By Mandy Valencia
Ashland Daily Tidings

ASHLAND, OREGON – Dragonfly is known for some cutting-edge, original cuisine, and now chef Neil Clooney – the man behind the menu – has proven his skill at the state level, winning the Iron Chef Oregon competition.

Clooney, head chef and part owner of Dragonfly, in November won the Food and Wine Classic, a regional cooking competition. He earned a seat competing in Portland on Aug. 7, for Iron Chef Oregon, a charity-based event benefiting the Special Olympics.

On the first day of the competition Clooney was up against the regional champion from Tillamook. Like in the “Iron Chef” television show, the chefs’ challenge was making a dish with a mystery ingredient in 30 minutes or less.

The first mystery ingredient was Asian lingcod.

“I preferred the dish I prepared the first day,” Clooney said. “I made a crispy version of the pan-seared Asian lingcod with celery root and tarragon potato hash browns with caper gremolata and balsamic au jus.”

Clooney, wanting to really impress the judges, went above and beyond what was required and made a second dish with the cod. “For my second dish I made a ratatouille with poached cod and basil foam.”

The final mystery ingredients were swordfish and blackberries. Clooney’s winning dish was pan-fried swordfish, caramelized fennel, blackberry and ginger marmalade, rolled up and shredded fresh pasta with cilantro and lime.

Celebrity chef Kat Cora was the guest master of ceremonies. With no pasta maker on hand, Clooney took Cora’s ouzo bottle and used it to roll over his handmade pasta and shred it into strips.

Now that Clooney is reigning Iron Chef of Oregon, he holds the seat until next year’s event, where he will only make one dish in the final round that the runner-up will try to beat.

“I love doing things like this,” he said. “It gets you out of the restaurant.”

Clooney will demonstrate his skills next at the Food and Wine Classic, Nov. 14-16 in Ashland. The event features local chefs creating cuisine focused on local produce and products. For more information, contact the Ashland Chamber of Commerce.

Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens is located 241 Hargadine St., below the Oregon Cabaret Theater. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, from 8 am – 3 pm and from 5 pm till close. Call (541) 488-4855.

Copyright © 2008 Ashland Daily Tidings. All Rights Reserved.

By Julie French
Mail Tribune

ASHLAND, OREGON – Dragonfly Café and Gardens Chef Neil Clooney and his sous chef Noah Edwards went home with the Bronze Skillet in the first Food & Wine Classic hosted by the Ashland Chamber of Commerce at the Historic Ashland Armory this weekend.

The duo beat out seven other teams of local chefs over the two-day “Iron Chef” style competition that required cooks to advance through three rounds, producing dishes from all-local fare – including a special mystery ingredient.

“Doing this twice in one day is not easy,” said judge Corey Schreiber, who started the Wildwood Restaurant in Portland. “I’m noticing a little more study this afternoon.”

In the final showdown Sunday afternoon against the father-son team of James Williams and Skyler Golden from Omar’s Restaurant, Clooney and Edwards won over the judges with a dish of potato-crusted cod on a sunchoke, bacon and parsley puree with wilted Swiss chard and cream of leek sauce paired with a caramelized pear dessert with lime sour cream, crystallized ginger and chocolate sauce. Each pair was required to use cod filets and chocolate.

“I wanted the cod to come out better, but obviously it was good enough,” Clooney said.

He was most proud of his pear dessert, a dish that surprised judges by its last-minute chocolate addition and awed the crowd when he ripped the cardboard tube from his box of aluminum foil to use as a makeshift pastry rolling pin.

“I didn’t think I’d be standing here today,” Clooney said after accepting his award. “I’m looking forward to keeping my championship next year.”

Williams and Golden are already planning a rematch.

“It was a good run,” Williams said. “The best man won today. I’m after him next year.

Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens is located 241 Hargadine St., below the Oregon Cabaret Theater. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, from 8 am – 3 pm and from 5 pm till close. Call (541) 488-4855.

Copyright © 2007 Mail Tribune. All Rights Reserved.

By Julie French
Ashland Daily Tidings

ASHLAND, OREGON – Dragonfly Café and Gardens Chef Neil Clooney spent this past Sunday in the kitchen, as he does on most weekends. But this time, he had scores of people watching over his shoulder and pressure-inducing music constantly reminding him that he had only 70 minutes to produce an award-winning dish.

