Zombieland 2: Double Tap has the soul of a shooter game.
It first reunites us with the four apocalypse survivors from the original film; now theyโre not getting along, even with their fine new HQ at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The mad-cow-disease-ridden zombies have evolved into subspecies: plodding dumbos nicknamed โHomers,โ and crafty โHawkingsโโas well as a new breed thatโs super-fast and hard to kill.
Holing up in the White House, Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) is happy to be the king of America, digging up such artifacts as the .45 automatic Elvis gave Richard Nixon (this time, itโs Elvis that Tallahassee is besotted with, not Dale Ernhard). Wichita (Emma Stone) canโt handle the nerdiness and neediness of Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg). Even if he is more or less the only man in the world, she canโt accept the Hope diamond he presents as an engagement ring. Interestingly, no one in the film seems to know that the gem is supposedly cursed.ย
Little Rock (Abigail Breslin, her Little Miss Sunshine days behind her forever) is now the bitter former-child-actor type incarnate: stocky, husky-voiced, seething and looking for a boyfriend.ย ย
The restless ladies steal โtheย Beast,โ Tallahaeesโs antlered death truck, and race off for places unknown. The menfolk pursue. On their respective roads, the separated gangs encounter two new stereotypes: one is Madison (Zoey Deutch), a pink-clad and moronic blonde mallrat. Little Rock meets Berkeley (Avan Jogia) a Namaste-ing hippie who, now that society collapsed, can pretend he wrote โBlowing in the Wind.โ Berkeley knows of a refuge called Babylon where people can be cool, vegetarian and nonviolent. Itโs a tower-top fortress that once was a 20-story hotel; of course they eventually need rescue by a John Wayne-like figure who is no stranger to violence.
On first sight, Little Rock almost โmurraysโ Berkeleyโwe learn thatโs the slang for killing a human when you think theyโre a zombie. (โMurrayingโ references the best scene in the first Zombieland, if you donโt count Little Rockโs impatient explanation about how Miley can be both herself and Hannah Montana. In that scene, Breslin made the post-apocalyptic drive across a zombie-blighted U.S. the same as any other family car trip, asking โAre we there yet?โ)ย
Before the gang gets back together, thereโs a detour to a pseudo-Graceland, a tourist motel run by Nevada (Rosario Dawson). Dawsonโs million-candlepower smile is a glad sight in a sunless and sour movie. Here also is an expansion of a keen gag in Shaun of the Dead (2004), where the squad of survivors, crossing through the North London backyards, sees their doubles heading in a different direction on their own zombie hunt. Director Ruben Fleischer (who did the original Zombieland) spins this one shock of recognition into 15 minutes of deadzone yack. A macho Luke Wilson (as Alburquerque) bumps his cowboy-shirted chest against Tallahassee, while his sidekick Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch) hangs with Columbus, comparing and contrasting their fussy rules, which appear in gold letters above them.
Those are the jokes, along with the alleged comedic-relief โZombie Kill of the Weekโ awards, demonstrating creative way of mangling the walking dead. One, set in Italy, almost displays some wit while destroying a 846-year-old monument.ย ย
Nihilism and the movieโs referential mania wear you out. There wasnโt enough energy in the first Zombieland to channel into a sequel, and there was little left undone. Moreover, it hasnโt been 10 marvelous years of travelling that got us to this weedy Midwestern wasteland, with its ambulatory corpses spilling pixilated glore.
Itโs natural that Zombieland: Double Tap gives all its characters capital city aliases. The film is the product of a pissed-off and divided nation which can view the mindless, useless eaters as symbols of either the Demon-craps or the Trumptards: zombies, fit for nothing but two in the skull.
ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP
Directed by Ruben Fleischer. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. (R) 99 minutes.
It was early evening when the ground started to shake 30 years ago today.
Within 15 seconds, the facades of shops on Pacific Avenue had crumbled, Earth under fertile farmland in Watsonville had ruptured, and homes in remote reaches of the Santa Cruz Mountains has been destroyed.
The impact of the Oct. 17, 1989, Loma Prieta earthquake extended to almost every corner of Santa Cruz County. Even now, the legacy of the disaster lives on in local cities that were reimagined in a long and sometimes-contentious rebuilding process.ย
In many ways, the issues most important to the people who live here have come full circle, too. When the quake hit at the tail end of the โ80s, the Central Coast, in particular downtown Santa Cruz, were on edge about how to deal with familiar issues like unaffordable housing, unaddressed homelessness and drug use, and anxiety about public safety.ย
But in photos that captured the devastation, the collective rescue efforts and unique cultural moments in timeโlike the tent city that sprung up off Pacific Avenueโthere are also reminders of the scrappiness, the camaraderie and the beauty that have helped weather turmoil before.
