Greetings from the Left Coast

By: Anne Quinn Corr

Living the dream—that’s what a trio of central Pennsylvania transplants is doing right now in northern California.
If you happen to be driving on the Redwood Highway, Route 101, in northern California and veer off toward the beach in Trinidad, you will encounter a familiar bit of central Pennsylvania right on Main Street. Jared Capellari, Dan D’Ancona and Adam Raleigh own and operate the Catch Café, a hip, casual eatery in the scenic fishing village of Trinidad in Humboldt County, five hours north of San Francisco and about an hour and a half south of the Oregon border. Here, redwood forests brace the rugged cliffs and giant boulders provide nesting spots for the birds and seals that frolic in the frigid waters of the Pacific.

What is especially interesting about this café is that all the young men involved used to work at the Allen Street Grill, the landmark restaurant that is part of the Hotel State College mothership.

Capellari and Raleigh are State College natives and both just happen to be former Penn State School of Hospitality Management students of mine in Nutrition 119, a basic food preparation course. I always like to ask the students what their ultimate career goals are, and invariably I get the answer “Have a little café near a beach.” Sure, I think to myself, eyes rolling, wouldn’t we all! But these young men are doing just that. Each day, they get to wake up and put on their music and work with an abundance of fresh seafood and produce and create delicious food that is appreciated by the 300-plus locals and the thousands of visitors that tour the area in the summer.

Capellari graduated from Penn State in May of 2005 and wasted no time in heading out to California, landing a manager position at the Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka. When I asked him what his duties included, he said, “taking the compost to the farmers,” an important aspect in green California. His compost runs led him to get to know the local farmers– those connections serve him well now at the café.
Dan D’Ancona was the next transplant. The Upper Darby native attended Penn State from 2002 to 2005, studying pre-law, but found he was more interested in what was going on in the kitchens of the fine dining restaurants that he worked at, both in the Philadelphia area and in State College.  

Raleigh and Capellari have been friends since playing Little League baseball. Both graduated from State College High, where they played volleyball and intramural basketball, sometimes against each other. They both attended Penn State and studied Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management and both worked at the Allen Street Grill, where they met D’Ancona. Raleigh headed to Trinidad not long after graduating from Penn State in May 2007 and found an easy fit with the Nor Cal lifestyle.

Both Capellari and D’Ancona worked at the Catch Café under its previous ownership and eased into a general partnership with a loyal customer and investor, Robert Shulenberg. They took over the business under the name Freshwater Catering in October 2007. Summers are by far the busiest time in the village, but a steady clientele of locals keep the doors open during their regular hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. year-round. Last summer’s booming walk-in business, along with off-premise catering jobs, (especially at music festivals in and around Humboldt) led the trio to encourage another Allen Street Grill employee to move out to the West Coast for a while to help. C.J. Pritt worked at the Catch Café over the tourist season and is currently helping to launch Café Saint-Amand in Gettysburg.

“Our most popular dish at the café is the Jerk Chicken and seasoned fries,” says Capellari, “served with our signature Catch Slaw, a fresh cabbage salad with a sweet and sour dressing. Anyone from State College would recognize the Caesar Salad recipe that we all used to make so much at the Grill. We often do recipes that are inspired by Herwig’s Austrian cuisine, which had a big influence on all of us. And the Vegetarian Chili we used to make at the Grill has been adapted to now be vegan-friendly. I still call Bert (Burger, kitchen manager at the ASG) whenever I have a cooking or ordering question.”
Men at work– boys at play– the two concepts are the same at the Catch Café. Catch them if you can. • SCM

The Catch Café is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday. There is limited seating indoors, but there is a large outdoor, dog-friendly seating area. Local beers and wines are also on the menu. For more information, call 707.677.0390. The café is located at 355 Main Street in “downtown” Trinidad.

For information about visiting Trinidad, visit www.discovertrinidadca.com, a new Web site that features current activities in the town, including community dinners orchestrated by the chefs at the Catch Café.
An excellent vacation rental home in the motel-less village is The Crow’s Nest, which offers a spectacular view of the Trinidad harbor. Watch for whales from the hot tub on the deck and walk into town past the picturesque lighthouse on the trail. The Crow’s Nest accommodates four people and rents for $200/night or $1,200 a week. Email: crowsnest(at)crowsnest-trinidad.com for availability.


RECIPE
Vegan Sunflower Dressing
(a la Catch Café)
Makes about 3 cups
 

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup water
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 1/2  teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
White pepper
1 to 1 1/2 cups canola oil (or other mild oil)

Combine the water, vinegar, soy sauce and lemon juice in a blender. Add the sunflower seeds and blend until smooth, about three minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Slowly add oil, while the blender is running, to emulsify. The dressing can be flavored by using different infused oils, fresh herbs and spices. Use as a salad dressing. At the Catch Café, it is served with falafel in pita bread or on a burger. ~A.C.