I mentioned that a couple months ago I tried to track down every possible santa cruz place in my mind that I would miss if I moved away. I was trying to avoid a couple things.

First I didn’t want to associate the place with a particular time that I had there but more of the general feeling one gets on a day to day basis. There are a few exceptions like events that happen at a particular place. But in these exceptions the reflections are less personal.

Secondly I tried very hard to keep it within Santa Cruz proper. Not LiveOak not Capitola not Felton etc etc. There are of course exceptions to this as well but I think that I can be forgiven for those.

Thirdly there is no particular order to the list. The numbering helps the points stand out but its not a ranking.

I don’t think this list is finished. But its not doing anything sitting on my computer and so why not post it? It’ll be interesting to get some feedback and I’m sure I’ll think of more things in the months to come.

Here’r goes:

1. Pergolesi Cafe and the crowd it attracts
2. Santa Cruz Roasting Company coffee but not the cafe
3. Lulu Carpenter’s for the atmosphere though the crowd is a bit much
4. The circle at the end of Pacific where you can talk and it echos back at you. Also talking to a friend in the arc of the planter.
5. Streetlight … though I haven’t been able to afford a CD in years
6. Logos wonderful to browse difficult if not impossible to find what you want. But there’s always that time when you find the “holy grail” item you’ve been looking for and it makes you fall in love all over again.
7. Bookshop Santa Cruz I love the bookmarks you get with each purchase and the best magazine selection ever. Also easy to find what you are looking for (see Logo’s above)
8. Chocolat … best hot chocolate ever!
9. Bocci’s good italian food and Roger is always there for a laugh. Jazz Jam Sunday’s and the most hilarious Karaoke ever.
10. Charlie Hong Kongs … its a stretch to call this chinese food but the veggies are fresh and the little hot-dog stand type building is wonderful especially on a rainy day.
11. The double O … Darts, pool and lung cancer
12. Linda’s Seabreeze … yum yums for breakfast. Best omelets in town. (sorry Jeffery’s and Walnut Str)
13. The Central Public Library … quaint though small. Good Video selection. Nice place to use the internet if you are homeless.
14. The Civic and Louden Nelson Center… the only place to see hip hop in the county since Palookaville closed though I prefer the fungus fair.
15. Taqueria Vallarta … the high school cafeteria of downtown Santa Cruz
16. Gateways God, Buddha and Shiva rest its soul … though we got a ridiculous Palo Alto style Apartment building (1010 Pacific) and now we are getting an American Apparel. Out with the hippie in with the yuppie and hipster!
17. Ocean View park … ahh marvelous!
18. Neighborhood West of Seabright and East of the flats … especially during the fourth of July.
19. The Natural History Museum … BEES!!!! BUZZZZZZZZZZZ
20. Lighthouse point… see the surfers at Steamers. Hop the fence on a full moon for a pretty view of the ocean and see the milky way dust.
21. Natural bridges and the tide pools. caution: slippery when wet. Don’t forget the butterflies! Also there is a tiny aquarium tucked in that neighborhood.
22. West Cliff drive … car sickness anyone? In really bad storms the waves spill up onto the road right around Fair.
23. That trippy Masonic house on Fair Ave. Someday we will break in and shoot a music video there.
24. The Giant Dipper. Come on! Best roller-coaster ever? Of course! The camera is right after the first dip after you come around the big turn. I think they blur your photo if you flip it off though.
25. The Flats … crack on every corner … hoe’s for every bro.
26. The Boardwalk … the smell of cotton candy and corn-dogs are magical. Tuesday nights in the summer are the key … though in another year the price will probably be on par with the rest of the week.
27. The Pacific Garden Mall. The hippies/punk kids in front of New Leaf … then Borders … now: “what hippies?” Christmas lights that get slashed and the city can’t afford to repair them. The phantom Cooper House that supposedly was the heart of downtown.
28. Walnut Ave Cafe … scrambles, scrambles, scrambles.
29. 99 bottles … did you finish your card yet? Maybe we should do that before moving out of town. $300 to get a tiny plaque on the wall. I hear you are supposed to mix the honey mustard with ranch… sounds odd but it comes from a good source.
30. Rosies… ahhh Rosie’s the bro’s Irish Pub. What other Irish pub has hiphop DJs?
