Shadowbrook

THE BUZZ ON SHADOWBROOK

Two-Fer Tuesdays, every Tuesday choose from the menu;

Appetizers, small plates and starters or pizza, two orders for the price of one.

$4.95 all well drinks, house wine and beer.

Shadowbrook Website

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 Julie's Review:

This was a special happy hour because we were joined by our friendsTeresa and Teri. So this is a J&J and T&T evening. Teri had said she didn't want to come on a dive bar crawl, she wanted to come to a classy happy hour. I had heard about the "Two-Fer Tuesdays"at the Shadowbrook from her, so we decided to check it out. From dive bars to the Shadowbrook is a leap, not a crawl.

 

I confess, I have lived in Santa Cruz over 30 years (that was a revelation when I did the math) and have never been to the Shadowbrook! How did that happen? I have heard about it for years, as one of the nicest and most expensive restaurants in Santa Cruz. Perhaps it was the price that kept me away, but looking at the dinner menu, it's not that expensive.

I love historic places and the Shadowbrook has a long and interesting past. It became a restaurant in 1947, though the building itself is over a 100 years old. It's theme has always been "Romance in Dining" and it is a very romantic and lovely spot.

The restaurant is located on a steep hill overlooking Capitola creek. There is both a long and short version history of the restaurant on their website. There have been many renovations to the different dining areas and bar over the last 50 years and they have created a sweet little paradise with lovely gardens and a waterfalls.

My favorite story is how in 1948 they were trying to get a walk-in refrigerator to the restaurant. They had to daily carry 300 pounds of ice up and down the hill before that. They tried to "zip line" it across on a rope tied to two trees, but the refrigerator was so heavy it pulled down both of the trees and fell in the creek. Fortunately it was cork lined so it floated, so one of the owners swam out to it and rowed it ashore. This sounds like something that would happen in Lompico, since we have had many adventures hauling things up hillsides. I can just picture it. What a great story!

The hardest thing about happy hour is getting there! Even though I am off work it was hard to make it in time. We had agreed to meet at 5:00. I was going to meet Teresa at her house and walk from there, but time got away from me as usual. As I was sitting in rush hour traffic, frustrated - thinking how am I going to be able to make happy hours in Capitola and beyond when you have all this traffic to deal with and they don't have weekend hours? It is a dilemma for the working happy hour connoisseur.

I picked up Teresa and we were only a few minutes late. We were going to try and hoof it over, but Josephine was already at the bar waiting for us.

I went over to look at their bulletin board and discovered there was a dress code. This turned me off, though I realize that being right up the hill from Capitola beach they must get a lot of beach goers. Still "untailored shorts, tank tops and flip flops" seemed a little extreme. It added to my general impression that the Shadowbrook was a bit snooty.

 

We had two options to get to the restaurant - the stairs (which I usually prefer) or the tram. It seemed to me that I had heard you could take a boat up from Capitola village, but no one else seemed to have heard of that, so I might have been confusing it with the tram.

The "cable car" was added in 1958 (the year before I was born). It takes patrons up and down the hill so they don't need to climb the steps. It is self operated and very cool. Their motto "Romance in Dining" is emblazoned on the side. Now whether this is a tram, trolley, cable car is up for debate. Teri insisted it was a funicular. Our response "what the heck is a funicular and how do you spell it?"

A funicular is a cliff railway in which a pair of tram like vehicles on rails move up and down a steep slope, with the ascending and descending vehicles counter balancing each other. Since there is only one car, at the Shadowbrook, it is not a funicular, but an inclinator, or inclined lift. Whatever you call it, it is pretty darn cool and fun to ride. You feel like your in a 1940 movie with the old elevators and the caged door.

Jo had arrived at 5:00 and was already settled with a glass of wine. She had gotten us a nice table by the fireplace. It's good to get here early because the place filled up fast.

The Shadowbrook does not really have a happy hour - they have a "Two-Fer Tuesday from 4:00 to 10:00 pm (closing). Well drinks, beer and wine are $4.95 and small plates and starters, appetizers, and pizza are two for one. This doesn't mean fifty percent off, you just order similarly priced items and get one free.

Our waiter Rob, looked like Willem Dafoe (I'm sure he hears that a lot) and was very patient and attentive with all our questions. I asked If I could get a Bloody Mary as my well drink and he said yes. You can order any mixed drink and as long as it was made with well alcohol it was $5.00. Well, hello, now!!!!!! I was liking this place more and more!

