A report released last month from the Urban Displacement Project shows a startling trend of low-income families being priced out of entire neighborhoods.
UC Berkeley worked with the California Housing Partnership to create the Urban Displacement Project (UDP) and draft the study, which was released last month. It examines the far reaches of the greater Bay Area, from Watsonville to Sacramento.
With Affordable Housing Week kicking off on Saturday, Oct. 13, a look at a map from the UDP shows sobering levels of displacement across the county.
The map indicates two areas with advanced gentrification locally—in the lower Westside census tract, stretching from Lighthouse Field to Mission and Swift streets, and in the heart of Live Oak.
Nearly every swath surveyed was either too expensive for low-income families or is at risk of becoming that way.
Areas that were already higher-income to start with are showing especially high rates of displacement and exclusion—particularly in Scotts Valley, Prospect Heights and northern Live Oak.
Outgoing Santa Cruz Sentinel Managing Editor Kara Meyberg Guzman penned a heartfelt farewell to the paper on Thursday, Oct. 4, her last day at the 162-year-old daily, which she led for 10 months.
Guzman thanked the paper’s hard-working reporters, photographers and editors in challenging times. “Nobody here is complacent,” she said. Guzman also cited differences with management. The Sentinel is part of NorCal Community Media, run by Digital First Media, which is owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital.
Last December, Guzman was optimisticwhen she took overthe Sentinel in place of then-Editor Don Miller, who was stepping down. Miller was decidedly less cheery at the time, although he believed in Guzman, who he said would need that positive spirit “to survive the headwinds that are rocking the newspaper industry.”
Guzman, who said she would rather not discuss the reasons for her departure, would love to keep doing journalism, but only if it involves staying in Santa Cruz.
Organic farming and food wasn’t always mainstream. The documentary The Evolution of Organic is a time warp back to the late ’60s, when it was an act of rebellion to reject chemical farming and explore organic alternatives. The film tells the story of the earliest Alan Chadwick Garden farmers at UCSC, and their goal of making organic and sustainable agriculture and food accessible to everyone.
Happy 40th birthday to New Music Works! They’re kicking off their 40th season with a series of four concerts from October to June. This first show includes Bob Hughes, founder of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and former student of Lou Harrison. Make no mistake, this isn’t just any concert. It includes electric guitar interplays, greek tragedy allusions and a world premier of a co-composed woodwind quartet by Hughes and Harrison.
INFO: Saturday, Oct. 13. UCSC Music Recital Hall, 402 McHenry Rd., Santa Cruz. newmusicworks.org. $25/$30 general, $12/$15 student.
Saturday 10/13
Voter Participation Festival
With the midterm elections quickly approaching, now is the time to register to vote and learn more about your local and state candidates. Those who are already registered will be able to verify their registration and polling location. This festival is the first of its kind and features local speakers Daniel Paul Nelson, Sara Nelson and Michael Levy. There will be complementary food and live music.
INFO: Noon-5 pm. Laurel Park, 301 Center St., Santa Cruz. 239-1955. poorpeoplescampaign.org. Free.
Friday 10/12
Seventh Annual Imagine Disability Short Film Festival
Local nonprofit Imagine Supported Living Services hosts their annual Film Festival event to both empower people with disabilities and raise awareness about them in our community. Individuals with disabilities don’t often get the opportunity to share their story through art and are commonly misrepresented in popular media and films. All of the films included feature those with developmental disabilities in some way, whether it’s the actors or directors, and the films will be a mix of documentary and fiction, professional and amateur.
Just a month out from Armistice Day on Nov. 11, join the Resource Center for Nonviolence (RCNV) in a two-day event with Peace Activist David Swanson. David Swanson is a journalist and author who frequently speaks about issues of war and nonviolence. He received the 2018 Peace Prize and is a three-time Nobel Peace prize nominee. Friday evening events include music and book signings, and Saturday includes lunch and a workshop. Nov. 11 will be the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day; look out for updates on the RCNV celebration.