Clooney and his sous chef Noah Edwards went home with the bronze skillet in the first-annual Food and Wine Classic hosted by the Ashland Chamber of Commerce at the Historic Ashland Armory this weekend.

The duo beat out seven other teams of local chefs over the two-day “Iron Chef”-style competition that required cooks to advance through three rounds, producing dishes from all local fare, including a special mystery ingredient.

In the final showdown Sunday afternoon against the father-son team of James Williams and Skyler Golden from Omar’s Restaurant, Clooney and Edwards won over the judges with a dish of potato-crusted cod on a sunchoke, bacon and parsley puree with wilted Swiss chard and cream of leek sauce paired with a caramelized pear tartin with lime sour cream, crystallized ginger and chocolate sauce for dessert. Each pair was required to use cod filets and chocolate.

“I wanted the cod to come out better, but obviously it was good enough,” Clooney said. He was most proud of his pear dessert, a dish that surprised judges by its last-minute chocolate addition and awed the crowd when he ripped the cardboard tube from his box of aluminum foil to use as a make-shift pastry rolling pin.

“Doing this twice in one day is not easy,” said judge Corey Schreiber, who started the Wildwood Restaurant in Portland. “I’m noticing a little more study this afternoon.”

But both teams said the grueling schedule was no different from an average day on the job. Clooney cooked breakfast at the Dragonfly, competed in the semifinals from 10 a.m. to noon, then returned for a quick lunch shift before the finals.

“I had to clear my head,” he said. “The best way to do it was to cook.”

The bigger challenge was the increasingly limited selection of ingredients as the competition progressed.

“I definitely had to rack my brain a bit more,” Clooney said.

As the chefs toiled away, audience members sampled chocolate truffles and sipped wines as they watched the pressure build. Nearly all of the competing chefs returned to watch the finals from a decidedly more relaxed standpoint.

“It feels pretty good to sit back and have a glass of wine,” said Cucina Biazzi Chef Chandra Corwin, who advanced through Sunday morning.

Others tried to predict what the competitors were thinking.

“It’s really hard to be in the audience and tell what they’re doing,” said Kate Cyr from Larks Home Kitchen Cuisine at the Ashland Springs Hotel.

Cyr correctly guessed Williams was dreaming up a chocolate mousse as he whipped up egg whites and folded them into melted chocolate early on in the competition. Clooney proved a bit more elusive, however, as he kept returning to the ingredients table, tossing limes in the air as he searched in vain for powdered sugar for his sour cream topping.

Fifteen minutes after the final drizzle of chocolate and one last swipe of the plates, the judges had their decision and presented the skillet to Clooney and Edwards.

“I didn’t think I’d be standing here today,” Clooney said. “I’m looking forward to keeping my championship next year.”

And Williams and Golden are already planning a rematch.

“It was a good run,” Williams said. “The best man won today. I’m after him next year.”

Williams will get his chance in a bigger and better showdown next year, said Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sandra Slattery.

“I am so happy with the results, and the energy, the competition and creativity of the chefs,” she said. “We know we have great chefs in Ashland, but to see them in competition, everybody was at the top of their game. It makes you really proud to live in Ashland. We’re spoiled rotten.

Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens is located 241 Hargadine St., below the Oregon Cabaret Theater. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, from 8 am – 3 pm and from 5 pm till close. Call (541) 488-4855.

Copyright © 2007 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.

By Meg Landers
Mail Tribune

ASHLAND, OREGON – Armed with empty silver trays and heavy concentration, chefs and their assistants were poised to load up at the ingredients table as Dennis Slattery, master of ceremonies, prepared to launch an “Iron Chef” style cook-off.

“Let’s get ready to crumble,” the MC said.

The 70-minute countdown began. Chefs from Omar’s, Chateaulin, Cucina Biazzi and Pilaf restaurants raced from their cooking stations to the table to stock up on celery, mushrooms and carrots as well as parsley, dried fruit and wine.

The culinary frenzy Saturday morning was part of the inaugural Food & Wine Classic of Southern Oregon, sponsored by the Ashland Chamber of Commerce. Featuring eight local chefs as well as locally grown food, the event is an effort to boost the area’s tourism among restaurants and wineries. The cook-off is modeled after the popular cable television show, “Iron Chef,” originally a hit in Japan.

