SANTA CRUZ
Food Talk opens next week
The restaurant Food Talk, opening on Aug. 7, will be located in Ulterior (upstairs from Motiv at 1209 Pacific Ave.). Chef Donnie Suesens, former owner/chef at Café Sparrow in Aptos, is creating a menu focused on “farm and ocean to table with locally grown products.” He will make everything from scratch, from grinding his own burgers to making bread. Hours are 5-10 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. His motto for this new venture? “The world is a weird place. Let’s break bread together and let the FOOD TALK.”
Menu highlights include burgers, “The Kimcheese” (a grilled cheese sandwich) and The Scotch Egg. The latter features eggs from Pajaro Pastures, housemade pork sausage, panko, mango chutney and curry sauce. Visit @foodtalk_santacruz on Instagram for more. The Ulterior space has housed different chefs’ concepts over the past few years, including chef Jessica Yarr with Chicken Foot and The Brunch Shift.
APTOS
Jack’s Bao opening soon
Jack’s Bao will open its second location at 49 Rancho Del Mar sometime in August. The menu includes steamed bao (pork buns, veggie buns, and soup dumplings), noodle soups and wonton soups. There are plans to expand menu options in the future and also offer seasonal items. The flagship Jack’s Bao location (751 Cannery Row, Ste. 121) opened earlier this year, during Memorial Day weekend. Anni Wang, who manages both locations of the family-owned business, takes inspiration from her father Jack Wang and the family’s recipes from Shanghai. Her brother Kevin and mother Lisa are regularly in the Monterey restaurant’s kitchen, and you can expect the same with the new location.
Visit jackbao.com for details and menu. Hours for both locations are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
WATSONVILLE
Strawberry festival this weekend
The annual Watsonville Strawberry Festival (watsonvillestrawberryfestival.com) kicks off from 5-9 p.m. Friday with carnival attractions and music at Watsonville’s City Plaza (358 Main St.). The festival is from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday on Main Street. Admission is free.
Strawberry-themed treats for sale include strawberry tamales and burritos, strawberry pizza, strawberry boba, strawberry shortcake, strawberry smoothies and strawberry churros. Driscoll’s will be offering berry samples. There will be many non-strawberry food vendors, several pie-eating contests throughout the weekend, and “Berry Best Dressed” contests for strawberry-themed attire.
New this year: a beer and wine garden will feature four local craft breweries. Fruition Brewing will have strawberry beer, and the other breweries are Buena Vista Brewing Co., Santa Cruz Cider Co. and Watsonville Public House.
SANTA CRUZ
Popups from vegan Furutaya Bakery
Furutaya Bakery, with traditional and contemporary Japanese sweets, has a few upcoming popups. These include the AAPI Cultural Festival from noon to sellout Sunday at The 418 Project, 155 S. River St. The weekly Friday noon appearances at Sushi Market Sprouts (300 7th Ave.) resume on Aug. 16. For these, treats sell out fast but you can pre-order via DM on Instagram. Owner/chef Hana Frances Furuta, a local resident, launched her vegan business two months ago. In late August, she will start accepting preorders to pick up treats from her home on Tuesday afternoons.
Signature items include pound cake (the most popular is matcha topped with edible lavender) and Habutae Mochi Cake (flavors include vanilla and almond). Other selections include rotating tartlets or sweet buns and Uirou Cake with ingredients like Japanese brown sugar and Japanese roasted green tea or matcha. “These are topped with nuts, dried fruits or sweetened black soybeans,” says Furuta. “It’s believed to have been created in the 1300s for the Shogun as a palate cleanser after taking bitter medicine.”
Born in Japan, Furuta moved to Austria at age 8. She met kids from 81 countries at the international school she attended. “This truly developed my taste buds,” says Furutaya. In her early 20s, working as an assistant to a food photographer in Tokyo, she learned to style food and also got some of her recipes published. Learn more on Instagram @furutaya_bakery.
