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It's a Long Story

Photo by Babe B. Boyz

Kids Eat It Up: Children' s tours are a major lure for the Long Marine Lab, and big people will dine on some of the best local chefs can conjure at a fundraiser to help pay the cost of the lab's educational programs.

Santa Cruz County cuisinartists cook up a storm for Westside marine lab, Tony and Alba catch valley fever and Oswald finally gets walleyed

By Christina Waters

Philanthropists, gourmets and the environmentally savvy--these terms are not mutually exclusive--will once again gather at Hollins House this Sunday for the Friends of Long Marine Lab Gourmet Dinner. Not simply another tasteful benefit--in this case $100 of the $125-per-person reservation goes to support the lab's public education programs--the annual dinner brings together a whale of a lot of talent from top area restaurants, chefs who will each provide a separate but harmonizing course, complemented by appropriate wines.

Beginning with cocktails at 6pm (dinner's at 7pm), this year's team of chefs, led by Hollins House's Jeff Huff, includes Sanderlings' Dwight Collins, Chaminade's Tim Dickers, Shadowbrook's Tom Grego, and Tracy and Pat Gentry of Michael's Catering. The one-time-only menu is still being finalized, but let me tempt you with a few examples of past benefit extravaganzas. Last year's dinner included lobster terrine, duck consommé with truffle foie gras won ton, and pork tenderloin with cranberry-port wine reduction. Desserts created for this event are, in a word, legendary--like the tangerine sabayon buttermilk almond layer cake Huff created for last year's event.

These are chefs who know their way around the business end of a wire whisk. The public is invited to join in what promises to be the most dazzling dining affair of the winter. On top of all that gastronomic enjoyment, participants will be helping to support over 40,000 school children's visits and community group tours of this fascinating world of marine research.

And, yes, the oceanside marine research and teaching facility was developed by the very same Joseph M. Long who gave us the world's greatest drug store.

Valley Come Home

Tony and Alba Salciccia have done it again--the folks who've filled the South Bay and Santa Cruz County with garlic-perfumed, lovingly prepared family-style pizzas and pastas--have opened their latest Tony & Alba's store in Scotts Valley, right across the parking lot from Scotts Valley Cinema in the King's Shopping Center. Not only is the newest T&A menu a classic re-creation of the familiar T&A menu--which means pizzas, pastas, salads and sandwiches--but staffers, once again, are friendly and helpful. And they're serving up Tony and Alba's pizzas seven days a week, 11am-10pm. Stop by and welcome them to the neighborhood at 226E Mt. Hermon Road, Scotts Valley (439-9999).

Hitting the Wall

Meanwhile, over at Oswald, where chef Charlie Deal holds down the kitchen and partner Bernard Engert--he of the long locks and even longer Southern drawl--works the front of the room, a wildly colorful transformation has occurred. No longer is the contemporary downtown Santa Cruz bistro a study in minimalism. The walls have been splashed with artwork by Laurie Zazet, whose palette of primary hues somehow works just fine with the edgy grace of Deal's menu. At lunch the other day, old-time buddy/wine merchant Bob Marsh sent over a pour of Randall Grahm's infant "American Grenache," the 1995 version of Bonny Doon Vineyard's Clos de Gilroy. We admired all those bright berries, especially when paired with an order of fresh salmon cakes and Meyer lemon aioli.

Dot Dot Dot

For the record, those rumors about Cafe Bittersweet relocating to Deer Park are being denied by chef/owner Tom Vinolus, who still hasn't made a firm choice among the many options he's considering. Stay tuned.

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