What's Good

Those of us craning our necks in Old Town can satisfy our curiosity at last. The frankly named Rooftop Sushi is out in the daylight at last (148 E St., Eureka). Slip into the modest entrance on the E Street side of the new building and ride the elevator (a Eureka rarity) to the fourth floor, where the soft opening is in full swing.  Opening during a welcome streak of sunshine, co-owner and chef Joe Tan and his silent business partner Lily Tan (no relation) say the first couple of days have been busy. While the indoor dining space and counter were empty off hours, every seat on the patio was taken with diners enjoying nigiri, maki sushi and plates of spiraling beef carpaccio. And sunshine — lots of sunshine. The view of the bay is reserved for the event space on the other side of the rooftop, but the restaurant's half of the partially covered wood deck overlooks Old Town and environs. 

The sweet smell of Wildwood Waffles has left Rio Dell. After a final weekend of waffling, owner Harry Smith has packed up his irons for Gig Harbor, Washington, where another branch is already in business.

"This isn't my choice to leave that place," says Smith, nor did he want to leave Rio Dell. But after parting ways with Root 101 and its owner, former partner Nick Mitchell, Smith says he was unable to find a viable location for the shop. Wildwood Waffles, he says, has done well since its start in August of 2017, often serving 50 customers a day and pulling in an estimated quarter of a million dollars in waffle and coffee sales last year. "Out of the corner of a hardware store," he says with a laugh.

Smith, who has been active with the Veteran's Hall, the Kiwanis Club and other organizations, says, "I'm gonna miss the community the most."

Shuttering the shop where so many enjoyed grab-and-go stuffed sweet and savory waffles was "the last thing I wanted to do," says Smith. The rush of customers coming in for one last waffle over the past week has “been heartwarming but also sad,” he says. “Bittersweet.”

The social media response to Sushi Spot posting its new policy regarding gratuities was swift and nuclear, with Facebook posters and commenters largely deriding the announcement, some even swearing off patronizing the business for good. But the plan itself, the automatic addition of an 18-percent “equity fee” for dine-in and 10 percent for takeout to be shared among all staff in lieu of traditional tipping, had been in the works for some time.

“Other restaurants around California have started doing this a few years ago [coming] out of COVID … that’s kind of where the idea came from,” says Sushi Spot owner Eric Stark, who also liked the sound of “equity fee” as used by some of those businesses. During the early part of the pandemic, he says, “We didn’t have servers, we were 100-percent takeout and the tips that came in were split between our staff.” Reopening to dine-in service brought back the old system of tips for servers, from which they would routinely and voluntarily tip out the kitchen staff. This, he notes, effectively left cooks and chefs with a paycut, their shares having gone down in percentage from the takeout-only system.

Stark says an experienced “sashimi chef and server are equally valuable,” and even a 40/60 split doesn’t reflect that. “We want to have a fair distribution of this 18 percent.” Some 75 to 80 percent of the staff at Sushi Spot’s three locations, he says, work back of house, including seven chefs with 10 years of experience each. “We’re trying to create a system where it doesn’t matter if you’re in the front or the back.”

The American tipping system can, Stark says, undermine teamwork, motivating servers to guard their sections rather than helping each other out during a rush or with a large party, while kitchen staff can be less invested in helping servers with diners’ experiences. Hosts, he notes, also make fewer tips than servers, which can make it difficult to find someone willing to perform an important role in a full-service restaurant. This, he says, is not to paint a bad picture of waitstaff or suggest they aren’t deserving, noting the servers on staff are “incredible,” but the system could be more equitable. He says he’s also seen customers harassing servers, doing or saying inappropriate things because “maybe they think they’re entitled because they’re tipping.” (See the Journal’s previous reporting on server harassment, “We’ve All Got Stories,” Feb. 29, 2023.)

On Thursday, Jan. 11, Joe Mazzotti says he had nobody to cook at Mazzotti's, so he didn't open the iconic Arcata Plaza restaurant. "December was probably one of the toughest financial Decembers I’ve had to face," he says, explaining the restaurant was only pulling in about half of its usual $5,000 per night. “My money ran out and I was unable to keep our employees paid on time,” prompting some of the more than 40 staff members to look for work elsewhere. "People gotta do what they gotta do." For him, that means shutting down the restaurant.

UPDATE: In sad salsa-related news, Paco's Tacos, the Eureka Mexican restaurant that briefly dazzled us with its array of salsas, has closed. When contacted by the Journal, the owners responded that the partnership "didn't work out," but they are hopeful that they'll be able to open elsewhere down the road.

PREVIOUSLY: The revolving door spot on Eureka’s Fifth Street Los Sinaloenses and its marvelous white menudo occupied has flipped again. Alfa Torres and her husband Bosacio Villagrana have opened their first restaurtant Paco’s Tacos Taqueria (1134 Fifth St., Eureka) in the spot, bringing big flavor in the form of its salsa bar. A Southern California standard, the array of self-serve salsas has thus far eluded us on the North Coast, and the couple weren’t finding the level of spice they wanted. “It’s something different in Humboldt; no one has it,” says Torres.

Salsa aficionados, your moment has arrived. Lift the stainless steel lid of the salsa bar and reveal a dozen options from dark and oily to bright and creamy. On a recent visit, they included: freshly made chipotle, verde, habanero, pico de gallo, chile de aceite, roja, chile de arbol and guacamole salsas, fresh lime and habanero slices, sliced pepperoncini and pickled jalapeño. Somewhere in that field is the tang and heat you have been looking for, the oily chile de aceite — spiked with chile japones and chile de arbol — and the habanero being closest to the top of the Scoville chart.

Over the phone, chef Rochelle Burgess says she wasn’t looking for a restaurant gig after the abrupt closure of her former post, the Angelina Inn, in Fernbridge. Her work as a personal chef was going well enough and she wasn’t eager to work for someone else again. But after a friend tipped her off to a Craigslist post that sounded right up her alley, she got curious. A meeting with Carriage House owner Shannon Yodowitz and a cooking test later, and Burgess says, laughing, “It’s just been both feet and arms in.” The restaurant at 937 10th St. in Arcata (formerly The Griffin), is set for a soft opening Sept. 30, followed by a few days closed to fine tune the menu using diner feedback before opening for good.

That cooking test, held in Yodowitz’s home kitchen, was indicitave of the Carriage House menu and Burgess’ style: udon with preserved lemon butter and shaved fennel, and, per Yodowitz’s request, a BLT. The former served as an example of Burgess’ interest in international influences and local ingredients, as well as her love of a thick noodle. (She is an unreserved fan, she says, of the underappreciated bucatini.) The latter was to see if she could perfect something simple and classic.