I ordered a spicy Bloody Mary and Teresa ordered a Cosmos. Teri arrived shortly and ordered some sort of "tini". I asked the waiter for water and he was quick to respond, with water for the whole table. The Bloody Mary was delicious, nice garnish, the right level of spiciness and a bit of a kick. Teresa and Teri enjoyed their drinks as well

 

Teri gave me a tour of the restaurant while showing me to the restroom. The restaurant is huge with many different dining areas, all with their own feel. There is the creek side, glass enclosed Greenhouse, the Wine Cellar, the Garden Room, the Fireplace Room, the Redwood Room, the main dining room and the owner's private dining room and the Rock Room Lounge which is where we were hanging.

Teri showed me the Cypress tree in the Garden Room, which is a live tree that the building is built around. It reminds me of the redwood growing up through my deck. I love when nature is incorporated into buildings. There were waterfalls with beautiful rock work. It truly is a five shot atmosphere. All of this overlooks Capitola Creek.

When we returned it was time to get serious about the food. We ordered three small plates and a pizza. The small plates average $10-13 and the pizzas are around $14. We started with the Cuban-style Pork Sliders made with slow roasted shoulder, dill pickle, gruyere and mustard. The House Smoked Salmon came with garlic-herb cheese spread, pickled red onion and caper salsa and roasted rye bread.

 

To balance out the price of the pizza we got the Antipasto Platter - assorted salami, marinated olives, roasted garlic, cornichons, fava beans, roasted asparagus, cured tomatoes and imported Parmesan. Our pizza selection was the Castroville with artichoke hearts, olive oil, spinach, garlic, gruyere and Parmesan cheese with roasted chicken.

At this point I was ready to try my second drink and wanting to stick with vodka, I had a vodka gimlet. We had moved the table so we could be closer, but this meant I was trapped behind the table. Everyone thought it would be great to get a shot of the cook tossing the pizza in the air, so thus began the game of "try to get the pizza shot". By the time I became disentangled from the table and raced over to take the shot, he was done tossing.

 

There is one shot with the pizza in the air - can you see it? I was so busy trying to get the damn pizza shot, that I missed the much more important photo of my vodka gimlet! In fact we got so carried away having a good time, that we didn't get any more drink photos- well maybe Josephine did!

One good thing with all the up and down of the pizza shot hunting - I was able to chat with several of our neighbors. One couple lives near by and comes regularly to the Shadowbrook. I also talked with a woman who had both hands in casts. She was leading a moonlight hike and had tripped and fallen. The waiters were attentive in bringing pillows to cushion her arms.

Teri kept us entertained with her stories of amazing feats of physical and mental endurance while passing the tests to become a Santa Cruz sheriff. The competition is stiff, but a woman of this strength, determination and compassion would be a great addition to the force.



Then the food arrived. It was delicious. The pork sliders were grilled like panini and were tiny, but quite tasty. We all enjoyed the many delicacies of the antipasto tray. The salmon was delicious, as was the pizza. The table was crowded with plates and the waiter kept trying to clear space, but we wouldn't let any plate go until the last olive or slice of pizza had been finished.

No doggie bags for us!!!

We had five shot service from Rob from start to finish. Kendall, the bus boy (or water boy as we called him) was right on the spot to refill our water glasses. He was really hustling, but always kept our empty glasses on his radar. He agreed to let us take his picture for the blog. He was a real sweetie.

The place was really hopping at this point. To the point people were trying to share the couch with us. It was great that Jo got there early and we had great seats. ( we know how much I like a good seat). We had a great view for people watching. Folks were in their casual finest. My friends Barbara and Bob showed up which was fun.

Teresa and I made another trip to the restroom and went down to the outdoor patio area. It was quite lovely. Teresa shared past memories of dinners at the Shadowbrook. We returned and ate and drank some more until every crumb was gone. It was a delightful evening.

Teresa and I are both on vacation, so we decided to walk down to Capitola Village. Teri joined us, even though she had to get up early in the morning. Josephine, working woman that she is headed for home.

In front of the restaurant, we discovered the Shadowbrook 1950 Dodge taxi which offers a complimentary pick up and return for the close hotels and locals who live close by (a several mile radius). How cool is that? Give them a call at  831-475-1511 .

I asked our T &T counterparts what their ratings would be: Teresa gives them a 5 shot rating, Teri gives them 4.5 as long as we are evaluating Two-Fer Tuesdays.

I was very impressed with the Shadowbrook. It is truly lovely and gets five shots for ambiance, service and food and drinks. The down sides are the limited hours and having a special only once a week, combined with higher prices. Still Two-Fer Tuesday is a deal and I will return to this lovely and historic restaurant.

Julie's Rating: 4.5 shots 

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Jo's Review

The shadowbrook is the type of restaurant that screams romance. It has a beautiful setting nestled on the hill above the Capitola creek in the quaint little town of Capitola-by-the-Sea. There are two ways to arrive at the front door. If you take the stairs down you are surrounded in a beautiful tropical setting of ferns, flowers, waterfalls and a Koi pond.