DOWNTOWN IDENTITY CRISIS Volunteers and rescue workers flocked to Pacific Garden Mall when the earthquake struck just after 5 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1989. The downtown shopping district expanded during the โ70s and โ80s, but by the time of the disaster, it had become a battleground for debate over issues like homelessness, crime and public safety. PHOTO: C.E. Meyer, U.S. Geological Survey
CROP BUSTING In agricultural areas of Santa Cruz County, strong shaking during the 7.1 earthquake caused cracks and โsand volcanoesโ near fields that farmers were preparing for the fall planting season. PHOTO: S.D. Ellen, U.S. Geological Survey
SHAKY FOUNDATION Anxiety about increasingly unaffordable housing also came to a head after the earthquake destroyed more than 11,000 homes across the Central Coast and Bay Area. Here, a house in the Santa Cruz mountains moved laterally off its cement foundation. PHOTO: J.K. Nakata, U.S. Geological Survey
STILL SEARCHING Emergency responders and volunteers searched for victims at the collapsed Pacific Garden Mall. In the years after Loma Prieta, efforts to redevelop the downtown commercial district became a flashpoint for anxiety about who still had a place in post-counterculture Santa Cruz. PHOTO: C.E. Meyer, U.S. Geological Survey
TALE OF TWO CITIES Santa Cruz and Watsonville took different paths to rebuilding after the earthquake. Many Santa Cruz shops set up in tents while a planning commission convened to map out a path forward. In Watsonville, a huge effort was undertaken to reopen the downtown Fordโs department store, pictured here, two years to the day after the earthquake. โWatsonvilleโs been searching for its identity of late,โ local farm bureau President Jeff Brothers told the L.A. Times. โFordโs is a harbinger of things to come. Itโs done first class.โ [H.G. Wilshire, U.S. Geological Survey]POPPING UP Pavilion tents, by Phoenix Pavilions, set up to house displaced Pacific Avenue businesses. ยฉRegents of the University of California. Courtesy Special Collections, University Library, University of California Santa Cruz. Vester Dick Collection.
I couldnโt resist buying this wine when I saw the bottle at Deluxe Market in Aptos. The word sofosโฮฃฮฮฆฮฮฃโmeans โwise oneโ in Greek, which jumped out at me. I lived in Greece for 12 years and drank a lot of Greek wine back in the day. Iโm glad to say it has improved greatly over the years, and some excellent wines are now being produced in the land of the fair Hellenes.
Made by Domaine Gioulis in the mountainous area of Klimenti Corinth, grapes enjoy the higher altitudes of the Peloponnese. A blend of 60% Moschofilero (an aromatic white grape of Greek origin) and 40% Chardonnay, itโs a tasty pairing to enjoy with salads, seafood and pasta dishes. With its richly aromatic bouquet and a crisp, long aftertaste, this organic dry wine is a good buy at $13. Plus, you get to try white wine from Greece without having to go there to find it. dionet.gr.
Hospice Fundraiser at Sockshop
The Sockshop and Shoe Company will hold its annual fundraiser for Hospice of Santa CruzCounty at their new Aptos location. The event will run 5:30-8:30pm on Friday, Oct. 18, with live music and a raffle. Sockshop is also donating 8% of sales to Hospice from Oct. 19-20.
Seascape Sports Club will host Soquel Vineyards for a wine tasting from 6-7:30pm on Friday, Oct. 18. Cost is $20, which includes heavy hors dโoeuvres. Event open to non-members.
Dietician and acupuncturist Laura Casasayas, a native of Spain, is putting on a series about healthy eating called โFinding Peace with Food and Your Body.โ The first one will be from 6-7:30pm on Oct. 24 at Alliance Physical Therapy, 7887 Soquel Drive, Aptos. 515-9659. Donation.ย
A delicate doll with a face that has started to chip away after years of abuse. An unnerving action figure to represent the creepy uncle dubiously picked to babysit. Rows of small, detached arms reaching out of a suitcase to symbolize how young immigrants are ripped away from their parents.
These are some of the unnerving scenes inspired by real-life stories of childhood trauma in a new art exhibit by Santa Cruz doctor and acupuncturist Dawn Motyka, known locally as โDr. Dawn.โ Her found-object assemblages are on display in the Emotional Baggage exhibit at the Westside Habitat for Humanity store through October.ย
โIโve been kind of haunted by these images,โ says Motyka, who runs Westside functional medicine practice Optimage Health. โItโs like a mushroom, where it just kind of grew over time.โ
The objects that populate the pieces, collected mostly at flea markets over many years, reflect stories that Motyka has heard from patients over her three-decade career focused on pain management. Though stories are โvery disguisedโ to protect patient privacy, theyโre inspired by real-life details.
Take the โFred Munster-lookingโ doll that reminded her of a patient who described years of sexual abuse by an uncle. โI thought, โThatโs Uncle Bob,โโ Mytoka says. โTall, creepy, thin, striped PJs.โ
Motyka sees the project as part of a bigger conversation in medical research and the media about how childhood trauma manifests in physical symptoms like chronic pain, insomnia or anxiety.
Itโs a topic that has gained attention since the late โ90s, when researchers at Kaiser Permanente found that children who experienced adverse childhood eventsโabuse, domestic violence, an addicted or incarcerated family memberโare more likely to struggle with obesity, addiction, depression or other high-risk behaviors.
The findings were stark: โThere is a strong graded relationship between the breadth of exposure to abuse or household dysfunction during childhood and multiple risk factors for several of the leading causes of death in adults,โ the study concluded.
