Since the owner of the building housing Annie's Cambodian Cuisine in Eureka submitted plans to demolish it and build a Starbuck's and another chain restaurant in its place, the search has been on for a new spot for the popular family-owned Southeast Asian restaurant. Now, after weeks of negotiation, Annie's has landed new digs in Henderson Center, though the Fifth Street location is still open for business. (Don't let the plywood on the door — the result of a break-in last month — fool you.)
Photo by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill
The future home of Annie's Cambodian Cuisine, 2850 F St., the former home of Manzanilla.
Chris Valk,
born and raised in Garberville, already owned the Chimney Tree Grill on the
Avenue of the Giants when she began eyeing the spot by the movie theater on
Redwood Drive where Treats used to be. When the newly gutted space became
available, she jumped at the chance to tailor it for Il Forno Bakery (764
Redwood Drive, Garberville). “For a long time I felt like we needed a bakery in
the area,” she says. Baking, if not in her training, is in her blood, since her
mother worked for years at San Francisco’s Just Desserts before moving back to
Humboldt and baking at Ramone’s.
Photo by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill
Coffee, charcuterie boxes and sandwiches on the menu at Il Forno.
Head baker Walter
Chumley starts work at 2 a.m. every day to fill the cases with eclairs, cheery
miniature tarts, fat whoopie pies and big, glossy croissants sometimes stuffed and
topped with almond or fruit and ricotta filling by the 6 a.m. opening time. The
slightly salty buttermilk biscuit with honey and fig jam is utterly satisfying
with crusty edge and tender middle. The shells of the traditional cannoli with chocolate
chip and citron-dotted ricotta filling break with that unmistakable muted
crunch for which there must be a word for in Italian or ASMR lingo. “It’s very
classic,” says Valk.
Given the
changing lineup of eateries lining Broadway in Eureka — with fast food and
chain restaurants crowding the corridor — it’s a wonder there were no pile-ups
as drivers craned their necks at the new sign for Pile High Deli replacing the
old one for Hole in the Wall (1331 Broadway). *Cue the crushing of chip bags in
anguished fists.
Photo by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill
Pile High Deli’s muffaletta sandwich on Dutch crunch.
If you’ve
stopped in lately, you likely got a flier in your bag explaining how the name
of the business, which John Forest bought from the owners of the Arcata Hole in
the Wall in 1991, had to change before the place could be sold. It also assured
customers the sandwiches would remain the same. *Cue slight relaxing of
anguished fists around crushed chips.
In fact, in a
couple months, the Pile High Deli will be in the hands of current manager Jesse
Galloway, who’s been behind the counter for the past two years. “Everything’s
the same except for the name is kinda the catchphrase we’ve been throwing out
to everybody,” says Galloway. “I wanna keep that comfy family vibe we’ve always
had … staff who know your order,” he says.
Put down that forkful of chanterelle pasta for a minute. If you're a fungi fan, you already know the stars and weather have aligned for a bumper crop of mushrooms this year. And if you're dialed in to the Mushroom Hunters of Humboldt Facebook group, you may have already seen Dan Gebhart and Jordan Anderson's epic haul of chanterelles. But if you want to know more, NPR's All Things Considered has a quick story on the pair and the 200 pounds of fancy shrooms they foraged this season. The pair are featured in an SF Gate story by Journal contributor Ashley Harrell from earlier this month, as well.
Both outlets estimate the stockpile to retail in the thousands, though the foragers decided to share rather than sell the bounty. Don't freak out — nobody gave away your secret spot (and no, Humboldt County doesn't count).
We did not expect to get hit with Sugar Bear fever but here we are. The victory lap the 84-foot-tall tree took around the county as it made its way from its home in the Six Rivers National Forest to Washington, D.C., where it will serve as the Capitol Christmas tree, won it some fans.
Submitted
The Sugar Bear edition of Little River Gin by Humboldt Craft Spirits.
Thirsty tree huggers can now sip craft gin distilled with actual boughs from the famous fir, while aiding a good cause. Humboldt Craft Spirits is releasing a Sugar Bear edition of its Little River Gin. The bottles, which can be found at local retailers, bear little signs around their necks denoting their lineage from the limbs of our county's evergreen holiday ambassador to the Capitol and the $1 donation each one scores for the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.
