Meal delivery hub Village Foods has always honored the spirit in its name from birth, slanging nurturing food stuffs for new and/or busy moms around Santa Cruz—including miso teriyaki salmon, grilled tri-tip with herb rice, sticky orange chicken with Brussels sprouts, jumbo meatballs with polenta, and roasted broccoli-tahini salads.
“I want to be your village that drops off the meal that first week at home with your newborn,” owner-operator-working mom Kelly Langstaff writes on her website. “The friend who brought over the yummy salad that has you CRAVING more vegetables. The neighbor who brought you soup that is so healing and nourishing after a long day, when everyone’s a little run-down. For a few meals a week, we’ve got you.”
Now she’s birthed a brand new baby, in the form of a storefront micro grocery focused on habit-forming prepped goodies at 21245 East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz, which soft-opened last week, near the Windmill.
The attractions include grab-and-go items much like her delivery entrees, protein and salad sides and desserts, plus sandwiches, bowls, wraps, snacks and sweets, only with more optionality.
“We’d hear, ‘I’m only one person, can I get fewer things?’” she says. “We wanted to give more access while still making life a little easier.”
Those will fortify visitors alongside a coming-soon section of cut flowers, seasonal produce, cards, wines and candles.
“A few of my favorite things,” Langstaff notes on Instagram, where she logs personal video reflections, and followers can track weekly menus to order up for delivery, and get an idea of what’s cooking on the Eastside.
Hint: It’s something awesome for the village. villagefoodssc.com
CLEVER RECONNECTIONS
With Murray Street Bridge now fully closed to vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians—through September, as crews install new supports to strengthen the bridge’s seismic flex as part of the 2025-28 retrofit project, the final extended closure of the project—local businesses are not thrilled with the high season timing and bracing for another slow summer. But they are partnering with community groups to host events to draw visitors to the SC Harbor and Seabright zones. A city-sponsored series of summer events plays in, with six weeks of free Thursday night outdoor movies (July 9–Aug. 13), the new Saltwater Thrift Market featuring vintage and upcycled vendors on July 12 and Aug. 15, and the return of the free inner-harbor water taxi connecting destinations around the harbor. A new website serves as a hub for event information and local business listings: exploreseabrightharbor.com. There will also be a new Fourth of July parade in the ‘hood.
QUICK ‘N’ TASTIES
The Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Market group just celebrated its 50th anniversary last weekend, and keeps the fresh coming 8am-noon Saturdays in Aptos (Cabrillo College, 6500 Soquel Drive), montereybayfarmers.org…Sip for Second Harvest, a summer benefit with wine, beer, cider, light hors d’oeuvres and live music by Ripatti Rose Band—supporting Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County—lands Seascape Beach Resort in Aptos June 28, thefoodbank.org…New discovery for me: You can donate your old car, running or not, to Meals on Wheels in Santa Cruz and the process is quick, free and earns a tax deduction…The Hidden Forest slice at The Pizza Series (226 Mt Hermon Rd, Scotts Valley), with fresh spinach and saute mushrooms and caramelized onions and whipped ricotta and roasted garlic cloves is a thing of beauty, thepizzaseries.com…“Perma-curious?” Santa Cruz Permaculture asks (yes!), then floats the offer of a 1-hour Zoom “Intro to Permaculture”, santacruzpermaculture.com…Hops & Barley craft beer explosion cometh July 11, hopnbar.webflow.io…Chef Thomas Keller: “A recipe has no soul. You as the cook must bring soul to the recipe.”
