2 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Tucked away in the Bay Area redwoods, this cafe feels like summer camp
Surrounded by towering redwoods, Lightwave Coffee & Kitchen feels like an idyllic summer camp getaway, located next to a skatepark near a Russian River beach.
The eclectic cafe has a maximalist attitude built on a passion for thrifting, as evidenced by two antique televisions, a horse bust, several vintage phones and a shelf lined with a half dozen cassette players. Married couple Gal and Ori Ginzburg opened it in the Sonoma County community of Monte Rio in 2018, bringing something that's in short supply in the forested area between Guerneville and Jenner: a quality restaurant and specialty coffee shop. The food leans on Levantine, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Moroccan flavors, with one standout dish that I'm dubbing the Bay Area food of the summer: a gussied-up pita designed to be enjoyed beachside as the sun warms your river-chilled skin.
The appropriately called beach pita ($17) is modeled after the Iraqi-Israeli sandwich named sabich. Loquat in San Francisco makes my go-to sabich, but it's only available once a month and you'll undoubtedly encounter a line (sorry). Lightwave, on the other hand, offers its excellent pita year-round in a tranquil environment with none of the city's face-paced urbanism.
Encased in a plush pita is a festival of ingredients: creamy, pulpy roasted eggplants; boiled eggs with bright yolks; and peppery arugula, sluiced with glorious condiments like spiced, pickled mango amba; herbaceous, verdant Yemeni-style zhoug; and briny, luminous preserved lemons.
You might eat it at the charming cafe, but I emphatically believe it tastes best at the beach. As the sandwich sits, its flavors bind and concentrate. The longer it rests, the deeper its splendor becomes. It makes for an invincible post-swim meal at the Russian River.
For plated dishes, however, I encourage you to dine at Lightwave, which has a lovely porch with an abundance of outdoor seating. There are picnic tables on the grass and plenty more on the wooden deck, some beneath an awning and one under a Victorian-style metal gazebo. Plus, the couple's dishware collection would make any grandma envious.
Try the bourekas ($18), flaky handpies stuffed with tangy cheese and spinach, or the umami-ladden shakshuka ($18), poached eggs over stewed tomatoes accompanied by piquant zhoug, pita and salad. The latter is inspired by Gal's Moroccan grandmother, and it's the standout brunch choice.
Don't miss the fantastic cream pies, a weekend-only offering with flavors ranging from lemon to chocolate peanut butter and sesame-rich halva mousse. On a recent outing, I was beguiled by the lemon blueberry combination, which was light and not-too-sweet.
Skip the drip coffee in favor of a cortado ($5) served in a tea cup, or, better yet, order a refreshing mint-lemon slushy ($7).
After operating for almost seven years, Lightwave has become a local landmark. Before moving to Sonoma for farm work, Ori worked at coffee shops and restaurants, as did Gal, who also worked at a bakery. While the area is marked by a sense of calmness, the pair has faced calamity with floods in 2019 and fires in 2022, to say nothing of the pandemic. Still, the couple has managed to grow the team to a staff of six. Ori is working on finding a place for a dinner concept nearby, dubbed Nightwave, but it's still top secret.
They live up the street with their daughter, but Ori still has an ingrained sense of 'urbanism.' He's restless. He loves working. He wants to change that with the next generation: 'I hope my daughter will be like a nature hippie girl that grows in the trees and walks barefoot.'