Just prior to the competition, the chefs learned they were to prepare an entrée with bison and squash.

Chandra Corwin of Cucina Biazzi had the largest fan club Saturday, with nearly a dozen restaurant staff sporting t-shirts reading “I Love Chandra’s Cooking.”

Susan Powell, chef at Pilaf, seemed to be having the most fun of the bunch as she sliced, tossed and baked the various ingredients. She said she planned to win “by superior creativity and ingenuity, years and years of experience, and the accumulated wisdom of many cookbooks.”

James Williams of Omar’s Restaurant kept a thoughtful, steady pace.

“This is not my first rodeo,” he said.

Steve Cameron of Chateaulin Restaurant at the start seemed especially frustrated with trying to remove a feisty freshness seal on a container of white pepper, but soon found his pace.

Ten minutes into the culinary competition, the chefs were quiet and “in the zone,” noted Cory Schrieber, one of the judges. Schrieber, founder of the Wildwood restaurant in Portland and 1998 winner of the James Beard Award for Best Chef Pacific Northwest, also was the commentator throughout the event. Soon, mouthwatering aromas began wafting through the room.

The chefs are each to prepare three plates in an hour and 10 minutes, said Schrieber. Plates are judged on achievement/originality, presentation, degree of difficulty, taste and texture, and kitchen skills.

“The criteria (are) just based on the jaded palates of the judges,” admitted Schrieber.

Whether from standing over hot burners or from tension and anxiety, the chefs’ brows grew sweaty 35 minutes into the event.

Like Times Square on New Year’s Eve, the crowd began yelling out the remaining 10 seconds before the chefs had to have three plates prepared.

All movement stopped.

Each chef described their dish for the judges, then waited.

Steve Cameron of Chateaulin Restaurant fidgeted and looked nervous as the three judges tasted the plates.

“There’s a little prestige in it,” Cameron said, adding that he hoped to do well for the restaurant, too.

He said he wasn’t troubled by working in cramped quarters, because he has even less space in the Chateaulin kitchen. One difficulty, however, was the lack of burner space.

“We’re used to working with eight or ten burners and we got two slow ones,” he said.

Cameron made pan-roasted tenderloin bison with barley and butternut squash risotto, a root vegetable medley and cranberry demi-glace. If he had it to do over again he might do it differently, he said. “I may not have gone for risotto because I don’t think it came out as finished as we would like.”

Corwin and Williams were selected from the morning’s contest to go on to today’s semi-finals. Saturday’s afternoon contest included Neil Clooney of Dragonfly, Kate Cyr of Ashland Springs Hotel/Lark’s, Shane Hardin of the Winchester Inn and Anthony Starelli of T’s restaurants. Judges selected Clooney and Cyr.

Williams, Corwin, Clooney and Cyr will have their cook-off at 10 a.m. today. The competition will involve preparing a salad and an appetizer. The top two will vie for the championship this afternoon for a salad, entree and dessert competition.

“The degree of complexity goes up as the competition goes on,” said Schrieber.

The winner will receive an engraved bronze skillet.

Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens is located 241 Hargadine St., below the Oregon Cabaret Theater. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, from 8 am – 3 pm and from 5 pm till close. Call (541) 488-4855.

Copyright © 2007 Mail Tribune. All Rights Reserved.

By Richard Moesch
Mail Tribune

ASHLAND, OREGON – In the two years since it opened, Dragonfly has quickly become one of the busiest dining spots in Ashland. It is a favorite place to gather with friends, meet with business associates, or take your date before the high school prom. The portions are large without being gargantuan. The presentation is beautiful and the service is friendly and attentive.

Diners can enjoy their meal in the front section near the bar and have a bistro ambiance. Moving further inside, they can sit in the beautifully appointed dining room. There are tables for two along the windowed walls, tables for larger groups in the center of the room and tables with built-in benches along the wall. Leaving the dining room, you head outside into the back for a multi-leveled garden dining experience.

Dragonfly opens its doors at 8 a.m. every morning. This may be a secret, because the many times I have had breakfast there it has never been crowded. By contrast to the bustle in the afternoons and evenings, the slower place is pleasantly relaxing — unless you’re in a hurry.

