Oliveto and Community Grains Pizza Party – Sunday, August 18th, 6-9 pm

Oliveto and Community Grains Pizza Party—

Sunday, August 18th, 6-9 pm

Justin Smillie, Upland Restaurant, NYC

Community Grains has been coming up with some terrific flour, and chefs and bakers on both coasts have been making exciting food with it. For example, our guest chef, Justin Smillie’s whole-grain pizza at Upland in New York is extraordinary. So as part of his visit with us, he suggested a pizza party.

It’ll be in the café.
There will be live music
by Trio Sin Lio
It’ll be big fun.

We’ll serve Justin’s pizza and some of our own. Plus lots of other food.

For the past decade, Community Grains has been working to develop a better complete grain system. Based on the values of nutrient-rich soil, advanced whole milling, and radical transparency in our supply chain, we’ve developed whole grain wheat flours that are different from anything else that’s commercially available. By testing and improving over several years, we’ve arrived at the point where our Patwin variety x-fine wheat flour can compete head on with white flour for texture and mouth-feel, with enormous upsides in nutrition and taste, while at the some time growing a better, soil-based local grain economy.

Tickets are $35, with a no-host full bar.
Buy tickets here

Cynthia Salaysay2019-08-13T17:59:18-07:00August 13th, 2019|Coming up...|0 Comments

Community Grains

If you’ve been following the Oliveto Grain Project, you know that over the last two years we’ve been enmeshed in the pursuit of locally grown corn and wheat. This has evolved from a simple query into a full-blown cause and now finally the creation, in partnership with our farmers and miller, of Community Grains.

At the end of October, we hosted an event to showcase the exceptional properties of this whole grain flour. You can read about it here and here. And here are some pictures taken by Teal Dudziak:

The menu featured an insane array of baked goods prepared by master baker Craig Pondsford and Pastry Chef Jenny Raven, as well as pasta by Chef Canales, all made with whole grain flour…even that incredible pineapple upside-cake that Jenny made, yep….100% whole wheat.

We also served polenta, made with our Red Flint Floriani corn grown by the Rominger Brothers in Winters, CA. As anyone who frequents the Oliveto Cafe knows, this polenta is truly exceptional. Mother Earth News just published a huge article on the variety in their latest issue.

These flours and cornmeals appear all throughout the day on Oliveto’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus both upstairs and down. We think they are practically revolutionary in their deliciousness. Eventually, we hope to offer bags of flour and polenta in the cafe for home cooks. In the meantime, you’ll have to let us cook for you.

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:48:30-07:00December 7th, 2010|Oliveto Cafe, Oliveto Grain Project|0 Comments

Pizza Gufo

Every Monday – Thursday in the Cafe

8:30 pm – 10 pm

After perfecting our whole-grain pizza dough, Chef Canales decided to take it one step further and concocted the geniusness that is Pizza Gufo. Simple and fresh, we’ll be serving it the Cafe along with some other smaller plates and some affordable glass wines later in the evenings. We’re thinking this is the perfect time to pop in for a drink, sit out on the patio, kick back, and have a gufo, you know?

Cafe Oliveto Gufo Menu

Pizza Gufo 5.
Salume fino & Cacio di Roma cheese plate 7.
Salad of seasonal greens 5.
Soup 5.

Biscotti 1.50
Beignet with crème anglaise 2.50

Red wine 5.
White wine 5.
Well drinks 6.
(season cocktails coming soon)

Catherine Meng2017-09-12T15:48:38-07:00August 2nd, 2010|Oliveto Cafe, Oliveto Grain Project|0 Comments

Pizza Trials

While sourcing local grains we found Joe Vanderliet, a miller in Woodland, CA who is producing a very different whole-milled wheat; more like white flour in texture, but with maximum flavor and nutrients. We’ve been using it in some of our pastas and pastries with delicious results, and now we’ve started pizza trials in the Oliveto Cafe.

In collaboration with master baker Craig Ponsford, Chef Canales has been relearning every step of the pizza making process with this very different flour. Craig founded Artisan Bakery in Sonoma, was the first American winner of the French and Specialty Breads category of France’s 1996 Coupe du Monde de la Boulabngerie, and now, having been completely won over by this “new” flour is working for Joe Vanderliet.

This has been an extremely fun and informative process for everyone involved and we’re eager to share what we’ve learned so far. Results of our kitchen trials may change your opinion of whole grain wheat. Come tell us what you think of our trial whole-milled wheat pizzas in the cafe through the month of July.

Bob Klein2017-09-12T15:48:39-07:00July 5th, 2010|Oliveto Cafe, Oliveto Grain Project|0 Comments