31. Saturn Cafe … once they stopped the 24 hour thing this place became a lot more ubiquitous with the rest of the diners though gotta love the spunk of the waitpersons. Cheesy fries with ranch dressing!
32. Jalapenos yum yum burritos for cheap
33. Planet Fresh spinach tortillas, Thai burritos, sweet heat salsa
34. Red (also called “The Red” or “The Red Upstairs”) for rosemary french fries and dirty martinis
35. The Red Room fire hazards on your way to order long island ice teas and seeing all the art, music and film people.
36. The Rush Inn cheap cheap irish car bombs. and never getting to the pool table cause you showed up too late.
37. The Nasti Asti. Ha. I’m sure a lot of stories for that one.
38. The Avenue: Drink and Drown is like your high school reunion minus the acid and add a pitcher of beer.
39. The Catalyst … the only large music venue in Santa Cruz and what a smell out front!
40. Little Shanghai … lunch buffet noodles and Mongolian Barbeque
41. The Thai House coconut soup and curries. This place stays in business for years while half a block away is the former Rock ‘n Tacos, Sushi Boat, Noodle House and currently soon to be Bakery within the span of three years.
42. Sabieng Thai iced Tea good lunches.
43. The King and I so sad to see you go but seriously what’s up with all the Thai food? Can’t we get more decent Chinese food? What about Indian?
44. Westside Video Here’s to grouping videos by director and Five for Five rocks!
45. The Nick oh how I miss the midnight movie in that theater. The theater that is like the size of your living room is choice too.
46. The Del Mar Kudos to the city and citizens for backing this treasure. Its so much nicer on the inside than it used to be. Good picture quality for an indie theater too. What would kids under 21 do on Fridays and Saturdays if not for the midnight movie?
47. Marianne’s Ice Cream … love the malts indeed. Such strange flavors too.
48. The Grog Shop the name says it all.
49. Beach City Gas Free coffee with a fill up? Every gas station should have that!
50. Falafal at a couple places … Falafal Hut and the one on mission where Bahia used to work. The one on Beach St. has good Humus. Also that greek restaraunt on mission has good atmosphere.
51. New Leaf the bulk bins here rule. Also sandwiches from the deli.
52. The Big Blue Victorian on Felix and Laurel. Justine and Kelly used to live there … now its a day care but the color makes me happy.
53. The big football field behind the high school: good for frisbee.
54. De Laveaga park.
55. Campus: The east field, science hill, the meadow by the music center, the path between the music center and oakes, the media theater, the porter squiggly.
56. San Lorenzo park and its random festivals
57. The Riverfront Twin which has the weirdest architecture. If you sit in the right spot and concentrate it’ll feel like you are looking down on the screen.
58. That wooden pelican over on San Lorenzo just below the hill in front of the apartment complex.
59. The corner of Barson and Campbell ahhhhh prostitution 🙂
60. The circles Wilkes and Walk … haven’t been to the general stores there but they look awesome
61. Shopper’s Corner …. how do I love thee! Let me count the ways.
62. Neary Lagoon I like how the wood bobs up and down as you walk over the water.
63. That park on the other side of the water treatment plant on Bay. Contrast is the spice of life.
64. The corner of Mission and Bay and I miss Marcelos 🙁 Cafe Lola is nice but pricey.
65. Cafe Brazil … long waits good coffee or is it nescafe?
66. California street right by the high school.
67. Santa Cruz High
68. Zazu Pitts’ house
69. Jack’s … makes me wish I ate beef.
70. Lower Walnut between the highschool and downtown. One of the most beautiful residential streets in the world.
71. The railroad tressle from the boardwalk into Seabright … also the tracks just on the other side leading to Seabright Ave.
72. The house on the corner of Lincoln and Center.
73. The haunted victorian on the hill overlooking the boardwalk.
74. Braciforte school.
75. Mission hill. And the inside of Holy Cross Church. The view from the historic mission and the grounds around there. Majestic.
76. The clock tower and fountain
77. Las Palmas. Best atmosphere in a taqueria.
78. El Palomar. Love the high ceilings.
79. The harbor: the little lighthouse and the Crow’s nest especially upstairs on the fourth of July.
80. Brady’s Yacht club. Most accessible pool table outside of Neptune’s Kingdom.
81. La Bahia … love the cabinets in these old apartments also the center court rocks. I hear its becoming a resort spa : P How sad 🙁
