This Friday, April 3rd, Chef Chantelle is bringing her kitchen to Black Cat Ceramics for a First Friday pop-up in downtown Fort Bragg.
Chef Chantelle Sookram is a familiar name on the Mendocino Coast — a farm-to-table chef who works with local farmers, foragers, and producers to cook food that’s rooted in the region. Her style is seasonal and unfussy, the kind of cooking that reflects where you actually are.
The menu this evening is built around one dish: Nettle Split Pea Soup with wild boar ham, served with Hot Cross Buns and Greensauce. Stinging nettles grow like a weed in the wet woods and countryside of Northern California, and are best gathered early in the season, from February through mid-April — which makes this pop-up perfectly timed. Along the California coast the plant is especially common, practically underfoot in the damp forest edges and creek beds that define this stretch of Mendocino County. Cooked, they lose their sting entirely and deliver something slightly floral, slightly woodsy, and faintly reminiscent of spinach — rich enough to anchor a proper soup, with the wild boar ham adding depth and smoke.
Black Cat Ceramics, located at 334 N Franklin Street, is a creative collective working with clay, fire, water, and air. On First Friday, the space opens up as a community gathering point — and this month that includes a 25% discount on handmade soup bowls in the shop, which you can put to immediate use.
Food is served from 5–7PM. The event runs until 8PM. Free to attend.
Friday, April 3rd | 334 N Franklin, Fort Bragg | Food 5–7PM | Event til 8