“I love it,” admits excitable event director Jeni Brill, who is deep into last-minute details for her 8th Annual Gourmet Grazing on the Green food & wine festival. Brill created this event for the board of the Santa Cruz Cancer Benefit Group, which has raised more than $1 million since 1995 to support local outreach and research organizations. “The basic idea was an event that would feature all local foods, local wines and local beers. All the produce used is donated from local growers,” she adds, “and New Leaf Markets has been with us from the start—they’re a major sponsor.” This Saturday, Sept. 17, the lawn of Aptos Village Park will be adorned with a lively outdoor party dedicated to giving friends, neighbors and inquiring foodies plenty of flavor excitement. Did I mention that the Steve Velasquez Band with surprise guest singers will provide the perfect musical sound bytes to accompany that cheese and red wine or ribs and IPA? Brill has invited innovative producers of everything from savory jams to artisanal olive oils.
“You get to eat all day long,” Brill says, underscoring every word. Food and drink options are huge and include creative specialties from Zameen, Crow’s Nest, Hula’s, Chaminade, Café Rio, Café Cruz and many more, chased with wines from Alfaro, Silver Mountain, Kathryn Kennedy (and more!) plus brews from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, Seabright Brewery and, yes, more.
“This year we have 63 vendors,” Brill says me, “and we’re laying things out a little differently this year. Last year, you remember, there was a heat wave. Now we’ll have even more tents for shade, and we’re creating a little beer garden for our local breweries, with the big SmoQe BBQ trailer as the centerpiece.” Sounds like a plan. Aptos, this Saturday, Sept. 17, noon-4pm. Consider taking the shuttle from the Cabrillo College lot. Cost is $65/ticket at http://sccbg.org.
GABRIELLA AND THE CHEF: PART 36 Citing “creative differences,” Paul Cocking and his most recent talented chef have parted company, and now former head chef Adrian Cruz is rockin’ the sensuous seasonal menu while his sister and current lunch chef Gema Cruz is ramping up her skills for—who knows?—a future dinner chef gig in the feisty, romantic downtown café. Cocking, clearly thriving on the challenge of landing just the exact, perfect cuisinartist, keeps himself amused with farmers market produce at this late harvest moment. “Lettuces from Live Earth and tomatoes from Dirty Girl are better than ever,” he declares, and I absolutely agree.
Send tips about food, wine and new dining discoveries to Christina Waters at xtina@cruzio.com. Read her blog at http://christinawaters.com.
