JANUARY  2016
Joe and Gayle receive the Gail Rich Award for outstanding contributions to the arts in Santa Cruz County.

 

As written in the new book The Creatives Among Us: Celebrating 20 Years of the Gail Rich Award, Wallace Baine wrote:

 

Obviously, Joe and Gayle Ortiz’s most significant contribution to the culture of Santa Cruz County is that garden of culinary delights known as Gayles’ Bakery & Rosticceria in Capitola. But there’s much more to the creative life of this well-known Capitola power couple. Gayle describes herself as a lifelong “maker,” and pours her passions into making clothing and jewelry (often from textiles). As a former mayor and current planning commissioner, she has also been a guiding hand in preserving the unique character of Capitola. Joe has famously become one of the county’s finest theatrical composers, with his musical creations “Bread,” “Smoke” and “Escaping Queens,” the latter of which recently enjoyed a run in New York. Still, it’s the Bakery where the Ortizes’ creativity takes it most delicious form, in the kitchen and in the display cases.