EDIBLE NOTABLES

EDIBLE NOTABLES EARTHBELLY

Finely prepared organic fare for the 99%

BY ROSIE PARKER PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROB FISHER

After spending more than 25 years cooking in the fine dining world, Tammy Ogletree and Chad Greer, the wife and husband chef team behind Earthbelly, a new casual eatery in Santa Cruz, are proud to be making sophisticated yet affordable, organic, non-GMO food for a more inclusive community.

“As chefs we’ve always wanted to do something that’s aligned with our morals,” Ogletree says. “We wanted to do something for the greater good that could really help people in a sustainable way.”

Ogletree and Greer met in a kitchen in San Francisco and later moved together to New York City, where they spent several years working the fine dining circuit. In 2004, they opened their own farm-to-table, upscale bistro in New York’s Hudson Valley—a chef’s dream of organic farms and pasture-raised meats. at restaurant, Beso, was a huge success.

But Ogletree says that not long after it opened, she and Greer began meditating on the inequality in the world and dreaming of doing something about it by starting a place that, like Earthbelly, would be more accessible.

Meantime, when the financial crisis hit in 2008, the couple introduced a Recession Menu at Beso. Where filet mignon would be on the main menu, the Recession menu would feature a hanger steak for half the price. eir innovative, conscious cuisine earned the restaurant a write-up in e Wall Street Journal.

After closing Beso in 2011, the couple began planning to return west. ey eventually settled on the Central Coast in 2013, a few weeks before their son, Maxx, was born. Greer took a job as executive chef at LB Steak on Santana Row in San Jose while they looked for potential spots in Santa Cruz where they could open a restaurant to put their philosophy into practice.

Partners in conscious cuisine: above, Chad Greer, Tammy Ogletree and Sarah Davis.

Knowing that it is important for them to maintain balance between family life and their restaurant duties, the couple felt it was auspicious when in 2015 they met Sarah Davis, who is now their business partner and general manager, at a park where their children were playing.

“It was a very organic start to a relationship,” Ogletree says of the instant connection, “and our sons both loved dumptrucks!”

Earthbelly opened its doors in late July and has managed to stand out even in the Santa Cruz food scene, which has long been an organic, farm-fresh mecca.

To help keep prices down, Earthbelly uses a no-fuss dining setup with counter service and unbreakable, stylish tin plates. Yet the restaurant, which is an open and airy space, decorated with repurposed wood and planters mounted to the walls, still maintains a feeling of elegance not so common at casual restaurants. e menu is broad—it ranges from soups, salads, pizzas, sandwiches and burgers to chicken and seafood entrées—and the culinary talent of Greer and Ogletree can be found in the details of each dish. Greer’s New England Clam Chowder ($4.50/$7.25) is light in body but rich in flavor with whole savory clams bursting open. e Chili & Cornbread ($9.95) has the added depth of smoked flank steak and the cornbread, moist yet gritty with whole kernels of fresh, summer corn, is perfect either dipped in the soup or slathered with the accompanying honey lavender butter. Housemade ricotta provides dishes like the summer squash and eggplant Veggie Pizza ($14.95) with a creamy, tangy kick.

To prepare these dishes, Earthbelly sources ingredients from many local family farms, including Route 1 Farms, Pinnacle Organically Grown Produce, Happy Boy Farms and New Natives. ose with cookie cravings will be pleased to see that Ogletree, a pastry chef, bakes a seriously chocolatey chocolate chip cookie and an enormous and soft peanut butter and jelly thumbprint. Other bakery offerings include focaccia with a perfect, airy crumb, and Ogletree’s specialty, carrot cake. Gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan menu options are available. An organic beer and wine list helps round out the dining experience.

Ultimately, Ogletree and Greer hope Earthbelly, which they very consciously call a “food stop and meeting place” on the eatery’s website, will help make both their customers and the planet healthier.

“People are constantly on the run, but that doesn’t mean that you have to put things in your body that are bad for you and the earth,” Ogletree says. To fulfill your on-thego needs, there are display cases full of prepared foods, baked goods and juices. Delivery service is also available.

“We want to be that place people can count on. ere’s a lot of integrity behind our food and we are here to serve the community.”

Rosie Parker, a native New Englander, likes to complain of missing home while living the Santa Cruz highlife—surfing, hiking, writing and working for a delicious craft brewery.

Earthbelly 381 Soquel Ave. • 831.621.2248 www.eatearthbelly.com

EDIBLE NOTABLES FOOD FOR THE SOUL

A chef feeds spirits as well as stomachs at Monterey Beach Church

BY DIANE GSELL PHOTOGRAPHY BY PATRICK TREGENZA

It’s a Friday morning in early summer and Alvin Siekert is assessing the local bounty on offer at the Monterey Bay Certified Farmers’ Market at Monterey Peninsula College. He grabs a fresh bunch of summer savory to pair with the salmon he’ll serve in a frittata that Sunday. en he weighs his budget restrictions as he considers the asparagus he’d like to serve alongside the frittata.

