How good are you at multi-tasking? Because a lot is happening at once at the Humboldt Arts Festival over in Arcata’s Creamery District (Eighth and L streets) on Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18. The newly resurrected art, music and dance spectacle is packed to the rafters with stages and performers. Try to keep […]
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill is the managing editor of the North Coast Journal. She won the Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s 2020 Best Food Writing Award and the 2019 California News Publisher's Association award for Best Writing.
Posted inArts + Scene
When You’re Good to Mama
How did last Mother’s Day go? How long did it take the hazmat crew to clean up the kitchen after the kids made breakfast? Did you ever get that pancake batter out of the stove vent? Or was the morning spent in a packed restaurant where Mom had to keep shushing the fidgeting kids? You […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Ridin’ Arty
Where do all those grown men and women in bizarre costumes rattling along atop nutty kinetic sculptures come from? Little people in bizarre costumes rattling along atop nutty kinetic sculptures, of course. See how they get started at the Kinetic Classic Kid Powered Art Race on Sunday, May 11 at 1 p.m. in the Sacco […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Pucker Up
Just as the weather turns warm and citrus cocktails and desserts beckon, a triumvirate of forces — bad weather, crop disease and drug cartels — have created a lime shortage and skyrocketing prices. Bartenders, chefs and home cooks alike stand in the aisles, green fruit in hand, wondering if the old lemon can do the […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Grown-ass Cookie
Down on the bottom shelf of the cookie case at Ramone’s are the kiddie treats — animal cut-outs sprinkled with sparkly sugar and such. Up top is where they keep the chocolate drop cookie sprinkled with sea salt ($1). It’s dark, brownie-soft, lumpy with chocolate chips and falls apart a bit. Don’t try to dunk […]
Posted inArts + Scene
So Two Centuries Ago
Don’t know much about history? There’s a fair for that. Hop the horse-drawn carriage over to the Blue Ox Millworks for the May Day Living History and Artisan Faire on Saturday, May 3 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ($10, $9 with nonperishable food donation, free to kids under 12). See how folks used to […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Just Dance
If the last dance performance you saw included one of the Real Housewives of somewhere, it’s time to expand your horizons. Maybe start with a little of everything. On Saturday, May 3 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, May 4 at 2 p.m., Redwod Raks is host to Free the Beasts, a smorgasbord of local choreography. […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Fry-nemies
The Venn diagram of happy hour offerings with a circle for the satisfying, a circle for the wholesome and one for for the naughtily fun reveals a tiny triangle of overlap at its center. This is where you find Plaza Grill’s sweet potato fries ($5 during happy hour). The russet pile shows up sprinkled with […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Spam On
There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who cringe and clutch their artisanal loaves when they hear about a Spam cook-off, and those who start imagining what hammy delights they might whip up. For the latter, behold the Spamley Cup Cook-off on Sunday, April 27 from 1 to 5 p.m. at […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Franken Stein
With the legion of esoteric, fancy-pants beers on tap at our local bars and restaurants, why would you brew your own? Why go through the hassle and sacrifice garage space just to bottle some beer? Well, because while you can probably find a Belgian cucumber ale if you look hard enough, it won’t be your […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Hart and Soul
Sometimes the thought of a multi-day music festival involving some sort of camping seems like a far-off idea for people with much more expensive and comfortable sleeping bags. And how family friendly is Coachella, really? Let’s try the low-key option happening right in Ferndale instead. The Old Hart Theater building, where Ferndale Repertory Theatre hangs […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Cue Explosion
Not everything is about subtlety. As moving and understated as the narrative gaze in a French film may be, once in a while you want a blockbuster. It’s the same with food, and this month we threw on the 3-D glasses and indulged in the gastronomical equivalent of an action movie marathon. Pie Hard Pie […]