{"id":1940,"date":"2015-05-08T19:36:33","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T23:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=1940"},"modified":"2015-05-09T16:44:32","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T20:44:32","slug":"chef-andrea-mollenauer-wins-award-and-caters-2015-nexties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=1940","title":{"rendered":"Chef Andrea Mollenauer wins award and caters 2015 NEXTies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Andrea<\/a>

Andrea Mollenauer\u2019s signature rosemary polenta cake with onion jam and prosciutto<\/p><\/div>\n

Imagine one venue that has limitless potential for Santa Cruz community members: you can drink gourmet hot chocolate anytime, eat savory dumplings there on one night, fried chicken another night, and be enticed by many other popup brunch or dinner options. You can throw a private party, host an event for your business, and more. Well, Andrea Mollenauer has brought that vision to life at the Food Lounge, simultaneously serving a community of customers while providing a unique space for local food and beverage entrepreneurs to showcase their creations. And on Friday, May 15, she\u2019s receiving a 2015 NEXTies award for this creativity, innovation, and drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of excitement and giddiness I feel for the work I do everyday is hands down what gets me up in the morning and what keeps me at work late most long days,\u201d says Mollenauer. \u201cI do it for the look I see on people’s faces when they experience a dinner or event. I do it for the collaborations I see between chefs in my kitchen. I do it for the breakthroughs I see my young students having in the kitchen and in their lives around food and careers\u201d (Mollenauer teaches the ROP culinary arts program for local high school students). \u201cTo have that be noticed in the community and recognized with this award blows me away. It makes me want to do more!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mollenauer is also owner of Lifestyle Culinary Arts, which is catering the NEXTies this year. The menu will include her signature rosemary polenta cake with onion jam and prosciutto.<\/p>\n

\u201cI catered last year and was asked months ago to cater again,\u201d says Mollenauer. In late April, she found out she was being awarded a NEXTie. Mollenauer was given the chance to back out of the catering obligation. \u201cThey asked if I still wanted to cater and I said YES! What better opportunity than to be able to feed the people who are attending, who are interested in the community and celebrating the winners,\u201d Mollenauer says. \u201cI get to thank them with my food and my service, a true embodiment of my passion as a caterer and community-focused food entrepreneur.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on the Food Lounge: Located at 1001 Center St. in downtown Santa Cruz, Mollenauer operates the business with partners Cat Hernandez and Sally Kane. When asked to talk about the Food Lounge, Mollenauer\u2019s face lights up; her enthusiasm is palpable: \u201cI see so many conversations and collaborations being forged and resources being shared by chefs utilizing the incubator kitchen. They are helping out at each other\u2019s dinner services, coming to dine at each other\u2019s popups, because they know that’s where the good food is!\u201d Many guests are excited to have a new, vibrant place to come repeatedly for different food on different nights. In early May, one couple even came to six different events in one week.<\/p>\n

There are currently nine Food Lounge tenants: Mortal Dumpling, Ty\u2019s Eatery, Kickin\u2019 Chicken, Fogline Farm, Ocean2table, Mutari Hot Chocolate, Lionfish SupperClub, Cardamom Tuesday, and La Marea.<\/p>\n

The Food Lounge\u2019s official description? It\u2019s an \u201cinnovative community-minded event venue, commercial incubator kitchen, and full-service food hub aimed at fueling, educating, and inspiring Santa Cruz.\u201d Visit scfoodlounge.com to sign up for the email list and\/or stay up to date at facebook.com\/scfoodlounge.<\/p>\n

The full 2015 NEXTies winners list:<\/strong>
\nAndrea Mollenauer
\nMartijn Stiphout (Ventana Surfboards co-founder)
\nMonica Karst (Santa Cruz Socialites)
\nPaul De Worken (Monterey Bay Murals)
\nCoffee Zombie Collective (musicians)
\nCourtney Lashkewitsch, 18 and under category (started her own business at age 18)<\/p>\n

Buy tickets for $40 online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The evening will include the world premiere of James Durbin’s new music video \u201cSanta Cruz.\u201d<\/p>\n

As proclaimed on the 2015 NEXTies site, the contributions made by Santa Cruz\u2019s talented, entrepreneurial, and civically minded community are a reason that Santa Cruz is a world-renowned locale. The NEXTies \u201crecognize those who create, build and inspire.\u201d One of the other 2015 winners, Monica Karst, is the founder of Santa Cruz Socialites. This group, as stated on santacruzsocialites.com, is about \u201cCelebrating and promoting women across Santa Cruz County. Nourishing friendships, empowering each other and having FUN along the way.\u201d One goal is to \u201cspark bonds between women who are unlikely to know each other and plant the seed of community.\u201d The Socialites were actually the first group to hold an event at the Food Lounge, back in late January before the Lounge was officially open.<\/p>\n

The NEXTies were first awarded in 2010. Four years later, Santa Cruz Next asked Matthew Swinnerton of Event Santa Cruz to take over the NEXTies. As Swinnerton recently told writer Molly Lautamo for an article on the history of the NEXTies, he immediately knew he wanted to bring \u201c\u2026local youth into the conversation. He didn\u2019t want the event to just be a place for those already established in their professions. He wanted to welcome the younger generation \u2014 those wonderfully idealistic youth who are still actively searching for their calling in life\u2014to be a part of the event as both attendees and honorees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinnerton started the wonderful, collaborative series Event Santa Cruz in 2013 to help tell the stories of local businesses and the hard-working people that make these businesses run. I really enjoyed the two Event Santa Cruz evenings I attended (one in 2013 and one in 2014) and I\u2019m excited to see his fresh take on the NEXTies. This vision is already present on social media. Recently Event Santa Cruz and The NEXTies asked a few individuals \u201cWhat inspires you?\u201d and posted these on Event Santa Cruz\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

A few answers:<\/strong>
\n\u201cThe curious\u201d (Monica Karst)
\n\u201cInnovation\u201d (Courtney Lashkewitsch)
\n\u201cTrees\u201d (Cliff Hodges: Adventure Out founder, past NEXTies winner)
\n\u201cMy community\u201d (Tyler Fox, Santa Cruz Waves founder, past NEXTies winner)
\n\u201cRisk takers\u201d (Analicia Cube of Take Back Santa Cruz!)
\n\u201cWaking up and seeing the top of grass and not bottom of grass\u201d(Richard Novak of NHS, Inc.)<\/p>\n

See you at the NEXTies!<\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter @santacruzfoodie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Details:
\nFriday May 15, 2015– 7 p.m. refreshments, 8 p.m. program<\/strong>
\nRio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz
\neventsantacruz.com\/2015nexties\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine one venue that has limitless potential for Santa Cruz community members: you can drink gourmet hot chocolate anytime, eat savory dumplings there on one night, fried chicken another night, and be enticed by many other popup brunch or dinner … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,33],"tags":[636,956,375,989,7,281],"class_list":["post-1940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cooking-chefs","category-events","tag-event-santa-cruz","tag-food-lounge","tag-lifestyle-culinary-arts","tag-nexties","tag-santa-cruz","tag-santa-cruz-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1940"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1944,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940\/revisions\/1944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}