Under a cloudless sky, a five-piece Mexican band played to the side of the parking lot at the Oct. 9 grand opening of Taqueria Tecoman (2003 Eich Road, Eureka). The speakers were cranked high enough to cause ripples in your horchata.
After nearly three decades of working in restaurants from Rita's to Chapalas to Jalisco's, owner Enrique Perez, ready for a business of his own, took the lease at the Tecoman spot in 2020. In the dearth of restaurant options on Humboldt Hill, he saw an opportunity. His hope was to set up a taqueria like the ones in his hometown of Mexico City. "You know, you eat on the street," he says, noting the importance of the house made beans and tortillas, as well as al pastor cooked on a trompo, or vertical spit.
Photo by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill
The sincronizada, the lighter cousin of the quesadilla.
Muscle memory still brings the odd patron to Las Michoacanas (1111 Fifth St., Eureka) thinking it’s still Rita’s. Don’t feel bad for them. New co-owners Socorro Sanchez and Perla Sanchez (no relation) have made themselves at home with a full bar (no margarita mix, just the real thing made to order) and a menu with Western Mexican specialties hat reflect both women’s Michoacán roots.
Photo by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill
Enchiladas Michoacanas with a curl of flash-fried dried beef.
Those looking for tacos, burritos and enchiladas will find them alongside regional takes. For the enchiladas Michoacanas, the action is on the outside, with a mere swipe of red sauce and cotija cheese inside three homemade corn tortillas that are cooked in sauce and topped with carrots, potatoes chopped cabbage, tomatillo sauce and more cotija, as well as a curl of crunchy, cecina, flash-fried dried beef. The cecina, says Socorro, a Humboldt native, is sourced from the Bay Area but a must-have when visiting the Mexican state from which her family hails.
A moment of appreciation for grab-and-go coffee shops. There, early risers are accommodated and those of us who struggle with morning are soothed without fuss. There, the good people at the counter prep for the breakfast rush and brew
hot coffee while so many of us turn in our covers, thinking of reasons not to
get up just yet. Nowhere is that succor more urgently needed than across from institutions like the courthouse.
Photo by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill
The breakfast sandwich at the Grind makes the case for morning plantains.
In July, Gaby Long , proprietress and chef at A Taste of Bim, bought the Grind Café (734 Fifth St.), with its front window view of Blake Reagan and Lucas Thornton's floaty trompe l'oeil mural alongside the Humboldt County Courthouse. After a few interior touch-ups and a menu reboot, it remains a solid stop for a hot Humboldt Bay Coffee Co. latte and a bagel. But scan the full menu before you order your usual.
Well, crap. After a brief and much anticipated reopening, the Logger Bar, Blue Lake's iconic watering hole, has shut its doors once again. Owner Kate Martin, who'd closed the bar for more than a year and put it up for sale, spoke with the Journal last month about the additional outdoor seating she hoped would help keep customers safe with COVID-19 still circulating and much of the county still unvaccinated.
In her Facebook post, Martin says how "deeply wonderful" the last three weeks of being open have been. "However, due to the sharp increase of Covid-19 cases in Humboldt County it no longer feels in the best interest of our community to stay open at this time." (See the full post below.) That increase yielded a single-day record of 69 confirmed new cases on Friday, July 30, and a test-positivity rate of 10.1 percent for the month of July, the highest for any month since the pandemic began.
Over the phone, Martin, who is vaccinated herself and has been getting tested weekly, says she knows vaccinated people who've fallen ill with so-called breakthrough cases of COVID-19. Serving only outside, she says, isn't worth it financially and it's impractical to require masks indoors for people who are drinking. Martin adds that she has people in her life with medical issues that make them particularly vulnerable. "I don't want to have to choose between running my business and spending time with my family."
For her, says Martin, especially in a community like Blue Lake with so many older residents, being open doesn't feel right. But she's hopeful about reopening if and when Humboldt's COVID-19 infection numbers go down. Hopefully, she says, it won't be another year. We'll drink to that.
Restaurants and their workers helped get us through the last
year. The Journal wants to hear about the ones closest to your heart and
share your appreciation in the upcoming Menu of Menus. Shout out your gratitude,
letting us know which restaurant meant the most to you with a brief explanation
of why in the comments or by emailing jennifer@northcoastjournal.com, and it might end up in print. So, Humboldt, who do you
love?