Lucio Fanni from Milan, who came to Santa Cruz over 20 years ago, passed away during the summer. The true Maestro of pasta, his combinations always hit the mark. His energy in the kitchen was unmatched.

Wine dinner nights are "all hands on deck". Two days of prep for what is a 3 hour event. From our last wine dinner of the season, we used a lot of fresh tomatoes and figs, all of which had to be cleaned and sliced. The menu is on the wall in Blue.

Wines served this season, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, our Proprietary white, and of course Cabernet, Cabernet, Cabernet.

We only featured this dish one Sunday, but the results were wonderful. Not really a scone, not really a biscuit, Elizabeth came up with a great savory scone that worked well with my house cured bacon and country gravy

All raw ingredients from the garden with a mix of lettuce, so that no two plates had exactly the same combination. A light lemony dressing and shavings of parmigiano.

Sun dried tomatoes made this dish pop in my opinions. I also liked putting various toasted and seasoned seeds and nuts for texture and added flavor on my GF bowls

Vin Cotto or saba as some call it, offers a sweet and sour touch.

This is my brother John's signature dish.

Fresh pasta, rolled every Friday

Ravioli are always a big hit. Fresh pasta Friday was a winner

I've always loved crepes, so we did some one Sunday morning for brunch

I remember this being a big hit because I pickled some red onions and placed them as garnish

Probably my number one chicken dish over the summer. People like Piccata and Parmigiano.

A huge seller on July 4th weekend, I made a super duper broth that sold out each weekend we featured it.

One of our most popular items all summer, the super burrito, wet. House made enchilada sauce poured over a big as your head burrito, filled with either vegetarian goodness, chile verde, or ground beef. AKA, the Backpacker's Special.

The sleeper dish of the summer. I grilled the chicken on mesquite, just enough to seal it. The sauce was a combination of chiles, guajillo, pasilla being the dominant. I took the chicken and oven braised it in the sauce for about an hour. Huge depth of flavor. The black beans were mixed with roasted potatoes and topped with a cilantro pesto

Jeff Meadway came through again with a fantastic garden for me to work with.

Sort of a sleeper hit this summer, who doesn't want a hot dog?

An end of season pasta, the Pasta Primavera was a big hit when the tomatoes finally came into season

I was using this purple basil for garnish in everything from Pho to gluten free to pasta

Finalizing the plating of my wine dinner dish of pork loin and polenta with a hint of proscuitto and my pan reduction sauce. 

I made a lot of bread pudding over the summer. Chocolate, berry and vanilla tended to be the big three, but chocolate is has always been my favorite.

My berry version of the bread pudding

It doesn't get more filling and delicious than chocolate, cream and bread

I rarely eat anything during service, especially at a wine dinner. However, I will eat the scraps of just about anything. This is from our first wine dinner and eggplant parmigiano with some extra sauce I was grubbing on.