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Since 2019, Feast and Floral has provided elegant and colorful cheese and charcuterie boards, grazing tables, snack boxes, floral arrangements and other festive goodies to the Bay Area. On Oct. 1, the company will open its new space in Redwood City’s Marsh Manor Shopping Center, which houses not only its catering business but also a wine bar and gourmet marketplace selling goods by small California brands.
The Marsh Manor location, near Menlo Park and Atherton, “seemed like the perfect fit because it was kind of right in the center of where most of our customers are … and twice the square feet that we’re used to working with,” owner Ashley Higashi said. “It was really exciting, the thought of expanding our catering and having our own wine bar.”
Feast and Floral’s new wine bar is based around what the company is calling “California clean,” meaning the wine will be sourced from small California vineyards, produced with minimal intervention and using sustainable practices, she said. Some of the wine brands offered will include Birichino, Catch & Release Wines and Stirm Wine Company, according to Higashi.
Menu options include dine-in versions of Feast and Floral’s trademark grazing platters as well as a tinned fish plate and ravioli drizzled with fresh local olive oil. A “provisions wall” holds goods by small California brands – including Like Family olive oil, Deux Cranes chocolates, Cult Crackers and Foustman’s Salami – products that go well with Feast and Floral’s charcuterie and cheese boards, giving patrons the chance to build their own perfect picnic.
In Feast and Floral’s early days, Higashi ran the business out of her home, which it quickly outgrew. The company, providing artful arrangements of tasty treats and flowers for private and corporate events, “bounced around all over various kitchens” for a while, she said, and pivoted during the pandemic to offering smaller snack boxes, delivering them all over the Bay Area.
Feast and Floral then partnered with former downtown Palo Alto natural wine bar Salvaje, serving food and selling floral arrangements alongside Salvaje’s wines there until late January, when Salvaje shuttered. Feast and Floral has continued to operate its catering business since then while working on the move to Redwood City (including a crowdfunding campaign to help finance the construction).
The renovations of Feast and Floral’s new digs, the former site of Chinese restaurant Yat Sing, have been a year in the making.
“These things always take a lot longer than you think,” she said with a laugh. “When we found it, it was completely gutted. There was literally nothing – no walls, no floor.” An architect was brought in to help bring Higashi’s vision to reality and “what came out of that is beyond my wildest dreams,” she said.
The new space spans about 1,600 square feet, with the kitchen taking up about two-thirds of it, she said. The rest can hold about 35-40 people, including in a “little comfy zone with a sofa and stools and a coffee table,” the wine bar, a communal table, plus three more smaller tables in a dining area. Food orders can be eaten on site or boxed up to go.
“There’s a lot going on in one little building,” Higashi said.
Higashi is hoping to eventually host “meet the winemakers” events and tastings from the marketplace. She said she’s very excited to expand the business and to support fellow independent local makers.
“I’ve been making things and trying to earn money for the past 20 years,” she said. “And this finally feels like my chance to sort of support all of the little guys like they have supported me.”
Feast and Floral, 3770 Florence St., Redwood City, 650-313-3616; Instagram: @feastandfloral. Open Tuesday to Thursday 1-9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 1-10 p.m. (On Oct. 1 only, open at 11 a.m.)
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