Breakfast selections are many, and often include a special or two. I usually have the coconut granola for $4.50. That includes toasted oats with coconut, almonds and raisins. Then I add fruit for $2 and some yogurt and milk and I’m one happy camper. Since this place serves cappuccinos and lattes for $3.50, I’m one very happy camper.

My regular breakfast companions usually have the artichoke scramble for $8, which is eggs scrambled with artichoke, cheese, green onions and tomatoes served with crispy rosemary potatoes and grilled rosemary bread.

Sometimes my companions order something with a Latin influence, which makes sense in a place that describes much of its cuisine as Latin-Asian-Fusion. There are breakfast burritos, tamales, tortillas, and quesadillas as well as cantina croissants, which range from $7.50 to $8.75.

The Asian influence is represented by Nirvana: marinated grilled tofu, brown rice, broccoli, zucchini, squash, egg whites and salsa.

I’ve never taken the grandkids here for breakfast, but I just might. After all, who could pass up a Fruit Face Pancake for $3.50?

My lunch favorites are the Nuevo roll-ups for $7.75, which are pan-fried noodles in ginger soy sauce with green onion, cilantro, julienned carrots, celery and sprouts, wrapped in a spinach tortilla and served with mixed greens and peanut sauce. I add marinated tofu for another $2.50. Unbelievably yummy. You could also add chicken or beef.

Then there’s the lettuce wrap, which someone at our table always manages to order. Imagine a plate of marinated chicken, crisp lettuce leaves, shredded cucumber, rice noodles and peanut sauce served with brown rice and several bowls of spicy sauces for $8.50.

Lunch for my wife is usually the Buddha Bowl: a big bowl of steamy lemongrass miso and coconut milk broth with shitake mushrooms, noodles, veggies and cilantro for $9. Most of her favorite food groups are in there and she smiles a lot when she eats it.

For dinner, we start out with a generous helping of crispy shoe string plantains. I like the wok fried rice bowl ($10) or the Asia grill ($12). Each features brown rice with sweet potato, roasted bell pepper, eggplant, green beans and portabello mushrooms. The ingredients in each are prepared a little differently. The contents in the bowl are stir fried with sweet chili sauce, and the grill is served with marinated tofu and peanut sauce.

My wife is a big fan of the Imperial Bowl which is a variation on the Buddha Bowl with the addition of brown rice, steamed zucchini, broccoli, bean sprouts and jullienned vegetables for $11.

For dessert, my wife likes the bananas cantina. Who wouldn’t like flamed bananas with spiced rum, served a la mode for $5? I still enjoy the coconut flan for $5, as many times as I’ve eaten it. When you find what you like, why change? The coconut gives the flan a hearty texture, which is as delightfully different from the usual custard variety as Dragonfly is from the usual dining experience.

Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens is located 241 Hargadine St., below the Oregon Cabaret Theater. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, from 8 am – 3 pm and from 5 pm till close. Call (541) 488-4855.

Copyright © 2007 Southern Oregon Media Group, a subsidiary of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Anita Burke
Mail Tribune

ASHLAND, OREGON – A truly fine dining experience requires the perfect mix of quality food, gracious service and elegant atmosphere.

Ashland’s Dragonfly, in the former home of Primavera below the Oregon Cabaret Theater, provides just the right blend.

The restaurant that opened in November is the brainchild of San Diego restauranteurs Billy Tosheff and his wife, Isabel Cruz, who still own two popularly acclaimed restaurants in California. They hired another husband-and-wife team, Neil and Dee Clooney, to head up the Ashland endeavor.

Chef Cruz is known for her zesty, healthy fusion of Latin and Asian cooking, and her signature dishes — such as coconut French toast at breakfast or a Buddha Bowl of soup with coconut milk and lemongrass broth, noodles, mushrooms and veggies — suit local tastes.

All meat, poultry and fish Dragonfly serves are sustainably farmed and hormone-free, the menu promises. The menu also offers plenty of vegetarian and vegan options and touts that the kitchen staff prepares all its food “from scratch with love and care.”

When my husband and I visited Dragonfly for dinner, careful attention to detail was apparent from the bright, welcoming foyer to the last bite of dessert.

