Tag Archives: family-friendly
Annual crab feed Saturday at Saratoga’s Mountain Winery

Cold and hot crab, plus sauces, at the 2015 Mountain Winery crab feed. Credit: Mountain Winery
The Mountain Winery in Saratoga is offering its popular annual all-you-can-eat crab feed on Saturay, January 28. The cost is $105 for adults, $55 for kids 3-11, and free for kids under 3. Advance online ticket purchase is required. Parking is free.
The event takes place at the winery’s Historic Winery Building. Tickets include fresh local crab (choice of cold and/or hot) plus pasta, garlic bread, salad, and dessert. Beverages will be sold separately, and gratuity is not included. When buying tickets, attendees can choose a 4, 4:30 5, 5:30 or 6 p.m. seating. But that doesn’t mean you only have a half-hour or hour to eat. You can choose to have a quick meal or linger for a couple hours. The separate seatings and staggered arrival times are for the purpose of eliminating long lines.
I tremendously enjoyed this event in 2015 and 2016; in 2016, the winery brought in crab from Oregon due to the seafood being unavailable in the Monterey Bay area. How wonderful that local crab is back!
The Details
Crab Feed
Saturday Jan. 28, 4-8 p.m.
Mountain Winery, 14831 Pierce Rd., Saratoga
$105 for adults; $55 for kids 3-11
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December classes at New Leaf Community Markets include gingerbread houses for kids and free health lectures

Kids can make gingerbread houses at New Leaf on Dec. 9
New Leaf Community Markets has a few lectures and classes this month. Here are some highlights; these are all at the Westside Santa Cruz location at 1101 Fair Ave. (831-426-1306).
Preregistration is required at newleaf.com/events.
If you want to plan ahead, check out their site for lots of enticing offerings in January. These include a free series of Monday afternoon nutrition workshops beginning Jan. 9 (January Jumpstart: 4 Weeks to Healthier Eating with Holistic Nutritionist Madia Jamgochian), a paella class (Thurs. Jan. 26, $45 or two for $80, includes wine) and a “one-pot Ayurvedic soups and stews” class with Ayurvedic Practitioner Talya Lutzker (Tues Jan. 31, $45 or two for $80).
Friday, Dec. 9
Kids’ Class: Gingerbread House Making Workshop
For ages 8 and up: drop your kids off for a fun, creative hands-on workshop led by Kristen Valenza, founder of Living Roots Food and Floral. They will create houses from scratch using organic ingredients, and take home their masterpieces.
Time & Cost: 6–8pm, $35/Two for $60
Tuesday, Dec. 13
For Seniors: Tuesday Tea with Holiday Spice
Join us for tea time and discover how spices add more than flavor to your recipes. Full of antioxidants and potent antimicrobials, you may be surprised to find out what your spice rack has in store.
Time & Cost: 12–1pm, Free
Thursday, Dec. 15
Supporting Your Immune System through Winter
Herbal storyteller Tom Dadant will give a lecture on how to support your body’s primary immune system naturally with beneficial herbs and nutrients. Dadant is a National Educator for Planetary Herbals.
Time & Cost: 6–7pm, Free
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Hula’s celebrates 10th anniversary with gift certificate giveaways, discount food and drinks

Hula’s is offering a discount burger combo during its anniversary month
Photo credit: Hula’s
Downtown Santa Cruz restaurant Hula’s Island Grill and Tiki Room is celebrating its 10th birthday with gifts for the local community all month long and special promos on November 16, 2016.
Until Nov. 30, customers can order $10 Hula Burger combos—that’s a burger plus fries and a soda—any time of day, for lunch, dinner or somewhere in between. Hula’s is open for lunch Tuesday- Sunday from 11:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m., dinner nightly from 4:00 p.m.–close, and of course there’s always happy hour with daily specials (Tuesday–Sunday 2-6 p.m., Monday 4:30–6).
