A motorcyclist riding through the corner of Seabright and Soquel avenues in Santa Cruz passes Lillian’s Italian Kitchen. Lillian’s originally opened in 2007 at a Soquel Avenue location one block closer to downtown Santa Cruz and moved to the current site in 2016. The restaurant is a joint venture of the owners, Joe and Charlotte Moreno and their sons Chris and Matt, who took their inspiration from their Grandma Lilly’s wonderful home cooking. Lillian was devoted to family and friends and her life was greatly fulfilled by her love and passion for cooking. The restaurant is currently located in the former of home of Ebert’s, which installed the iconic neon clock. Ebert’s dates to 1915 when brothers Theodore and Otto Ebert opened a grocery and dried goods store in an Eastside cow pasture at the site. According to historian Ross Eric Gibson in a column in the Sentinel, “They took a good deal of grief from local residents, including the mayor, for building their business out in the country.” Over the years Ebert’s sold groceries and dry goods, functioned as a garden center, a clothing store, a lunch counter and a soda fountain, and at one time even had a grain mill at one time. The grocery closed in 1967, the garden shop in 1987, and the clothing store in 1998. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
↧