INFO: 7-9 p.m. Friday. 10 a.m.-Noon Saturday. Resource Center For Nonviolence, 612 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. 423-1626. rcnv.org. Friday $15 suggested donation, Saturday $25.
Emo-punk was big in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Alkaline Trio wasn’t the biggest band to emerge from that era, but they’ve had much more longevity than some of their peers. The group’s debut album, Goddamnit, is a classic drunken “broken heart” punk record, and the band continued to release albums that were both aggressive and emotional. Now it’s 2018, and as so many bands have found, it’s hard to separate the personal and political in the Trump era. On their lastest, Is This Thing Cursed, they sing about depression, the 2016 election and looking forward to the future. INFO: 8 p.m. Catalyst, Thursday, Oct. 18, Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $28/adv, $32. Information: catalystclub.com.
WANT TO GO?
Go to santacruz.com/giveaways before 11 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 12 to find out how you could win a pair of tickets to the show.
Live music highlights for the week of Oct. 10, 2018.
WEDNESDAY 10/10
ALT-ROCK
MONKS OF DOOM
Monks of Doom, an offshoot of Santa Cruz darlings Camper Van Beethoven, debuted The Brontë Pin this year, their first collection of all-new material in 25 years. Most songs are instrumental and improvisational; the heavy bass guitar is reminiscent of ’90s rock, artfully keeping things deep and dark, while King Crimson-esque drums flirt with psychedelia and guitars play coy with prog rock. There’s enough familiarity to make each jam sound almost like your favorite song from decades past. AMY BEE
Kikagaku Moyo’s music pierces illusions, goes straight for your innermost being, and expands it. That psychedelic expansiveness is baked into every moment of the band’s four albums. Songs morph organically from ethereal sitar ragas to propulsive krautrock to extended tone passages. In an interview with It’s Psychedelic Baby, drummer Go Kurosawa describes his view of music as separate from art, seeing it as “something more primitive and impulsive, something that brings pleasure to the body and soul.” MIKE HUGUENOR
Pianist/composer Ethan Iverson continues his post-Bad Plus reinvention with his only California date featuring his duo collaboration with tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. Known for spinning long, captivating lines that dart and twist in unexpected directions, Turner is one of the pervasively influential saxophonists of the past quarter-century, a supremely inventive player who has developed a sound and harmonic vocabulary deeply informed by the tradition but unlike any player before him. ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: 7 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $26.25/adv, $31.50/door. 427-2227.
FRIDAY 10/12
POP
BASIA
Did you know Polish singer Basia has an impressive three-octave vocal range? Basia who, you say? Oh, you remember that singer. She had a string of easy-listening, Latin-grooving, jazz vocaling, New Age-y pop hits in the late ’80s and early ’90s (“New Day For You,” “Cruising For Bruising,” “Drunk on Love”). The hits dried up stateside in the mid-’90s, but she’s continued to chart in Poland, including the 2018 hit “Matteo,” which made it to No. 20. But is she still churning out feel-good, romantic earworms, you ask? You better believe it. AARON CARNES
INFO: 8 p.m. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $45. 423-8209
SATURDAY 10/13
METAL
TERROR CÓSMICO
This two-piece melodic doom metal band has been sending listeners into the depths of warped-out audio intensity since 2012. On Oct. 13, long-haired heshers have the special pleasure of not only seeing the duo in a room as intimate as the Blue Lagoon, but Terror Cósmico will have some new tunes for hungry ears. Their newest album, III, was recently released in May and contains a myriad of twists and turns to delight any metalhead who enjoys an epic adventure told through heavy riffs and thunderous drums. MAT WEIR
INFO: 9 p.m. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, $8/door. 423-7117. SATURDAY 10/13
POP
ADA VOX
Ada Vox broke into the mainstream when she made it to the Top 10 of American Idol this season. What many don’t know is she originally was featured on season 12, appearing as her born personality Adam Sanders. With fabulous style, bouffant hair and the pipes of an angel, Vox charmed audience and judges alike. She will be performing at Hotel Paradox for the Diversity Center’s Moulin Rouge-themed 2018 Gala After Party. The Gala is the Diversity Center’s annual fundraiser for LGBTQ+ programs, and the After Party will also include a drag show, dance floor and performances by Pussycat Doll and Carmit Bachar. MW
