After five years of sitting fallow, the once-glorious organic food and wine center, Fetzer Valley Oaks, is humming back to life with a new name and new owners. Purchased from Brown-Forman in April, husband and wife team, Gary Breen and Anna Beuselinck, have rechristened the 51-acre Hopland property Campovida, meaning “field of life.” The revamped center is scheduled to open officially in late summer, including a tasting room, biodynamic gardens, a wedding and event center with private on-site lodging, and a retail store.
First opened in 1983, the original center attracted the attention of chef-greats Emeril Lagasse, Julia Child and John Ash, who were all among its culinary visitors. The center closed in 2006 after the Fetzer’s parent ownership decided the expansive center was too much of a financial drain on the company.
New owners have already spent more than a year renovating the gardens and outbuildings that sat unused for half a decade. The 12-acres of biodynamic gardens that once boasted more than 2,000 varieties of fresh fruit, herbs, vegetables and edible flowers had become wildly overgrown, but Fetzer vineyardist Ken Boek has been instrumental in recovering the gardens he once maintained.
Magnanimus Wine Group, also calling themselves Mendocino Farms for this project, have been tapped to manage food and wine activities at the property including wine-tasting from their own stable of organic, sustainable and biodynamic wines, selling local artisan products, providing organic vineyard and garden tours and hosting wine and food related events at the property. Magnanimus Wine Group produces about 10,000 cases of sustainable, organic and biodynamic wines annually from its four labels, Mendocino Farms, Old River Vintners, Talmage Selection and Ukiah Cellars.
The tasting room soft-opens this month, but the property will kick into full swing with culinary events, classes and programs this fall. For more information, go to campovida.com.
Fruta: Michoacan Ice Cream in Santa Rosa
Chocolate smockololate. When it comes to hot licks this summer, Mexican ice cream is the coolest. In flavors like corn, queso (yeah, cheese), sweet potato, and walnut as well as more traditional strawberry, mango and vanilla, Michoacan neverias (ice cream stores) are 31-flavors like you’ve never seen.
Or maybe you have. “Everybody, when they come in they say, ‘It’s just like home. It’s just like Mexico’,” said Carolina Cruz, co owner of Santa Rosa’s Fru-ta, a Michoacana paleteria y neveria. Cruz and her husband, Salvador, who hail from Guadalaraja opened the tiny shop on Stony Point Road with veteran Michoacan ice cream maker Alberto Medina heading up the kitchen. “He makes everything Michoacan style, pure 100% fruit. When people see that name, they don’t care how long they have to drive to get it,” said Cruz.
Among the specialties are elote (corn), that tastes like the sweetest, ripest corn you’ve ever eaten, and is surprisingly delish; mamey, a Mexican fruit like papaya, changunga, a small sweet fruit found in Michoacan and a sort of fresh ricotta-like cheese (queso) made into ice cream. Also unique: Mangonada, a puree of mangos with a sour “salsa” of chamoy (a sweet/hot condiment), lemon juice, salt and pepper that devotees swear is addictive.
For the less adventurous, there are more accessible sorbets of lime, mango and strawberry; frozen yogurt, chocolate covered bananas and strawberries, and smoothies with every fruit under the sun, along with horchata, pina coladas and fruit popsicles (paletas) in dozens of hues and flavors.
Nestled deep in the heart of Roseland, it’s a welcoming spot, but not always staffed with English-speakers — so you may need to do a bit of pointing and smiling if your question’s getting lost in translation. BiteClub resorted to some rather embarrassing pantomime, but ended up with the goods.
Window shopping and tastes are, of course, free, so there’s no harm in taking baby steps, should neverias be new to your vocabulary. Chances are, however, you’ll be fluent in the universal language of Michoacan ice cream treats before you know it.
Fru-ta, 2770 Stony Point Road, Santa Rosa, 542-6026. In the Bellvue Shopping Center, Open M-F 11am to 9pm, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 9pm.
