Waikiki’s plans for Uncle Paddy’s; Weiswasser voted Best New ?California chef; April in Carneros and Tomatomania this weekend

Just in:

Karen Waikiki’s new plan for the boarded up former Uncle Paddy’s restaurant in Boyes Hot Springs will turn it into a small-plates and pizza restaurant just outside the entrance to the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn. The entire community will cheer the improvements planned by Sonoma architect Adrian Martinez.

Martinez says they are planning a “neighborhood restaurant with a long bar, rehabilitating it with an old storefront look, including a lovely patio while saving the large valley oak in the back.”

Waikiki restored, owns and manages El Molino Central as well as her Primavera tamale shop in San Francisco’s Ferry Building. Go, Karen!

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Ari Weiswasser, proprietor/chef of Glen Ellen Star and husband of Erinn Benziger-Weiswasser, won Food & Wine magazine’s online “The People’s Best New Chef” in California title.

Many of the leaders, including California winner Weiswasser, retained public relations and social media firms to boost their chances, all of which does not detract from his great and interesting food.

The 100 nominees for the People’s Best New Chef included 10 chefs in 10 regions across America. With his win, Weiswasser became a finalist, which is a great honor.

Weiswasser has worked in top kitchens on both coasts including New York’s Restaurant Daniel, Picholine, and Paul Liebrandt’s Corton and at the French Laundry in Yountville.

Weiswasser utilizes the fabulous vegetables from the Benziger’s biodynamic and organic garden, along with fine meats and poultry, most cooked in a wood-fired oven in clay casuelas. I am totally hooked on his veggies, especially the cauliflower when it’s in season. While I have been to some of his suckling pig and paella group dinners, I have yet to try the much-touted chicken.

Should you not be able to get a reservation or walk in to Glen Ellen Star, several nearby restaurants are also very good. Try Glen Ellen Inn Oyster Grill & Martini Bar, Sondra Bernstein’s fig cafe, Jack London Saloon for hamburgers, and Olive & Vine, Aventine, and Yeti down the road a piece in Jack London Village.

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Speaking of Yeti, they have opened their second Yeti in Santa Rosa in the former Lyons restaurant on Highway 12 at Farmers Lane.

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Dining out sales, primarily fast food and pizza, just surpassed grocery sales in the U.S. for the first time ever, according to Bloomberg News, as forwarded by Lorna Sheridan. What does this say about our economy and our health? Stay tuned.

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April in Carneros this weekend:

April in Carneros rolls around again Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and 19, when you can visit 16 wineries whose soil and climate near San Pablo Bay straddle the Sonoma-Napa border, producing fine chardonnays and pinot noirs. Adastra, Anaba, Bonneau, Ceja, Cline, Enkidu, Homewood, Jacuzzi, Keating, Larson, Meadowcroft, Poseidon, Obsidian Ridge, Robledo, Schug, Tin Barn and Ty Caton wineries will all pour some of their best.

Many tasting rooms will offer small food tastes as relayed by Phyllis Hyland, executive director of Hospitality de los Carneros, as follows: Adastra will pair artisanal cheeses with their wines; Bonneau will serve green olives, charcuterie platters and chocolate truffles; Ceja will have Camacho’s Southern-style BBQ truck and live music; Cline will serve Caggiano sausages; Enkidu will offer Heirloom Fine Foods’ goat cheese tartlets; and Homewood will have Dave Homewood’s favorite, Sunset Catering’s prawns with a dusting of Madeiran Especiaria Feita, vichyssoise, meatballs, pasta with lamb, and chocolate truffles.

Keating, Poseidan and Obsidian Ridge at Cornerstone will all offer empanadas from Park 121; Larson Family Winery hosts the Tips Tri-Tips Trolley; Meadowcroft will serve wild mushroom soup; Robledo offers pork pozole and tacos de carnitas (pork); Schug offers white corn chowder, potato salad with blue cheese and live music, while Tin Barn features truffled mushroom tartlets and goat cheese cheesecake from Melissa Teaff Catering. Advance tickets $45, $10 for designated driver, day of event $50 and $15. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Tickets at carneroswineries.org.