African pop music in the ’60s was a revelatory mix of funk, soul, pop, and psychedelia. Modern Bay Area band Orchestra Gold, led by Malian singer Mariam Diakite, aims to keep this tradition alive, bringing the revolutionary sounds of electric Africa to modern audiences. Orchestra Gold revives the big-band movement from Mali, a time when rock instruments mingled with saxophones, wood flutes and shekeres, vocalizing the sound of a recently liberated nation. OG keep the politics of liberation at the heart of its sound, and this debut performance by the groups is sure to be a stunning one. MH
“I love the thought of being with you/Or maybe it’s the thought of not being so alone,” screams Frank Lopes (aka Hobo Johnson) with every ounce of his emotions on full display. This line from his now-viral “Peach Scone” falls somewhere between spoken-word, rap, emo and stumbling folk-punk. Before shooting the video in his friend’s backyard for the NPR Tiny Desk contest this year, maybe a handful of people outside of Sacramento knew who he was. But the success of this one video literally created his career. Now he’s toured the world and sold out everywhere he’s gone. His approach to rap or folk or indie-rock or whatever the hell he does is extremely creative and more emotionally honest than anything else you’re listening to right now. AC
Let go of harsh reality and immerse yourself in Madeline Kenney’s fuzzy, buzzy, synthy dreamscapes. Her songs are thick with sonic layers building upon themselves in a kind of structured experimentation. Kenney’s high-pitched, keening vocals cut through the dreamy haze with melodic clear-sightedness, finding secret crevices of wounds and healing them with lyrics imbued with the salve of sweet reflection. Kinney deftly turns the hard, sharp turns of adulthood into the softer beauty of the ethereal. AB
In August, Lindsie Feathers relocated to Santa Cruz from Portland, where she lived for over a decade and played many gigs. She even recorded a self-titled album with her band Neon Renaissance.
She didn’t come here to play music, but a friend who found out that Feathers would be living here invited her to open a show at the Crepe Place. Right around the same time, Feathers met Santa Cruz legend Patti Maxine, and asked if she’d sit in for this show. Just like that, Feathers was part of the local scene.
“I was like wow, Santa Cruz is really opening their arms to me in this really wonderful way. In a short amount of time, I felt really welcomed here,” Feathers says. “Every time I say, ‘Music, I’m leaving you,’ it’s like, ‘No, you’re not.’ It comes back creeping in. And I welcome it lovingly.”
Feathers’ roots go back to Illinois, where she grew up, and Chicago, where she cut her teeth playing live music. She’s gone from playing rock ’n’ roll to psychedelic to psychedelic-country to roots-Americana-influenced music.
“The roots and the Americana, the singer-songwriter style, it really resonates with me. My voice is really good in that style,” Feathers says. “I’m going through a personal transformation. My writing is shifting, my performances are different. That’s both scary and exciting.”
When we started Santa Cruz Restaurant Week 10 years ago, it was a very different time. The city was right in the thick of the Great Recession, and in some ways SCRW was more of a necessity than a luxury. It gave restaurants a way to bring in locals who were not going out as much, and it gave those same locals an affordable way to get back out to their favorite spots, or discover something new. It felt like different parts of the community helping to pull each other up in a difficult time. And it was a really fun way to do it.
Ten years later, the economic situation has changed, and Santa Cruz Restaurant Week is twice as big as it was back then, but I still love the same things about it. It’s still a great way for the community to come together, it still guarantees a lot of great meals, and it’s more fun than ever. I love to go out to the restaurants that are part of SCRW and see how busy they are over the next seven days. You can find everything you need to plan your own Restaurant Week adventures in this issue. Thanks to Lily Stoicheff for talking to every chef, restaurant owner and manager who would give her the time of day about their Restaurant Week memories and their menus for this year. Take a look, and then get out and eat! See you there!