The dining room glows with a warm ambience, thanks to textured rice-paper highlights on columns and a giant paper lantern hanging in the center of the room. A cozy banquette that wraps the wall and dark wood tables and chairs anchor the light airiness of the room.

We decided to start our meal with ahi wontons, crisp fried wonton skins topped with butter-soft slices of seared ahi tuna, silky slivers of avocado and delicate drizzles of a sweet soy sauce and wasabi-infused cream. At $9, these are the most expensive appetizer on the menu, outpricing even the plantains with caviar ($7), but worth every penny.

A section on the menu labeled “Big Bowls” listed delicious- sounding Asian inspired soups, including udon choices and the Buddha Bowl, as well as rice bowls laden with vegetables. The offerings are priced between $8 and $12, and diners can add marinated tofu, grilled chicken or beef for a few dollars more.

As tempting as those items sounded, I was in the mood for a more conventional night-out entree and the dinner menu offered plenty of options. Few places offer a choice of a melange of Asian grilled vegetables ($12) or a housemade chicken tamale ($10).

I chose the grilled salmon ($16), an impeccably cooked fillet with a sweet soy glaze that was caramelized to perfection. Balanced atop a mound of tender green beans, the fish was topped with a papaya and mango mint salsa. A cup of nutty brown rice accompanied the meal.

My husband ultimately settled on char-grilled chicken, dragon style. Dragonfly offers a half or a quarter of a char-grilled chicken for $15 or $10, respectively, served four different ways — Latino style with black beans, rice and crispy plantains; Asian style with rice edamame and peanut sauce; Isabel style with brown rice and vegetables; and dragon style with roasted potatoes.

The roasted red and sweet potatoes were outstanding with a crispy, crusty outside on each slice, and chipotle-infused sour cream on the side. The chicken was tender and moist.

We accompanied our meal with a Cristalino Brut, an acclaimed Spanish sparkling wine that’s so reasonably priced you don’t need a special occasion to bring it out. Dragonfly’s wine list includes 13 quality, affordable wines from California, Oregon, New Zealand, Spain and Italy.

For dessert, I had to try the flourless chocolate cake. Served with artistic swirls of raspberry puree and rich chocolate sauce and a garnish of sliced strawberry and mint leaves, it was almost too beautiful to eat. However, the deep chocolatey aroma made it too tempting to just gaze upon, so I plunged my spoon in. I was not disappointed; it was divinely delicious.

When a kitchen mix-up sent a nearby table its entrees before the appetizers arrived (oh, the horror!), the exquisitely professional staff handled the complaint with admirable finesse.

Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens is located 241 Hargadine St., below the Oregon Cabaret Theater. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, from 8 am – 3 pm and from 5 pm till close. Call (541) 488-4855.

Copyright © 2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Amanda Bolsinger
Ashland Daily Tidings

ASHLAND, OREGON – Already a new favorite restaurant for breakfast and lunch, the six-month-old Dragonfly is expanding to include dinner.

The restaurant is an extension of Cantina, a restaurant based in San Diego, but when Neil and Dee Clooney moved to Southern Oregon to open Dragonfly, they created a restaurant that is uniquely Ashland, with a variety of worldly flavors.

Dragonfly is a Latin-Asian restaurant, with dishes from each culture as well as choices that combine the two distinct flavors.

“We have a couple of dishes with eastern and Latin flavors but also a lot of different dishes,” Neil Clooney said. “Our food is healthy and light but not bland and boring. Everything has flavor.”

The breakfast menu boasts dishes like their trademark coconut French toast and the cantina croissant, a homemade croissant with scrambled eggs, cheese, tomatoes, and scallions served with rosemary potatoes.

Following the same flavors, the dinner menu has been built with dishes like the Buddha bowl, a bowl of lemon grass and coconut-milk broth with shitake mushrooms, noodles, vegetables and cilantro; the ahi wontons, seared ahi served with wonton crisps; and charbroiled chicken served Latin style, Asian style, dragon style and Isabel style, each with different sides.

Along with the new dinner menu and hours, the Clooneys have been making changes to the interior and exterior of the restaurant as well. In the rear of the restaurant is a garden that has been cleaned up and replanted to offer outdoor patio seating. Inside, the booths have been re-covered, new carpet has been laid and finishing touches around the restaurant have been completed to create a casual, comfortable ambiance.