(Also of interest: La Michoacano, in Sonoma. Exotic flavors are made onsite, and are amazingly creamy and rich, often with fruit or other tidbits (nuts, candy) mixed in. Flavors are usually on the board, but its worth asking for a few samples just to, you know, make sure you’re making the right choice. Top bet: Pinenut and Mexican caramel. Don’t miss the paletas, frozen bars made with fresh fruit. 18495 Highway 12, Sonoma)
Your favorite fresh tortillas?
Where do you get great fresh tortillas in Sonoma County (and beyond?). BiteClub’s on the hunt for soft, pillowy flour tortillas and great corn tortillas. Tell me your faves!!
Don Pedro’s | Santa Rosa
Fancy-pants dining is nice and all, but you know the single most-asked question I’ve heard for the last three months: “What’s up with Don Pedro’s?” You know, the taqueria on Sebastopol Road that’s been taunting us all with its curious signage. Is it open? Not open? Open? Not open? All the hubbub just confirms what I’ve always suspected — it takes a lot of tacos to make great cuisine in Wine Country.
So here’s the long-awaited answer: Don Pedros is now officially open. The menu has been expanded to include breakfast (American and Mexican, with a focus on omelettes), homemade tortillas, rellenos, six types of salsa, burritos, and entrees like fried fish and enchiladas. Outdoor seating, lowered prices, all that good stuff. The Shrimp Diabla Burrito, decidedly delicious. For dinner, chile verde, adobada, chicken mole, pork spare ribs and on weekends, menudo and birria.
But why the delay? Well, there’s always a backstory.
The iconic restaurant on the corner of Stony Point and Sebastopol has been in the Kocalis family since 1961, and has been a Mexican restaurant of some sort since 1972. It’s most recent tenant, Pepe’s, occupied the building since 1986, serving up legendary local burritos.
But when Pepe’s lease came up last February, the restaurant decided to move to spacious new digs up the street at 1512 Sebastopol Ave. (in case you were wondering), and property owner Don Kocalis brought in Don Pedros, which he hoped to open relatively quickly. Unfortunately, he got mired in four months of unexpected city permitting issues and $100,000 in renovations and upgrades. Meanwhile, Kocalis was working on a another project on his property just to the west, planning a three-story Art Deco office building to get under construction in October. Kocalis points out that when it comes to red tape, things seemed to move a bit more smoothly with his ambitious office building than with the little corner taqueria.
But that’s all mole under the enchilada now.
What’s left to prove is whether Don Pedro’s can live up to the popularity of Pepe’s. Diving into a super burrito the size of a small child in my burning hands, I’d say they’re off to a solid start.
Don Pedro’s, 2000 Sebastopol Rd, Santa Rosa
El Molino Central | Sonoma
Longtime fans of Primavera — Karen Waikiki’s mystically-delicious tamales — have been among the first to beat a path to her new Boyes Hot Springs restaurant, El Molino Central. Housed in the old Barking Dog roastery, it’s a chic-yet-totally-approachable taqueria/tortillaria serving up incredible regional Mexican classics including potato tacos (astounding!) enchiladas suizas, chilaquiles and daily tamales with authentic 18-ingredient Oaxacan red mole that’s the best I’ve had in Sonoma. In the morning, the cafe serves coveted Blue Bottle coffee and chilaquiles.
The key to everything, however, are her stone-ground tortillas.
A friend of Mexican cooking authority Diana Kennedy (who will be staying with her in October when she comes to promote her new book) and Alice Waters, Karen is renowned for revitalizing traditional methods of stone-grinding corn into masa, an art all but lost in Mexico. Each morning, around 11am, staff feed soaked corn — grown by a single farmer in Nebraska — into the specially made machine for the day’s tortillas and tamales. “No one is grinding corn anymore. People just stopped grinding corn and use instant ‘Maseca’ instead. But (grinding) is just the way it shouuld be,” Karen said, hustling through her kitchen.
Wind around back to sit on the patio and watch Karen and her staff hand-press tortillas and throw them on the grill. Fanatics can buy fresh masa for torillas for $1.25 or prepared tortillas for $3.50 a dozen.