Every single day when I leave my home in Watsonville, I see addicts walking the street aimlessly, almost getting mowed down by traffic. On Main Street from Rodriguez Street all the way to the Crossroads Shopping Center, there may be as many as a hundred addicts walking around, emerging from the bushes where they live. I happen to recognize many of these individuals, who also frequent the mental health county clinics and services. And every single day I have the same thought: these people need help. But by looking at the sheer numbers in my daily environment that help just does not seem to be arriving.
I know there’s an opioid crisis in this country because it’s parading in front of my door. Maybe if you’re not living near the areas where these addicts are living and sleeping, you might conclude we don’t have much of a problem here. But I’m telling you, we do. What are we doing here in Santa Cruz County to help these people? Have we become so jaded that they are part of the landscape?
More than 115 people in the United States die every day after overdosing on opioids, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The misuse of and addiction to opioids (heroin, prescription painkillers and fentanyl) also costs the country $78.5 billion annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 80 percent of people using heroin started their habit by first using prescription opioids, according to the National Institute of Health.
So far in 2018, Santa Cruz County ranks 16th among 58 California counties for its high opioid overdose death rate. High housing costs, homelessness, income disparity and inadequate access to treatment all contribute to this local epidemic.
I talked to several counselors at Se Si Puede who said there are a couple of things the ordinary citizen can do. For starters, we can advocate for affordable housing. Secondly, we can help educate people about the challenges of addiction. Maybe most important is training ourselves not to prejudge addicts and make them feel invisible; they already feel out of place.
Some years back there was an assigned county mobile unit, which would provide basic curbside medical and/or mental health screening, basic hygiene items, and when appropriate, referral services for addicts, homeless, and people with mental health needs. This mobile unit would focus on specific crisis areas of the community in Watsonville. I’m not sure where the mobile unit has gone, but we need it now more than ever before.
Treatment is one-third the cost of incarceration. More than 90 percent of Santa Cruz County residents who need treatment for substance use disorder do not receive it, according to my friend who works at Janus.
The impacts of this unaddressed epidemic are profound. The local justice system reports that 60 percent of all bookings in 2015 were related to drugs or alcohol. I bet that number is even higher today. It is estimated that substance use disorders and treatment cost Santa Cruz County about $207 million per year. So please, can we all come together to help our neighbors?
Jaime Molina | Watsonville
Re: William McCarthy
We were lucky enough to see Billy play an intimate pop-up gig in a village pub in Yorkshire (U.K.) around two months ago. Having seen him play with Augustines more than a dozen times between 2012 and 2016, it was a night of complete and utter joy to witness him, sitting right in front of just 30 of us, singing his heart out as though performing in front of 3,000. He is, as the band was, the best live act we will ever see, and we cannot wait to see the film.
— Phil Dodsworth
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
Submit to ph****@*******es.sc. Include information (location, etc.) and your name. Photos may be cropped. Preferably, photos should be 4 inches by 4 inches and minimum 250dpi.
GOOD IDEA
Local voters may now cast their ballot in the upcoming Nov. 6 general election at the County Elections Department, located at 701 Ocean St., Room 310 in Santa Cruz, and in the Watsonville City Clerk’s Office, located at 275 Main St. in Watsonville on the fourth floor, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Voters must complete an application for a ballot, and will receive a vote-by-mail ballot, which they may cast there or take home.
GOOD WORK
Wage growth over the hill has been slow and stagnant, according to a new UCSC report. Nine out of 10 Silicon Valley jobs pay less than they did 20 years ago, as reported by Chris Benner, professor of sociology and environmental studies. Benner found that most of the region’s workers are scraping by on their salaries, while venture capitalists eat up the gains. The findings implore techies to give the tenets of their new economy another look.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Sharp knives, of course are the secret of a successful restaurant.”
