On Sunday, April 29, some 15 chefs and amateurs battled for the Spamley Cup at Redwood Fields in Cutten, whipping up schmancy SPAM dishes for some 750 attendees. The event also raised $9,000 for Humboldt CASA. Over the phone, organizer Mike Vitiello retells the salty competition’s origin story: Nine years ago, a handful of chefs […]
Food
Posted inEat + Drink
Glamping at Campground
Going for woodland chic in Humboldt risks redundancy but the vibe at Campground (865 Ninth St., Arcata), the landlocked cousin of Salt, is a bit more Swedish cabin hotel, with its deconstructed forest of birch stalks separating the bar from the tables and the homey blue and white tile flooring. Blackout curtains obscure the Bret […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Bread and Sugar: Pan Dulce from El Pueblo
When fire shut down El Pueblo Market on Broadway in Eureka, it left a sweet roll-sized hole in our hearts and stomachs. While we wait for the market and its wall of baked goods to reopen — soon, we hear, though there’s no firm date — we’re feeding our pan dulce cravings at its Redwood […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Equinox Dinner Canceled Due to Five Eleven Fire
Untie your bibs, folks. The Equinox in Old Town benefit dinner for Humboldt County Office of Education’s Nutrition Programs and Services set for Monday, March 19 is called off, at least for now. The seven-course feast prepared by a team of local chefs — from Five Eleven, Mazzotti’s, Ramone’s, Vista Del Mar, Kyoto and Le […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Coming Soon: New Pizza in Old Town
If you were wondering if anybody was ever going to light up the darkened windows of The Ritz, that’s a yes. Sort of. The Madrone Brick Fire Pizza and Taphouse is moving into the Opera Alley side of the 321 Third St. address, having split the kitchen and claimed its brick oven. Which also makes the Journal […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Early Oyster Fest Lineup
Maybe you can still revel in the moment when it’s this chilly and rainy out, but we’re dreaming of sunshine and looking at the early lineup for the Arcata Bay Oyster Festival on June 16, when we’ll be ambling around in the sunshine with stainless steel beer cups and slurping the fruits of Humboldt’s waters […]
Posted inEat + Drink
A Mess of Ribs
If fighting over politics isn’t intense enough for you, may I suggest ribs? Even within the guidelines of competition judging, our personal and regional aesthetics make the whole business like drawing from a deck of wild cards. Still, the pros will generally tell you that for competition ribs, the meat should cling lightly to the […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Sub Conscious
Graduations, birthdays, christenings, communions and shotgun weddings — any event worth filling the yard with folding chairs in my hometown back east meant a 6-foot-sub. Laid out on a long table would be a seemingly endless loaf of Italian bread stuffed with layers of salami, ham, pepperoni, provolone and peppers doused in oil and red […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Cool Ink, Hot Wings and Hot Dogs
The ninth annual Inked Hearts Tattoo Expo at the Blue Lake Casino & Hotel in Blue Lake last weekend wrapped the usual work of more than 30 talented tattoo artists around a few new features. Event organizers Ted and Amy Marks added the Hot Wings of Death Challenge and the all-bulldog Super Bully Bowl Pageant […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Morning, Porkchop
So if we’re willing to blur the line between breakfast and lunch, we may as well luge down the slippery slope to dinner. We’re really only an order of steak and eggs away. Abandon labels and be free. Well, at least until Cafe Waterfront (102 F St., Eureka) stops serving breakfast around 11 a.m. We […]
Posted inEat + Drink
It’s All Gravy
In the interest of transparency, I would like to confess that I have been closed minded about biscuits and gravy. Haunted by a decades-ago plate at a truck stop near the border of Texas and Arkansas with payphones in the dining booths, it was hard to accept any variation on the standard dusty-topped, fluffy biscuit […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Is Brunch Dead?
A few weeks ago, iconic pop star and holder of Champagne flutes Mariah Carey declared brunch over. On some level, she may be right. We may be done waiting in line (Mimi would never) to pay through the nose for swanky, Instagram-ready cloud eggs and a pass to day drink. But old-fashioned brunch — the […]