Bad Animal is definitely a head-turning name. It’s origins are in the bacchanalian—a spirited indulgence in all the pleasures of the flesh, beginning with wine and ending up wherever that leads. As the name of a business that specializes in rare editions of books, tomes on the occult, local poetry collections, minimal intervention wines and seasonal local food, it conveys the concept of being free of societal convention and artifice.
The hybrid books-wine-food concept at Bad Animal in downtown Santa Cruz is the invention of longtime best friends, Jessica MacKay LoPrete and Andrew Sivak. She is a chef by trade and he is a UC Santa Cruz alum and former professor in the History of Consciousness department.
“We both loved books and traveling, and were collectors,” says LoPrete. “We were looking for something like this, a real bookshop that offered a serious selection of both food and wine. Usually, we’d find a bookshop with a café that didn’t take the food seriously or a café that simply used books as décor. Bad Animal is a place where both bookshop and eatery are complete businesses in themselves that happen to cohabitate.”
Here, you can browse vintage paperbacks and recent first editions that can be purchased for between $4 and $40, along with manuscripts and antiquarian material ranging up to $40,000. “We deal exclusively in used books and focus on the humanities: literature, philosophy, art, memoir, that sort of thing. Our rare material is mainly kept behind glass. We have books from the 15th century on hand, plenty of signed first editions, and other treasures,” she says.
LoPrete—who has serious chops as a chef herself with stints at Contigo, Zuni Café and Greens in San Francisco—recently brought on Katherine Stern, a local culinary artist best known for the decade she spent in charge of the kitchen La Posta.
Stern had planned to launch her own restaurant in 2020, but the pandemic forced her to pivot to opening a pop up food stall called The Midway at Santa Cruz area farmers’ markets. While still participating in weekend markets, the much-loved chef has found a home base at Bad Animal for her whimsical, yet wholesome dishes, which pair well with the eclectic wines on offer.
“I got into the wine world through the food world,” says LoPrete, who has a fascination with and commitment to what she refers to as “natural wines.” Although there is no firm definition of this term, she has a specific take. “Natural wine naturally expresses terroir. People who make it are executing the whole process: they grow the wine, they make the wine, and often they are the ones selling the wine. I call it passionate winemaking. It’s completely unlike the mass-produced wines in the grocery store. I think natural wines have a more soulful expression.”
She carries selections from local producers, Margins, James Jelks, Stirm, Samuel L. Smith—praising Smith’s zero zero bottling of Syrah for having no added sulfur. “I buy whatever I can that fits this parameter,” says LoPrete, who also adores skin contact wine. You’ll find plenty of Pet Nats and orange wines from her favorite French, Italian, Spanish and Slovenian producers. “People are asking for fun and unusual things.”
As for the food, the chef tells us Bad Animal is essentially a new home for her farmers’ market stall The Midway, building on the relationships she has with local growers. Farmed and foraged ingredients she personally selects weekly at the farmers’ market, inform the menu at her new gig.
“Their passion and hard work in bringing the latest harvest to the community, makes being a local chef an exciting and collaborative experience,” says Stern. “The Midway at Bad Animal has a small, focused menu of local ingredient-driven dishes, much like those that have gained a faithful following at The Midway’s farmers’ market stall.”
When we caught up with her, she was getting into the winter squash and sweet potatoes that were becoming widely available. “Freddy’s amazing apples are at their peak and local porcini have just begun. Last week I made the first persimmon cake of the year using the Hachiyas that slowly ripened in the kitchen for 2 weeks,” she says.
Expect everything on the menu to be handmade and purchased directly from farmers, such as Fogline Farms, Blue Heron, Windmill, Dirty Girl, Groundswell and Pinnacle. The menu offers a few small dishes to nibble on with a glass of wine, followed by a salads and larger starters, then a few main course sized dishes, currently featuring tagliatelle verde with squash and nettles and Fogline Farm chicken breast with miso, sweet potato and pickled daikon and finally, a couple of desserts to finish.
What you choose to pair in your glass, along with reading material, is up to you. After all, it’s the Dionysian way to go with your gut and follow your passion.
Bad Animal, 1011 Cedar St., Santa Cruz • badanimalbooks.com • Open W-Su, bookshop open noon to 9pm, bar and restaurant open 5-9pm.
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
