Posted on 10/22/2024 2:51:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The new-ish restaurant has Michelin cred and 'The Cannoli God of Santa Cruz'
About 75 miles south of San Francisco, Felton is known for the Bigfoot Discovery Museum and the Roaring Camp Railroads. But now, after earning a cult following for smash burgers and cannoli, a new bistro is making its case as a reason for trekking to this tiny town in Santa Cruz County.
“Everything we do, technique-wise, you can find in Michelin-starred restaurants,” said chef-owner Lance Ebert, who in July launched Emerald Mallard in downtown Felton’s historic Cremer House. “But we want to execute this type of food for normal folks — to make it accessible for everyone, not just the wealthy and elite, in a relaxed environment. We call it caviar service for construction workers.”
Recently, the ever-changing menu — “dictated by the farmers, fishers, hunters and foragers,” Ebert said — topped out at $60 for a 10-ounce dry-aged prime rib-eye from Marin’s Flannery Beef, grilled over Japanese white oak, accompanied by a 100-layer potato pavé — a two-day endeavor alone — and finished with béarnaise sauce.
Emerald Mallard’s cuisine exhibits French influences, even in its OG Smash Burger. The bestseller comprises two patties, American cheese, house-made burger sauce and additional fixings, spilling out of a pillowy Martin’s potato roll and served with fries for $18.
The meat is cooked in a way that boosts the Maillard reaction, or browning of the amino acids and sugars in food. Wagyu tallow ladled over the patties “creates a nice lacy edge and intensifies the beef flavor,” Ebert elaborated.
A single-patty version, sometimes drenched in bordelaise sauce, and a Nashville chicken sandwich are only $10 each during happy hour, 4 to 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.
“A lot of my background is high-end French cooking and techniques,” said Ebert, 33, who has worked in restaurants for nearly two decades. But in 2020, two Italian foods made him a name in Santa Cruz: cannoli and focaccia.
“My dad’s side of the family is Italian, from Genoa, which is known for focaccia, and I’ve been making cannoli since I was a little guy,” explained the chef, who goes by “s.c.bread_boy” on Instagram.
Before joining Emerald Mallard this summer, sous chef Jerry Rodriguez knew Ebert as “The Cannoli God of Santa Cruz.” “My cannoli are special because I have put everything I have into making them,” Ebert said. “I handle each component with extreme attention: the right amount of sweetness, cream consistency, and the hand-rolled shells that are all made with love.”
Born in San Mateo, Ebert spent his childhood bouncing around Northern California. At 14, he landed a summer job at the restaurant where his mom was the general manager and his stepdad the head chef.
After dropping out of high school in Fairfield, he spent his days skateboarding and cooking. Twelve years ago, he shattered his lower left leg and ankle while skating. “That was the turning point,” he said. “I was like, ‘What do I really want to do?’ I wanted to focus on my cooking and become a great chef.”
He sought experience, not pedigree. “I worked wherever I could, anywhere that was hiring,” Ebert recalled. “I worked my way up, gaining techniques and knowledge, and then moved on to the next restaurant.” Off duty, he experimented at home, honing his bread skills, for example.
In 2015, Ebert moved to Santa Cruz, a place he frequented growing up. When the pandemic began five years later, like many in the industry, he was out of a job.
His friend, and founder of Coffee Conspiracy, Eddie Alaniz started popping up on East Cliff Drive with nitro cold brew. Ebert thought: Why not sell cannoli and focaccia to complement the coffee?
He bought a beat-up Vespa on Craigslist and tricked it out, fashioning a box for the focaccia and cannoli shells, with a fold-out table. Pastry cream was transported in a backpack cooler.
“I didn’t expect the community to embrace my cannoli so enthusiastically,” Ebert said. “The people of Santa Cruz really gave me the push to keep going and made my pop-up business successful.”
He consistently sold out but was dreaming bigger: a bistro of his own. Finding a space proved challenging. So he organized smash burger and ramen pop-ups in the area. “I’ve loved classic smash burgers for years, appreciating the simplicity of a no-nonsense cheeseburger,” he said.
His ramen undertaking was more complex. “I had a long-standing obsession with ramen, and after 10 years of learning, I felt comfortable sharing my version with the public,” Ebert said. At first, he made his own noodles, before partnering with Iseya Craft Noodle. And his adventures in pig-farming with a friend with Mangalitsa pigs yielded the pork for the ramen. “We were doing whole-hog pig roasts and then butchering the pigs for tonkotsu ramen orders,” he recounted.
In summer 2023, Ebert spent a month and a half in Brittany, France, where he worked at the bakery that his winemaker girlfriend’s parents had just opened and immersed himself in the culinary community. “A lot of what I learned in France was techniques, attention to detail, the respect for ingredients and sourcing the best stuff you can,” he said.
Upon returning home, as he cultivated relationships with local purveyors, the search for a restaurant space continued. In January, he struck a deal with Humble Sea Brewing to collaborate on weekend pop-ups in the Cremer House, where the Santa Cruz-based craft beer brand had shuttered its short-lived tavern several months prior but still held the lease. Ebert handled the food, and Humble Sea the drinks.