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Tomatomania’s traveling tomato plant sale rolls into Cornerstone south of Sonoma this Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and 19 with tons of tomato plants and all the appropriate garden supplies you might need, and maybe even some you don’t need.

Scott Daigre and Jenn Garbee travel the west selling small tomato plants including rare heirlooms and classic hybrids and even have a new book called, you guessed it, “Tomatomania,” which includes 20 tomato recipes.

Nina Gerety, proprietor of Potter Green & Co., offers 15 percent off if you buy three “Ollas,” which are clay pots you fill with water to supply sub-surface irrigation, reputed to save water while producing more vegetables than any other form of watering. Ceramic artist Stephanie Moore, who has been making and watering with ollas for several years, will be available for conversation and instruction.

Please remember, as well, that our local nurseries are here all year to serve your gardening needs and sell interesting tomatoes, too.

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Enoteca Della Santina brings back Rosanne DeBenedetti on Wednesday, April 22 to present “Cru Artisan Brunello” with several tastes of several Brunello wines “paired with heavy hors d’oeuvres from Dalla Santina’s Trattoria.” $70, $50 wine club members. 6 to 8 p.m. 127 E. Napa St., Sonoma. Tickets at 938-4700 or enotecadellasantina.com.

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Betty Ann Bruno, the angelic maestro of Hula Mai and former television news anchor, has changed the location of the group’s next Kanikapila, or ukulele jam session, from Rossi’s to Sonoma Woman’s Club on Saturday, April 25 from 2 to 4 p.m.

There won’t be any food service, although you can bring your own snacks, and there will be bottled water, sodas and beer available, according to Bruno. She just asks that attendees donate $5 to the Woman’s Club to support their building, recently listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Bruno also welcomes everyone to bring a “uke or guitar and your own music stand.” Or just go listen and smile. Call 996-9379 for more info.

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The Woman’s Club itself will hold a luncheon and fashion show on Saturday, May 2 with a silent auction and drawings with prizes at spas, hotels and boutiques. Models will show fashions from Angelique, Chico’s, and the Total Look, while guests dine on a luncheon of Cobb salad with asparagus, croissants, and Scandia Bakery’s fruit basket cake, all to benefit the club’s high school scholarships, gifts to Sonoma school libraries and other local charities. $35. No host wine bar. 11:30 a.m. 574 First St. E., Sonoma. Call Joyce Murphy at 996-4538, Gail Mandaville at 666-1052 or Mandy Weil at 938-0156 before April 27 to make reservations.

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Kristi Hallamore (Jeppesen), former owner of Glenelly Inn (now the Olea Hotel), is leaving “Sonoma Cheese Factory and An Inn 2 Remember to join Four Sisters Inns as a breakfast chef and Williams-Sonoma at their Sonoma store as a member of the culinary team,” according to her Facebook posting, saying “Things are starting to look up a bit.”

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The Olive Press just won a gold medal for their Lunigiana Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil at Italy’s Biol 2015 Competition. Lunigiana, which was the name of Olive Press co-founder Ed Stolman’s estate, means “Land of the Moon” in Italian. While the oil won a medal at this competition for nine years, this is the first time Nancy and Fred Cline’s EVOO won gold here.

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Food world losses, near and far:

The monumentally great Jacques Pepin suffered a stroke recently and is at home according to his daughter, Claudine Pepin.

Locally we lost Charlie Monroe, loving husband of Liz Monroe, sister of Red Grape co-owner Sam Morphy. Charlie’s silver grey hair stood out behind the Red Grape’s bar as he welcomed beer, wine and iced tea lovers equally. We have missed Liz since she retired as occasional hostess at the First Street West eatery to take care of Charlie. Many of us were rooting for him.

