Hearty fare in downtown Santa Cruz
Sheila Himmel - Mercury News
Published: Sunday, July 17, 2005
Hoffman's Bakery Cafe has image issues. Bakery cafe sounds like scones and coffee, which Hoffman's has mastered, but the menu spans the globe from huevos rancheros to hamburgers, tofu saute to sauerbraten. From the front door on downtown Santa Cruz's eclectic Pacific Avenue, you mostly see the bakery side of the business. But Hoffman's is open for three meals a day and has live jazz every night.
At the breakfast or dinner end of a visit to the beach, this family-run cafe is an excellent choice.
At night, the longtime chef of Ben Lomond's landmark Tyrolean Inn, Udo Lutkins, brings his way with Wienerschnitzel to Hoffman's. Lutkins happened to be out with a bum foot when I visited at lunch, and Hoffman's was still good.
The age range at Hoffman's is refreshing. It's a good place for reminding yourself that senior citizens can still eat out, and you will, too, when you get to that point in life. Also there are children, business people and pierced young adults.
Sixty seats inside are set at comfortable booths and tables on the carpeted restaurant half of the room. The long and luscious bakery counter commands the other side, but more on that later.
June's meatloaf
The Hoffmans are June, the business side, and Ed, who trained with German and Swiss bakers in Santa Cruz, and became well known for wedding cakes. The family moved to the Seattle area and had a bakery there for 16 years, but when their children went to the University of California-Santa Cruz and UC-Santa Barbara, back they came and opened Hoffman's in August 2001. Now the younger Hoffmans, Adam and Marie, also are familiar faces to regular patrons.
June's meatloaf ($12.95 at dinner, $8.95 for a smaller portion at lunch) is the No. 1 seller for good reason. At lunch you get two slabs, meaty inside and slightly toasted outside so there's a crust and not the scum that many of us grew up with. June adapted a Craig Claiborne recipe when Adam and Marie were young, in an effort to erase the memory of her mother's meatloaf. June's carrot-studded meatloaf comes with garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables such as just-cooked, not over-cooked, asparagus, zucchini and mushrooms.
Also popular at dinner are the two New York steaks. Three types of peppercorn feature in the from-scratch demiglace surrounding an 8-ounce peppercorn steak ($22.95). Rostbraten ($22.95) is a steak covered with fried onions and wild mushrooms, nestled with a Yukon gold potato pancake. The other Germanic entree is a sausage platter with sauerkraut and hot potato salad ($14.50). Sausages are from Saag's of San Leandro.
Seafood comes from Stagnaro's in Santa Cruz and follows the Monterey Bay Aquarium list of sustainable seafood. For a sampler, try the Pacific Rim salad ($11.95), with a mixed grill of three fat scallops, two prawns and two tasty hunks of salmon. They rest on baby lettuces tossed with roasted macadamia nuts, water chestnuts and red and yellow bell peppers in a light but kicky lime-cilantro vinaigrette. The Pac Rim can be done with chicken instead of seafood. Underripe tomatoes are the only unwelcome addition.
Hoffman's Caesar salad ($8.95) is enlivened with crisp, pan-fried anchovies and an almost invisible, but very tasty, lemon-inflected white wine vinaigrette. Chopped romaine lettuce is much crisper than the large lattice cracker of parmesan-style cheese that cradles the salad. A hearty softball-size wheat roll and slab of cold butter accompany.
Fish tacos ($8.95) vary with the fish of the day but often feature grilled salmon wrapped in two flour tortillas, steamed, with a cup of black beans.
The crab melt ($8.95), like all Hoffman's sandwiches, is built on their own fresh-baked bread. Toasted sourdough supports an open-faced sandwich of fresh crab salad mixed with peppers and minimal bread crumbs, topped with tomato slices and Swiss cheese. It melts nicely after a quick turn in a salamander broiler.
Well-rounded meals
The one-third pound Angus hamburger ($8.95) comes on a Kaiser roll, with soup or salad, at lunch or dinner.
If you're looking for trendy small plates, Hoffman's isn't the place. Even the appetizers aren't dainty. Favorite dinner appetizers include house-cured gravlax with potato pancake and sour cream ($9.95), coconut prawns ($9.95) and a chicken quesadilla ($7.95).
Every entree is a well-rounded meal, to which you can add soup or salad for $1.95. Soup of the day recently was a bland tomato basil. We should've had lentil or French onion.
Breakfast especially is not dainty, featuring fluffy three-egg omelets, eggs Benedict and French toast. Sunday brunch is Hoffman's busiest time, with 400 to 500 meals served. Picky eaters, come on in. My cholesterol-counting companion constructed a delicious egg-white omelet with salmon, spinach, mushrooms and feta cheese ($8.95). It came with crusty potatoes and a terrific lemon-currant scone she was forced to share with me.
You could come to Hoffman's just for the pastries, and strong coffee or superior soy chai latte ($2.75). The cinnamon crisp ($2.25) is not deep-fried and sticky, but baked puff pastry with sweet edges. Ed Hoffman takes no shortcuts. He makes his own puff pastry and uses sweet butter. To taste what he can do with butter, try a raspberry shortbread cookie ($1.65).
The bakery side of Hoffman's packs a twinkling display of princess (green) tortes, lemon chiffon and strawberry genoise. There are fresh loaves of bread and croissants, and then, Black forest, Italian rum and fresh carrot cakes.
On the table, Hoffman's sets a little vase of fresh flowers and cloth napkins. Wines focus on the Santa Cruz Mountains, with good choices by the glass and half-bottle. Wines and appetizers are half price at Happy Hour, weeknights 5 to 6. Stop me before I head over the hill again.
Hoffman's Bakery Cafe1102 Pacific Ave., near Cathcart, Santa Cruz.
The Dish Sunny, family-run cafe with a bakery attached. Menu spans the globe. All the portions are hearty.
Price range Breakfast $3.95-$8.95. Lunch $6.95-$12.95. Dinner appetizers $7.95-$9.95, entrees $8.95-$22.95. Corkage $10.
Details Wine and beer. Patio.
Pluses Big, well-rounded meals. Bakery attached. Breakfast till 4 p.m.
Minuses Small missteps, like bland soup. Erratic service.
Hours 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays.
Restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously. The Mercury News pays for all meals.
