El Pájaro, in English, means “the bird.” So it makes poetic sense that El Pájaro Community Development Corporation serves as an incredible nest for burgeoning local businesses.
By way of loans, coaching and networking, the nonprofit incubator has hatched so many inspiring small businesses that the main challenge in reporting on it is not to gush. The startups include community-uplifting childcare companies, hair salons, IT firms, a boatload of woman-owned operations and a full-on buffet of great food trucks and farmers market favorites.
A partial list of the foodie phenoms includes El Nopalito, Mary’s Fruit Tarts, Fired Up Fresh, Il Biscotto, Cali Co. Catering, Sour Sweet Treats, Ely’s Pupusas, Hot Birds, Mi Pan y Mi Leche, Scrumptious Fish ’n’ Chips, Yoli’s Adobo, Nopalito Produce, Inc. and Rob Pastelillo Puerto Rican. In a word, wow.
Each of those will also furnish food at El Pájaro CDC’s 45th anniversary celebration, “Tacos & Tapas,” happening 6-9pm Thursday, Oct. 17, at the center’s Kitchen Incubator in Watsonville (23 E Beach St., #209, Watsonville), in the heart of the tri-county Monterey-San Benito-Santa Cruz area it serves.
Santa Cruz Cider Company, Fruition Brewing and El Vaquero Winery will all pour; Flor de Caña will do the dance music.
Signing up for the CDC’s support is as simple as registering on its website or just calling their public line (831-706-1062), which leads to all sorts of cascading benefits, as Kitchen Incubator Program Manager Cesario Ruiz—who has cultivated his own food truck project, My Mom’s Mole—testifies.
“Having people from different cultures and backgrounds come to share their flavors with us has been very enlightening,” he says. “It’s very powerful because food has the ability to connect people, and behind every single concept there’s a bigger story of how they got to where they are, which provides that much more of a compelling reason to buy their product.
“I call that food for my soul.” More at elpajarocdc.org.
WELCOME TO TAPTOS
Aptos, population 6,614, enjoys an outsized amount of flavor—which is a primary reason it has more on the way. The leadership at young, clever and popular craft brew outlet Other Brother Beer Co. had been quietly seeking a location for a satellite spot in the Santa Cruz area to complement its flagship brewery-restaurant (877 Broadway Ave., Seaside). When creative director Evan Loewy, brewer Kevin Brown and company scouted the former Doon to Earth (10 Parade St., Aptos), they knew they found their second home, in large part because of the strong cluster of tastemakers in the neighborhood, namely Cat & Cloud Coffee, Penny Ice Cream, Mentone, Parish Publick House and Betty’s Burgers. Locals can anticipate great hazys, IPAs, lagers and sours, a brisk calendar of events, and optimistic opening date of late 2025, otherbrotherbeer.com.
SNACK PACKETS
For just $5 (free for kids under 12 and students with ID!), UC Santa Cruz Farm’s 2024 Harvest Festival assembles face painting, flower printing, tractor rides, honey tasting, apple pressing, storytelling, Sammy the Banana Slug mingling, food from the Penny Ice Creamery, S&B Food Truck and Pana Venezuelan, live music, an apple pie bake-off, kids’ activities and more 11:30am-2pm Oct. 19, calendar.ucsc.edu/event/harvest-festival…A major victory for fisheries management is upon us: Pacific bluefin tuna caught in the U.S. with handlines and hand-operated pole-and-lines is now rated yellow by Seafood Watch after years on the red list, meaning good management and consumer choices have helped the population recover significantly, more at seafoodwatch.org…Walt Disney, lead us out: “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
