Santa Cruz chefs explore global flavors at top-notch restaurants

Advertising Feature: This article is not produced by the newsroom. It is editorially independent of both the newsroom and any one advertiser.

Not so long ago, Santa Cruz was considered a hippie burg. One website even named the city the “Best Hippie Town” in California in 2019, noting its abundance of ultra-casual vegan, California-inspired eateries.

But more recently, the largest city and county seat of Santa Cruz County is making new headlines for its remarkable global cuisine, showcasing Spanish, Oaxacan and Japanese among others.

Some things haven’t changed, however. Vegan and vegetarian dining is still at the forefront honored with top-notch recipes at the finest restaurants. And California ingredients still shine brightly, treated like the royalty they are.

Spanish cuisine may seem like an odd match for this land of surf, redwood-forested mountains and laid-back vibe. But this sleek, 95-seat place is modeled after Barcelona’s chiringuitos, which are open-air restaurants and bars that line the beach. With the Santa Cruz wharf to the south and the San Lorenzo River to the east, the location seemed perfect to open that concept, said husband-and-wife owners Brett and Elan Emerson.

For culinary inspiration, the couple has visited Spain for decades to fine tune their classics like mounds of premium jamon serrano, crisp and creamy jamon Iberico ham croquetas and albondigas, the juicy lamb feta meatballs bathed in rich tomato sauce with sheep feta, cherry tomatoes, mint and fried capers.

The open kitchen boasts a wood-fired grill for crisping slow-roasted St. Louis cut ribs glazed in a lightly spicy, tangy, sticky Moorish sauce. And the range is always simmering with multiple kinds of aromatic paellas, cooked to-order and brimming with goodness like Spain’s beloved Valencian-style seafood of jumbo gulf prawns, local rockfish, clams, mussels, saffron, tomatoes, peppers and dollops of garlicky alioli made with extra virgin Arbequina olive oil.

Vegetarians can enjoy, too — one paella features Valencian rice topped with a rainbow array of maitake and trumpet mushrooms, asparagus, butternut squash, delicata squash, broccolini, piquillo peppers, white beans, saffron, rosemary and alioli.

Check out the churros, too — the Emersons went to Spain to purchase the same state-of-the-art churro maker the internationally celebrated chef José Andrés uses in his restaurants. The crisp, feather light choux pastry is dusted in cinnamon sugar and comes with thick, velvety Tcho hot chocolate for dunking.

This is another gem from Noëlle Antolin and Stuyvesant “Stuyvie” Bearns Esteva, owners of Santa Cruz’s popular Lúpulo Craft Beer House. Here, the theme is Oaxacan cuisine from the colorful art on the walls to unusual, regional treats like chapulines, which are sauteed grasshoppers in chile and lime (really do try them — they’re nicely crunchy, slightly vegetal and more like chips than bugs).

Esteva was born and raised in Mexico City and the coast of Guerrero, and Antolin traveled the region often with her family, beginning when she was just 6 years old. At Copal, they explore generational family recipes from the village of San Martin Tilcajete about 14 miles from the city of Oaxaca and offer labor-intensive touches like organic heirloom corn varieties imported from Oaxaca that they nixtamalize and grind daily to make the fresh masa required for the best corn tortillas.

The lovingly crafted masa stars in other dishes such as memelitas, savory masa cakes topped with black bean paste, cabbage, queso fresco and options of chorizo, shredded chicken or tasajo, a sumptuous thinly sliced grilled flank steak that’s pounded super thin and then cured in salt before being grilled. The finishing touch: a swath of asiento, which is the melt-in-your-mouth settled fat left over after frying and cooling pig lard.

There are so many thoughtful accents here that aren’t often seen in local Mexican restaurants. Esquites bring shucked corn topped with queso fresco, mayo and chile de gusano (an earthy worm salt you may have had as a rim on a margarita) and a broth spiked with fresh epazote, a Central American herb that intrigues with pungent flavors of oregano, anise, citrus and mint.

Naturally, Oaxacan moles are a signature, including mole negro that’s a deeply complex thing of beauty made with roasted chile ancho, tomato, tomatillo, chocolate, cinnamon, peppery-sassafras nuanced Hoja Santa herb, cumin, avocado leaf and nuts.

Esteva explains that he uses more than 30 ingredients for this mole, and it takes three days to make. Then he drapes it over your choice of baked chicken leg and thigh, tender stewed pork leg, meaty pork ribs or a vegan mix of fried tempeh, garbanzo beans and roasted chayote.

The Japanese restaurant is within walking distance of Monterey Bay, so there’s lots and lots of seafood on the extensive menu that spans eight pages. Much of the fish is from parts afar, although did you know that delicious species like bluefin tuna living in Monterey Bay can range from 80 pounds up to 250-plus pounds?

Akira’s three partners make it difficult to choose among the mouthwatering wealth of options. A bluefin trio is irresistible, delivering glistening slabs of O-toro (fattiest), Chu-toro (medium fat) and Akami (leanest). But the tropical poke is excellent, too, mounding cubed, peppered and seared tuna with mango, avocado, jalapeño, beets, tobiko and unagi sauce (there’s a vegan version, too, of marinated mango, shiitake, spicy tofu, cucumber, wakame, nuts and avocado on a bed of radish).

Choose from more than 100 sushi roll combinations including lots of veggie options — like the Silence Of The Yams roll in a colorful symphony of mango, tempura yam, tempura green beans, shiso, spicy nuts, avocado, shoestring yams, truffle salt, spicy sesame miso aioli, habanero sauce and poke sauce.

Move on to some dozen donburi rice bowls, including a carb fest topped with gyoza. Or dig into a generously packed bento box — the grilled salmon model is luscious, served with miso soup, salad and rice, plus options like seven pieces of sashimi or an eight-piece spicy tuna roll.