The concept is perhaps best distilled in Motykaโs mixed-media piece โPapered Over,โ where a ragdoll gripped by a plastic hand is partially obscured by a torn sheet of paperโa nod to how repressed traumatic memories can rear up suddenly and disrupt life years later.ย
โThis stuff gets buried,โ Motyka says. โItโs emotional baggage locked away in the closet.โย
She didnโt always have such a holistic view of how patients end up at the doctorโs office. By the late โ90s, Motyka says, sheโd grown frustrated with Band-Aid pharmaceutical solutions to pain, and the financial pressure put on doctors to get through patients quickly.
โI was so sick of writing prescriptions for Vicodin, because thatโs all I could do for pain for primary care,โ she says.ย
After starting her own practice and expanding to include acupuncture and other functional medicine, Mytoka had more control over her time and capacity to get to the root issues of pain. Still, she says, she tries not to pry.
โIf someone opens the door, I will go through the door,โ Mytoka says. โWeโre trained not to do that in medicine.โย
While she hopes to work with local art groups to bring a version of the exhibit to surrounding areas, Mytoka has so far avoided parlaying her pieces into explicit activism. Employees at Habitat for Humanity are equipped with a resource list for anyone who seems to react strongly to the artwork, but Motyka says her priority is recognition rather than recommending any one treatment.
โI didnโt want to make it an advertisement for mental health services,โ Motyka says. โThe message is, โYou are not alone.โโ
โEmotional Baggageโ is on display through October at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, 719 Swift St. Suite 62, Santa Cruz. jivamedia.com/dawnart2.
The opening night of the Santa Cruz Film Festival last Wednesday was pretty epic. Tony Alva showed up to the sold-out screening of the new documentary about him at the Del Mar. I got to spend some time talking to him, and he liked the GT cover featuring him so much he decided to sign a copy for every person at the screening who wanted one! (Which led to me scouring downtown hurriedly trying to find leftover copies here and there. There werenโt many; it was a popular issue! But I found some extras at the office.) Congrats to the whole SCFF team on a successful festival.
With this particularly packed fall well underway, we now roll right into Santa Cruz Restaurant Week. For our pullout guide in this issue, we talked to the chefs, owners and staff from every one of the 34 restaurants participating this year. Youโll also find all of their menus. This is the downtown dining event of the year, so get out there Oct. 16-23!
Lastly, just wanted to mention that Iโll be doing a Q&A after the screening of Apocalypse Now: Final Cut, the new, definitive version of the classic 1979 film from director Francis Ford Coppola at DNAโs Comedy Lab on Thursday, Oct. 17 (see page 22). All I can say about the after-film session is there will be some crazy surprises, so hope to see you there!
I can close my eyes and still see the dormitories at Oakes College [UCSC] swaying while my friends were screaming in Spanish. It was 1989, my first year of college and we were walking back from the College 8 dining hallโsince Oakes didnโt have one yetโwhen the trembling began. Yes, we were outside and the beautiful ocean view was in the distance. We were so scared and naive as we prayed a tsunami wasnโt next.
I have no idea where we all are now but at that moment we were one. Hugging, crying and missing home even more. We slept outside on the West Field (which is probably some building now) until the dorms were deemed safe to enter. Now, 30 years later, I am a teacher in Los Angeles and you can bet I will talk about Loma Prieta as if it were yesterday. Hmm … maybe I will make a lesson out of it or perhaps share a poem.
Ah yes, the Pacific Garden Mall; dust and rubble. Walking and breathing the sadness of history buried in those concrete piles is still imprinted in my soul. Although I had just arrived in Santa Cruz, I knew instantly that I was a witness to something big. A new Santa Cruz. What? I was just gettingย to love the Santa Cruz I came to know in fall of โ89. Well, needless to say, I had to do something! I volunteered in Watsonville to sort clothes as the donations were constant and overwhelming. Watsonville was hit pretty hard too, you know. As I sorted clothes to build my sense of community, each piece of clothing I touched was a piece of my heart given to those families extremely devastated by this quake.
I often think about my college years and wonder how everything looks now. Where are my screaming friends and do they even think about Loma Prieta anymore. The bonds we made around this monster earthquake could never be broken. But I donโt see them anymore and donโt ask me to go on Facebook please. Iโm an old soul trying to preserve moments of real connections lost. I still close my eyes and feel Santa Cruz deep in my bones. I am happy to be a part of this history 30 years later. Although I am no longer there, the spirit of Loma Prieta earthquake, and the resilience of everyone affected, resides in my heart P/V. That means โfor lifeโ in Spanish. Por Vida.
E. Mejia
Los Angeles
Re: โBench Pressโ (GT, 8/20):
โNot much law in family law,โ a lawyer I knew would say.
That a judge finds themselves in their element in family court does not confer on them distinction as a great all-round jurist. The fact that, according to a lifelong divorce attorney in GTโs story, Judge Ariadne Symons, as a complete neophyte, immediately slid seamlessly into the family court groove, may signal limited fitness for working in all other areas of the law.
A vestige of English ecclesiastical courts, family courts are uniquely free of constitutional restraints (since federal courts refuse to touch divorces); the judgeโs discretion reigns supreme and unchecked in deciding child custody, and their orders abound in weasel word terms of art like the in-practice-hollow โbest interest of the child.โ (There is no legal test for evaluating whether โbest interestโ has been achieved; no ruling can be appealed on grounds that it hasnโt.) This amorphous legal โframeworkโ contrasts sharply with the courtroom rigor and judicial accountability demanded when the rule of law is implemented seriously, and due process, the presumption of innocence, the โbeyond a reasonable doubtโ standard of proof, etc., are insisted upon.