Armed with the Tony-award-winning play Red, director Wilma Marcus Chandler has injected her considerable dramatic savvy into an intense theater experience.
An actor’s feast, the two-man exploration of the psychology and genius of painter Mark Rothko gives the audience a crash course in modern art history. Admittedly, viewers with a background in the rich ego-driven debates of Abstract Expressionism will be most captivated. Those for whom the names Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Roy Lichtenstein are rather vague might find the name-dropping texture of Red a bit more of an art history lesson than a living drama.
The play by John Logan depends entirely upon the push and pull between visionary, hard-drinking, angst-ridden Rothko (played to the hilt by Martin Sampad Kachuck) and his young, overwhelmed studio assistant Ken (played with earnest fervor by Robert Gerbode). Their dynamic doesn’t merely drive the play, it is the play. And for a brisk hour and a half, the master and assistant represent not only the Dionysian and Apollonian archetypes of chaos and order, but also the Old Guard reluctant to give way to the Next Wave in visual culture. Freud on steroids!
The show belongs to Rothko and from the start, as we first see the painter smoking in his studio, transfixed by his latest work, Kachuck hits the stage running. Energy surges from his body, his face, and his impressive vocal range—the actor is one with his character. And one suspects he also believes in the primal vision of Rothko, considered one of the mystic giants of modern art. Defying any genre label—although Abstract Expressionism eventually stuck—Rothko railed against the cheap popularity of some of his colleagues, and lamented even more the pop art celebrity of Warhol and Rauschenberg pushing his own fame to the sidelines.
During the period covered by Logan’s script—the very late ’50s—Rothko has become the cranky deity of pure abstraction. Agonizing over the creation of each large canvas—“10 percent is putting paint on the canvas, the rest is waiting”—Rothko begins an intellectual struggle to indoctrinate his new assistant into the inner mysteries of painting. What ensues is a master class in 20th century psychoanalysis, 19th century philosophy, and an often very funny verbal exploration about the nature of paintings. “They move, they change, they pulse—there’s tragedy in every brushstroke,” Rothko insists to his perplexed assistant. The play’s juicy love letter to Matisse’s Red Studio is breathtaking.
The play moves forward in time briskly. Rothko and Ken seem to work smoothly together, yet their back and forth dialectic grows louder, and digs deeper, eventually teasing out a personal tragedy buried in Ken’s unconscious (one of the playwright’s missteps). Essentially, the play is a one-man drama, with the assistant an externalization of Rothko’s own pedantic persona, as well as Greek chorus and devil’s advocate. The two final scenes focus on Rothko’s ambivalence toward an infamous commission he has accepted, to paint a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York’s Seagram Building. Rothko’s love for these paintings, their vulnerability, and his fatherly despair about their well-being, are all revealed in Logan’s poetry. And yet the playwright seems unclear as to where and when the play should end. Opening night’s final scene felt more like an addendum, rather than the denouement of the emotional arc.
Nonetheless, Red’s writing is so kinetic and rich, so illuminating of the artistic process—certainly Rothko’s—that we can practically chew on the lines cut, hewn, and shaped by the eminently watchable and listenable Kachuck.
Anyone who paints, or grasps the ambivalence of authentic artistic creation will be enthralled by the scripted pyrotechnics. Kudos to Chandler, who understands how to move her actors around the stage, and through the script—and then step back and let them work. And praise for evocative lighting by Carina Swanberg and the spot-on set design by Skip Epperson, who has created a complete studio in which any painter would feel at home.
Red will whet the viewer’s appetite for Rothko’s work and his eccentric grand vision, all the more compelling in a non-visionary 21st century. It’s a crisp, challenging bit of theater.
‘Red’ by John Logan, will be presented by Santa Cruz Actors’ Theatre at the Center Stage Theater, 1001 Center St., Santa Cruz through Oct. 21. sccat.org.