“We finished all the little things,” Neil Clooney said. “We were unfinished when we opened but we have evolved into a proper restaurant.”

Dragonfly isn’t finished evolving. The wine list with moderately priced white, rose, and red wines will soon be a small part of a full bar that the Clooneys plan to open this summer. Couches will be moved into the front lobby to create a comfortable seating space that will serve during daytime hours as a small coffee house and at night as a lounge and bar.

As the Dragonfly expands, it has been getting attention from more then just the usual breakfast crowd. The restaurant was recently featured in Joy Magazine, and Neil Clooney will host a segment on KTVL’s 5 p.m. news show on Thursday evenings beginning in July. In each segment, he will share a different recipe and show how to prepare it.

Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens is located 241 Hargadine St., below the Oregon Cabaret Theater. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, from 8 am – 3 pm and from 5 pm till close. Call (541) 488-4855.

Copyright © 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings. All Rights Reserved.

By Shannon McMahon
The San Diego Union-Tribune

ASHLAND, OREGON – Isabel Cruz came to San Diego as a single mom without a college education, a car or an income. “I had nothing,” she said. “I had been living with my mom and two kids.” She wanted a change.

So Cruz borrowed $15,000 from her brother and decided in 1991 to enter the restaurant business, an industry with an 80 percent failure rate, according to the California Restaurant Association.

With her business partner, Billy Tosheff, Cruz created the Mission Cafe, which featured healthy food and a funky atmosphere.

Statistics say her recipe for success should have failed. Without professional experience or strong financial backing – Cruz had neither – analysts consider it nearly impossible for a new restaurant to succeed.

“But I had to cook,” said Cruz, who lived with her children and Tosheff in a one-bedroom apartment above the restaurant. “I didn’t know how to do anything else.”

Today, the chef, restaurateur and author employs 45 waiters, chefs and managers. Her three San Diego County restaurants – Seaside Cantina in Pacific Beach, the Coffee Cup in La Jolla and the Cantina Panaderia in Pacific Beach – brought in revenue of $2 million last year.

Six weeks ago, Cruz and Tosheff, who married in 2001, opened their fourth restaurant, Dragonfly in Ashland, Oregon. The restaurant plays off the Asian-Latin fare of the Cantina Panaderia.

Cruz sold the Mission Cafe in 1996 but still holds a minority stake in the Mission Beach business, which has expanded into North Park.

Critics, customers and Cruz consider her healthy comfort food the key to her success.

“It all boils down to her passion, her resources and her willingness to persevere,” said Tom Penn, vice president of new business development of the Ladeki Restaurant Group and Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza.

Cruz said her tenacity came on the heels of bankruptcy in the early ’90s. She had been a housewife in Huntington Beach when her husband’s construction business ran into financial trouble.

When the two of them split, Cruz felt like her main marketable skills were cooking and throwing parties. So she decided to try the restaurant business, despite the long odds of success.

“You learn that you have to take risks,” Cruz said. “And you have to do it while you’re young.”

The child of Puerto Rican immigrants, Cruz learned how to cook as a 10-year-old, preparing meals for her younger brothers while her parents worked. She mixed ingredients on a whim and liked quick, simple recipes.

“I come from a big Latin family where food is a part of everything,” Cruz said. “I always knew how to cook.”

Today, Cruz is known on the food scene for meals that combine health and taste, with dishes such as lettuce wraps, scrambled egg whites with pesto, tomatoes and onion, and her trademark Buddha Bowl – a soup with mushrooms and a noodle cake.

Never one to deny herself something sweet, Cruz also enjoys coconut french toast and flourless chocolate cake.

“You shouldn’t fight cravings,” she said.

Cruz’s most recent San Diego endeavor, the Cantina Panaderia, opened in summer 2002. The restaurant sits on Felspar and Cass streets. Inside, Cruz and Tosheff have created a calming and exotic atmosphere with a Burmese Buddha in the corner and wine-red curtains draped over Italian plaster walls. A typical breakfast costs $5 to $10.

The couple bought and remodeled the building, once a Devaney’s Bakery, after gutting more than 100 tons of flooring, walls and old equipment. Tosheff, a builder by training, was the primary designer, constructing green-tiled columns, a relief dragon adorning the entryway and an exposed kitchen that features stainless steal counters.

