Greens Grazing
An honest attempt to digest three standout Monterey County square meals, vegetarian style.
For years it’s seemed that local chefs and restaurateurs have thought about vegetarians much in the same way as Anthony Bourdain, who wrote in Kitchen Confidential that they “and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans… are ...
La Tortuga Tortería
Glorious Tortoise: Tortuga Tortería is a staple for local foodies for a large family of reasons.
Given the ubiquity of restaurants serving Mexican food in the area, to stand out from the pack requires some serious sabor. It means a marriage of authenticity, vision and from-scratch love that, no matter where ...
Then There’s This
Permafrost further complicates a hot-and-sticky climate situation.
Climate Change: Read More We are almost completely f%#&ed Are You Kidding? Climate Change Then There’s This As the earth gets warmer, the upper circle of the planet has slowly started bubbling, unleashing gases that ...
Straight Up Rock
Climbing royalty Alex Honnold’s film highlights Reel Rock tour’s trip to Big Sur.
The video hit the Internet on June 11 and quickly went viral: Rock climber Alex Honnold, who has achieved widespread fame both inside and outside the climbing world for his fearless “free solo” ascents – ...
Bahn Mi Bar
It’s the Banh: Noodle Bar’s sibling Banh Mi Bar brings the best fresh sandwich value in town.
What is it about the restaurants in Marina? Have they all somehow locked in 1985 food prices from their distributors? Is the city cutting them some sweetheart tax breaks? Or is that Marina itself is ...
Killer Joe
A Killer Epic: Famed director William Friedkin riffs on film, philosophy and life as his Killer Joe opens at the Osio.
“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing can be made,” says director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection), channeling the philosopher Immanuel Kant. Friedkin was in San Francisco recently for a ...
Schooners Coastal Kitchen & Bar
Hook, Line, Sinker: Schooners Coastal Kitchen & Bar chefs fun and fresh seafood on par with the scenic setting.
By the second bite of the soup, everything else disappears: Delectably tender wild shrimp harmonize with a creamy, spicy, coconut-laced ambrosia. The flavors waltz across the palate with lingering, graceful steps. When I pull back ...
Out of the Shadows
Monterey Museum of Art’s new Rodin exhibit defies convention to enlightening effect.
Last week Ted Wells – the guest curator of MMA’s new exhibition Auguste Rodin: Light and Shadow – led some local children on a pre-opening tour of the show. Along the way he found himself ...
Pica Fresh Mex
Meat Me There: Pica Fresh Mex does tasty flavor in Oldtown Salinas.
Given that salsa is Spanish for “sauce” – and even mole and guacamole are considered salsas – it would seem wise for every Mexican and Tex-Mex joint to make it a centerpiece, to craft it ...
Where the Wild Things Are
Hunter’s Supply gives hunters and non-hunters a striking look at serious game.
The wolf that greets visitors at the door is nearly taller than the brown bear standing next to it. Flanking it are some other, ferocious-looking man-eaters: an Alaskan polar bear, a grizzly and a now-endangered ...
Life, Death and Boardom
They’re smart, mean, tough and ugly. But that’s not why we should shoot them.
As Matt Murry drives into the Carmel Valley hills, his eyes dart across the landscape like a bird of prey. Behind him in the four-door pickup sit Neil and Etul Gavande, a father and son ...
Taste of Vietnam
Sporting Chance: Taste of Vietnam banks on authentic tastes and a feel uncommon for Southeast eatery.
Seaside’s Taste of Vietnam, which opened last September in the Fremont Boulevard spot formerly occupied by China Chili, is making a play at a new type of fusion: an authentic Vietnamese restaurant that doubles as ...
Mission Statement
Tracing Junipero Serra’s arc through Monterey County by bamboo bike speaks to joys and pains of an iconic Catholic’s early California.
Somewhere west of Greenfield I decided to become a trespasser. If anyone had a problem with it, I figured they could take it up with Junipero Serra. Serra had inspired me to end up here ...
Uncorking the Unconventional
Hahn Winery eyes an ambitious culinary center and an equally dynamic approach to food.
As we look out across the Salinas valley, with the distant Pinnacles pointing the way toward heaven, an almost-giggling Brian Overhauser turns and says, “I’m a big floater.” We are standing on a hillside above ...
