Cachagua General Store

11/23/2024

A reminder:
As we move into Brown Food season, we still serve outside if the
temperature is over 55. And not raining!
We domhave p;enty of room inside in our 100 year old house though. Fireplace. Soccer on TV in the Raboon Room, etc. Dogs still welcome. Rick Chelew still plays.
It can get tight. You (and we) prize our spontaneity above all else...but it doesn't hurt to give us a call if you are going to come by.
Turkey Day it looks like we will probably be serving inside. Plenty of room still.
And let me know if there are single folk of any age or condition that could use a meal on Turkey Day. We are happy to deliver.
And....someone asked if we couild part with parts of the meal. For sure! Crazy cranberry dressing, gravy, a bird?...whatever makes life a little easier and more thankful.
Onwards!

11/13/2024

Turkey Day
In the early 90’s, my mom, June Campbell and Dorothy McEwen got together to organize the first community Thanksgiving here in the Village.
June was a constant at Rippling River…keeping track of her people, helping out when she could, but mostly just being a friend.
Dorothy was famous in the internet world, and bought Holman Ranch from the proceeds of the spectacular collapse of Digital Research. Dorothy had a million billion dollars but she kept up old Mrs. Holman’s practice of renting out rooms to nice people who could barely afford them.
My mom’s father died when she was four, leaving Grandma as a single mom of two in Redondo in the Depression. The Irish family came through and got her a place at Sacred Heart in Menlo Park. Then, as now, Sacred Heart is the finishing school for the fabulously wealthy old money. Fogers, Spreckels,, etc. Patsy stayed there with the nuns year around until she graduated from high school. Time were such that she rarely got to take the train home to Redondo and spent nearly every holiday with the nuns. Holidays and family gathering were wildly important to her. (As kids and adults, all the dogs and cats had stockings on the mantel and Easter baskets).
These three champions started the Senior Lunch at the Community Center, so that local seniors who were often socially isolated could get out at least once a month. Could? The three of them would roundup victims like a cattle branding.
My mom lived in a tiny guest house with a kitchen so small you had to go outside to change your mind. Thanksgiving was crucial to her, but with one son catering to the hoi polloi and the others scattered around the East Coast, it rarely happened.
The ladies got together and came to me about doing a real Community Thanksgiving. Not a handout to the poor and oppressed, but a genuine meal of Thanksgiving like the first one. Organic food, linen, china, crystal, wine…the whole works. And free.
Why not? Dorothy wrote the check at the beginning, but the event eventually almost paid for itself. And it wasn’t just the solo seniors who came: young families with no time to cook; big families with no space or ability; folks marooned away from home, etc. And it wasn’t just the guests who benefited: volunteering for a few hours on a holiday was a privilege and experience that was jealously guarded.
Times change. Needs don’t. Thirty years on you can still get a free meal if you hate to cook or can’t. Just not on Thanksgiving. Nothing says “family” like gathering around the microwave, eh? Jerome is here now, with wonderful food that can be picked up day of for eminently reasonable prices. No longer is the choice limited to Marie Callendar or Bernardus.
And we are still here. Frankly, I think I owe it to my mom for having worked every Thanksgiving and Christmas for forty years, leaving her in the lurch, just like the nuns.
We will be open from 11 to 2:30 on Thanksgiving for meals in the garden (or inside if Mama Nature is bitter). We will also have take out meals available in the same time period. No cost…we all just throw money in the hat and it seems to work out.
Please let me know either on this site or text me at 831-238-5297 if you want to participate either on the eating or cooking/serving end.
Cheers to Pat, June and Dorothy!

