You might look at this page and see a food and drink column, which would be fair, but incomplete.
It can also be a travel digest, a sports spotlight and—as much as anything else—a space to tell stories about heartfelt folks making greater Santa Cruz a more flavorful place.
One of those individuals is a foodie I met at Homeless Garden Project’s annual Summer Sustain Supper, which is coming up July 20 (homelessgardenproject.org), starring chef Reylon Agustin, culinary director at Big Sur’s incredible Post Ranch Inn, and UCSC Environmental Studies professor and Union of Concerned Scientists chair Anne Kapuscinski cooking and keynoting, respectively.
After we met, Pam Gharibians turned me onto some inspired taste revelations like Wild Roots’ sandwich bar and KC Cruz BBQ ribs. She also alerted me to the cool stuff her Felton-based, all-female Be Rooted Botanicals team is doing in the sphere of medicinal herbs, CBD in particular, with the mission of “highlight[ing] the healing power of plants for the benefit of people and our planet.”
Along the way BRB donates monthly to several Santa Cruz nonprofits, among them HGP and Nourishing Generations, which coaches kids on cooking healthy food (check out nourishinggenerations.org).
The BRB lineup is lengthy, and includes Good Night Magnesium for stress-and-sleep issues, Feel It Heal for skin repair, Love Lotion Highway 9 for amorous endeavors, and best-selling Molly’s Cream for top-shelf topical pain relief.
“We’re grateful that we get to make beautiful organic products that help people feel better every day,” Gharibians says.
Uplifting stuff, literally and figuratively.
More at berootedbotanicals.com.
SOUR POWER
Speaking of the Homeless Garden Project, here’s the unofficial report from the Hops ’N Barley beer festival this weekend, which directed proceeds to HGP. The people- and dog-watching was epic, starring T-shirts like “I wonder if beer thinks about me too” and “It’s a bad day to be a beer” and at least one canine in a backpack. The food and music amplified the celebratory mood—props to H&H Seafood for bringing the A+ oysters and Garcia’s for the tasty fish tacos—but the most compelling element of the affair was the strong roster of sour beer options. A few of the best included A Prick in My Razz blonde sour from Hop Dogma, Tropic Desert kettle sour from Other Brother, a Yuzu kettle sour from Gilman Brewing, and Strawberry Passion Fruit Snack session sour from Fruition Brewing—who, BTW, celebrates its fifth anniversary with collaborations, guest beers, vinyl spinning and a five-partner pop-up noon Saturday, July 27, at the taphouse (918 E. Lake Ave., Watsonville).
NOSH NOTES
As it celebrates a solid quarter century of downtown dining, Chocolate (1522 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz) has reintroduced lunch service noon-4pm Tuesday-Sunday after four years without it. Reasonably priced highlights to consider include chicken pie, warm artichoke-Dutch gouda dipping pots, spiced salmon and black bean skillets, Greek salads, and fresh fettuccine, all for around $15. chocolatesantacruz.com. …The Le Creuset Shop-in-Shop at Toque Blanche (1527 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz) celebrated its grand opening last week, mytoque.com…Costco is increasing its annual membership fees for the first time since 2017—by $5—but holding firm on its $1.50 hot dog and soda, thank Goddess…In other big box retail news, Target is no longer accepting checks, which feels like a turning point…Take it away, Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Some people wanted champagne and caviar when they should have had beer and hot dogs.”
