Tacopocolypse tests taco limits, plus more Petaluma food news

Last week’s Cinco de Mayo turned into a real “Tacopocolypse,” a term Petaluma Food Taxi coined after experiencing hours-long delays on even the most advanced of Mexican food pre-orders. A minor holiday south of the border, up north we gringos seem to have a Pavlovian response when we see the calendar turn to May 5, when all we can think about is Mexican food and margaritas. For the record, Cinco de Mayo honors the day the Mexican army pushed back a much larger French contingent in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Unfortunately for the Mexicans, the French would go on to win the “war,” which helps explain why this “holiday” is not quite so popular in Mexico as it is here in the US.

Even though Mexican restaurants (and pizza joints) are better prepared than most for take-out orders, nothing could prepare them for Tacopocolypse 2020. Once the owners of Petaluma Food Taxi noticed a significant delay between orders placed and orders filled, they jumped into action. They were actually seen helping behind the counter are Mi Pueblo El Norte, trying to do their best to expedite matters. Whatever one might think about the other delivery services in town, that right there is one of the benefits of a local company with local owners.

Furthermore, with some deliveries canceled completely by the restaurants, while others were delayed for as much as three hours, also because of restaurant delays, Petaluma Food Taxi even went so far as to reach out to customers the following morning, offering full refunds, even to those who received their food. When asked why they didn’t ask the restaurants to cover those refunds, co-owner Nick Gordon told me that they know the restaurants are hurting already so didn’t want them to have to deal with one more stumbling block. Thankfully, a lot of customers didn’t want to hurt either business and recognized their part in sparking Tacopocolypse 2020, and so refused the refund.

Petaluma Food Taxi learned from this too and within days, upon reaching capacity for Mother’s Day, the busiest restaurant day of the year, they simply shut down new orders so as to better service those who had ordered ahead. Again, being able to pivot and adapt to changing situations is what we all like to see from the companies we patronize and Petaluma Food Taxi seems to be able to do both quickly.

Fresh Seafood

Much to even my surprise, crab season does not at the end of “crab feed season,’ the last of which are in February. Since that time, some commercial crabbers have still been fishing, although many pulled in their pots because of the loss of restaurant orders. Jonathan Jackson fishes out of Bodega Bay and has been offering crab deliveries to Petaluma through his Facebook page and by calling him at 867-6799. However, he has to have his pots out of the water by this Friday but hopes to move them up to the Mendocino Coast, where commercial crab fishing is still open. Check his site for future crab availability. In the meantime, Jonathan has started to offer king salmon at the huge discount price of $16 a pound. Restaurant Updates

McNear’s has announce that as of yesterday, it will offer a full-service version of the mini-general store. McNear’s has been many things over the years and general store is one of them. The current idea started when McNear’s was working on cleaning things out amid the current shelter in place and realized that they had things in-house as well as access to other that many stores seemed to be short on. Using one side of their veranda as their take-out window, the other side was a natural choice for their general store. Additionally, once reopened, that space is likely too tight to fit more than one table while observing social distancing, so why not a mini-general store?

“I know that it’s going to evolve, and we definitely want to open it up to suggestions from the public to see what they want us to carry,” said manager Carrie O’Donnell. “I would really like to start bringing in more and more local purveyors, like local cheesemakers and wineries. But of course, we we’ll always help provide people with food. Because after all, that’s what we do.” McNear’s is working to keep prices low by keeping the profit margins just high enough to cover basic expenses. There will be an additional fee for Petaluma Food Taxi deliveries however, being able to get both dinner and various sundries delivered from the same place and at the same time is certainly appealing.

Several favorites have reopened recently, including the much-anticipated reopening of Ray’s Tavern on Western and Webster. Offering a great selection of sandwiches, as well as drink and other deli items, the neighborhood has definitely missed Ray’s over the past few weeks. Out on Bodega Bay both Spud Point and Fishetarian are reopened for take-out. Visit their social media pages for more info.

While still out on the coast, a bit farther south, the Station House Café in Point Reyes Station has announce that due to a massive rent hike, they are likely going to close their doors after 46 years in operation. With rents to more than quadruple for a one year lease extension or triple for a longer lease extension, the cost is simply too much of a burden. There is no information available as to why the owner of the building is looking to raise rents from $8,300 to $28,000, as reported in a Station House Café Facebook post, which has since been removed. However, simple logic tells me that the owner wants to do something else with the space otherwise why raise rents so drastically in one fell swoop? I cannot think of a restaurant, whether big or small, that could handle that kind of increase.

Acre Coffee has reopened its doors here in Petaluma and for those that didn’t know, now offers pizza.

Sweet Stories

While on the topic of pizza, I’m going to switch gears over to the donation side of things, with a special mention of The Chicago Pizzeria. Not to be confused with Old Chicago Pizza, the West Side original, The Chicago Pizzeria is in the Kmart shopping center where Sizzler used to be and was recently purchased by Maly Keo, just prior to SIP. She reached out to me requesting my advice on how she could give away 50 pizzas and salads to families in need. I did not have to think long having just watched the a time-lapse video of Lynne Gordon Moquete and her crew putting together meals for delivery to 70+ families here in Petaluma. If you don’t know Lynne, she’s a dynamo who goes above and beyond in our community and a teacher at Casa Grande.

On a quick side-note, Maly was not informed by the seller of The Chicago Pizzeria that the name has caused quite a bit of confusion here in Petaluma. In as supportive a manner as possible, I let her know that Old Chicago Pizza is a landmark here in Petaluma and some of us even take offense to the former The Chicago Pizzeria’s owner trying to capitalize on their success. If she had known, she said she would have considered a name change but at this point, especially in the middle of our current shelter in place, that will have to wait. I suggested that even something small like adding “Maly’s” before the name might let people know that she is new to town and is looking to do her own thing. That said, from my brief interaction with her and her generous donation, she seems like a nice person and I wish her success.

Another big shout-out goes to Cattlemens for contacting me with the same request, hoping to donate a whole pile of steaks to those in need. Again, I pointed them in Lynne’s direction and she got the food to those in our community who are less privileged than most.