82. San Lorenzo Lumber great selection of wood (ha ha) and plant selection. Miss the “Support our Troops” banner and the hand-written receipts.
83. The River street sign the thing you most love to hate in Santa Cruz.
84. Longs Drugs downtown becoming 24 hours made my life so much easier.
84. Trader Joes easier and better than Capitola though Zanattos had better crappy sushi
85. Mobo Sushi: Emerald City, Crop Burning best veggie sushi ever!
86. Cathcart street …. awww the memories one of the best designed side streets downtown minus the parking lot behind Hoffmann’s
87. Hoffmann’s bakery just walk up to the counter and avoid the crowds some of the best coffee downtown.
88. The Wharf. Olita’s taco Tuesday/Thursdays! I hear chowder in a bread bowl is awesome though I don’t eat it. Finally seeing where those loud barking noises coming into my window are coming from. (Seals! duh.)
89. Pacific Extension cutting up the hill is shorter. We used to call it “dog poop” hill for obvious reasons. From there you can see the “door to no where” which sticks out from the side of beach hill. “Don’t go out that way!”
90. Beach Hill the houses at the top are good on 3rd I like the one that seems like a boat and those little brick apartments heading back towards the boardwalk.
91. The steps at the end of cliff Street coming down to Laurel Extension from Beach hill. Slippery when wet!
92. The steps coming down from mission hill onto Pacific nice and concreted. See the last ruins from Loma Prieta. Supposedly this is where a Rock fell onto the Old Crepe Place but that was before my time.
93. Squid Row! best street name in Santa Cruz!
94. City Hall kinda feels like the way the mission would feel if it was built in the 30s. Nice fountains and grass
95. The big victorian on Chestnut street that houses foreign exchange students. Got a tour of it once. Very nice.
96. The UTC ahhhh the 4th and 5th floors and hanging out the window precariously. The lounge being so much nicer than you think it would be.
97. The Safeway on Mission. The convenience store of UCSC students.
98. Escalona St. The only free parking near campus … its actually quite far from campus.
99. King Street. Speed bumps!! WHEEEEEEE!
100. The corner of High and Highland. Nice apartments further up. Interesting bike lane construction. That church down Highland is nice.
101. The bicycle highway along the river. Nice nice nice. They should clean up the river though and put a pedestrian bridge closer to the Highway 1 interchange so that you aren’t forced to go up to water.
102. The Fishhook interchange at 17/hwy 1/Ocean street. Sadly this is going to disappear too.
103. The Kragen on Water. Huge signs saying “no auto work in parking lot” and four guys lined up with their hoods popped.
104. The Medical center on Water… weird modern design with a traffic circle with a pharmacy in the middle.
105. Branciforte creek and trying to walk down it without getting hit by a car.
106. Asian Rose downtown and the sit down one on Soquel that was apparently was called Malbar and was changed to Asian Rose but is now back to Malbar at last check.
107. Parwana Afghani food yum… though got food poisoning there :/
108. The Rio nice venue. Excellent reuse of an old movie theater. Good job booking acts.
109. Chill Out Cafe Breakfast Burritos ROCK HERE!
110. The Jury Room good bartenders if you aren’t a wuss… just act tough and they’ll hook you up. (caveat: I am a wuss and don’t look tough so if I can do it you can too)
111. Bay Photo… both locations are good but the downtown one looks prettier on the inside. They send out their black and white to scotts valley anyway. Let’s see how long this place stays in business; another victim of the digital age :/ I’ll be sad when this place goes 🙁
112. The Buttery good coffee
113. Atlantis Comics Atlantis Dollars and interesting design make this more than a comic store.
114. The Cayuga Vault: still only peaked inside but the outside looks great.
115. That little cliff that you can walk out onto that separates Seabright and Main beaches. Pretty soon someone will fall off and they’ll close it like they did at the lighthouse. Until then ENJOY! Its Awesome! 😀
116. Albrights Donuts … go there enough times and you don’t have to order they’ll just bring it to you without even saying anything. The couple that runs this place is soo sweet too.
117. The Mystery Spot … great bumper stickers to be got.
118. KPIG radio also great bumper stickers
119. Cole’s Barbeque oh my god the freakin best barbeque in the county!

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