Realizing that her demographic is both the tony spa-set of the nearby Sonoma Mission Inn as well as the heavily Latino working-class population, she aims to entice both. “We want the local community to buy and like these,” Karen says, pointing to the irregular edges on her tortillas — a sign that they’re handmade rather than machine-made. “Otherwise, all this is just pointless,” she added.
El Molino Central, 11 Central Ave (along Hwy 12), Boyes Hot Springs. Open Mon-Sun 7 am – 7 pm
While you’re there, don’t miss la Michoacano, an amazing new(ish) ice cream/bionicos/paletas spot. Exotic flavors are made onsite, and are amazingly creamy and rich, often with fruit or other tidbits (nuts, candy) mixed in. Flavors are usually on the board, but its worth asking for a few samples just to, you know, make sure you’re making the right choice. Top bet: Pinenut and Mexican caramel. Don’t miss the paletas, frozen bars made with fresh fruit. 18495 Highway 12, Sonoma
Yanni’s Sausage Grill Penngrove
Blink and you’ll miss the micro-storefront location of Yanni’s Sausage Grill in Penngrove— a bare bones walk-up eatery that takes its sausage seriously.
Because sausage is the new hot dog. The fatter, sassier, more interesting cousin to the humble weiner, sausages have the added benefit of, well, flavor. Stuffed with pork, chicken, lamb or turkey and a variety of spices, herbs and add-ons like apple, mango, mint or peppers, they’re the total package.
For best results: Grill to within an inch of bursting from its snappy natural casing, plop onto a toasted sweet Italian roll, top with sweet peppers and grilled onions, and you’ve got a fingers-burning-through-the-foil street classic.
On the menu, eight flavors of sausage — from Loukaniko, a rustic Greek sausage with citrus and spice; garlic mint, sweet and hot Italian, chicken limoncello; Olympic Flame (extra hot made with brandy); greek kalamata olive and feta; and lamb sausage served with tzatziki. All are under $6, most under $5. Buy a couple because you’ll likely want another after scarfing down the first. They’ll burn your tongue and scorch your fingers, but slowing down to savor these dogs just ain’t an option.
The tiny space (expect to eat sitting on the sidewalk or for takeout) also plans to serve up deep dish pizzas on Friday and Saturdays and a breakfast pizza on Sunday mornings. Hours are still fairly early, but sandwiched between two bars, it wouldn’t be difficult to do a brisk late night biz.
And by the way, if you’re going by can you bring me one?
Yanni’s Sausage Grill, 10007 Main St., Penngrove, 795-7088. Open Wednesday through Friday, 11am to 6pm; Saturday 10am to 7pm, Sunday 10am to 3pm.
Best Buns & Burgers 2010 Poll
Well slap my patty, has it really been four years since we did the first Best Buns in Town? Seems like maybe it’s about time for another ground beef smackdown…
BiteClub annouces the 2010 edition of Best Buns & Burgers in Wine Country….
It’s a two-step process…you vote for your favorites. Then I weigh in with my votes for the final showdown.
SO here’s step one: Your votes. I’ve listed some of my top picks for Burgers, but I’m sure I’ve missed a few. Vote for as many as you want…and add any that you’re a fan of…
UPDATED: Added 15 new contenders… 2:44pm
Stay tuned for the winners…
[polldaddy poll=3436846]
Village Bakery an icon in Santa Rosa, Sebastopol
A touch of Scandinavia in Wine Country. This mega-popular bakery has everything from dark rye smørrebrød, to coveted sourdoughs, hearty grain breads and baguettes. While you’re there, pick up a triple berry pie as well — they’re the best in Sonoma.
Not to mention European-style bread, marzipan-covered Princess cakes and buttery desserts and the world’s tastiest English muffins), this iconic bakery is a staple.
Village Bakery, 1445 Town and Country Dr., Santa Rosa, (707) 527-7654.
Also at the Barlow in Sebastopol.
