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September 10, 2019 – As a young teen raised in Long Island, Margaret LaVetty would tell her mom she was going out with friends on a weekend evening, and then hustle over to the Manhattan dock to spend all night butchering swordfish with a machete-like giant filet knife.

“I’d wait and hope a union guy wouldn’t show,” she says. “Then it was third shift, all night, raincoat and goggles, hacking on fish belly. I just wanted to learn.” 

She has been some places since, including New York’s Chinatown to make hundreds of thousands of dumplings. A self-styled “gypsy chef,” the New York native would later graduate from San Francisco’s Culinary Academy, and go on to … Read More

September 3, 2019 – The menu at The Butter House reads like a road map to creative comfort food, with Polynesian-Filipino pop—pork belly and eggs, fried chicken sandwiches with avocado, loco moco in a lake of gravy, butter-fried rice with bacon, sausage and Spam.

The new look at the former Nifty 50s Cafe is a trip itself. Gone are the funky booth fabrics, the greasy kitchen, the dated carpet, dated paint, dated countertops, replaced by a simple and smart design, stylish and shiny new counters, clean lines, fresh paint, new floating light boxes on the ceilings and nice finishing details around the sizable room.

The copper light fixtures hanging above the window booths, though, are still there, a holdover from the … Read More

August 27, 2019 – It has all the accolades, awards and artful Pinots to prove it. It helped draw oenophiles south from Napa when Monterey County was known more for selling its grapes than making wine with it. It opened the very first tasting room in Carmel Valley, laying the foundation for what’s become a full-blown wine lovers’ destination, with more than two dozen outstanding outposts. Its Marinus Estate Blend has been considered the region’s best red wine for a long time.

But as big as it is domestically, it enjoys way more wattage in the Netherlands. A big fraction of its wine production ends up in that country, where there’s even a Bernardus golf course — with a Michelin-starred chef in its restaurant — that hosts major tournaments.

“Bernardus … Read More

August 20, 2019 – Apple City Cider Tasting Room, owned by Santa Cruz Cider Company, is opening its doors for business on August 24 right next door to Elkhorn Slough Brewery at 65 Hangar Way in Watsonville. Opening festivities will run from noon to 8 pm and attendees can expect live music and food from Killer Chef catering.

“Watsonville used to be called Apple City, and we wanted to pay homage to the apple community and the history that’s already here,” says co-owner Natalie Henze. Following the grand opening, the tasting room will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 8pm.

I met with Henze, who owns the business with her sister Nicole Todd, at … Read More

As wineries in our coastal mountains prepare for harvest 2019, some are getting ready to bottle prior vintages. It’s a great time to barrel taste the future and put your orders in! Get your tickets to the first Annual Barrels of Corralitos event and for one price you get to taste not only current vintage wines, but ones that haven’t yet been bottled. 

Six wineries along the Corralitos Wine Trail are getting ready to welcome you on Sunday, September 1, to their special spots, where you’ll get to see the vineyards at their busiest, ripening those grapes to perfection in the late summer sun.

At each of the six stops, you’ll enjoy tasting flights, barrel samples and special pricing on futures, with live music and food for purchase at some … Read More