Or you can ride the romantic little tram up and down the hillside. Now the tram was a topic of discussion because everyone had a different word for it. We were joined by two of our friends for this happy hour, Teri and Teresa. I do enjoy having others with us on our adventures. Anyways as we were talking about the cool tram, cable car, trolley, thingy 

Teri pops up and says it's a funicular. I just smile because I have no idea what she is talking about so I'm glad Julie asked, “what's a funicular. According to the dictionary it is a cable type car that has both an up and down car to balance it. Well we had quite the discussion about it and let's just say draw your own conclusions about it. I must admit that was the first time I had even heard the word funicular but as were leaving a couple coming down the stairs were taking a picture that we jumped out of the way for. They said to us, “thanks we wanted to get a picture of the funicular”. O.K. so know I have heard the word twice. Anyways it's a fun ride up and down the hill.

So the restaurant has many levels. You start with just a small patio, kind of a waiting area I guess. The bar is also at this level and the dining area is down another level. The dining area is of course the romantic area that has a dress code and dining with that special someone if you want to fancy it up. The Shadowbrook has been known as the fancy restaurant you probably can't afford unless you have a rich date. Well that is no necessarily the case and I'm very happy about that. 

The bar area is large and sort of it's own entity. A large bar with stools and a smaller cooking bar where the chefs are busy tossing pizza dough and making platters of yummy food. The seating area has a number or regular tables, a couple of tall tables, and a couple of tables with bench seating just below the glassed in partial roof. 

The bar area which is called The Rock Room has their Two-Fer-Tuesdays night. Every Tuesday from 4-10pm you can get two menu items for the price of one choosing from the appetizer, starters and small plates, or Pizza menu. For drinks you get all well drinks, house wine and beers for $4.95. I arrive first (as usual) and start picking out the perfect place to sit and look over the menu. I decide on wine today so I go with the house red, a Merlot, very nice and a modest pour which always makes me happy.

 A fireplace is in one corner of the room and a small waterfall, garden area is in the other corner.

 

As I said earlier two of our friends Teri and Teresa are meeting us. I hope this is a trend. Julie and I always have fun with our happy hour outings but I say the more the merrier. So the rest of the girls show up at the same time and we jump right into grilling the waiter for information bout what we can get what the specials are and all the info. Rob is his name and he is very friendly and helpful and patient with us. So Julie goes for the bloody Mary, Teri a cucumber martini and Teresa decides on a Cosmos.

While he is off getting our drinks (and water of course which comes quickly) we look over the menu for the perfect combo of items. We have a pretty fancy menu to choose from and the prices are a little higher then I'm use to for a happy hour but it's a two-fer-Tuesdays which is why we are here. We decide on the Antipasto Plate, The Smoked Salmon Plate, pulled Pork Sliders, and the Castroville Pizza.

The sliders show up first and they were a bit of a surprise. First I'm glad we get 4 of them but what surprised me was that they were also grilled paninis as well. Toasted and tasty with melt in your mouth pork and cheese. The antipasto plate had a little bit of everything on it. Salami, prosciutto, fava beans, roasted peppers, grilled asparagus, a whole roasted garlic, pickles, cheese, olives and some slices of baguette to enjoy it with. I enjoy picking at different things on the plate and trying different combos of items together. A little bit for everyone to enjoy. 

While all this is going on the place is starting to pick up and we are ready for some more drinks. During all of this the bus boy with the water is johnny on the spot. Actually his name is Kendall and I don't think my glass was ever half empty. Once he new we liked that kind of attention he made sure we were always hydrated. Meanwhile we order some more drinks. This time Julie goes for a vodka gimlet and I think Teri decides on one of those as well while Teresa and I stick with our originals, Cosmos for her and wine for me. We are talking and laughing and drinking, the happy is starting to settle in.

The Salmon Plate has chunks of smoked salmon on it with a herb cheese spread, a tomato herb spread, some greens, and a few slices of rye toast. What fun we had building little open face sandwiches with everything on that plate, the spreads were yummy and the smoked salmon was just right.While we're enjoying all of this the pizza arrives. A thin crust pizza with both a red and a type of creamy white sauce on it, chunks of artichoke hearts, chicken and spinach. It was really good.

Julie is busy walking around to different tables and talking up our blog, (she handles the PR) and we keep noticing the chefs tossing pizza crust in the air. What a photo opt for us to get. Of course between all the drinks, food, and laughter they're tossing but we're just not fast enough to get the shot.

So all in all the Shadowbrook was great. It's definitely a bit fancier then most places in town and it's meant to be. It still has a very comfortable feel to it and well they let us in. The service was top notch, the food was tasty and the atmosphere was warm and inviting. I have to take off a ½ shot because it's just one day a week, but still a good time.

Jo's rating: 4.5 shots!