There is a moment, somewhere between the oven and the table, when pizza is at its most powerful. The box warms your hands as you carry it to your car. The scent escapes in slow waves. Cheese, char, a trace of fennel, something sweet, something sharp.

You drive home with the windows cracked, not for air, but to keep from losing your mind. By the time you arrive, you are no longer hungry in any ordinary sense. You’ve been driving, intoxicated, under the influence of that aroma.

Now picture a night with friends at your favorite pizzeria. The long-awaited arrival. Steam rises. Hands hover. The first slice is lifted and the cheese stretches into a long, trembling thread before it yields. There is laughter, a pause, a kind of reverence. This is food as the experience of shared anticipation.

It’s no accident this craving peaks now, as Santa Cruz Pizza Week arrives from April 22 through May 3, and it celebrates that moment and pushes it further. Local kitchens are treating the surface of the pizza as a field for invention, layering sweetness and heat, umami and sea, fresh and fat. The result is a tour of Santa Cruz through its toppings, a series of edible ideas that answer the simple question: what else can pizza be?

START WITH THE RULE BREAKERS

At Bookie’s Pizza, the Beeteroni looks familiar at first glance. Red rounds against melted cheese, a classic composition. But here is the Bookie’s magic. The pepperoni is made from beets. It brings earth and a soft sweetness that shifts the balance of the whole pie. The salt of the cheese and the acid of the sauce stay in place, but the usual spice is replaced by something more curious, more grounded. For those who choose the vegan version, the effect is even more pronounced. The structure of a classic remains, yet the center is re-imagined Santa Cruz style.

Eggplant appears across town at Engfer Pizza Works as roasted eggplant meets pickled sweet peppers, red onion, arugula, and a flicker of orange zest. The eggplant is soft and deep, almost smoky. The peppers bring a bright tang and the citrus arrives, not as fruit, but as aroma, lifting everything. What might have settled into heaviness is turned into something vivid. You taste the garden and the grove in the same bite.

Where ocean meets forest and fog shares days with sun… Santa Cruzans love a beautiful contrast, and nowhere is that clearer than in the marriage of sweet and heat on a Santa Cruz pizza.

At Crow’s Nest Beach Market, the Smokin’ Hot Chick offers that tension with confidence with spicy barbecue sauce, chicken, applewood smoked bacon, jalapeños, and a final gloss of hot honey. Smoke sits low on the palate. Heat rises. Then the honey ties the two together, sweet at first, then carrying the burn a moment longer. Each bite ignites, resolves, then resets. It’s a rhythm you won’t tire of.

A similar balance appears at Pizzeria La Bufala in the Dolce Piccante Party. Broccoli rabe brings a familiar freshness, while Italian sausage adds fat and salt. Hot honey returns, but here it plays against the greens as much as the meat. Bitter, sweet, rich. Each element pulls in a different direction, and the pleasure comes from the way each holds it own in a delicious dance.

At Kianti’s Pizza & Pasta Bar, The G.O.A.T. lives up to its name beginning with an aromatic roasted garlic white sauce. Mozzarella follows, melting into that base, while basil elevates the whole with a green, almost sweet brightness. Pepperoni brings salt and spice before goat cheese enters with its richness and tang, giving the pie a sharper edge. A drizzle of honey ties it all together, sweet against salt, smoothing the transitions between each bite. Add red peppers on request, and the heat arrives just late enough to linger.

SOME PIES LOOK INWARD, OTHERS TRAVEL

At East End Gastropub, the Seafood Scampi Pizza begins with a familiar coastal idea and sets it on dough. Shrimp, calamari, clams, garlic, lemon, and a smooth béchamel. The lemon cuts through the cream, and the seafood brings a subtle salinity that lingers at the back of the tongue.

And then. Someone had to do it, and East End Gastropub did. The Taco Pie. It shouldn’t work, right? But it absolutely does. Seasoned beef meets a verde béchamel, then comes the crunch of tortilla chips, the freshness of pico de gallo, and a sweep of Baja sauce. Texture becomes part of the flavor. Soft, crisp, cool, and warm in quick succession, playful, but not careless. Each layer fulfills its mission.

Elsewhere, the Mediterranean makes its case. At La Marea Cafe, the Mykonos gathers feta, olives, spinach, and tomato into a pie that evokes a Greek vacation. The salt of the olives and cheese leads the way, and the greens follow with a mild bitterness, clean, direct, and unapologetic in its flavor. The Green Heat from the same kitchen moves in another direction, with green garlic cream, spring pesto, sausage, ricotta, and jalapeño. This is Santa Cruz in season. The garlic is fresh, not harsh. The pesto carries the field. The jalapeño adds a spark that keeps the richness from settling.