Restaurateurs have to constantly rework their model to satisfy fickle consumers.

“It’s easy to have a great restaurant and then two years later, somebody’s in a better location and you’re not making it any longer,” said Penn, who overseas 19 restaurants in Nevada, California and Arizona. “It’s more expensive to operate in California.”

Cruz wants to hang new decorations on the walls, add cushions to the chairs and update the menu with her latest Asian-Latin fusion dishes.

She also wants to put her chef’s table to use with cooking classes that feature recipes from her cookbook “Bite This,” which will be available this year.

“We’ve had a few stumbling blocks, but I feel like I really know what I’m doing now,” Cruz said.

The major obstacle for Cruz came in the form of regulation.

“San Diego as a town makes it so hard to open a business,” said Cruz, citing taxes, workers’ compensation and minimum wage laws for restaurateurs. “It’s like they don’t want you here.”

The lack of a beer and wine license in the first 1 years of operation hurt business at the Cantina. The license was held up by an unofficial San Diego police ban on new liquor licenses in Pacific Beach. In 2003, the restaurant secured the license.

That same year, Cruz was complaining on the radio about taxes and regulations within the restaurant business when a campaign assistant for Arnold Schwarzenegger heard her.

“The next thing I knew, I was on Arnold’s bus,” she said, with her leg propped over the arm of her chair. “It was me with all these high-powered political men and women.”

When Maria Shriver came to San Diego on the campaign trail, she stopped for lunch at Cruz’s Cantina. She returned again last fall.

“Listen,” Cruz said, “I’m a Hispanic single mother who grew up in L.A. If I’m voting Republican, something has gone wrong on the other side.”

Fed up with what they consider overregulation within the state, Cruz and Tosheff have decided to start expanding outside California.

“We’ve moved into the Oregon market now. We can’t do something like this again,” said Cruz, who was sitting in the Cantina discussing the recent restaurant opening in Ashland.

Politics and legislation aside, food remains Cruz’s first passion.

“I’m healthy, but I love food,” she said. “I love simple recipes and excellent sauces.”

Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens is located 241 Hargadine St., below the Oregon Cabaret Theater. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, from 8 am – 3 pm and from 5 pm till close. Call (541) 488-4855.

Copyright © 2005 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.

By Bill Choy
Mail Tribune

ASHLAND, OREGON – A husband and wife responsible for several successful San Diego-area restaurants are bringing their unique blend of Asian and Latin cuisine to this town’s ever-more eclectic mix of eateries.

They’ve also recruited another couple – experts in the business recruited two years ago from London – to run the show.

Dragonfly, in the former Primavera site at 24 Hargadine St., is scheduled to open on Saturday. A tentative Thursday opening was delayed by last-minute glitches, most notably late menus, said Dee Clooney, who will manage the restaurant while husband Neil runs the kitchen.

It’s all the creation of Billy Tosheff and his wife, Isabel Cruz, a chef and cookbook author who created the eatery’s menu items.

Tosheff said the Dragonfly will serve moderately priced breakfast, lunch and dinner, featuring items like coconut French toast, ahi tuna wontons, grilled salmon with Asian spices topped with a mango papaya salsa, as well as numerous vegan and vegetarian creations.

The couple founded Mission Cafe in San Diego. They also own the Coffee Cup Cafe in La Jolla and Cantina Panaderia in Pacific Beach, both in the San Diego area.

Tosheff said he wanted to start a restaurant in Ashland since discovering the town by chance about 10 years ago when he stopped here on the way to Seattle.

While exploring the town, he fell in love with its beauty, and the people and businesses he came across.

“There’s a real creative nature about it,” he said. “There’s a lot of craftsmanship here, which I admire.”

He has visited the town frequently over the past several years, and had planned to open a restaurant for a few years.

Tosheff and Cruz will still be based in San Diego and come to Ashland frequently.

The Clooneys met Tosheff in London, where they worked at the popular Ransom’s Dock. Tosheff convinced them to work in one of his San Diego restaurants, where they have been for the past two years.

When the Ashland restaurant began to take shape, Tosheff decided they would be a perfect pair to help get Dragonfly up and running.