10/06/2024

If you feel a desperate need for Meyer lemon hollandaise in the delightful full sun...a reminder that we have an inside dining room that is nicely air conditioned. Keeping all of Morgan's wines cool.
I was just having a laugh: our dining room boys are in Valencia, Spain for two weeks spending their hard earned dollars. I was here in California, making gazpacho. The first time I ran across gazpacho was in James Michener's "Iberia" nearly fifty years ago. Michener was in Castellon de Planha, Valencia's beach town.
Where I hope our boys are chilling right now.
Maybe with some nice cool gazpacho!
And a few beers, of course.

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02/01/2024

Interesting.
Memories of a now dead great event.
Corporate greed.

Expert on California and San Francisco Bay Weather and Climate.

11/30/2023

RIP Shane Macgowan.

ZTT30 brings you Shane MacGowan and Máire Brennan with You're The One.

11/17/2023

Reminder: if you are time or culinarily challenged we will be serving our low key Community Thanksgiving on the actual Thanksgiving Day at Massa from 11ish to 3ish. To go's....sure, why not?
It is low key, so please reserve a spot by texting us at 831-238-5297.

11/11/2023

I just found out that the "Community" Thanksgiving will be on Wednesday this year.
Nothing says "family" and "community" more than gathering around the microwave and eating out of plastic.
We will be serving on Thanksgiving Day in furtherance of my mom's vision of nice people who don't want to (or can't) lay out a spread of their own.
As always we will throw money in a hat, and some very nice people will help out.
Last year we fed Rippling River (180?+), but that is beyond our aging capabilities this year.
Still, if you want to dine in our garden, or inside if Mother Nature hates us, please let me know.
Best is to text to 831-659-5100.
And...reminding all y'all that Jerome does a well organized, bang up turkey dinner to carry out. He also needs notice. 659-2472.

11/04/2023

Here is an example of one of our Saturday six course lunch menus...this one vegetarian
Asiago/scallion bruschette
Paul Bocuse pumpkin soup (Schoch cheese, cream, Pinnacle pumpkin)
Cachagua Store pear salad with baby lettuce (Blue Heron Farm), Pt Reyes blue cheese, yuzu dressing
Szechuan dry fried Borba Farm green beans with ginger and scallions
Roast Pinnacle Farm carrot "marrow bones" with chevre and King City pink beans
P&K Farm strawberries with Muia olive oil cake and Valrhona white chocolate crema inglese
$60.
Wine pairing $20

10/29/2023

Sunday Garden Brunch

Eggs bennie: Meyer lemon hollandaise
Choices: Amanda’s oak smoked OraKing salmon and Arugula, bacon, ham, Corralitos sausage (andouille, German, kobasica), Sous-vide Sirloin, Veggies, avocado extra

Simple omelets (veggie, tofu, mushrooms, spring onions, etc) w/ cheese
$20 inc OJ, coffee, strawberries, etc

Blueberry or regular buttermilk pancakes, $18 inc
Sourdough French toast maybe with strawberries and strawberry coulis $18 inc

Infamous fandangos $9 Loaded quesadillas $9
Amanda’s oak smoked OraKing salmon with capers and spring onions $16
Paul Bocuse pumpkin soup with cream and Gruyere $5 and $9
Salmon Saffron Potato Soup $5 and $9
Oxtail Soup 45f and $9

