As most people know, I live in the Bay Area so I tend to offer my travel suggestions on what to do in my local backyard, so to speak. The Bay Area is a brilliant place and I have some terrific travel ideas for weekend getaways. As always, if you need some tips, Just Ask!
Approximately one hour from the San Francisco Airport, you can be lounging on the extraordinary stretch of beach in Santa Cruz, CA. There’s the beach, of course. And there’s the Boardwalk with its’ typical rides and fanfare. But just adjacent to Santa Cruz is a small town called Capitola. And it captured my breath. The cute village of Capitola hosts several beachfront cafes and restaurants and also offers a little bit of shopping for everyone. What I especially like about Capitola is its’ quaintness. There are these adorable adobe styled, multi-colored lodgings for rent right on the beach and creek close to Capitola village. For a fancy dinner, I suggest trying the old-standing Shadowbrook restaurant with a cable car to escort you down to the restaurant alongside the creek. Definitely a day trip worth scouting out.
An event worth noting while I was visiting Santa Cruz recently was a dinner event called, Outstanding in The Field. Jim Denevan, owner and founder of this extraordinary foodie ordeal, used to be the founding chef at Gabriella Cafe, a restaurant in Capitola. He decided to do something different and work with local farmers and businesses around the country to bring extraordinary food from the farm to the table in a sustainable way. Jim wanted to create an exclusive gathering for folks who love fresh and delicious local food by setting up one long table in remote and exclusive places near local farms.
Outstanding In The Field offers 90 dinners a year throughout the United States and now they’re offering dinner events in 3 countries. The staff (including Jim) drives to each place in this fabulous vintage bus for their pop-up dinner parties. Being green and sustainable is what this company is all about and offering fresh meats, fish and produce to guests is their forté!
This was my first time at an Outstanding in the field event and I’ll walk you through my experience. We arrived at the Secret Sea Cove location just north of Santa Cruz formerly known as the nudist Red, White and Blue beach. It was a propos too, because it was 4th of July weekend. It was a secluded cove off the Santa Cruz coast. Ideal for what used to be a nude beach. Ha!
Our menu was a fish and beer dinner. Perfect for a holiday weekend. When we arrived at the cove, I was speechless at the beauty of the place. We were offered several beers and then the staff offered us fresh and healthy appetizers such as a cucumber, dill and hot pepper skewer. Spicy! We mingled amongst the group and then Jim and one of his staff members gave some insight in to the Outstanding In The Field concept. Fresh, local, sustainable! We were then guided along this bridge to the long table, which brushed up against the surf. I was in heaven. One of the most beautiful settings I’ve ever been to. (And that’s saying a lot because I’m so picky!).
The long, windy table sat 200 people. The cool thing about this dinner concept is that you can bring your own dishes, which is a tradition at this farm dinner. But don’t worry if you’d prefer to keep your colorful wedding registry plates at home, they have plenty on hand. The decorated display on the table was magnificent. If you do bring your own plates, they’re washed and cleaned when you’re ready to leave. Snazzy!
Our organic and healthy meal was prepared by host fisherman Hans Haveman of H&H Fresh Fish of Santa Cruz with guest chef, Adam Dulye of San Francisco. It was a family-style dinner of fresh veggies, grains, local cheeses, fish and some mindful meats. It was delicious to say the least and the dessert was to die for. It was a grilled graham cracker pound cake with roasted cherries, walnuts and caramel sauce. Out of this world!
When looking for the right location for you, simply go online at www.outstandinginthefield.com and choose the preferred location and menu. I can’t recommend the experience enough and I can't wait for the next one. I'm hooked and I'm going to be an outstanding groupie!
Fun fact: The equivalent to a sommelier when it comes to beer is called a ciscero.