Mushrooms, long valued as much for texture as for flavor, step forward in force at The Pizza Series. The Much, Much, Mushroom layers sautéed and fresh fungi over red sauce, then finishes with a porcini cream and herbs. This is depth built on depth. The flavor unfolds rather than strikes. Earth, then more earth, then a hint of wood and herb. It asks you to slow down, close your eyes, and experience.

The same shop offers a Rosemary Ham pie that moves in a sweeter direction. Caramelized onions melt into the salt of the ham, and Gruyere adds a nutty richness. Fresh chives cut through at the end. It’s yet another study in balance, with rosemary acting as a bridge between the sweet and the savory

At Fawn Pizza & Vinyl Bar, the Concrete Ship brings together sausage, pepperoni, olives, and bright red sauce in a composition that feels classic until you notice the details. The olives add a sharp note to what might otherwise be a wall of salt and fat. Their presence changes the whole pie. The Fun Guy, with its mix of mushrooms and ricotta white sauce, moves toward softness and cream, with scallions offering a final note that keeps it from fading.

SOME RELY ON MEMORY, THEN REFINE IT

At Churchill and Beers, Mary’s Pizza Combination brings together salami, pepperoni, cotto salami, sausage, and mushrooms over a house sauce. It is a full table in a single pie. The pleasure here is not novelty. It is execution. Each meat holds its place. The mushrooms absorb and release flavor in equal measure. It is the kind of pizza that reminds you why the form became popular in the first place.

At Upper Crust Pizza & Pasta, the Sicilian Square offers something else entirely. A thick crust with a crisp edge and a soft interior. Sauce and cheese settle into the structure rather than sit on top of it. It is a different geometry, one that favors depth over stretch. Paired with a salad and dessert, it becomes a full meal, the kind that anchors a table for an evening.

Flatbreads at Laili Restaurant take yet another path. Apricot chicken; pear with gorgonzola; eggplant parmesan. Fruit appears as it has for centuries in this cuisine. Sweetness meets salt and cream, in combinations that feel almost inevitable once you taste them. This is where pizza edges toward something older, drawing on the Silk Road traditions of Afghanistan, Persia, and India, where fruit, spice, and savory have long been woven together, yet still at home on the same table.

Back at the Crow’s Nest Beach Market, pesto finds its way into rolled batons as even the appetizer gets involved, a reminder that the language of pizza can extend beyond the slice. Dough, herb, oil, and heat. Simple, then not so simple.

A WEEK OF PIZZA: HAVING IT ALL

If there is a way to approach Pizza Week, it may be this. Begin with what you know, a classic combination, then move outward. Try a touch of sweetness, a bit of heat. Let contrast entice you. By the end, take on the pies that seem strange at first reading. The seafood, the beets, the combinations that raise an eyebrow. These are the ones that will linger in memory and spark conversations.

What ties all of this together is not novelty for its own sake. It is a kind of local instinct. Santa Cruz cooks with what surrounds it. Fields, markets, coast, and a willingness to experiment.

And in the end, you return to the beginning. The box. The scent. The first slice. Only now, there is more to it. A trace of citrus where you did not expect it. A sweetness that delights. A heat that arrives late and lingers. You take another bite to understand it, then another because you want it.

CREATIVE PIZZA IS NOT JUST WEIRD PIZZA

Again, creative pizza is NOT just weird pizza. Even Santa Cruz doesn’t want “weird” for its own sake. What we want is permission to be indulgent, maybe upscale, or just nostalgic, but with a twist—familiar comfort, nudged sideways. That’s very California, coastal and us.

Pizza Week is what happens when California pizza finds its way to Santa Cruz. California gave pizza permission to experiment. Santa Cruz gives it our personality

The result is not a scene chasing authenticity, but one comfortable remixing it. Surf culture plays its part, that casual, anything-goes sensibility that resists rigid rules. Proximity to farms matters too, where fresh toppings are not a luxury but a given.

Instead of one identity, we’re blessed with a patchwork of styles that somehow feels coherent and leaves you with the question what do I feel like today?

Pizza Week runs from April 22 through May 3.
The craving it creates lasts much longer.

