Twenty years ago we converted an old deli located in a strip mall to a restaurant. We loved the location in heart of the westside Santa Cruz neighborhood, just down the hill from University of California. We decided to create the restaurant with the spirit of one you would find in an Italian village, but adapted to it’s roots in California. (In fact, the naming inspiration for the restaurant was the Studebaker “Avanti”—a car designed by Raymond Loewy. In 1987 so much of restaurant food was (and still is) prepared from processed and packaged products with artificial flavorings and preservatives, and Italian food was mainly the heavy red sauce style. We wanted to prepare food as naturally and simply as possible, using organic produce, wholesome oils, and real Italian cheeses and meats.

 

Twenty years later…Our food has evolved to include the influences of other Mediterranean cuisines (primarily France and Spain), and the commitment to quality ingredients has deepened in ways we could only dream of as our WONDERFUL local food system developed. We are so lucky to be located here in Santa Cruz, as the resurgence of sustainable farming practices in this country can in large part be traced back to it’s roots here, back to 1967 when Alan Chadwick came to UC Santa Cruz to help form what is now known as “The Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture”. The training received and research done there has had a powerful ripple effect upon the sustainable farming movement around the world, but especially here, as several of the early apprentices began to test their new found knowledge by starting small organic farms in the area. And they kept coming…