Since her โsevereโ censure, Judge Symons has been reassigned from hearing felonies to juvenile-dependency casesโin significant part, I conjecture, to avoid an expected embarrassing number of appeals and burdensome quantity of remands.
WM L Spence
Santa Cruz
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GOOD IDEA
UCSC will host a presentation to solicit feedback on the future of campus land use. The first meeting on the schoolโs Long-Range Development Plan will be Monday, Oct. 21, at 6pm at Capitola Community Center, located at 4400 Jade St. The second will be Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 5:30pm in Seymour Marine Discovery Centerโs La Feliz Room, located at 100 McAllister Way in Santa Cruz. The goal, according to a flier, โis to collaborate with the campus and local community to address issues of mutual importance.โ
GOOD WORK
Assemblymember Mark Stone has had three bills signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom this month. One targets rehabilitation for incarcerated youth offenders, one eliminates medical copayments in jails and prisons, and another forbids employers from having โno rehire clausesโ in settlement agreements over sexual harassment and other employment disputes. In a press release, Stone said that such clauses punish victims of discrimination and harassment โwhile the offender remains in the job.โ
Now is the best chance to make friends with the sharks and see how marine scientists work, free of charge. The Seymour Marine Discovery Center exhibit hall dives deep into the adventure of ocean research in Santa Cruz and around the world.
INFO: 10am-5pm. Thursday, Oct. 17. Seymour Marine Discovery Center, 100 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz. 459-3800, seymourcenter.ucsc.edu. Free.ย
Art Seen
Wild and Scenic Film Festival
Join the Ventana Wilderness Alliance in Santa Cruz on for fantastic films about wild things and wild places, guaranteed to inspire anyone to get outside. Some of the films feature familiar landscapes, like the Bay Areaโs very own Mount Umunhum, while others are set in the Everglades Headwaters in Florida and Puerto Rico. This seventh-annual VWA presentation is the first Monterey Bay stop on the Wild and Scenic world tour. All proceeds benefit wilderness conservation in the Big Sur Backcountry.
INFO: 6pm. Thursday, Oct. 17. Del Mar Theatre, 1124 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. 423-3191, brownpapertickets.com.
Friday 10/18ย
UCSC Alumnus Grant Lyon Performance
Aside from being an L.A.-based professional comedian, Grant Lyon is also a UCSC graduate (class of 2006 for those that care). Lyon got his start in comedy by performing on campus and at coffee shops in Santa Cruz. Since graduating, heโs gone on to appear on Comedy Central, Comics Unleashed, star in the Amazon Prime movie Killer Kate, win the Laughing Skull Comedy Festival, and more. Lyon is returning to Santa Cruz as the first UCSC graduate to headline DNAโs Comedy Lab
INFO: 7 and 9:30pm. DNAโs Comedy Lab, 155 S River St., Santa Cruz. 900-5123. $20/$25.ย
Saturday 10/19
Apple Tasting
Put down that mushy, tasteless Red Delicious this second. Itโs apple season, and that brings all of the apple nerdsโahem, growing enthusiastsโout of the woodwork to present this yearโs best and brightest varietals. The farmers market is already stocked on all kinds of eating, cooking and baking apples, but Wilder Ranch Harvest Festival apple tasting includes more than 70 varieties, including several not found at the weekly market. Pie/jam/tarts may be in order.
INFO: 11am-4pm. Wilder Ranch State Park, 1401 Coast Rd., Santa Cruz. 662-2216, mbcrfg.org. $5.
Saturday 10/19-Thursday 10/31
13 Days of Halloween on the Wharf
Itโs an advent calendar of sortsโbut for halloween. Head to the Santa Cruz Wharf for 13 days of frightful fun. The countdown starts with the Great Pumpkin Bingo Hunt, plus there will be free hot apple cider, games and face painting. There will also be a special Zombie Apocalypse Night.ย
INFO: 4-6pm. Santa Cruz Wharf, 21 Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz. cityofsantacruz.com. Free.
For Florence-to-Santa Cruz transplants Samuele Polversoi and his wife Letizia, making pizza is a way to transport customers to their home country while also showcasing fresh, local ingredients. Mattia Pizza Truck, named after Polversoiโs oldest child, can be found at local breweries, wineries and private events.
How did you get into pizza making?ย
SAMUELE POLVERSOI: My love for making pizza was born when I met Domenico Felice, the person who was then to become my teacher. He gave me the possibility of being recognized by the APP, Association Professional Pizzaioli.
Later on, I was able to become a professional at handling certain types of doughโexamples would be gluten free, alternative mixes of flour, and of course, regular flour. Now itโs been six years that I am a certified professional pizza maker.
What makes your dough special?
The pizza dough are simple ingredients: water, flour, yeast, olive oil, salt. With my passion, I created my dough with a mix of different flours, less yeast and 72 hours rise. I make different crust, too. Basil crust, cocoa crust, curcuma crust, paprika crust, and for sure my gluten-free crust.