Unlike many of the chefs who seek inspiration at this market, Siekert can’t adjust what he charges for his meals to reflect the cost of ingredients. e price is always the same: zero dollars and zero cents. e clientele? “Our friends who live outdoors,” is the respectful and loving term that founding pastor and advocate for the homeless, Brian Bajari, uses to describe the men and women Siekert cooks for at Monterey’s unofficial Beach Church every Sunday. e church has served Monterey’s homeless for six years, putting forth a welcoming vibe to all, regardless of faith—or non-faith—at its informal services near the Del Monte Beach volleyball courts. And at least as impor-

tantly, the breakfast that Siekert serves before the services offers a chance for community volunteers and the homeless attendees to break bread together, feeding souls, as well as stomachs, and creating greater understanding. “e culture of hospitality always overcomes the culture of demonization,” Bajari observes.

To that end, Siekert takes it upon himself to provide a dignified culinary experience and the most healthful and delicious food he can.

Sometimes there will be a brisket or two, slow roasted for no less than 14 hours. ere’s almost always a fresh, vibrant salad accented with fresh lime juice and maybe a hint of maple syrup. Nutrient-rich quinoa might find its way into the mix, and a seasonal fruit crumble or a quick bread might balance the savory offerings.

Quick to share the credit, Siekert makes it clear that he doesn’t provide the meals alone.

His Pacific Grove neighbors were the original donors to cover his expenses, and he now seeks contributions from those who pass by his displays at area farmers’ markets and outside of Grove Market.

One of Siekert’s greatest sources of pride stems from the fact that some of his original Washington Park donors are still contributing today, nearly five years later. ere are those businesses and individuals who pitch in a few dollars and others who have provided quality ingredients at a discount. ere are also those who donate time by helping to cook or serve. From commercial kitchen pros to home chefs to high school students, Siekert has a loyal inner circle of culinary assistants.

But he discourages donations of prepared food.

“I rarely accept food because I don’t know the provenance of it,” he says, noting that many of the attendees have compromised immune systems, and he fears donated prepared foods might be spoiled and make them sick.

People who know him have compared Siekert’s quirky charm to that of a character out of a Steinbeck novel, and his path from a childhood in Milwaukee to the Monterey Bay area is certainly colorful: At the age of four, his family drove him across country to Washington state, camping out along the way, in search of a drier climate that would be better for his health.

As an adult, he worked as a rodeo clown and a search-and-rescue crew member before fine-tuning his culinary skills while working at the Sundance Lodge (now called Reindeer Lodge) on the Mount Rose Highway corridor outside of Reno. Now retired, he eventually settled in the Monterey Bay area where he worked as a caterer for 22 years.

When Siekert saw a need for his talents at the Beach Church, he initially began volunteering on a monthly basis.

“People help people,” Siekert says, noting that he was introduced to this ethic in the campgrounds his family stopped in on their way across country when he was a child. “I saw a need, I have a skill set, and I like to use it.”

Gradually, Siekert realized that the Beach Church attendees were starting to count on his memorable meals and missed them when he

On the beach: opposite, upper right, Alvin Siekert serving breakfast. Other images picture clients, volunteers, and the breakfast Siekert prepared for them.

didn’t show. So a year and a half ago, Siekert made a commitment to contribute on a weekly basis and he hasn’t missed a Sunday since.

He spends weekdays gathering donations and purchasing ingredients and then the real cooking starts on Saturday nights.

From 10pm, when the regular kitchen crew at Tillie Gort’s Café in Pacific Grove finishes work, until 8am Siekert and his team of volunteers create the next day’s meals.

When morning comes, Siekert loads his Beach Church bus to take the feast to a thankful group—lately about 75—gathering on the beach.

It’s a poignant reminder of how precarious the lives of the Beach Church’s attendees are that Sunday Beach Church services must be cancelled if it rains. e reason, Bajari says, is that the homeless have no place to go to get dry and warm up if they get wet, so holding a service in the rain would subject attendees to the risk of hypothermia and even death.

But the bus—which was funded through a GoFundMe campaign organized by fellow Pagrovian, Casey Lucius—allows Siekert on rainy days to serve his food to attendees right on the bus, or to send it with them in to-go containers to eat wherever they’re finding shelter.

To say that Siekert’s meals are appreciated would be an understatement.

Beach Church attendee Rana Ghana finds the gatherings to be a relaxing respite from a living environment that can be quite stressful at times. e produce is what she most looks forward to. “Being new to the Salad Bowl of America, I really appreciate the freshness of it all,” she says. is past May, Bajari, the Beach Church’s founding pastor, stepped down from his role leading the Beach Church.

After several weeks of guest pastors filling in on a rotating basis, the Beach Church may have found a new leader in Rachel Bennett. Previously a deacon at Monterey’s Saint James Episcopal Church, Bennett is now a regular and welcome face at the Beach Church Sunday gatherings and has already helped arrange donations such as Ghana’s new tent.

It’s a time of transition, but the ministry that Siekert provides through his cooking has played an important role in holding the Beach Church together.

