Shining black deer hoofprints lead the visitor up the stairs of Porter College’s D building. Following this nature trail—subtly applied to cast concrete and playfully punctuated by pink blossoms—we are led into a transformation of bare walls into a vivacious forest of the imagination, a forest entirely created of hand-cut black paper.
Articles by Christina Waters
PLATED: Romance And Other Great Ideas
The scoop on Mission Hill Creamery, New Leaf’s newest home and Twisted Tasting at the Top of the Ritt.
Oddfellows in Albert Nobbs
After playing the part of a 19th–century British cross–dresser on the stage, Glenn Close worked to bring the tightly crafted character study to the big screen. Watching the poignant, if slight, results, we can understand just how tough it was for her to find financial backing for Albert Nobbs, a tidy period piece starring Close herself in the title role.
PLATED: Midwinter Plates
Lety’s Tacos, Fran Grayson’s Truck Stop and Gabriella’s salon.
PLATED: Heart o’ The Pinot
Up at the former summer estate of Alfred Hitchcock, the Brassfield family makes extremely small amounts of hand-crafted pinot noir wines for its Heart O’ The Mountain label, continuing a tradition of winemaking on the lofty Santa Cruz Mountains site that began back in 1881. With Brandon Brassfield at the helm, the family, once investors in Felton Empire Winery, replanted the sun-soaked vineyard with four different pinot noir clones, and with its first vintage in 2005 made a distinctive, terroir-driven impression.
‘Contraband’ Pilfers From Predecessors
You’ve seen this movie before. You’ve even seen it with Mark Wahlberg in the lead. But to be fair, our middle-aged incarnation of Marky Mark can still work a room.
PLATED: Indiana Jozeph
The proprietor of India Joze leads a culinary expedition to Istanbul, Shadowbrook’s chef in the spotlight and Chez Pim at Love Apple Farms.
PLATED: A Tasty New Year
I am a big fan of Pasta Mike’s, the locally-made product line created by Mike Ruymen. Well, I’ve been tracking a change in the visual brand of these comfort food accessories, and I recognized the design signature involved. Pasta Mike’s new labels are the work of James Aschbacher, the ubiquitous muralist and painter, who designed an image last year especially to express the colorful flavors of Pasta Mike’s products. “I wanted him to have something more dynamic,” Aschbacher recalls. “So I created a painting about Mike.” Yep, that’s Mike himself on the label, beard and all.
PLATED: Cheering Section
The year’s best dishes—La Posta’s roasted fennel and celery root, rye-laced country loaf from Companion Bakers, fresh corn ice cream, corn kernels, infant pea sprouts and sliced nectarine from Manresa—and more.
PLATED: Starz on Mission
Who knew that a gluten-free chocolate cupcake could taste so sinful? Obviously the entrepreneuses of Starz did, that’s who. Because those gluten-free babies are just part of the all-starz line-up now available in a second location. Just in time for the holidays comes this gift of edible joy to the entire west side of Santa Cruz. Yes, Starz has brought its sleigh full of cupcakes to reside inside the delightful Yogizmo emporium (where it is truly Christmas all year ‘round). And that means more decisions. Which cupcake to try today? After all, Starz offers 19 varieties daily from a from-scratch menu of 196 different recipes.
