its edge. The next stretch of walkway blurs. Itโs working its way toward you in slow, steady mouthfuls.
This is when you can tell who lives here. Locals reach into backpacks without breaking stride — flannel, scarf, windbreaker, the emergency beanie that lives there year-round. Visitors, here for a perfect July beach day, stand suddenly shivering in shorts and tank tops watching their outdoorsy afternoon vanish along with the view. โShould we hit a wine bar?โ someone mumbles, picking up the pace back to the car.
By now, the ocean is gone. The cliffs are gone. All of West Cliff is wrapped in gray and your walk back is accompanied by a damp chill.
No sunset. No countdown. No flash. Just the vague sense that you can still hear a slight munching sound as the marine layer finishes its meal. Joan Hammel
Best Live Music Venue Disguised as a Coffee Shop
Ugly Mug โ Soquel
The two guys Iโm going with want to get there early because they know whatโs up. We check in with Jackson Emmer โ who, in addition to handling the tickets, is also, casually, one of the nightโs performers. Terry Klein, the other performer, is setting up next to him. Guitars come out of cases. Rows of chairs are already in place. We claim three stools in the back.
The regulars order a drink, grab a seat and settle in. Theyโve been looking forward to this all week. The first-timers — like me — arenโt sure what to expect at a show like this. โShowโ feels like a generous word for something this small — maybe 40 people — but thatโs the whole point. Iโm close enough to see the yellow guitar pick in Jacksonโs hand.
It goes on for two and a half hours, but it doesnโt feel like that. Thereโs time for another round. Time to realize everyone else knew exactly how good this was going to be. Time for the first-timer to become the most delighted person in the room.
On Valentineโs Day, it was accidentally perfect. A packed little room in Soquel with love songs, death songs, drinking songs, harmonies. I had stumbled into something awesome that was exactly what I didnโt know I needed.
Someone mentions that The Devil Makes Three played here once. Not as trivia, just as confirmation that this tiny coffee shop has always doubled as a great music venue.
Nobody rushes out when itโs over. The room holds on to what just happened. Joan Hammel
Best Hike that Keeps Changing its Mind
CotoniโCoast Dairies National Monument
To get there you drive up Highway 1 past Davenport, so itโs worth heading out before the Westside wakes up โ especially on a weekend. The turn onto Cement Road comes right as the highway hypnosis kicks in, so keep a heads up. Who knew this was back here? Pretty much no one. CotoniโCoast Dairies, one of the countyโs newest public coastal landscapes, opened just last year.
Entrance is free. A big gravel parking lot awaits. Bathrooms – check. Dogs everywhere — on leash, joyfully losing their minds. The hike had barely started when the landscape began switching personalities. A wide, low emerald green pasture with cows so close we could hear them chewing, a steady climb, and suddenly a full 180-degree ocean reveal that had everyone reaching for their cameras.
The hillsides went yellow with wildflowers. I was glad someone pulled out a field guide. Our whole group crouched on the dirt trail trying to figure out what we were seeing. Then the path slipped into redwoods — the kind that, even as a California native, still make me stop and stare. Then cool, shadowy, slate-gray rock underfoot for a bit. And five minutes later we were at a creek with a picnic table, pine needle carpeting and a loose congregation of hikers and dusty, happy dogs.
We turned around feeling satisfied — weโd already done several hikes in one and it had only been a couple of hours.
By the time we headed back, the Westside was fully switched on and traffic moved slowly. Which was fine. We were too blissed out on ocean views, hiking endorphins and wildflower photos to care. This was when we decided to stop, grab brunch and turn the whole thing into a day. Joan Hammel
Best Chef. Full Stop.
Brad Briske โ HOME, Soquel
HOME is a converted house on a quiet stretch of Soquel, which makes what happens in the kitchen feel almost unreal. After three meals here, this is no longer a discovery — itโs a decision. Brad Briske is cooking at a level that would hold its own in San Francisco, Las Vegas or New York, and heโs doing it in a space that feels like where someone grew up.
