When you’re in the mood for a little bit of comfort, head on
down to Hard Times. The Hollister cafe, a favorite of the lunchtime
crowd since it opened in 1996, will celebrate its eighth year of
operation Oct. 15 with cake and balloons.
When you’re in the mood for a little bit of comfort, head on down to Hard Times. The Hollister cafe, a favorite of the lunchtime crowd since it opened in 1996, will celebrate its eighth year of operation Oct. 15 with cake and balloons.
The menu has grown from proprietor Terence Woodward’s modest start – three sandwiches and three salads to chose from – to include a host of standard options alongside unexpected touches.
In the warmer spring and summer months, Woodward offers up Strawberry Brie salad, a mixture of French cheese and fresh local strawberries along with mandarin oranges, seasonal berries and a raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing.
Fall calls for more homey fare, so soups take center stage. Woodward’s own variation on minestrone has a full-bodied flavor that dances with color from large chunks of fresh celery and carrots in every bite.
Hard Times’ owner trained on the job, working as an apprentice chef at Lake Tahoe’s High Sierra Hotel for 10 years. Traditional peasant foods from France and the Mediterranean are Woodward’s cuisine of choice.
He’s not interested in creating hoity toity high cuisine, so he built the theme of Hard Times around the simple recipes of Middle America in the ’30s and ’40s.
“What you had was what you had on the farm,” he said. “Flavors were derived from fresh garden vegetables and meats you had raised at home. Today it seems like everything’s so standard. There’s a niceness to enjoying the different textures and tastes of something really fresh. We don’t do a ‘Sub No. 2,’ but we do a good sub.”
Like its cuisine, Hard Times’ prices are from a bygone era. Sunday brunch, the most expensive meal of the week, is just $10.75 for adults.
Hard Times is open 11am-8pm Monday through Friday, 9am-8pm Saturday and 9am-7pm Sunday. Woodward accepts most major credit cards. If you would like to try one of the family favorites around your own dinner table, try making Woodward’s “Hard Times Bean Soup,” based on the salt and pepper soups of the depression era.
Hard Times
Bean Soup
1 yellow onion
1/2 stalk celery
4 carrots
2 medium potatoes
6 strips of salt-pork bacon
1 medium ham hock (or chicken)
8 oz. black beans
8 oz. pinto beans
8 oz. kidney beans
8 oz. black-eyed peas
Step 1 Check dry beans and peas for obviously bad beans and small rocks before soaking them in a large bowl overnight. Drain. Put beans in pot of water and boil until tender. Set aside.
Step 2 In a cast-iron skillet, simmer the ham hocks (or chicken) until tender. Drain and save the runoff. Set ham hock aside.
Step 3 Using another pan, preferably a cast-iron Dutch oven, sauté the bacon. When finished, add the onions, carrots and celery (diced small) and cook until tender. To the same pan add the potatoes, beans and peas along with the ham hock’s juice. Simmer and season to taste with black pepper and salt.
Serve immediately with ranch-style cornbread and apple cobbler for a homemade delight or save it for a hearty lunch throughout the week.
Hard Times Cafe
615 San Benito St., Ste. D, Hollister
(831) 635-9223