On Wednesday, Nov. 16, all day long, Hula’s is serving up special discounts:
- Tiki Drinks 2/$10 – a couple popular ones are “Dr. Funk” (includes rum, pineapple and coconut) and Mai Tais
- Pupus 2/$10 – choose from dishes like crispy coconut shrimp rolls or Hawaiian ceviche with whitefish, coconut milk, chili, cilantro and garlic
- The first 10 customers will receive a $10 gift certificate
- The 100th lunch customer will win a $100 gift certificate
- The 100th dinner customer will win a $100 gift certificate
Personally, I am a big fan of family-owned and operated Hula’s. I’ve found over the years that their diverse menu appeals to generations of my family, and I enjoy dishes infused with Asian, Latin and Caribbean flavors.
In case you want to start holiday shopping early, Hula’s is doing a gift certificate promotion until Dec. 23. If you buy a $50 certificate, you receive a $10 gc to keep for yourself. If you buy a $100 gc, you get a $20 gc to treat yourself!
Location: 221 Cathcart St., Santa Cruz, 831-426-HULA
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Fun October class topics at New Leaf Community Markets include apple butter, candy apples, tapas & wine pairings

Drop the kids off at New Leaf to learn how to make candy apples with organic toppings
Photo credit: New Leaf
New Leaf Community Markets has lots of cooking classes this month, including many with autumn-related themes (apple butter anyone? Yum). Here are a few highlights; these are all at the Westside Santa Cruz location at 1101 Fair Ave. (831-426-1306).
Preregistration is required at newleaf.com/events.
Saturday, Oct. 15
Apple Butter and Jam Making Workshop
Learn how to make easy and delicious apple butter and seasonal fall jam with Home Chef Lisa Bono using natural sweeteners. This class will cover equipment, ingredients, canning methods and storage. Take home two jars of your own creation.
Time & Cost: 2–4pm, $25.
Thursday, Oct. 20
Date Night: Spanish Tapas and Wine Pairing
New Leaf invites you to sign up with your sweetheart and work together to create a variety of tasty Spanish-style tapas while sipping wine with Chef Kristen Valenza and Nutrition Consultant Madia Jamgochian. Classic tapas ingredients that may be used include Marcona almonds, manchego cheese, prociutto, chorizo, shrimp and eggplant.
Time & Cost: 6–8:30pm, $85 for two people.
Friday, Oct. 28
Kids’ Class: Candy Apple & Marshmallow Making
Drop your kids off for class and they will make candy apples using a variety of organic toppings while enjoying homemade ginger soda, while you can enjoy a date night.
Time & Cost: 6–8pm, $25.
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Time for the 2016 Santa Cruz Mole & Mariachi festival

Mole poblano prepared by David Jackman of restaurant Chocolate, a first-time competitor at the Mole & Mariachi Festival
Photo credit: David Jackman
The 4th annual Mole & Mariachi Festival is Saturday, Sept. 10, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Santa Cruz Mission Adobe State Historic Park. The family-friendly food and music festival has free admission. If you want to sample moles, there is a $10 tasting kit for sale that includes six tastes; additional tasting tickets can be purchased for $2 each.
Ten local restaurants and chefs—including first-time participant David Jackman of Chocolate—will prepare moles. The other competitors are restaurants El Chipotle, El Jardin, and El Chino; caterers and food makers Cesario Ruiz of My Mom’s Mole, Taquitos Gabriel’s and Sunny’s Catering; and home chefs from Club Tuxpan Santa Cruz, Emma Pinto (Mama Marquita’s) and Lidia Montesino (JoLí Molé).
In addition to sampling mole, attendees can purchase beer from Discretion Brewing, wine from Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, fresh-fruit aguas frescas by Mollie’s Country Café and chavelas (a drink made from beer, tomato juice, and spices). Food vendors will sell mole dishes for lunch such as mole Oaxaqueño plates from El Chipotle; mole sopés, mole empanadas and mole huaraches from Taqueria Lidia; and mole tamales from Taquitos Gabriel’s. Also, there will be non-mole selections for sale from Mission Hill Creamery, Garcia’s Fish Tacos and Sason Mexicano, plus churros, fruit cups and roasted corn.