Which of your pizza combinations would you recommend?ย
Our masterpiece is the Pizza Sestola. San marzano tomato sauce, Italian sausageโmade by myselfโmushroom crimini, parmesan cheese and mozzarella.ย
This pizza, for us itโs the most important. We dedicated it to our second town in Italy. We lived in Florence, but we have our second house in this little town on the Appennino Tosco-Emiliano, and here you can find all the toppings that we use on this pizza.
What would you like people to know about you?
That we make not only real Italian pizza, but we make some Italian dessert on request.
mattiapizzatruck.com; Facebook: Mattia Pizza Truck Santa Cruz; Instagram: Mattiapizza04.
Each year, as summer turns to fall, Santa Cruzans fight the urge to cozy up inside and instead flood the local dining scene.ย
They arenโt just fighting back against shorter days, or hesitant to let the good times rollโSanta Cruz Restaurant Week offers a unique incentive. The annual event, which runs Oct. 16-23, gives guests an opportunity to dine out on any budget and explore their local culinary options. Participating restaurantsโmore than 30 this yearโoffer guests a three-course meal with fixed-price menu options for $25, $35 or $45 dollars.ย
Itโs a time to dine at the best local spots without breaking the bank, but Restaurant Week is enticing for local chefs, too. Itโs an opportunity for kitchens to flex their culinary skills and experiment with the bounty of the season.ย
We spoke to each participating restaurant to find out what theyโre offering this year, which menu items theyโre especially excited about, and why they love participating in Santa Cruz Restaurant Week. Find all their menus at santacruzrestaurantweek.com.
Why should diners choose to visit your restaurant during this yearโs Restaurant Week?ย
โItโs an authentic, Italian experience. You hear us speaking Italian, the recipes are straight from the homeland, and it gives you that feeling of really being there.โย
โWe source all of our fish as locally as we possibly can. I work with a fishmonger who is literally getting fish off of the dock right below the restaurant, so our products are incredibly fresh.โ
โWe have a lot of people whoโve been working here for seven or eight years. Itโs like a family. Thereโs a lot of Italian restaurants around, but each one is different, and this is an opportunity for everybody to get to know each other and see what the different areas in Italy have to offer.โ
โ Giovanni Spanu, Executive Chef/Owner at Lago Di Comoย
โItโs a Hawiian-style restaurant, but thereโs a bunch of different flavors that are mixed in. We have Asian, Latin and American flavors that are combined with the Hawiian preparation, and they go really well together. Thereโs a lot of sweet and spicy or savory and creamy combinations.โย
An interior shot at Hawaiian fusion hotspot Hula’s. PHOTO: TARMO HANNULA
โI think the value weโre offering for $25 is really outstanding. Itโs great appetizers, great desserts and really special entrรฉes, which typically are more than the $25 by themselves.โย
โLooking at our menu, there is a dish for everyone. We have seafood, pasta, meat and a vegetarian dish. We always want to make sure everyone who comes by for Restaurant Week has an entrรฉe for them. Who can pass up a three-course meal for $25?! We just want everyone to leave with a smile on their face and taste the authenticity that we put into every dish.โย
โRosie McCannโs is a very unique, individual spot in Santa Cruz. Itโs great for everyoneโfor kids, for adults. We welcome everybody in. We pride ourselves on giving really good customer service to make sure people have a great experience.โย
โThis is a great time to come in and see how we produce our menu seasonally. This is a time where youโll see fall items on the menuโyour bitter greens, like radicchios, and fall fruitsโand weโre starting to serve more cold-weather dishes. Weโve got a really beautiful kabocha squash soup done with coconut milk and lemongrass. Itโs very warm and comforting. Same thing with our braised short rib dish. Itโs kind of getting to that cold time of year, so weโre going to have dishes that reflect that.โย
โI think fun and playfulness are an essential part of cooking. At Your Place, people arenโt just coming in for food, theyโre coming in and making friends. Thatโs really the goalโto connect with people and build a sense of community.โย
โRestaurant Week is a great opportunity to visit Zeldaโs without the craziness of tourists. Itโs a beautiful time of year, and our outdoor patio is an amazing location to watch the sunset while enjoying delicious California coastal cuisine. Weโre one of the few places on the entire coast where you can literally dine on the sand.โย
What are you most looking forward to with the menu this year?ย
โThe Restaurant Week menu is made up of items we serve on our normal menu. Our hope is that we get people who havenโt eaten at the Back Nine before come in and try it out. If they really love and enjoy what theyโve had, then theyโre able to come back and get that on a regular basis.โย
โItโs really about letting myself and my staff be more creative with the menu, allowing everyone to express themselves while showcasing what Santa Cruz County has to offer, both produce-wise and from the ocean, using local fisheries and all that stuff. Itโs a very beneficial outlet.โ
โIโm excited about some of the special cocktails weโre offering for Restaurant Week. The vanilla-infused rum soda is very approachable. It almost tastes like an old-fashioned cream soda, but itโs made with rum. The chocolate-strawberry cosmo is a cacao infusion thatโs completely unsweetened, but still has a chocolate flavor from the cacao, and the strawberry is literally just Windmill Farms strawberries baked in the oven to make a sauce. Thatโs exciting, because when you look around at a lot of the bars, theyโre offering complexities that sound almost like modern artโโin other words, very interesting but sometimes above our heads. What weโre offering to people is a simplicity of origin in their cocktail mixers.โย
โ David Jackman, Executive Chef/Owner at Chocolateย