“He’s a persistent and stubborn and beautiful guy who will keep it going in all the right ways,” says Bajari of Siekert. “He’s the centerpiece of it all right now for sure.”

Diane Gsell is a freelance food stylist based out of Monterey. A former copywriter, she's always eager to put a few words together when she sees sparks of culinary greatness.

HOW TO HELP: Cash donations toward Beach Church meals may be sent to 220 Forest Park Court, Pacific Grove, CA, 93950; call 831.402.0820 for pickup of donated supplies. Siekert can also be found with a donation table at the Monterey Peninsula College farmers’ market on Fridays, the Pacific Grove Farmers’ Market on Mondays and outside of Grove Market in Pacific Grove on most Saturdays. And, of course, Siekert is always serving food on the beach on Sunday mornings, rain or shine.

EDIBLE NOTABLES ONE FOR THE ROAD

First there were food trucks; now there is KraftBar

BY KATHRYN MCKENZIE PHOTOGRAPHY BY REBECCA ADAM

e Monterey Bay area now has its first bar on wheels, and it has arrived in the form of a beautifully refurbished 1965 Airstream trailer. Decorated with whiskey-toned wood and metal and vintage-style Edison lighting, KraftBar seats intimate groups of guests inside with an upholstered nook and bar, and serves dozens more outside.

“When the sun starts to set, everyone starts asking if they can come inside. It’s really cozy and warm,” says KraftBar owner Breana White. “By the end of the night, no one wants to leave.”

Breana, a former caterer, who with husband Toby, bought the 28-foot Airstream intending to make it into a gourmet food truck, decided to shift her focus when she realized she was actually a little burned out on catering. It was the right move to make. e Aptos couple has been comfortably busy since launching the business earlier this year, and expects to ramp up in 2017.

With that in mind, the Whites have added equipment that allows them to serve mixed drinks on tap—a huge time saver at crowded events, such as June’s Meander benefit for the Coastal Watershed Council in Santa Cruz. For that fundraiser, the Whites served a gin, grapefruit and basil cocktail as well as Mexican mules and whiskey sours.

Breana acknowledges that mobile bars are the trendy thing right now—they can be found in many big cities—but there are some good reasons to have one at an event or wedding.

“ey are popping up everywhere. It is more interesting and memorable” than a conventional bar, she says.

KraftBar sets its service apart by its strong commitment to local libations, tapping beers from Santa Cruz Ale Works and Corralitos Brewing Co. and wines by Hunter Hill, Equinox, and Alfaro, among others.

For cocktails, KraftBar uses the gins and whiskeys of Santa Cruz-based distiller Venus Spirits and the handcrafted syrups and mixers of Katie Blandin Shea’s Carmel Valley-based Bar Cart Cocktail Co.

“I’m adding her products as much as possible,” says Breana, who uses a Bar Cart potion to provide an herbal punch for KraftBar’s signature drink, a rosemary whiskey sour. (See recipe accompanying this article.)

Seasonal drinks are also a specialty. An example is the Fever Tree Gin & Tonic, which uses Venus Spirits’ small-batch gin, Bar Cart’s Big Sur Bitters, imported Fever-Tree tonic water, sea salt and fresh lemon.

Basic service includes beer and wine, with cocktail service as an add-on. Because

each event is so different, Breana gives each client a custom quote.

In addition to the Airstream, the Whites can also provide satellite bars and scale up as needed to serve the size of the party, be it a birthday, wedding or corporate event. e bar has its own sound system and Toby, who works in music festival management, can put together custom playlists.

In the future, the Whites plan to offer furniture for rent so lounge areas can be created adjacent to the Airstream. Breana points out that most furniture rented for events isn’t that unique; she’d like to offer something in the modern-rustic vein of San Francisco’s Shelter Co.

Breana says she’s happy with the way the business is progressing, and that she and her husband are continually learning. Next up: making connections with more wineries and breweries in Monterey County.

She also has no regrets about abandoning her original plan to operate a food truck.

“I love it so much more than catering,” Breana says. “It’s so much more fun.”

Kathryn McKenzie, who grew up in Santa Cruz and now lives on a Christmas tree farm in north Monterey County, writes about sustainable living, home design and horticulture for numerous publications and websites.

KraftBar

www.kraftbarlounge.com • 831.239.8182 Courtesy KraftBar in Santa Cruz

Serves 1

2 ounces whiskey (KraftBar uses Wayward Whiskey from Venus Spirits) 1 egg white 1 ounce fresh lemon juice 3/4 ounce maple-rosemary simple syrup (recipe below) 2 to 3 dashes Bar Cart Cocktail Co. Big Sur bitters 1 slice fresh lemon Sprig rosemary

Mix together in a martini shaker with a few ice cubes, shake vigorously for 15 seconds and pour over ice. Garnish with a lemon slice and a sprig of rosemary.

Maple-Rosemary Simple Syrup 1 cup maple syrup 1 cup water 1/4 cup brown sugar 3 sprigs rosemary

Combine ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for an hour or until you can taste that rosemary flavor. Let cool and store in the refrigerator.