Once solely focusing on cuts of pork and beef from well-known purveyors, including Stemple Creek Ranch and Niman Ranch, along with Mary’s organic chicken and Schwarz sausages, the newly expanded and renamed Carne in the Santa Cruz neighborhood of Live Oak is making visitors’ keto-inspired dreams come true.
Employing a full-time butcher and an executive chef with a wealth of knowledge about Santa Cruz County’s dining scene, the once-butcher shop renovated and expanded into a gourmet deli and marketplace, offering meat-forward menu items and spreads, crackers, olives and cheeses for an impromptu picnic lunch or charcuterie board.
The menu includes barbecue favorites like brisket, St. Louis spareribs, hot links and smoked chicken. Seasonal side dishes such as corn tomalito – a sweet, moist, and soft corn cake, potato salad, cucumber salad, apple slaw, pit-style barbecue baked beans, orecchiette and cheese, smoked baby carrots and eggplant caponata. Salads and house-cut fries are menu staples along with pastrami and smoked pork Cubano sandwiches, buttermilk fried chicken, lobster rolls, and Wagyu and mushroom burgers.