Nothing plays it safe. The beef cheek is the kind of dish that silences a table mid-bite. The cauliflower arrives and immediately makes you rethink everything you thought that word meant. Over the holidays there was a pumpkin pie that arrived completely reimagined. All the delicious flavors were there, just not in the shape I expected. Briske discarded the format — and everyoneโs eyes rolled back in food ecstasy.
At some point I stopped analyzing the plates and began wondering where the imagination behind them comes from. It may lie in Briskeโs close relationships with local farmers and a menu built around the seasonal ingredients they bring in. Wherever it originates, the result is unmistakable: the plates arriving at the table come from a chef working at the absolute top of his craft.
When I met him — briefly, sitting on the patio taking a quick break โ he was gracious, almost shy, quietly deflecting my over-the-top fan-girl praise that he had fully earned. That humility made the whole experience feel even more special: destination-level food, here in Santa Cruz, minus the ego.
The menu shifts constantly, the creative force behind it is relentless, and the consistency across multiple visits seals the deal. Briske is doing the kind of cooking that changes what a town is known for.
Getting a table now takes planning. Santa Cruz has noticed. Joan Hammel
Best Sportโs Bar thatโs a Tardis
The Blue Lagoon
Downtown Santa Cruz is mutating, like a scene from Dark City, the skyline is constantly changing. Every night, the buildings shift. Is it gentrification, housing desperation or just a bad idea gestation? One thing remains the same: the constantโThe Blue Lagoon. Itโs two things, if you include Streetlight Records, but The Lagoon is the multiverseโs weirdest sports bar. Yes, the baseball games are on. But so is goth night, DJ night, disco night, metal night, punk night and the longest running free weekly comedy show in California.
Once inside you can feel the humming of temporal energy and the psionic vibes bouncing off the walls. Relax with a cold beer, as your personality phases in and out of timelines, while your favorite team scores a basket. Hooray.
Outside of The Blue Lagoon, the sledge hammering and unending construction remains, but inside you can laugh in a reality tunnel while focusing on โgooooooaaaaaaalsโ. Come see the Macho Man-inspired antics of The Randy Savages, the comedic pandering on Tuesday with comedian Paulie Escobedo. Somebody is carrying around an owl. Is that Christian Slater? Why am I dancing? Why arenโt I dancing? If there is such a thing as reality, how am I enjoying disco this much? Iโve never believed I had a home. This is home? Home. DNA
The directors behind Santa Cruz Shakespeareโs Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth and Fences reveal how collaboration, casting and close attention to the text keep classic plays alive.
We asked readers to nominate the best of various things in a host of categories, and thousands of responded, giving us a reference guidebook to everything you need to know about our county of some 300,000 people. I had a ball putting this together and despite years of experience here, I learned a lot about so many places and...
Explore the Santa Cruz County Editorsโ Picks for 2026, highlighting the places, people and experiences that make the region unforgettable. From pizza and fine dining to hidden trails, live music, beaches and local treasures, these are the editorsโ favorite discoveries.
Shop the Best of Santa Cruz County 2026 Shopping winners as voted by readers. Explore the county's favorite boutiques, specialty stores, auto dealers, thrift shops, gift shops, home retailers and unique local shopping destinations.
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Discover the Best of Santa Cruz County 2026 Health & Beauty winners as voted by readers. Explore the county's favorite doctors, dentists, gyms, spas, salons, yoga studios, wellness practitioners, fitness experts and health care providers.
Savor the Best of Santa Cruz County 2026 Food & Drink winners as voted by readers. Explore the county's favorite restaurants, bakeries, coffee houses, breweries, wineries, markets, bars, dessert shops and other local culinary favorites.
Explore the Best of Santa Cruz County 2026 Family & Pets winners as voted by readers. Find the county's favorite schools, preschools, family restaurants, summer camps, pet groomers, veterinarians, toy stores and trusted pet care providers.