SANTA CRUZ
Menu changes at Jack O’Neill
In August, chef Gus Trejo is making additions to the menu at Jack O’Neill Restaurant & Lounge at Dream Inn Santa Cruz (175 West Cliff Drive, 831-460-5012, jackoneillrestaurant.com). New dish Pacific Halibut Crudo includes albino watermelon, lemon cucumbers, dulse seaweed, Nardello peppers, and leche de tigre. And the new Olympian menu, a four-course plant-based menu with the option to add sustainable proteins, pays tribute to the current Olympic Games and honors “the ambitious Enviro-menu Paris is preparing,” said chef Trejo.
WATSONVILLE
Food Bank fundraiser on deck
Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County (thefoodbank.org) is hosting its inaugural Party in the Parking Lot from 4-7 p.m. Saturday outside the Food Bank’s headquarters (800 Ohlone Parkway). Tickets are $25, which includes one drink ticket (beer, wine, or non-alcoholic beverage) and live music from The Joint Chiefs. Proceeds help Second Harvest provide healthy food and nutrition education to local individuals and families in need. Savory selections will be for sale from food trucks My Mom’s Mole, Fired Up Fresh, Saucey’z, and Kuki’s Bowl. Humble Sebi will sell coffee and pastries. Get tickets in advance at app.giveffect.com/campaigns/32094-party-in-the-parking-lot-2024 or buy tickets at the event.
SANTA CRUZ
Church Oktoberfest seeks sauerkraut prep volunteers
Messiah Lutheran Church (801 High St.) hosts Oktoberfest Santa Cruz on Sept. 21. The church is holding Cabbage Prep Day from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday and is seeking community volunteers for “the traditional mashing of the cabbage” for the homemade sauerkraut it serves at Oktoberfest. For questions, call the church office at 831-423-8330. The church also needs volunteers for the Sept. 21 event, which celebrates Oktoberfest Santa Cruz’s 25th anniversary.
LA SELVA BEACH
Food trucks, books, and beer on tap
The La Selva Beach Books & Brews Summer Fair is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the La Selva Clubhouse and Lawn (314 Estrella Ave.). Food and drink vendors include S&B serving burgers and sliders, Tacos El Jesse with tacos and other specialties, and Discretion Brewing with microbrews on tap. The Library Teen Advisory Council will host a bake sale. There will be 50-plus craft booths and a Friends of the Library used book sale. Girls & Company, That Country Feeling Band, and Woody Bell will perform live music. This event raises funds for La Selva Library programs and the La Selva Beach Improvement Association. For information, contact booksandbrewsLSB@gmail.com.
APTOS
Lester Estate Wines continues summer music series
The Lester Estate Wines (lesterestatewines.com) Friday night Sundowner Concert Series, through October, continues this week with music from The Dylan Rose Band. Wine is for sale by the glass and bottle. On the first Friday of each month, there is live music and local bites at the Tasting Barn patio. This week SC Eatery will provide food; on Sept. 1 Fonda Felix will appear (with music by Flor de Caña). Admission is $15 and includes a Lester Estate Wines logo glass. Reservations are recommended at exploretock.com/lesterestatewines.
SCOTTS VALLEY
Popups at Steel Bonnet Brewing Co.
A few food trucks are appearing at Steel Bonnet Brewing Co. (20 Victor Square, 831-454-8429, steelbon.net) in the near future. Shockwave pops up from 4-8 p.m. on Thursday and again Aug. 10. Parker Presents…Oysters pops up Friday and again on Aug. 4. La Fenice Pizza appears Saturday, and Kikuchi Yakitori is popping up on Aug. 15. Other vendors include The Griddler.
Quick Bites, compiled by Tara Fatemi Walker, is your weekly helping of Santa Cruz County restaurant, food, and drink news. Send items to sentinelfood@gmail.com (Sunday 7 p.m. deadline for that week’s column). Want local food & drink news as it happens? Follow the Sentinel’s food crew on Twitter @santacruzfood.