โFor each course this year, weโre offering at least one vegetarian option and trying to do things that are totally different from what we usually do. So for me, thatโs what Iโm most excited aboutโI get to play with different foods.โย
โIโm really excited about our wild mushroom salad. Itโs going to be one of the first courses, all foraged within 150 miles of here, served with a nice, warm sherry vinaigrette. Itโs going to be a great dish.โย
โGetting people in the restaurant that maybe havenโt been before, to come and try it out. Weโre offering our seasonal salad with special organic and local produce and our artichoke soup, which is another favoriteโthe local Italian people go crazy if we donโt have it.โ
โItโs a great value and variety, from shrimp appetizers, spanakopita and hummus to salmon as a choice of entrรฉes. And we have the chicken souvlaki, a marinated chicken thatโs probably one of our signature items.โย
โOne focal point weโre really excited about is our balsamic salmon. Itโs a charbroiled salmon that has almost a bruschetta concept on top, so youโre going to have tomatoes, basil and garlic with a balsamic glaze over it. Itโs super fresh, and you get some really amazing salmon with it as well.โ
Fresh fish stars at Stagnaro Bros. PHOTO: TARMO HANNULA
โOffering people creative menu items. Weโre on the ocean, so showing some of whatโs happening in our area here with the fish. Also, mixing it up a little to have creativity for the steak lovers, or people who enjoy duck or pork.โ
โย Jeff Hanson, Restaurant Manager at Sanderlingsย
โWeโre looking forward to serving the cioppino. Our head chef Antonio Gomez has put a lot of time into creating it and making it super delicious. Itโs got crab legs, mussels, scallops, prawns, and calamari, so itโs a really nice array of all kinds of different fresh seafood. Weโre also going to serve our apple-berry cobbler, but as a pie, so itโs a new twist on an old classic.โย
โA couple of our most famous are for sure our pappardelle Bolognese, our lasagna and our meatballs. Those are really classic, but we also try to put something new and fresh on the menu and take a bit of a risk with something that might be unusual for our customers, but that is really natural for us. Weโll try to discover an old family recipe and put it on the menu, to help people understand our roots.โย
โItโs a really great thing for our community, because you donโt normally try new things. You normally just go to the one restaurant that you love, but this gives you an opportunity to branch out.โย
โI think the best thing for us is bringing in new customers. After Restaurant Week, we see a lot of new faces in our restaurant. They like what we did, so they come back.โย
โPeople getting familiar with the quality, amazing ingredients we have in our town. Thereโs so many mom and pop restaurants that I think we take for granted, and this really shines light on these fabulous places. I went back last year and multiple times throughout this year to places I went for Restaurant Week, and thatโs what I hope for my restaurant.โย
โYou get to show off a little bit. I feel like weโre taking more risks on the menu, instead of just playing it safe. I think the chefs want to show the best of what they got, their best cuisine, their best dishes, and just go for it.โ
โThe best thing about Restaurant Week are the multi-course offerings for an affordable price. It entices guests to try out new places and menus that might not have been on their radar before. The reasonable price point also allows guests the opportunity to add one of our handcrafted margaritas to their experience.โย
โThe best thing about Restaurant Week is the exposure. Everyoneโs shining. Weโre all trying to put our best foot forward and show the community what their delicious restaurant choices are.โย
โFood brings happiness and helps people create beautiful memories together. Itโs a time to go out and let people have something special, or feel like a star. Itโs amazing. I feel like Restaurant Week is the most beautiful, festive and joyous event in Santa Cruz.โย
โItโs great that locals can come in and get a deal and hopefully try something theyโve never had before. For us, itโs a chance to get new people into the restaurant now that weโre open again.โย
โItโs really nice to get new guests out on the wharf, especially localsโwho maybe donโt come over here as oftenโto experience how beautiful a place it is and see what great food they can get out here.โย
โItโs great because people donโt always get three courses. Itโs a way to make sure you have a full dining experience thatโs coursed-out. Plus, you definitely get dessert, which is obviously one of my favorite things.โย
On Thursday afternoon, the weather in Aptos was clear and sunny with a slight breeze. From the outside, the Safeway at Rancho Del Mar shopping center looked calm, too.
Inside, the store looked like something out of a cut-rate zombie apocalypse thriller. With all overhead lights out and just a few crucial registers open, customers scrambled to navigate the cavernous supermarket with flashlights, headlamps and the glow of cell phones. Shelves of meat, dairy, juice and other perishables had been cleared after power was lost overnight Wednesday, following a day of hurry-up-and-wait warnings with little definitive information.
โPeople are saying it could be five days,โ said Aptos resident Mary Jo Morris, whose nearby home also lost power Wednesday night. She left Safeway empty-handed once she realized there was little fresh produce to pick from, and was considering going to stay with her daughter who had power in San Jose. โIt makes you so confused.โ
The blackout stemmed from a decision by utility Pacific Gas & Electric to preemptively cut power to some 600,000 customersโwhich energy analysts said likely totaled over 2 million people at shared home and business addressesโin hopes of staving off potential wildfires. Around this time the last two years, deadly blazes including the Santa Rosa Tubbs Fire and Paradise Camp Fire were sparked by the companyโs equipment in dry conditions and high winds, state reports have found.