For all Pizza Week offerings, visit
Good Times’ Pizza Lineup page
Download the Pizza Week App

On Saturday, the marine layer will burn off just in time and Abbott Square in downtown Santa Cruz will be turned over to our youngest residents. Kids Day returns May 2, transforming Pacific Avenue and Cooper Street into a four-hour party of face paint, sidewalk games, garage bands, and with the kind of joy that doesn’t require a credit card. From noon to 4pm families can wander a corridor closed to traffic and open to imagination, where 42 booths offer free activities by design (Be Natural Music starts at 11:30 am.)

 Shiri Gradek, Director of Marketing and Events for the Downtown Association of Santa Cruz, says, “We’re always trying to create activations that draw visitors downtown,” Gradek says. “But Kids Day really focuses on families, especially families with younger children, to remind them that downtown is a safe and welcoming place.”

Downtown Santa Cruz, like many downtowns, carries competing narratives: lively and local, but sometimes unpredictable. Kids Day leans hard into the counter-story of an afternoon where the loudest sounds are laughter and beautiful harmonies from teenage bands covering ’90s hits.

Abbott Square General Manager Joey Ward says, “We’ve done Kids Day for years and it keeps growing. The music they play is incredible. Be Natural Music is going to do a three-hour thing, and some of these kids are crazy talented, playing styles that might speak to an older person. This gives them a chance to build their confidence and their own sense of pride.”

Gradek’s job is to build that environment from the ground up. She creates the events, coordinates the moving pieces, and, on days like this, essentially orchestrates a temporary city within the city.

 “This is about drawing local families downtown,” she says. “Showing them this is a safe, cool place to be. There are so many businesses that serve children and young families, and Kids Day highlights that.”

Every exhibitor, whether a dance academy, museum, youth program, or local business, is required to offer a free activity or game. That means a child can spend the entire afternoon bouncing from booth to booth without spending a dollar. There’s face painting, hands-on crafts, interactive demos, and plenty of opportunities to try something new without the friction of a price tag.

“If families want to spend money, they can, but it’s important to us that we create spaces like this for everyone, regardless of income.”

That said, businesses are leaning in with Kids Day specials; discounted meals, free treats, and in-store activities that extend the event beyond the street closures. But the heart of the day is on the street, and on the stage.

At Abbott Square, local music school Be Natural Music will take over the stage from 11:30am to 2:30pm, showcasing a lineup of teenage bands assembled and coached through the school’s “garage band” model.

 “They curate bands out of students,” Gradek explains. “You’re a drummer, she’s a guitarist, he’s a bassist—and they teach them how to be in a band together.”

 Be Natural Music will be followed by Jewel Box, another teen band with local roots. Gradek says their name is inspired by a neighborhood in Capitola, playing from 3 to 4 pm.

 Elsewhere, Pacific Avenue becomes its own stage. Pop-up performances—dance, movement, spontaneous bursts of spectacle—appear in the street, closed to cars. If the goal is to remind people what downtown can be, Kids Day might do more than that. It might send families home with a sense that Santa Cruz, with all its contradictions, can still feel like it belongs to them. It does on May 2nd.

Kids Day is a partnership between the Downtown Santa Cruz, Abbott Square, Growing up Santa Cruz and sponsored by Google Cloud.

KIDS DAY LIVE EVENTS

Be Natural Bands – Abbott Square Stage 11:30 am to 2:30 pm

Museum of Discovery – Cooper Street 12:30 pm

International Academy of Dance – Cooper Street 1:15 pm

All About Theater –  Cooper Street 2:00 pm

Kirby School – Cooper Street 2:45 pm

Jewel Box – Abbott Square Stage 3:00 to 4:00 pm

For more information about Kids Day you can go to  downtownsantacruz.com/do/kids-day-3

About 100 people gathered around the Santa Cruz County Courthouse on the evening of Wednesday, April 22 for the 15th annual Victims Solidarity candlelight vigil in honor of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. The somber gathering paid tribute to Crime Victims of Santa Cruz County. It comes a week after the California Assembly Public Safety Committee voted unanimously on Assembly Bill 1902 authored by Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin and inspired by the 2015 murder of Madyson Middleton, 8, a case that sent shockwaves through the Santa Cruz community.

“Your presence reflects a shared commitment to this community to victims and survivors,” District Attorney Jeff Rosell said. “We’re here to honor victims of crime, including those who are no longer with us. We are here to make sure their voices are heard and that they are not forgotten.”  

