Lily Belli on Food: Downtown business challenges, awards news and a shellfish warning

Welcome to Lily Belli on Food, a weekly food-focused newsletter from Lookout’s food and drink correspondent, Lily Belli. Keep reading for the latest local food news for Santa Cruz County – plus a few fun odds and ends from my own life and around the web.

… In Lookout’s latest story on challenges facing downtown Santa Cruz, business correspondent Jessica M. Pasko and I spoke to downtown business owners and entrepreneurs about their biggest concerns. Three issues topped the list: rising rents, construction hurdles and slow city permitting. 

The owners we spoke to said that they want to be part of downtown’s future but feel the financial and bureaucratic barriers are stacked too high — especially for those trying to open in aging buildings. While the city is rolling out reforms, including a new permitting system and faster approvals, some worry it’s not happening fast enough to keep the heart of downtown vibrant and local. 

Chef Diego Felix, owner of fine-dining pop-up Colectivo Felix and Fonda Felix, a kitchen that sells empanadas to go on the Westside, said he believes that the city and community need to find a way to make opening a business in downtown more affordable if they want Santa Cruz’s culture to flourish. “Downtown needs new business and businesses need downtown. It’s both,” said Felix. “How do they merge together without demanding so much money from one side? How do we close that gap?”

Read the full story here.

… I’m happy to share that my work was recently honored by the Society for Features Journalism Awards, a national competition for feature writing with nearly 1,000 entries. My story “483 days for 120 square feet: How Santa Cruz’s permitting process almost killed one entrepreneur’s dream,” published last March, placed second for Food Feature. A trio of stories – on Santa Cruz County’s wild mushroom culinary community, new owners at Seabright institution Linda’s Seabreeze Café, and the opening of sustainable seafood restaurant Hook & Line in downtown Santa Cruz – placed second for Food Writing Portfolio.

The SFJA also awarded politics & policy correspondent Christopher Neely and arts & culture correspondent Wallace Baine for their work. Thank you to everyone who supports this kind of storytelling and Lookout Santa Cruz!

… This summer, the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau is giving locals a chance to get closer to local agriculture with Friends of Local Farms events across the county. Go behind the scenes of the Aptos farmers market with director Catherine Barr, tour Fog City Farms’ cannabis growing facility with owner James Cunningham, or have lunch with a panel of local farmers and ranchers. The events run through Sept. 27 and most are family-friendly. Tickets are $30 to $75 for adults. More info here.

… Monday kicked off the 2025 Week of Seafood Giving, a fundraiser by Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust to raise money for the Community Seafood Program, which matches locally landed fish with regional food banks. Donations made through Sunday, June 15, will be matched up to $5,000, thanks to an anonymous donor. I wrote about the impact MBFT aims to make with inventive programs like this and others in a story in March – here’s the story. More information about the fundraiser here. 

… Pino Alto Restaurant at Cabrillo College – the culinary arts program’s educational kitchen and eatery – is offering a Grillin’ & Chillin’ Summer Kick-off Market Box. Inspired by the start of summer and Father’s Day, the box has everything you need to cook a summer barbecue at home for four people, including: a sous vide tri-tip or chicken; house-made dry rub; potato salad; corn on the cob; soft pretzel sticks with dipping sauce; plus a mocktail, snacks, dessert and a fire starter kit. The box is $65. Order at pinoaltorestaurant.org.

NOTED

If you’ve been thinking about going shellfish foraging in Monterey Bay – don’t. The California Department of Public Health is warning consumers not to eat sport-harvested bivalve shellfish in Santa Cruz County, including mussels, clams, scallops and oysters. This is an annual quarantine from May 1 through Oct. 31 to protect people from paralytic shellfish poisoning, which is exactly as terrifying as it sounds and can kill you. More info from Lookout’s Chimera Mohammadi here. 

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

The 10th annual Farm to Fork Gala will be held on Saturday, June 28, at Seascape Golf Club in Aptos. Proceeds from this elegant dinner support local nonprofit Community Bridges, which provides essential services and resources to children, families and older adults in the Monterey Bay Area. The evening includes dinner with regional wines and live and silent auctions. Tickets are $150.

LIFE WITH THE BELLIS

Thank you to everyone who wrote in with their camping cooking suggestions. I got great tips on making ice cream in a ziplock bag, chicken and dumplings, high-protein breakfasts, freezer meals that defrost on the way to the campsite, and shareable campground-friendly treats. I’m working on our menu for my family’s four-day camping trip in southern Big Sur this weekend, and I’ll let you know how everything works out when I get back next week. I think by far the most important suggestion I received was one to make sure to grind the coffee before heading out – which my husband, Mike, and I will need after sharing a tent with our two toddlers. 

FOOD NEWS WORTH READING

➤ This week, San Francisco’s first women’s sports bar, Rikki’s, will open in the Castro, with 15 screens that will focus exclusively on sports played by female athletes. It’s the latest establishment in a growing trend started by The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, in 2022, and spread to half a dozen cities nationwide. (San Francisco Chronicle)

➤ In response to an overhaul by the Trump administration earlier this year, more than 15,000 employees in the Department of Agriculture – around 15% of its workforce – have resigned. The departures include many veterinarians, and farmers are concerned that the agency won’t be able to respond to crises like avian flu. (NPR)

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