By Thursday evening, PG&E released a statement that a โpartial all clearโ had been given for Santa Cruz County, allowing utility workers to inspect power lines for damage and restore electricity to the nearly 37,000 households impacted. Exactly where power was out at any given time was difficult to track, since the utilityโs online map of outages stretching from Bakersfield to the Oregon border crashed repeatedly.
While PG&E spokespeople warned that blackouts could be part of a โnew normalโ as climate change fuels hotter, drier fire conditions, many questioned how the utility decided to cut the power when high winds failed to materialize in areas including Santa Cruz County.
โWe were not adequately prepared,โ PG&E CEO Bill Johnson said in a press conference after the blackout, which ultimately lasted about three days in some rural areas and hit poor residents and those who rely on electrical medical devices particularly hard.ย
On Monday, following reprimands from Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California Public Utilities Commission demanded that PG&E make immediate changes to its power shut-off strategy after its โfailures in execution โฆ created an unacceptable situation that should never be repeated.โ
SAFE OR SORRY?
PG&E began warning of the unprecedented โPublic Safety Power Shutoffโ early last week, at one point projecting that 38 counties could be impacted. Outside of impromptu gathering places like the Aptos Safeway on Thursday, many residents said they had been told a blackout was possible, but not definitively when it would happen, leaving them to scramble to buy food, gas, generators and supplies like flashlights.
โI ran around with my headlight on last night,โ said 47-year Aptos resident Joan Ercole.
The timing of the event was somewhat eerie, she added, given that the 30th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which leveled much of the county and surrounding region, is coming up Oct. 17. Except for one key difference: โThis is pretty bad, because itโs man-made,โ Ercole said.
Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University estimated on Twitter that the economic costs of the outage could total over $2 billion.
In Santa Cruz, many of Westside Hardwareโs supply shelves sat empty on Thursday afternoon following a mad rush of nervous customers the day before.ย
โWe had people coming in for flashlights, kerosene, batteries, lamps, coolers,โ store associate Matt Bates said.
Batesโ Wednesday afternoon shift was the busiest heโs seen since he began working for the Ace Hardware franchise three months ago. Some of the aisles were so jammed and crowded that he was unable to squeeze by.
The power did go out at Batesโ house in Ben Lomond on Thursday morning. Rather than turn his familyโs generator on, he got dressed by candlelight at 6:30 a.m. and drove to see if power was on at the store. Thankfully, it was, since most of the city of Santa Cruz was unaffected.
Across the street, Bonny Doon resident Brian Legg was feeling ticked off while filling up four 5-gallon plastic gas tanks at the Westside Valero station on Thursday. The fuel, he hoped, should be enough to power his generator a couple of days, if needed.
Legg got a phone call from PG&E on Sunday warning him that the power may go off in three days, as well as similar calls on Monday and Tuesday. But when he didnโt hear anything on Wednesday, he figured that he was in the clear. Then, the power went off without warning.ย
โItโs frustrating,โ Legg said, since the much-discussed weather remained relatively mild.ย
Valero assistant manager Cypress Castorena said customers had been coming in โnonstop, like crazy,โ many in need of ice and gas. Her daughter was in school at Brook Knoll Elementary, where the power was out but a back-up generator was running phones and other essential services.
On Thursday, 11 schools closedโBonny Doon Elementary, Valencia Elementary, Aptos High, Aptos Junior, Rio Del Mar Elementary, Calabasas Elementary, Bradley Elementary and all four San Lorenzo Valley Unified schools. They all reopened Friday, though some schedules werenโt announced until late Thursday night.
Cabrillo College narrowly avoided the blackout, but UCSC cancelled classes and closed several buildings on Thursday. For much of the day, the university with just shy of 20,000 students found itself in limbo after campus power went out around 11pm Wednesday night. A cogeneration plant provided power to key infrastructure and services like the fire station, health center, several labs and science buildings, and three dining halls. But much of the campus was dark.
โWeโre in the same boat as the rest of Santa Cruz,โ Hernandez-Jason said Thursday, when it was unclear how long the blackout would last. Classes resumed on Friday.
Power was also out in much of Corralitos, including the corner of Freedom Boulevard and Corralitos Road.ย
A sign posted on the front door of Corralitos Tattoo read,ย โNo power, no tattoos! Closed today.โย ย
Aladdin Nursery owner Gustavo Beyer said that since he was already in the store, he planned to take advantage of the quiet afternoon to clean his shop.
Across the street, Corralitos Feed and Pet Supplies opted to stay open for customers. Owner Ely Padilla said he was going to have to manually input everything that sold that day into the storeโs inventory-tracking system. โAnimals have to eat like we need to eat,โ he said, โso we try to do our best to make our customers happy.โ
Just up the road, Corralitos Meat Market was fully prepared to withstand the outage with its military-grade generator keeping sausages, steaks and other food cold.ย
Market President Dave Peterson said his predecessor had installed the generator, which runs off a 55-gallon drum of diesel, after the โ89 quake.
โA lot of people came in saying the were going to a barbecue tonight since they were out of power,โ Peterson said. โThe only thing I can say is thank god for a generator.โ
[This is part two of a two-part series on Santa Cruz Countyโs cannabis industry. โ Editor]
Bird Valley Organics owners Terry Sardinas and Manny Alvarez moved from Florida to the Aptos hills in 2011 to tap into the burgeoning medical cannabis market.
