Berries and all forms of produce will be at UCSC Farm and Garden Spring Plant Sale this weekend.
Suddenly the stalwart, if unexciting, La Mission on Mission Street is gone. After 10 years of serving up textbook tacos, huevos rancheros and refried bean creations, the warm and always friendly little restaurant has closed its doors. We are keeping our eyes peeled for something interesting to occupy the highly desirable location between Pizzeria Avanti and Coffeetopia.
Tap, But No Map: Meanwhile, more changes are afoot. This one mystifies me. The minute I saw the application for beer and wine license in the window of the still flourishing Bonny Doon Vineyard tasting room, I stepped up for a closer look. And what I saw was, to say the least, surprising. The plan is to open something called West End Taproom and Kitchen, which will specialize in having on tap microbrews from the greater Bay Area, including Tied House. Okay, so there will be a new taproom and kitchen where the cavernous Le Cigare Volant and adjoining wine tasting room have been. And what's more, the new beer hall is said to be planning outdoor seating for beer-lovers who need to quaff out under the sun.
But wait? Isn't there already an outdoor microbrew pit stop just across the parking lot from the planned “West End” Taproom? So there will be two establishments specializing in artisanal beers within spitting distance of each other. To call this “unexpected” would be an understatement. The other thing that nags at my cerebral moorings is the name: “West End.” Locals call it the Westside, the northern end of town where Kelly's, O'mei, New Leaf, El Salchichero, et al. are located. Not the “West End.”
While I ponder the marketing wisdom of insisting upon such a name alteration, let me add that the larger portion of the building, closest to New Leaf, will remain Bonny Doon Vineyard winery proper. This will not be changing. BD winemaker Randall Grahm assures me that he will continue using the winery at the Ingalls Street complex as his base of winemaking operations for the foreseeable future. And that's located on the Westside of Santa Cruz, fyi.
Grow Your Own: If your green thumb is itching to get planting, then make sure you plan to head up to UCSC Farm & Garden this weekend—May 4 & 5—for the ginormous annual Spring Plant Sale. Think of this as the region's largest array of organically grown herb and flower starts, vegetables, and perennials.
Filling the Barn Theater parking lot at the base of the UCSC campus—intersection of Bay & High Streets—the sale opens on Sat from 10am-3pm, and on Sun from 10 am to 2 pm. If you belong to the Friends of the Farm & Garden, you can enjoy an early entrance starting at 9am on Saturday.
It will be plant heaven, loaded with a huge selection of tomatoes and peppers (all kinds, hot and sweet), plus eggplants, summer and winter squashes, pumpkins, lettuces, and other vegetables. Tomato fans will find plenty to choose from, with 30 heirloom, slicer, cherry, and paste varieties available at this year’s sale, including “Summer Feast,” “Black from Tula,” “Rainbow’s End,” “Red Zebra,” “Juan Flamme,” “Sungold,” “Isis Candy,” “Summer Feast,” “Chocolate Cherry,” “Yellow Pear,” “San Marzano,” “Amish Paste,” “Valley Girl,” “Pruden's Purple,” “Oregon Spring,” “Big Beef,” “Brandywine” (red and yellow), and “Cherokee Purple.” New varieties of Italian and Asian eggplants, alpine strawberries, as well as a dazzling array of exotic basils, are some of the highlights of this wildly popular sale. For flower lovers, there will be myriad roses as well as annuals perfect for bouquets as well as landscaping, including cosmos, hollyhocks, Mexican sunflowers, poppies, snapdragons and more, many grown from seeds generously donated by Renee’s Garden Seeds.
