Natural light, floral elegance and a wall of provisions sourced from California-based small businesses are just a few of the hallmarks of Feast and Floral, a new wine bar and charcuterie restaurant that recently opened in Redwood City. It’s the new brick-and-mortar location of this Peninsula-based catering company after a previous iteration of the shop, Feast and Floral featuring Salvaje, closed in January.
The restaurant offers small bites like crackers or bread served with combos like goat cheese and honey or brie and fig jam ($14) as well as hummus and crudités ($16), a tinned fish plate ($24) and desserts, with soup and a few entree-style dishes on the way. On the drinks side, look for California wines sold by the glass, like Alfaro Family Vineyards’ Chardonnay ($13) from the Santa Cruz Mountains or Bedrock Wine Co.’s Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma. Mocktails on offer include St. Agrestis’ phony negroni and phony negroni espresso drinks ($9).
Catering came naturally to Menlo Park resident Ashley Higashi, who got her first taste of the craft while hosting fundraisers in 2018 and 2019 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in support of her youngest daughter, who has Type 1 diabetes. The grazing table she built, she says, left guests asking her, “Why aren’t you doing this for a living?”
The question struck a chord with her, and it wasn’t long before she and her sister Kim Cassingham decided to give it a try. Each deposited $100 into the bank, and soon they’d booked an event at Apple in Cupertino. The business grew from there. Then, when the pandemic struck, they decided to offer small grazing boxes for delivery.
Soon, they were driving around the region delivering those boxes. They started working with Salvaje wine bar and for a while, combined forces in downtown Palo Alto, but ultimately, they needed a bigger kitchen.
So Higashi found a new location, this one in Redwood City’s Marsh Manor Shopping Center, which has among its neighbors Freewheel Brewing, Lavender ‘n Cream and State of Mind Pizza House. She runs it with her son, Ethan Higashi.
The resulting space, she says, is a “dream come true. I could be in the worst mood, and I’m instantly changed when I walk into it. It’s a place I want to hang out in.”
Details: Open from 1 to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and until 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 3770 Florence St., Redwood City; feastandfloral.com.