Riding the River
Tasting notes from Hahn and three neighbors.
It took a while, but the fog has cleared, and the Foothill/River Road track has come ripe. After years of producing second-rate Cabernet and Merlot grapes, varieties that are both ill-suited for the cool, Santa ...
Beyond Steinbeck
The Last Otter Hunter tells the story Cannery Row’s definitive historian always wanted to.
When Michael Kenneth Hemp moved to Monterey in 1979, it is tempting to imagine that Doc Ricketts and John Steinbeck breathed a sigh of relief from on high. Over the next decade, the author established ...
Hops From Heaven
The Moses brothers lead locals to a frothy promised land with Post No Bills, Monterey Beer Festival.
For locals who have discovered the pleasures of small-batch beer, there is good reason to add a few hops to the step: Two seminal, suds-lovers’ events – the opening of Post No Bills in Sand ...
New Moonen
A sustainable stalwart keys a hopeful and historic 10th annual Cooking for Solutions at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
“The bluefin tuna is done,” says Rick Moonen, with uncharacteristic pessimism. Though a man of unabashed hope, the sustainable seafood chef knows his science, and appetites: The most optimistic estimates put the Atlantic bluefin population ...
Haley Storm
A Big Sur photographer releases an acclaimed new book full of gripping decay.
If Bruce Haley’s been there, chances are you haven’t. In his 23 years as a professional photographer, the Big Sur resident has sought out the hinterlands of the globe, traversing such regions as the rebel-held ...
Julia's
Vexing Veggie: Julia’s in Pacific Grove gives vegetarians and vegans hope, or at least a little.
Though vegetarianism has been embraced by an ever-increasing number of our populace, one thing remains sadly the same: Herbivores face a dining-out dilemma. Sure, the rabbits among us can focus on a few things at ...
The Midas Touch, The Midas Effect
The controversial fumigant methyl iodide may soon be applied to local fields, despite dire warnings from some of the best scientific minds in the country.
If politics make for great live theater, then a Feb. 22 hearing held in Sacramento about the controversial strawberry fumigant methyl iodide might have been scripted by Franz Kafka. And much like a Kafka tale, ...
Extra Cheese
Garden Variety Cheese is adorable and delicious.
Rebecca King’s 40-acre farmstead in bucolic Royal Oaks is like a scene right out of Babe: Her ewes roam placidly on the sloped green pasture, each one is named after a type of flower – ...
Milking It
A nearly extinct breed – homesteading cheesers – redeems a hope for Locally cultivated curds.
“Every cow has personality,” says Beau Schoch, co-owner and cheesemaker of the Schoch Family Farmstead, “and my dad knows every cow, which ones milk fast or slow, which ones kick or lick.” That John Schoch ...
Pier Pressure
The food, if not the ’tude, inspires a visit to hidden Bay View Deli & BBQ.
Most people that arrive at the Coast Guard Pier in Monterey are either fishing, diving or lost. On a typical day, the vast, vacant parking lot feels more like the deck of an aircraft carrier ...
The Bakery Station
Fuel for Life: The Bakery Station gasses up Salinas on fresh java, pastries and sandwiches.
On an island once reserved for gas pumps, newspaper stands sit beneath an historic overhang’s classic Airstream curves. Above, a ’50s-style sign with a Mrs. Cleaver look-alike declares “Now Baking Daily.” Stepping into The Bakery ...
I Love You Phillip Morris
Con Bond: Jim Carrey and I Love You Phillip Morris break new ground beautifully.
In I Love You Phillip Morris (no relation to the tobacco company), writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa pull off something that until now hasn’t been done in mainstream American cinema: A story where the ...
Toast
Toast gives Carmel Valley an informal slice of fine French countryside.
Warm sun soothes the comfortable patio. Flowers along its edge quietly radiate calm and add color to the buzz of pleasant conversation. In the background, oak-brushed ridges sweep into the distance with an easy grace. ...
Bean Me Up
World cultures reveal how to enjoy more beans (and greater health)—with less gas.
It is time to eat more beans. Cheap, nutritious and, when properly prepared, delicious, beans have nonetheless gotten a bad rap in America, where they retain the stigma of a poor man’s horn section, and ...