After 11:30 am
*Amanda’s kale salad with her amazing sesame dressing $12
Escargots Bourguignon $12 Roasted marrow bones with capers, mushrooms $18
Wok dry fried Szechuan Borba Farm green beans $12
Roasted brussels sprouts with Nueske bacon and kim chee $12
Cachagua pear salad: Blue Heron baby lettuce, parsnip chips, Pt Reyes blue, yuzu dressing $15
Caprese salad: Pinnacle Farm heirloom Cherokee tomatoes, Blue Heron basil, fresh mozz, etc $16
Panzanella!: Jane Chaney watermelon, heirloom tomatoes, basil, Muia olive oil $16
Grilled OraKing open ocean salmon with forbidden rice, potatoes, roman beans and carrots $22
Salinas Valley beef cheeks with fresh rigatoni, green beans, etc $22
Michael’s Diablo Lunch (Homage a Dennis Gu) Fresh rigatoni, prawns, salmon, heirloom coulis $22
Kathy Lambert’s sandwich: Nueske’s ham, Schoch cheese, arugula, grilled onions, w/side salad $18
BLAT Bacon Lettuce Avocado Tomato on Sliced Sourdough w/side salad. With egg? $16
Mesquite grilled California Sirloin Steak Sandwich, Heirloom tomato, caper, arugula, red onion, sourdough, w/side salad $18
Cuisses grenuilles a l’ancienne (Grilled frog;s legs with garlic and tomato $22
Desserts
Valrhona single source Araguani chocolate crema inglese with sea, river salts and EVOO $10
Carl Muia olive oil cake with Valrhona white chocolate and PK Farm strawberries $10
Kids Quesadilla $8 Pancakes $8 Grilled Cheese $8

10/29/2023

Creepy menu.....oxtails, beef cheeks, escargots, frogs legs. All of which are actually delicious, and all of which we served at L'Auberge back in the day!

01/08/2023

This is what we are doing these day.
More info at www.cachaguastore.blogspot.com

Cachagua Store Sunday Brunch.
Eggs any style, or
Eggs bennie: Meyer lemon hollandaise, our smoked OraKing salmon, grilled salmon or Nueske’s ham or bacon, or Corralitos sausage (Andouille, German, Cheesy Bavarian, Linguisa), sous vide sirloin and or veggie and chanterelles
Local chanterelles and soft scrambled eggs
Simple omelets (veggie, salmon, meats, cheeses (Schoch, Laura Chanel goat cheese, mozzarella)
Juevos Rancheros: Poached eggs with chile colorado de rez,puntas de rez, or lengua en salsa ranchera and King City pink beans
Includes buttermilk blueberry pancakes, organic OJ, coffee

Corralitos sausage (German, kobasica, cheesy Bavarian) w Muia mustard and our kraut
Famous fandangos (Asiago/scallion bruschette)
Paul Bocuse pumpkin soup with toasted Salinas Valley sweetbreads.
Werner Kalmus saffron salmon soup with leeks and potatoes

After 11:30 am
Chanterelle risotto with Barry Powell foraged chanterelle and poached egg
Roast Massa Ranch brussels sprouts with Nueske bacon, Han Kook Market kim chee, balsamic and maple syrup
*Amanda’s kale salad with her amazing sesame dressing
Schletewicz Farm citrus salad with shaved fennel, baby arugula, walnut oil and candied pecans
Amanda’s Cachagua Road cold smoked salmon with capers and sweet Phil Foster onions
Roast beef salad: Mesquite grilled sous vide beef with spring onions, Borba Farm winter heirlooms, capers, sweet onions
Kathy Lambert’s special sandwich: grilled Nueske’s ham, Schoch Junipero cheese, Jane Flower tomato jam, baby arugula
Sous vide Salinas Valley sirloin sandwich with kale salad
Beef bourguignon with our fettucine, Borba Farm french green beans.
Syrah braised short ribs of Salinas Valley beef
Ashkenazi style braised Wagyu beef tongue with capers, rice, etc
Lengua (Wagyu) en salsa ranchera with King City pink beans
Grilled OraKing salmon with Momie’s dressing, etc
Puntas de rez with smoked Oaxacan pasillas, King City pink beans, Forbidden rice, etc.
Desserts
Carl Muia olive oil cake with Ichigo Ranch hydroponic strawberries, coulis and Valrhona white chocolate crema inglese.
Valrhona single source Araguani 72% chocolate crema inglese with sea and river salts and Carl Muia Carmel Valley freshly pressed olive oil

01/07/2023

FYI....we are open on Sundays for brunch and early lunch, indoors and out (if the weather permits). Reservations are requested for indoor spots.
It's pretty cozy with the storm outside and the fireplace going!