I’ve never felt more conflicted about covering a culinary business in this town than I do about Tacos El Chuy.
After eating dozens of Jesus Falcon’s tacos over many months, it still wasn’t an easy decision to write about them. Because, here’s the thing—Tacos El Chuy are the best. They’re so good that I want to keep them all to myself.
Approach his operation at a local brewery, and you’ll be confronted with a white-board menu of half a dozen options for fillings ranging from $2.50 to $3. I always order the al pastor. The marinated pork, topped with a whole pineapple, roasts nearby on a vertical spit, and as Falcon prepares the tacos he slices off bits of the caramelized meat, tosses it on a griddled tortilla and finishes it with a warm, juicy slice of pineapple, finely diced onions, cilantro and grilled onions.
It’s incredible as is, but if you’re not afraid of a little spice, the flavors are enhanced by the nearby house-made condiments. I add one or two of Falcon’s green and red salsas and a generous sprinkling of escabeche, but be careful—the slivers of orange in the pickled onion mixture are habanero pepper. Too much of a good thing can lead to an eye-watering, mouth-numbing experience.
Falcon’s tacos are the kind of good that makes you close your eyes and feel the stress of the day leave your shoulders. I eat them every week instead of going to yoga, and I swear I have reached the same meditative state.
Falcon learned how to make them in his home state of Querétaro, Mexico, where he says “Each and every person has their own recipe and way to make them.”
When he arrived in the U.S. two years ago, he tried different recipes and eventually decided to use his own. On their journey, says Falcon, he met two “angels,” Pepe Palacios and Emily Thomas, a brewer and the owner of Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, which hosts Tacos El Chuy every Tuesday and Saturday night. “They gave me the opportunity to really bring up my business,” he says.
Falcon will soon be upgrading Tacos El Chuy from a pop-up to a food truck.
The transition between late summer and early fall may be the best time to eat in Santa Cruz County. Berries, tomatoes, stone fruit, and hot and sweet peppers still crowd the tables at the farmers market, but by the beginning of October they are joined by a supporting cast of figs, apples, pears, and all manner of squash. While there’s still ample sunshine, there’s also a crispness in the air that invites friends and family to gather and feast.
It’s the perfect time to celebrate Santa Cruz County’s culinary scene, and for 10 years Santa Cruz Restaurant Week has done just that.
Each participating restaurant offers their take on a three-course fixed price menu, which evens the playing field and invites each chef and restaurateur to showcase their skills within the event’s format. In the last decade, I have been blown away by their creativity and passion. Many guests visit a different restaurant every night of the event—although with almost 40 participating restaurants this year, it would be difficult to visit all of them without a time machine or multiple stomachs. (For those tempted to try, there are still a few online giveaways for $25 and $35 gift cards to participating restaurants).
We asked each restaurant about their approach to this year’s menu, and why guests should make an effort to visit their establishment. It’s clear that each takes pride in offering a special experience for both new guests and faithful customers, and in supporting locally and sustainably grown ingredients. We also asked them what makes Santa Cruz Restaurant Week such an enduring community event, and some of their answers are quite moving.
Here’s to another 10 years!
Why should guests choose your restaurant to visit during Santa Cruz Restaurant Week?
“We are using Santa Cruz Restaurant Week as the launch for our new fall menu, so guests will get a sneak preview at all of our tasty new offerings.”
“Akira Aptos is a new restaurant. We just hit the one-year mark at the end of September and haven’t done Restaurant Week since our first year open at our original location in Seabright, so we wanted to offer a fun menu using some products that no other Japanese/sushi restaurants are featuring.”
“Aquarius and Jack O’Neill Lounge is the hangout for the best views of the ocean, West Cliff and Municipal Wharf. We are one of the only restaurants in Santa Cruz that offers free valet parking. Perfect for the family, date night or stopping in for dinner.”
TACO TIME A colorful dish at Aquarius restaurant at the Dream Inn, which overlooks the Monterey Bay.