There, they lived in a tiny trailer and cultivated cannabis on a 10-acre farm, in addition to producing and marketing CBD oil. Their products could be found at about 80 dispensaries throughout California. Most of their neighbors, they say, were also in the cannabis business.
Things changed for them in 2015, when it became evident that a new legal marijuana market was on the way.
Sardinas and Alvarez moved to a 20-acre parcel in Watsonville after realizing that new local rules under Proposition 64, approved by voters in 2016, would mean the end of their business.
They are now back in business, but only with a cultivation permit after they gave up on CBD oil and the manufacturing side of the operation.
Still, they were some of the lucky ones.
Out of the 750 or so growers who paid hundreds of dollars to put their names in a county registry of hopeful cannabis entrepreneurs during the legalization process, only a handful could meet the requirements. Many have been driven out of business.
As GT reported last week, Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty says the county hopes to register 102 growers by 2021. Thatโs just 13% of those who threw their names in.ย ย
โWe really were very fortunate to get in, because out of 750 registrants, weโre one of the very few that are left,โ Sardinas says. โI pinch myself every day.โ
In the wake of Prop. 64โs passage, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors hashed out a series of rules they say were designed to bring growers out of small mountain plots and into areas zoned for commercial agriculture.ย
Sardinas and Alvarez quickly realized that their farm was no longer going to pass muster.
Among other things, growers would be required to have roads big enough for fire engines, in addition to setbacks from neighbors and inhabited dwellings. The rules have eviscerated many cannabis grows in mountainous regions.
โItโs squeezed out a lot of people,โ Alvarez says. โNot everybody can make it through the shift, through the storm. If the storm lasts longer than you have resources for, youโre out in the cold.โ
And moving was no small task, especially now that the newly legalized cannabis industry has increased the price of farmland.
โThere is only so much commercial agricultural property, and itโs all located in Watsonville,โ Alvarez says.ย
Luckily, they found a property owner willing to lease their property.
Alvarez says he declined to get a manufacturing license for the new location to avoid the onerous application process for additional permits.
Back in 2016, the cost for a manufacturer or cultivator to put their name on the cannabis registry was $500, but many of those who got farther along in the application process have since found themselves in a far deeper hole.ย
Santa Cruz cannabis attorney Ben Rice says that only a fraction of those who paid thousands of dollars to submit the extensive application to cultivate cannabis will get approved.
โThey were led to believe the county was going to embrace them and bring them into the legitimate market,โ he says. โInstead, we have all these folks who are either forced to stop altogether or stay under the radar.โ
The new framework, Rice warns, bolsters the black market, while leaving legitimate growers unable to navigate the countyโs onerous requirements and prompting them to move elsewhere.
โThose jobs and that tax money is going elsewhere, and itโs really a failure of the leadership of our Board of Supervisors in my opinion,โ Rice says.
All of this is harming an industry that has existed in one way or another for decades, he says.
โMany people are trying to continue an activity their parents and grandparents were doing,โ Rice says.
He predicts that the legal picture will improve as the county gets used to a legal market and the county changes its calculus of how to regulate the industry.
Jim Coffis co-founded Green Trade Santa Cruz, a coalition of local cannabis businesses and organizations. He questions why many growers started receiving visits from the cannabis licensing office after they turned in their application.
โIs the sheriff going down the list, or are they really going on complaints from neighbors?โ he asks.ย
Santa Cruz County Chief Deputy Sheriff Steve Carney, who runs the law enforcement wing of the countyโs cannabis licensing office, says that authorities use the information from the applications to confirm whether grows are legit.
โWe only check the records when we see criminal activity,โ Carney says.
Robert Zaremba provides services for the cannabis industry, such as distribution, packaging and labeling. He says the countyโs seen an exodus of growers, particularly from the mountain communities, dealing an economic blow that stretches far beyond the cannabis industry.
โEvery grow that was in this community is now considered illegal,โ he says of the Santa Cruz Mountains. โThey created a path for licensing, but they made the path impossible.โ
Zaremba says hydroponics stores that provided supplies to the growers have closed around the county, and that hardware stores have seen a drop in business as well. โThe industry has absolutely been devastated by these new rules,โ he says.
The upheaval also scuttled potential cannabis tourism before it was able to launch, Zaremba says, negating an economic opportunity for Santa Cruz County to draw cannabis tourists the same way that Napa County attracts wine aficionados.
But fears of heavy-handed enforcement removed the underpinnings for such ventures before they got going, Zaremba says.
โMany bigger operators and innovators and good players bailed from the county,โ he says. โThey said they couldnโt risk it, and packed up and left.โ
![TALE OF TWO CITIES Santa Cruz and Watsonville took different paths to rebuilding after the earthquake. Many Santa Cruz shops set up in tents while a planning commission convened to map out a path forward. In Watsonville, a huge effort was undertaken to reopen the downtown Fordโs department store, pictured here, two years to the day after the earthquake. โWatsonvilleโs been searching for its identity of late,โ local farm bureau President Jeff Brothers told the L.A. Times. โFordโs is a harbinger of things to come. Itโs done first class.โ [H.G. Wilshire, U.S. Geological Survey]](https://goodtimes.sc/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Quake-Fords-1.jpg)
