He knows other restaurant owners who can relate. “I have a few people that I share stuff with, and they're suffering too. It's like we're in this war that we do not want to lose. For whatever reason, sometimes it's hard to explain. We just don't want to throw in the towel.”
Sher would go in often to get pizza and befriended DiGiovine, who’d originally made his name in the music industry as manager of such industry icons as Carlos Santana, Marin record producer Narada Michael Walden and late jazz drummer Tony Williams. “I brought [Tony] a sampling of my chocolate cake,” Sher says. “I’d been making this cake for more than 20 years in all my restaurants. People love it.” Tutto loved it too and began offering it at the restaurant. Sher says she started noticing that he needed help in the restaurant and she began lending a hand. Two years later, Tutto became ill and his family reached out to Sher and asked if she would take over. Sher says she felt honored and bought the business in August of 2023. (DiGiovine, aka Tony Tutto, died of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, this past July. He was 72.) “I'm just kind of trying to keep as many things ‘Tony’ for now as I can, because Tony's not with us anymore,” Sher says. “That was kind of my reason for taking over—to keep his legacy going.” Staying vegetarian Sher says over the years her own diet has changed and at home she’s not 100% vegetarian. “It's very recent that I've started eating some other things,” she says. “At this point my diet is mostly vegan and vegetarian with some pescatarian sprinkled in. “I just think that people need to do what helps them perform at their highest level. Sometimes our bodies change and we require different foods.” Sher says regardless of that dietary choice she is still an advocate for a vegetarian lifestyle. “I love animals, that's really where it comes from,” she says. “I don't really want to be ingesting the suffering of another creature.” It's an “energetic vibe thing,” she says. “How we eat and how we ingest food and how we feel about the food that we're taking in is very important to how the food functions in our body. And if we're constantly guilt- tripping ourselves every time we eat something, that's not very healthy either.” Sher likes to use local, seasonal ingredients and even grows some of the restaurant’s produce herself. “It's not 100%,” she says. “We get things from Italy, but I try to make sure they're organic. I have some criteria—it has to be organic, biodynamic or sustainable. It is vegetarian here. Some of the cheeses Tony used are not strictly vegetarian. So if somebody asks, we have an option.” She believes DiGiovine would’ve supported her finding new sources as it was of the highest quality. “That's really what his philosophy was.” Sher has added different salads. “I grow a lot of produce so when things are in season, I try to use things from our garden, like eggplants for the eggplant Parmesan pizza and cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers and herbs,” she says. “I go to the farmers market every week and I try to make seasonal salads.” Sher has also added more desserts, as well as lower- alcohol, natural and food-friendly wine selections. She’s also added a selection of non-alcoholic beers.
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Tony Tutto Pizza Farther south, in Ross, Lacey Sher is hoping to spread the word that her beloved local pizza place, Tony Tutto Pizza, is actually a vegetarian restaurant. Sher has been professionally cooking natural food and vegetarian food for 25 years. She had previously owned a restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey, and then in Oakland. “I can cook for all kinds of illnesses and special dietary needs,” she says. “That's been my focus for many, many years.” When she closed her Oakland restaurant she returned to her Marin roots. “I met Tony because he had taken over the grocery store that I grew up going to as a child,” Sher says, of the late Greg DiGiovine—aka Tony Tutto—who in 2018 relocated his pizza restaurant from Mill Valley into the space long ago occupied by Ross Grocery. She was thrilled to see his pizza restaurant was actually vegetarian.
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Unlocking Wines
Picayune—it’s bigger than you think— and an allegory to Claire Ducrocq Weinkauf’s approach to life.
By Tim Carl M eaning “a little bit” in old French dialect, Claire Ducrocq Weinkauf pays homage to her roots with her wine brand, Picayune. More than a label, it also serves as an allegory for her approach to life. While seeking balance in all things, she feeds from her many travels and flux of eclectic input. “Wine is an important part of my story, but it’s only one part,” she says. “Family, community, friends and connection with nature and pursuing my dreams are all intertwined.”
Claire Ducrocq Weinkauf, owner, Picayune. [All photos courtesy of Tim Carl Photography]
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