The two-story venue and neighboring Wild Roots Market are owned by the Locatelli family. The former was built as a hotel in 1876 by Thomas Cremer to house laborers lured by the logging industry and eventually converted to residential and commercial uses. A plaque touches on its colorful past: “Gambling, loose women and liquor flowed freely within its redwood-framed walls.”
The establishment is also connected to a couple of murders: In 1884, a guest was discovered dead in his bed hours after an altercation, and in 1890, a hotel cook stabbed a man on the premises. Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters investigated the property in 2016 and concluded in a website post, “There is in fact an entity that haunts the Cremer House.” Ebert, though, has yet to encounter anything unusual.
Apparitions or not, his fans weren’t scared away. The pop-ups were an instant hit, with smash burgers, croque madames, deviled eggs and Lyonnaise salads, among the draws. Six months on, the partnership became more permanent with Emerald Mallard.
Food orders are taken at a Dutch door on the wraparound porch, with self-seating indoors and out. Also inside, beer, wine, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages are available from the Humble Sea bar.
Emerald Mallard’s crew stands at a dozen. Ebert and Rodriguez — who has done stints at David Kinch’s Mentone in Aptos and Michelin-starred Chez Noir in Carmel-by-the-Sea — devise the weekly menu. (Unsurprisingly, given its name, duck is always present.)
Cannoli and focaccia are peddled on Sunday. The latter is part of a bread program that encompasses baguettes, country loaves and more.
Ebert still makes the cannoli — about 400 every Sunday, with fillings like chocolate chip, hazelnut and pistachio. At $6 each, they often sell out.
In September, the restaurant introduced pasta with a palm-sized raviolo plumped with lobster, leeks cooked in duck fat and fennel soffritto, then topped with lobster jus and parmesan foam. “We wanted to come out with a banger,” Ebert said. “We started at the top, and we’re just going to have to keep ourselves there.”
Well aware of the precedent he set, Rodriguez, the chef behind the decadent raviolo, chimed in that “I kind of f—ked myself.” But, he emphasized, “The cool part was, we only charged $15 for that.”
Utilizing as much of a product as possible — head to tail, root to blossom — helps keep costs down. A trout filet might star as a main protein, while its bones are roasted to create the dashi for poaching liquids and trims incorporated into a beurre monté. “Nothing goes to waste,” Ebert said.
Inspired by renowned French chef Auguste Escoffier, he anticipates using “scraps” for terrines. Rodriguez noted that this approach “comes from the way we both grew up — poor, trying to stretch everything that we can. That’s just how you survive.”
It’s hard not to root for Emerald Mallard to succeed, especially with such crave-worthy and thoughtful fare. Ebert and his team are continually striving to become better at their craft — and in the process, give diners further reason to head to Felton.
“We get to make our own little party here and curate a lot of cool stuff,” he said. “It’s kind of off the beaten path and something special — a hidden gem tucked in the side of the mountain, right next to the river.”
The alcohol is from Humble Sea.
Felton needs more places like this.
There is a place like this in Wiscasset maine called Reds
Lobster rolls
named worlds best multiple times
long lines
and it is good
I think I’ll cancel my reservation at The French Laundry and take a road trip. At least I won’t run into Gavin Newsome here.
What other places are there? I’m not sure I’ve eaten anywhere else there, but there are a few places on the other side of the road.
Sounds like a great day trip
It sure does, even if it is pricey.
I think I use to take my Mom there for Crepes in the late 70’s
Emerald Mallard’s Prime Ribeye & Potato Pavé Frites $60
A 14-day dry-aged prime ribeye (10 ounce) from Flannery Farms in Marin, grilled over Japanese white oak, based in Wagyu beef fat, chives, side of pavé frites, and a cascade of sauce Béarnaise over the steak with a poached egg on top.
You mean at the building? This place just opened this year.
My dad was in the restaurant business, started as a waiter in a Kansas City restaurant, Buck and Gage. He rose through the ranks to become President of B/G a national restaurant chain with restaurants in business districts in many cities.
We went to New Orleans every Easter vacation to visit my beloved grandmother who lived there, and drove around the Gulf coast. He declared that the best restaurant in America was Trilby’s in Pass Christian, Mississippi. He got no arguments, it was fabulous food, owned by a gracious southern woman named Trilby. We should be so lucky to have a Trilby’s now.
I went to the French Laundry when it first opened. Seriously wonderful food.
Newsome sucks rocks.
Mangalista - the Kobe of pork.
It’s been a minute since I lived in Scotts Valley, but I remember Felton as being in this cool spot in the mountains.
We used to hike there, but it seemed like the restaurants were somewhat lacking. I remember a diner and some kind of Italian place that were just meh.
There may be a 500 per person cancellation charge.,
The building
In the late 70’s there were two in town
One there and the other about a mile north of Foster Freeze
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