Victims include Christopher Carr, who was stabbed to death at a house party in 2001. His sister, Reba Thomas–a 49ers cheerleader and dance graduate from UC Los Angeles–showed a video of her college senior capstone project in which she choreographed a dance dedicated to her brother.

“In many ways I have grown up alongside this community,” said Thomas, 24, who was four years old at the time of her brother’s murder and started attending the Victims Solidarity gatherings at 6 years old.

“This community has shown me love and comfort in the moments when the rest of the world felt extremely scary and unfair,” she continued.

Following Thomas’ speech, 136 names of victims of violent crimes were read, and placards with their photos were handed to loved ones. If nobody was present to receive one, someone from the crowd would do the honor.

Names like Madyson Middleton,  who was brutally raped and murdered in 2015  by convicted killer Adrian Jerry “A.J.” Gonzalez, who was 15 at the time.

Middleton’s mother, Laura Jordan, who was present at the vigil with two close friends, is currently campaigning for the California State Senate to pass AB 1902, which would change several key loopholes and gaps in the current law when it comes to juvenile offenders.

The bill is sponsored by Rosell and backed by multiple Santa Cruz County and City authorities, such as Supervisor Kim De Serpa, Santa Cruz Police Chief Bernie Escalante and Watsonville Mayor Kristal Salcido, along with organizations such as the Walnut Avenue Family & Women’s Center, the Chief Probation Officers of California and the California District Attorneys Association,

 When Gonzalez was arrested, he was on a path to be tried in court as an adult due to the heinous nature of the crime. However, in 2018, Senate Bill 1391 was signed into law by then-Governor Jerry Brown. The Bill required that anyone under the age of 16 at the time of the crime should be tried as a juvenile.

Under the law, anyone in the juvenile system is aged out at 25, allowing them to possibly be released. Before his 25th birthday in 2014, the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office challenged Gonzalez’s release, leading to a lengthy trial through the early part of 2025, when a jury ruled he was still a threat to the general public and should remain in custody.

Gonzalez is being held in a secure youth treatment facility in Sonoma County Juvenile Hall with other offenders ages 14-24, despite being 26 years old and the nature of his crime against a minor.

Currently, state law holds that in cases like Gonzalez, extension hearings are to be held every two years. This means Gonzalez might be back in court for another possible release next year.

“Each time it’s brought up and I have to go [to court] it’s retraumatizing for my family, my friends and my community,” Jordan told GT at the vigil. “It also traumatized the jury, and I feel for them because I’ve been living with this for 11 years and knew the horrible details, but they did not.”

If signed into law, AB 1902 would change the extension period from two to four years and would clarify custodial jurisdictions. It would also allow hearsay to be admissible at probable cause hearings. The bill also aims to expand rehabilitation centers for incarcerated individuals to state hospitals. Jordan also noted a longer extension period would also mean more time for rehabilitation.

“Jurors came to us and the victim’s relatives came to us to express the horror of having to repeat this process every two years,” Rosell told the Victims Solidarity crowd of AB 1902. “This Assembly Bill is designed to put victims forward to help them so they don’t have to go through the same trauma every two years.”

Shawna Spaulding, who attended Gonzalez’s 2024-2025 trial in support of Jordan, was also at the Victims’ Solidarity vigil. She was holding a sign with a QR Code–along with web addresses JusticeForMaddy.com and SupportAB1902.com–  that would take people immediately to an online letter signing campaign so constituents could let their representatives know they support the bill.

Last week Jordan and Spaulding joined Rosell and Pellerin at the state Capitol in Sacramento for the first round of hearings on AB 1902. It was passed unanimously by the committee with one absentee vote.

“[Jordan’s] life was upended, especially in the first five years with setback after setback with 1391,” Spaulding told GT.

“It was the first time in 11 years that I felt my pain and suffering surrounding the legal process–and lack of justice that has happened in this case–was acknowledged of what I’ve been through,” Jordan agreed. “It’s been like a rollercoaster. Every time we move one step forward, we get pulled back, and every change in the law has benefited the defendant, making justice one step further away from us.”

AB 1902 still has five more steps to go before it can reach Governor Newsom. Pending any setbacks, Newsom would have until September 30 to sign it into law.

“The more letter writers the better,” said Spaulding. “Because we need pressure from throughout the whole state.”

Those backing the bill hope it will be one more step in protecting the family and friends of victims like those gathered at the candlelight vigil.

As Rosell told the composed crowd outside the courthouse, “It is an example of victims getting better access to a legal system that, for far too long, they have not been heavily represented in.”