Flavor Bistro | Santa Rosa
Although downtown Santa Rosa’s Flavor Bistro is often loud and crowded, it’s a local favorite for affordable Cal-Italian dishes like butternut squash ravioli, pizza, well-crafted salads and hearty sandwiches. This super popular eatery has a by-the-glass wine list makes for fun experimentation. Though lunchtime is usually filled with business-suits and lunch ladies, kids are always welcome, especially on the weekend when things get relaxed during breakfast and brunch. Patio dining is a hot commodity.
The restaurant now offers curb-side pickup and take-out and is available for private breakfast meetings.
* Monday – Thursday 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM
* Friday 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM
* Saturday & Sunday Breakfast Begins at 8:00 AM until 2:00 PM
* We’re Open All Day Saturday until 11:00 PM & Sunday until 10:00 PM
96 Old Courthouse Square
Santa Rosa, CA 95404-4921
(707) 573-9600
Lunchbox Pie: Humble Pie’s Weird Pie Challenge
Humble Pie’s First Annual Strange Pie Challenge
Humble Pie’s First Annual Strange Pie Challenge took place on July 4, 2010. And you missed some crazy pies…
Entries included:
BEST SAVORY: Club Sandwich with Fries Please! (included everything, yes Everything in a club sandwich…even the mayo! Topped with french fries)
BEST SWEET: Lunch Box Pie (kid sweet and potato chip friendly)
BEST FREAK: Cream of Freak Pie (hotsauce cream with cheetos, nescafe, and mango) A truly awful pie that i cannot believe people voted for *lol* which just goes to show you how much people are willing to be generous to freaks)
Honorable Mention: Candied Pepper Chocolate Pie. So good you can look for it at The Humble Pie dessert menu soon! This pie received the most votes, but the votes were split amongst the three catagories that it didnt win any of them! The winner did receive beer as a consolation prize.
– Cricket Pie (now, with actual crickets!)
– Kasey Pie: Rhubarb, M+M’s, Zucchini, peanut butter, macaroni, tater tots, sardines and Life Savors
– Jelly Bean Pie
– Strawberry Rhubarb Lifesaver Pie
– Blueberry, jalapeno, sausage, goat cheese pie
– Salmon salad pie
– Sweet and savory “man” pie
– Pickle, peanut butter and yogurt pie
– Chocolate Rose Pie
– Rhubarb Red Pear Pie
– Caramel apple, bacon and egg pie
And several others that I’d like to forget…
Congrats to all the entrants. And thanks for voting Lucy’s Lunchbox Pie the Sweet Winner!! I promise I didn’t twist any arms for this prize, but judges may have been swayed by my sous chef, Lucy. That, or that fact that I was threatening a recount if things didn’t go our way. Whatev.
Lucy’s Lunchbox Pie
by BiteClub
This is a riff on a kids’ lunch — peanut butter, jelly, a Reese’s peanut butter cup and of course, potato chips. Mix ’em all together and you’ve got a killer pie inspired by a 7-year-old. It’s rich beyond belief, but the crunchy, salty crust is a great foil to the sweet peanut butter and chocolate. Yummmmm….
Crust
8 oz Lay’s Potato Chips (about 2/3 of an 11oz bag)
1 cup honey roast peanuts
4 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients in a food processor and pulse about 15 seconds or until mixture comes together loosely. You can also just put the mixture in a plastic bag and roll with rolling pin. Should be small crumbs. Pour into a pie pan and press very firmly to about 1/4 inch thickness along bottom. Don’t worry about the sides. You may have enough for two pies or just some delicious snacking (the uncooked crust is yummy on ice cream). Cook in oven for about 11 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool completely.
Fudge Layer
1 bottle fudge ice cream topping
5 Tbs raspberry preserves
Mix about 2/3 of the fudge and raspberry preserves (you can use any flavor, really). Spread on top of crust. Place in freezer.
Peanut Butter Silk
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 Tbs sugar
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
Whip cream with sugar. In another bowl, mix softened cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar. Gently fold in whipped cream. Pour peanut butter layer into pie. Chill for several hours before serving.
Garnish with whipped cream rosettes, crushed potato chips and a Reese’s Peanut butter cup.