There will be music and dance performances, free kids’ crafts and face painting, piñatas every hour, and a raffle with prizes including an all-inclusive trip to Mexico, a wine collection valued at $800 and a stay in an Airstream trailer at the KOA campground across from Manresa State Beach.
For the first time ever, Mariachi Feminil Orgullo Mexicano — an all-female mariachi band — will perform at the festival. Other performers include live mariachi music from Mariachi Alma de Mexico and the group’s youth bands, Mariachi Juvenil Alma de Mexico and Mariachi Infantil Alma de Mexico, and dancing by local dance troupes Senderos and Estrellas de Esperanza. Mojigangas (giant, dancing puppets that have been popular at previous festivals) will return.
A diverse array of artisans will show and sell work at the festival marketplace, including Artemex’s display of blouses, dresses, drinkware, dolls, jewelry and other handmade items from Mexico; Artesanias Mexicanos; Creative Woman and Alejandro’s Trade. Watsonville food company The Green Waffle will sell take-home packages of healthy waffles.
Festival attendees and a panel of local judges will select their favorites. The judges include state Secretary of Natural Resources John Laird; Patricia Santana, owner of Manuel’s Mexican Restaurant; Santa Cruz City Councilmember David Terrazas; Edible Monterey Bay writer Debbie Luhrman; Tony Solis of the Santa Cruz Sentinel; Good Times Publisher Jeanne Howard; and Santa Cruz Life writer Christine Candelaria.
All event proceeds benefit the Santa Cruz Mission Adobe State Historic Park (including educational programs and restoration and improvement projects) via Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks. The event encourages alternative transportation by providing free trolley rides from downtown.
Location: Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, 144 School Street
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Fogo de Chao on Santana Row: great for family brunch, date night, or weekday lunch

Brazilian brunch service started in May at Fogo de Chao. Photo courtesy of Facebook.
A couple weeks ago, I decided to try out Fogo de Chão on Santana Row with my family. From the moment we walked in, the service was impeccable. To me, having attentive staff greet you upon arrival is the signal of a good experience to come – and Fogo did not disappoint. Even the assistant manager, Yuri Teixeira, stopped by twice to make sure we had everything we needed.
After one staff member greeted us and immediately showed us to our table, another Fogo team member asked if it was our first time dining there (it was), in which case he would provide us with a little guidance. We were eager to try the new Brazilian Brunch which launched at all Fogo locations nationwide in May. Many locations only offer this brunch on Sundays, but Santana Row is one of nine restaurants that offer it on Saturdays too.
As our waiter explained, the Brazilian Brunch includes both the “full Churrasco experience” and the Market Table. Churrasco basically means you better come hungry! Anytime you want to eat some of Fogo’s fire-roasted meats, you flip a card on your table to the green side (green means go) and a chef will arrive and carve meat for you tableside. When you want to take a break, either to enjoy some of the other selections or to just pause from eating, you flip the card to show red. Each diner has their own card, and the chefs and other staff are continuously and carefully scanning the room—during our brunch, we never had to wait more than a minute after flipping a card before a chef was asking if we wanted what he was serving, whether that was a house specialty like picanha (signature sirloin sliced very thin), filet mignon, ribeye, cordeiro (lamb) or something else like Parmesan pork, chicken drumstick or breast, linguica sausage. The restaurant has 16 meats total.
Very soon after we sat down, waitstaff also brought over the Brazilian side dishes that are included with brunch. These included pão de queijo (warm cheese bread, which is gluten-free), mashed potatoes and fried polenta and caramelized bananas. It was hard to stop eating the scrumptious polenta, but I knew I wanted to save room for lots of other offerings.