Neil Clooney said the couple liked the idea of coming to America to “broaden our horizons.” He’s enjoyed the small-town ambiance of Ashland, but also appreciates that it has big-city amenities like good theater, restaurants and bars.

Dee agreed: “It’s so refreshing here. It’s like a village here. You get to know people so quickly.”

“I like the diversity of the produce here,” Neil added. “I like that everyone is food-curious here. They like to know the source of the food. I appreciate their knowledge and interest.”

Tosheff said the plan is to open slowly with only a few of its tables in the beginning until the staff gets acclimated. “We want the business to evolve over time.”

While much thought has been given to design, at the crux is the food, Tosheff said.

“We want the food to be good, and people to have the best experience,” she said.

Tosheff said, like his other eateries, he wants Dragonfly to be an open, inviting place, that both locals and tourists can enjoy.

“We’re about food and people,” he said. “We just want to take our time and create a great restaurant for the neighborhood.”

Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens is located 241 Hargadine St., below the Oregon Cabaret Theater. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, from 8 am – 3 pm and from 5 pm till close. Call (541) 488-4855.

Copyright © 2004 Mail Tribune. All Rights Reserved.

By Bill Choy
Ashland Daily Tidings

A husband-and-wife team that has opened several successful San Diego-area restaurants is bringing its unique mixture of Asian and Latin-flavored cuisine to Ashland.

Dragonfly, at 24 Hargadine St. where the Primavera restaurant was once housed, is tentatively scheduled to open for business Thursday.

The restaurant is the creation of Billy Tosheff and his wife, Isabel Cruz, a chef and cookbook author who created the menu for the eatery.

Tosheff said Dragonfly will be a moderately priced establishment that will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The menu will feature items such as coconut French toast, Ahi won tons, grilled salmon with Asian spices, topped with a mango papaya salsa on top, as well as numerous vegan and vegetarian creations.

The couple founded the Mission Cafe in San Diego and own the Coffee Cup Cafe in La Jolla, Calif., and Cantina Panaderia in Pacific Beach.

Tosheff said he wanted to start a restaurant in Ashland since discovering the town by chance about 10 years ago when he stopped here on the way to Seattle.

He said while exploring the town, he fell in love with its beauty, and the people and businesses he came across.

“There’s a real creative nature about it,” he said. “There’s a lot of craftsmanship here, which I admire.”

He has visited the town constantly over the past several years, and has been planning to open an eatery in Ashland for a few years.

Tosheff and Cruz will still be based in San Diego and come to Ashland frequently.

The day-to-day management duties will be handled by Dee Clooney, and her husband, Neil, will be the chef de cuisine.

The couple met Tosheff in London, where they worked at the popular London restaurant Ransom’s Dock. He was able to convince them to work in one of his restaurants in San Diego, where they worked for the past two years.

When the Ashland restaurant came to fruition, Tosheff decided they would be a perfect pair to help get Dragonfly up and running.

Neil Clooney said the couple liked the idea of coming to America to “broaden our horizons.” He said he has enjoyed the small town ambiance of Ashland, but also appreciates that it has big city amenities like good theater, restaurants and bars.

Dee Clooney said they have enjoyed the small town flavor of Ashland, unlike the big city life they experienced in London.

“It’s so refreshing here,” she said. “It’s like a village here. You get to know people so quickly.”

“I like the diversity of the produce here,” Neil Clooney added. “I like that everyone is food curious here. They like to know the source of the food. I appreciate their knowledge and interest.”

Tosheff said the plan is to open the restaurant slowly, only opening up a portion of its tables in the beginning while the restaurant staff gets acclimated.

“We want the business to evolve over time,” he said.

While much thought has been given to the design of the restaurant, the vital success of any good eatery is the food, Tosheff said.

“We want the food to be good and people to have the best experience,” she said.

Tosheff said like his other eateries, he wants Dragonfly to be an open, inviting place, that both locals and tourists alike can enjoy.

He hopes the eclectic food and good prices will help the restaurant become a popular choice for locals to eat.

“We’re about food and people,” he said. “We just want to take our time and create a great restaurant for the neighborhood.”

Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens is located 241 Hargadine St., below the Oregon Cabaret Theater. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, from 8 am – 3 pm and from 5 pm till close. Call (541) 488-4855.

Copyright © 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings. All Rights Reserved.