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Regionally we lost Nan Tucker McEvoy, the brilliant former cub reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle and granddaughter of Michael DeYoung, who founded the Chronicle in 1865. She inherited one-third of the Chronicle Publishing Company, where she chaired the board from 1981 to 1995, having worked with President Kennedy to establish the Peace Corps. She was a pioneer of organic olive growing and olive milling on her vast acreage near the Sonoma-Marin county line. To this day, two Royal typewriters sit at McEvoy Ranch’s wine tasting bar.

McEvoy also chaired the Smithsonian American Art Museum, established the country’s largest certified organic estate-produced olive oil plant, was named Food Artisan of the Year by Bon Appetit magazine, and was named Woman of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine.

Ironically, she, Jerry and I became political friends at fundraisers at the San Francisco home of Mary and Steve Swig. The three of us always gathered to sit on the window seat off the main salon and staircase where guests such as Bobby Kennedy Jr., Al Franken, Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi would speak.

It was also at the Swigs’ San Francisco home that we met Bob and Chandra Friese, who became good friends and hosted us for lunch at their Sonoma home where we met dear Merla Zellerbach. Merla was a fabulous reporter and editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and the Nob Hill Gazette and a crusader and fundraiser for “Compassion & Choices,” which advocates a person’s right to choose how to die. Chandra Friese co-chairs this year’s annual fundraising luncheon. We lost Merla Zellerbach a very few months ago.

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Last Saturday, Henri and I had the pleasure of taking a culinary tour of McEvoy Ranch’s kitchen garden, in at least two parts. Head gardener and winemaker Margaret Koski-Kent led us first through the more formal area, close to Mrs. McEvoy’s beloved “Pavilion” and named the Phyllis Mary Garden for Nan’s mother, Phyllis Mary Tucker, with its exquisite mounds of dirt and mulch with more elegant vegetables than one person could grow. Then we climbed up the hill to old terraces being revamped and revitalized in this totally organic and biodynamic 550 acres of heaven.

Nan McEvoy bought the property from the Morelli family, who raised cattle there for 100 years. Originally she didn’t plant grapes because everyone else did. She loved France and Italy and the olive oils from both, which she used to bring home in half-gallon jugs. Currently 80 acres are planted in olive trees, meaning 18,000 of them. Hence their olive oil body care product line called “80 Acres.”

The garden, orchard, ponds and even their compost piles are certified organic. Half of the ranch’s electricity comes from the white windmill high on a hill, and the other half comes from Marin Clean Energy.

Nan’s son, Nion McEvoy, took over management a couple of years ago as Mrs. McEvoy neared the end of her 95 years. He is introducing things like business plans while preserving the beauty, sustainability, and Mrs. McEvoy’s kindness and willingness to encourage people to develop new skills and creativity. In fact, according to Koski-Kent, all employees used to gather in the Pavilion for lunch from the garden and wine to enjoy the fruits of their labors.

Those employees eventually convinced Mrs. McEvoy to allow them to plant some pinot noir vines, and they now care for 8.5 acres of various varietals. Koski-Kent, a horticulture graduate of UC Davis studied winemaking at Napa College and now also serves as winemaker. And we got to taste the first pour of her brand new Rosebud Rose right out of the barrel Saturday morning.

Head Chef Gerald Gass demonstrated and shared recipes and tastes of picked-as-we-walked artichoke and asparagus salad with Redwood Hill Farm Terra sprinkled on top, young fava bean salad with flowers and Cowgirl Creamery Mount Tam wedge, potato and green garlic soup, and estate grown Mineola Tangelo frozen yogurt. All of this was accompanied by the Rosebud, McEvoy’s newly released Evening Standard Pinot Noir, and Red Piano Mediterranean Blend, along with a table of charcuterie including Point Reyes Toma cheese and McEvoy olives and olive oil.

Sorry, but the next culinary tour will be in the fall. Will keep you posted.

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Bon appetit!