The Market Table & Feijoada Bar is a self-serve area with salads, vegetables, feijoada (black bean stew with sausage and other toppings) and an egg bake with asparagus, broccoli, peppadew peppers, Swiss cheese, and the aforementioned gluten-free cheese bread. Other selections included a parfait with Greek yogurt, granola and berries. Some of my favorites were hearts of palm, asparagus, fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese, marinated artichoke bottoms and an edamame/corn salad. My five-year-old daughter loved the olives and the giant Parmesan wheel that held an abundance of bite-sized cheese pieces.
When we commented to one of the waitstaff how great all the meats were, he explained that that the sea salt they use really brings out the flavors. I did some more research in the last few days and discovered that many of the meats they serve are seasoned only with sea salt; the fact that they taste so good is a testament to the meat’s top quality.
Our host asked which selections were our favorites and it was hard to choose (later, I counted how many we tried: my husband tasted nine, I tried eight and my daughter sampled small portions of five varieties). Mine was probably the garlic steak. The pork chop with Cajun seasoning was pretty darn good too. My husband’s was the Parmesan pork. My daughter enjoyed all the ones she tasted; she wouldn’t pick a favorite when I asked. I know she thoroughly enjoyed the linguica sausage, among others.
Believe it or not, after all this we couldn’t resist trying dessert. My daughter and I shared—and devoured—molten chocolate cake that was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Delicious!
For weekend brunch in San Jose, adults cost $45.95 for the “full experience” or $26.95 for market table only. Drinks and dessert are extra. Kids 6 and under are free, and ages 7-12 are half price.
The restaurant’s atmosphere and the Santana Row location (a nearby movie theater and shopping) make Fogo a great pick for date night. Obviously I recommend it for weekend brunch with the family, and I also noticed that they offer a weekday lunch that starts at only $15. That gets you the Market Table & Feijoada Bar, but you can add a grilled meat selection for between $6-$9; other options include sea bass a la carte ($27.95) or the full experience ($36.95).
For more prices or specific information on Fogo’s San Jose location, see the Santana Row Fogo web site. To learn more about Fogo in general or other locations including San Francisco, visit the main site.
Want to learn more about Brazil and its cuisine? Fogo just launched an online guide that includes drink recipes (such as a passion fruit caipirinha, a twist on the national cocktail), food recipes, and etiquette and language tips.
Fogo de Chão on Santana Row location & hours:
377 Santana Row #1090 (corner of Olsen) (408) 244-7001
Saturday/Sunday brunch 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
Sat dinner 3-10:30 p.m. Sun dinner 4-9 p.m.
Mon–Fri lunch 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
Mon-Thurs dinner 5-10 p.m.
Fri dinner 5-10:30 p.m.
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Charlie Hong Kong hosts benefit for Amigo Bob
On Thursday, June 30, during the entire time it’s open (11 a.m. to 11 p.m.), Santa Cruz restaurant Charlie Hong Kong is donating 10% of sales to organic pioneer Amigo Bob Cantisano. The man who many call “Amigo” has been fighting stage four cancer for the last two-and-a-half years.
Charlie Hong Kong co-owner Carolyn Rudolph shares that Amigo “devoted more than 45 years to growing the Organic Movement…he started one of the first organic farm supply companies, founded an organic food co-op, helped establish CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) and created the renowned annual Ecological Farming Conference at Asilomar.” That latter event, known as EcoFarm, is the largest sustainable-agriculture gathering in the Western US and had its 36th incarnation earlier this year.
An activist, teacher and leader, Amigo has advised organic farmers all over the world. For years, he has focused his life on building organic agriculture.
“He has probably prevented thousands of cancers through his work,” Rudolph says. “Now he needs our support. Charlie Hong Kong, with the support of CCOF, wants to express our gratitude and support to the ‘grandfather’ of the Organic Movement.” Any questions, call her at 831-818-1814.