“We have been focusing on excellent customer service as well as our fresh and delicious food. We also have a new local wine list that is very good. We take pride in our speed and accuracy of dishes coming from the kitchen. We have a beautiful modern dining room and bar, with many TVs for sports lovers of all kinds. It is also a great time to check out our banquet facility and dream about your next event.”
“We purchased Bruno’s a little over a year ago, and we’ve taken it to a new level. Delicious food, friendly staff and fun is our motto. Restaurant Week will be an opportunity for us to connect with members of the community who haven’t come in since the change and sample some of our new recipes.”
“Part of the reason I think it’s a different experience here at Chocolate, apart from the really pleasant environment we offer—like our heated outdoor patio—is that we are focused on pleasing our customers during Restaurant Week beyond what the price point would normally allow. When we create our menus, we’re thinking of new customers and also about creating a special experience for customers that already come here. For us, that means using the best of the season of what we have at the farmers market and really doing something above and beyond.”
“We are serving farm-to-table, organic ingredients and humanely raised, grass-fed, grass-finished beef. We have a wide variety of vegan options to satisfy everyone in the group!”
“One of the things that Hindquarter does is create a menu that’s totally representative of what they serve in normal times. There are no compromises. Whatever you order is what they’d put on the table any other night so you can enjoy the full Hindquarter experience. Hindquarter traditionally serves really good-sized portions, and they try to be consistent with that.”
“It’s been 10 years now in the making, and every year we try to provide something that is seasonal and an expression of what we call ‘real Italian food.’ We try to source most of the produce and fish locally. We try to allow people to sample a variety of items of that aren’t necessarily on the menu. It’s an expression of what of we believe is a great Italian experience.”
“I worked with Joe Martin, our talented Chef de Cuisine, to make a menu that celebrates the fall harvest season, and all of the fantastic produce available from our local farms right now. We also wanted to showcase our housemade preserves and pickles from the summer harvest, and honor the Latin and Asian cultural influences around us. Finally, we wanted to make a menu which is fun and exciting, something new for our regular guests and Santa Cruz locals who have been visiting Linwood’s for years.”
“Our Restaurant Week menu is styled upon a goal of offering dishes that best represent our flavors while offering a variety inclusive to both adventurous and cautious palates.”
PITA PROS Authentic Mediterranean and Middle Eastern eats are the focus at downtown’s Mozaic.
“We always try to discount offerings that we already have. We’ve been here since 1995. Our current owners have been here since 1998. We like to remind people what they can get here every day, and reward regular customers with their favorites at a discount. That way if they love it, they can come back and get it again.”
“Everything we do at Soif is seasonal and locally sourced, and that’s exactly how we approached the menu for Restaurant Week. Course by course, our guests are getting the freshest product, and tasting dishes that might not necessarily be on the menu in a few weeks.”
“Our Restaurant Week menu will showcase some of the dishes we will have on our upcoming seasonal menu. The timing is perfect to utilize late summer and fall ingredients like sweet corn, chilis, butternut squash and apples. This is a perfect way for customers to get a good taste of what’s new at Süda.”
“Restaurant Week is an opportunity to highlight the beginning of the change of seasons on the coast—to play with local honey and wild mushrooms, to give folks a chance to be exposed to our menu in a different way—with familiar preparations accompanied by bright and diverse flavors that aren’t provided year ’round, and which the kitchen excitedly gets to play with as the farms and sea shift gears.”
“They’re an introduction to the new fall menu and feature items that we don’t usually do. For appetizers, we have a burrata salad and a quinoa salad with fall ingredients. We’re doing something fun with an empanada with confit chicken. Last year we did seared diver scallops that were really popular, so we’re doing that again with different sides. We’re doing our beer-braised short ribs, which we’ve done before. This time it’s Colorado-style with white cheddar white corn grits, panca chili and masa-fried buttermilk onions. We have a version of our Thai curry, this time with roasted red peppers that’s vegan and gluten-free. For dessert we have our cider donuts, which are very popular, and a vegan and gluten-free panna cotta.”
“To showcase what Solaire does and what it can do. Our menu is inspired by nature in the Santa Cruz style, and we’re trying to do things that are fresh and local while putting a spin on them—like our yuba noodles with kohlrabi slaw and green curry. We’re also featuring a Seaquoia seaweed salad. The seaweed is from a local guy, Ian O’Holleran, who harvests it locally. We’re serving it with kelp noodles, mizuna and honey from our rooftop made into a ginger dressing. We only change our menu twice a year, so this is what’s going to be on our menu this winter. We also have a vegan nacho made with cashew cream and Okinawan sweet potatoes. It’s a really great dish, something easy to share while sitting by the pool.”
“We chose some of our most popular items and others that we have gotten good feedback on. We’re also providing new items that our customers have requested that we put on the menu to try them out and see what people think.”
Restaurant Week is now in its 10th year. What do you think has made it an enduring community event?
“Life is busy, especially the fall. School is back in session, and many people are busy getting ready for the numerous holidays approaching while juggling kids and activities. Dining out tends to slide to the back burner. I think Santa Cruz Restaurant Week encourages everyone to take time to enjoy a great meal and try something new.”
“I believe this is a great chance for members of our community to get out and experience the best restaurants in our area, and at a set price that is simply a terrific value. It just gets better every year.”
“Food brings people together. This event is an opportunity to satiate curiosity about new restaurants, an opportunity to reconnect with old friends, an excuse for many to get out and try new things and have fun. Restaurant Week attracts attention from locals and tourists alike. We get people from all over the country and the world coming to dine during this event. I have the experience of a beautiful food festival. Special thanks to Good Times for putting this together and keeping it going, creating many wonderful experiences and memories.”
WINE WITH THAT? Diners at Sri Lankan restaurant Pearl of the Ocean have their choice of custom wine offerings.
“Restaurant Week is such a successful event because the community can try incredible culinary offeringsat amazing prices. Ultimately, this encourages locals to try places they normally wouldn’t, and really gives back to the community by driving business to restaurants. For us here at Severino’s Bar & Grill, we genuinely look forward to Santa Cruz Restaurant Week each year. We enjoy seeing new folks coming in to try us for the first time, and it’s a great opportunity for us to introduce fresh new ideas, while not forgetting the signature dishes that got us where we are today.”
“I think it has lasted and will continue to go on because it has everything to do with supporting each other and our local businesses. I myself have attended different restaurants and enjoyed their menu options during Restaurant Week. This year I’m proud of being on the other side of it and hope for people to come out and enjoy a good meal!”
“Restaurant Week has been an awesome addition to the Santa Cruz community. It’s something where everyone can go out to enjoy themselves and just try out new places. Growing up in Santa Cruz, I have learned that we are super big on supporting local businesses, which to me is awesome! Who wouldn’t want to do that? Restaurant Week, along with other things like Burger Week, are what make up Santa Cruz—supporting the local businesses.”
“Each year, Your Place-Farm to Table anticipates Restaurant Week like Christmas. We can’t wait to offer our community that loves us all year some love right back! We use this awesome deal to go all out and spoil Santa Cruz with beautiful food and harmony on a plate. As history buffs, being both part of the Good Times’ history and our customers’ personal histories is truly an honor.”
“One of the reasons Restaurant Week has been going so well for us is because people try restaurants they wouldn’t normally try. I went to four different places last year myself. And instead of a big menu with a lot of different options, the restaurant week menu showcases the best of what those restaurants have to offer.”
“Restaurant Week is so popular because of Santa Cruz. It’s an amazing place to be. You have the beautiful beaches and the mountains—you’re surrounded by beauty. The culture is very chill, and in the last few years Santa Cruz has grown so much with people from so many different cultures, it’s becoming international and cosmopolitan. And that includes delicious restaurants.”