For anyone unfamiliar with Charlie Hong Kong, the restaurant sells very delicious, affordable food featuring locally grown produce. They describe their cuisine as “organic Asian street food” and they have selections to satisfy vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free customers – as well as folks like me who love meat and seafood (although I probably order CHK’s sweet garlic tofu about every other time I’m there; it’s fantastic!).
If you want to learn more about Amigo, I noticed that an oral history about him is part of the “Cultivating a Movement” series that was completed in 2010. “Cultivating a Movement: An Oral History Series on Sustainable Agriculture and Organic Farming on California’s Central Coast” includes 58 (!) interviews with farmers, activists, researchers, and educators. UC Santa Cruz’s Regional Oral History Project conducted this documentary oral history project.
Location: Charlie Hong Kong, 1141 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz, 831-426-5664
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Pleasure Point Street Fair: family-friendly benefit with great food and drinks
Next Saturday is the fourth annual Pleasure Point Street Fair in Santa Cruz, with a variety of local food and drinks for sale. The event, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Portola Drive between 38th and 41st Avenues, has free admission.
The fair includes two stages with eight bands, a kids’ area, and nearly 100 vendors selling arts, crafts, and food.
Food and drinks include:
— Ate3One Food Truck: Philly Cheese Steak, Vegetarian Cheese Steak, Poke Nachos, New Bohemia Brewing Co’s Pulled Pork, Naughty Fries
— Pono Hawaiian Grill Food Truck: Poke Bowls with seaweed salad and rice, poke plate, 2 different fish, pork bowls: Kahlua pork, kimchi and rice, spam musubi, charsiu pork manapua, poke salad (3 different poke with seaweed salad, carrots and purple cabbage)
— Zameen’s Mediterranean Food Truck: gyro, red chili chicken wrap, pulled pork sandwich, roasted sweet potato wrap, strawberry and goat cheese salad, sweet potato fries.
— New Leaf Community Markets: Fresh Salads, Sandwiches and rice bowls
— Lucy’s Hot Dogs: Hot dogs and sausages
— Real Good Fish: Salmon/Avocado Poke, Smoked Salmon, Salmon Collars & Fins
— Santa Cruz Fish Company: Fish Tacos
— Conscious Creations: Acai Bowls, Coconut Water, Yerba Mate, Rice Bowls, Combo Plate, Wraps and Tacos
— Pleasure Point Business Association: Burgers and Veggie Burgers
— Expanded Beer and Wine Garden: New Bohemia Brewing Co’s lagers and New Leaf’s private label Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
— Misc: kettle popcorn, shave ice, organic cotton candy, vegan gelato, ice cream, donuts, dip n’ dots
The kids’ zone will includes crafts with Santa Cruz Children’s Museum of Discovery and Woodworm Party Store plus face painting.
Live music at the fair will include Americana, rock, blues, surf and reggae performers such as Coffee Zombie Collective and UTurn. Other highlights include a skateboard contest organized by the Santa Cruz Boardroom.
The nonprofit beneficiary of this year’s fair is the Jay Moriarty Foundation (last year’s was Surfrider; the year before that was the Santa Cruz Cancer Benefit Group). The Moriarty Foundation will receive $2,500. In addition, “Jay Week” features a different activity each day to support the foundation.
Here are some food/drink highlights:
- Mon June 20—East Side Eatery is donating a portion of the evening’s sales
- Tues June 21—The Hideout is donating a portion of the day’s sales
- Wed June 22—Zameen Restaurant and New Bohemia Brewing Co. are both donating a portion of sales (the latter via Pints with a Purpose)
- Thurs June 23—Chill Out Cafe is donating a portion of the day’s sales
The Jay Moriarity Foundation was created “in the spirit of legendary waterman Jay Moriarity to support local programs that improve the quality of life for our community and environment, and educate and assist our youth.”
Details: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday, June 25
Location: Portola Drive between 38th & 41st Avenues
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