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Seasonal Special: Bluewater’s Stuffed-Lobster Deal

Bluewater Grill locations are offering a fabulous bargain—and a truly gourmet experience—with their seasonal Stuffed Fresh Maine Lobster for a top price of $32.95.

This is a do-not-miss deal and is offered both for lunch and dinner.

It begins Nov. 13 and runs through Jan. 2. This is the lobster equivalent to stuffing a bird.

Guaranteed: I’ll be doing this more than once, as I know it from past seasons.

Each fall Bluewater owner Jimmy Ulcickas has the live Maine lobsters flown in.

For this promotion the lobster is split in half and a savory stuffing perfumed with sherry tops the luscious meat. This is the best dining present we can give ourselves or others.

The meal—which always includes a choice of two sides and unlimited freshly baked sourdough bread—will be $29.95 on Nov. 13, with wine pairing included in the price as part of that day’s introductory offer.

The tab will—for the remainder of the special offer through the beginning of the year—reflect the market price of Maine lobster but won’t exceed $32.95.

That doesn’t include wine pairings, but the wines are available by the glass at very affordable prices.

Bluewater always prints a full menu each day, offering the freshest fish from various waters.

This is an easy go-to place when we want a memorable clam chowder, just-harvested shellfish and swimmers of many varieties.

We happen to like the cocktail lounge aspects, too, where food and watching sporting events merge in comfortable compliance.

Fifi Chao

There are tasting events every second Tuesday at BWG.

Most of us are increasingly aware and supportive of sustainability in our food chain.

Bluewater Grill is working toward 100% menu certification by early 2013, meaning that every item on the menu will be certified a “best choice” by either the Monterey Bay Aquarium or the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, both seafood-sustainability experts on the West Coast.

Nearly 100% of the menu is certified.

BWG is also one of only a handful of restaurants nationally—and the only one in Orange County—to publish its own Fish Origins Chart, showing the wild or farmed origin of every seafood and shellfish on the menu.

This makes Bluewater Grill one of the most sustainability-minded seafood restaurants in the entire country. For his efforts, Jimmy was featured on the cover of the July 2012 issue of SeaFood Business, a trade journal for the seafood-restaurant industry.

BWG also received Best Seafood Restaurant honors in the OC Restaurant Association’s first annual Golden Foodie Awards in September. Jimmy and his crew were obviously thrilled, and consumers should be impressed!

It’s nice to have two quite different atmospheres at the restaurants: The one in Newport’s Cannery Village has a New England seafood house atmosphere, and the Tustin location is stylishly modern and cosmopolitan.

Bluewater Grill: 630 Lido Park Drive, Newport Beach, (949) 675-3474; 2409 Park Ave. (at The District at Tustin Legacy), Tustin, (714) 258-3474. Additional local Bluewater Grills are in Redondo Beach and at our Honda Center (smaller menu).

One-Year Anniversary

The restaurant name Three Seventy Common Kitchen + Drink conjures up something friendly and community-minded.

And that’s what you find at this Laguna Beach place that celebrated its first anniversary three weeks ago. We just had another meal and spent the evening reminiscing about different dishes we’d enjoyed since chef/owner Ryan Adams stepped in and completely revitalized the space that had been Sorrento Grille for so long.

Upstairs is still the more serene area with a few tables and booths. But, for me, the action and aromas are downstairs where the open kitchen dominates a long wall while a small bar provides its own energy.

A cozy fireplace dominates one corner, and the entire front of the room is glass—all the better to watch the pedestrians plying the downtown streets. Commitment to sustainability is evidenced in the use of rustic reclaimed materials, antiques and vintage accents in the warm interiors.

Adams has worked in some of OC’s finer kitchens and in corporate positions.

But, having been raised by a family bent on growing their own produce and cooking interesting fare, it’s easy to envision him wanting to have his own restaurant where he can prepare his globally influenced and domestically sourced dishes.

His forte is reconstructing familiar dishes with a bit of boldness and a modicum of culinary surprise.

Every dish has some intrigue that translates easily on the palate.

Eschewing the tradition of serving hefty portions of bread, Adams instead presents tantalizing preludes to each meal. For a while he was placing a basket of savory Bacon Maple Popcorn as something to nibble on. Fat little batons of freshly baked pretzels were tucked in a bowl at our recent meal.

They came with fine mustard to highlight their addictiveness.

Retro reinvented sweets like Grandma B’s Chocolate Cake served with vanilla ice cream and “love” end our meals with a nostalgia factor.

In between those treats are sociable selections, all presented on a one-page menu. Small plates range from $4 to $12, medium from $9 to $16.50, and large from $12 to $29. Sides are $4, and sweets are $6.

The kids menu includes entrée, sides and brownies.

Pork belly is quite the belle of the kitchen in many places right now. Here there is great presentation and taste, with complements of stone fruit, almonds, greens and burnt honey.

Calamari with peppers and tomato chutney shows off diverse flavors melded into a nice marriage.

One of the best burgers in the county resides here. It’s called the 10 Napkin Burger and is hefty enough to feed two. Between the fresh bun are cheese, arugula, bacon, mushrooms, chiles, aioli and charred onion and a fried egg; it’s served with fries.

Canadian Dish

Restaurants are having fun with the Canadian dish called Poutine. Adams tops his ultracrispy fries with veal gravy, leeks, peas, cheddar cheese and bacon bits, and horseradish crème, making it a more stellar version of the down-home potato dish.

Pork loin comes with a zingy harissa sauce peeking through, plus BBQ mac ‘n’cheese and apple-sweet onion slaw on the side.

Bone marrow is rich and rather dignified with its layered flavors of parsley, red onion, radish and chimichurri.

Fresh fish and steak make appearances. Try the salmon with potato hash and tomato-garlic sauce or halibut with peas and preserved lemon.

Risotto dishes vary depending on some extraordinary produce or ingredient that a purveyor delivered that would add symmetry and unexpected flavor to the creamy rice.

The noodles with prosciutto, peas and mushrooms represent some real comfort food. The meat loaf with spinach and mushroom gravy also fits well in the comfort groove.

I really like the additional dining diversities they offer.

Uncommon Mondays is a once-a-month guest chef series that is curated by Adams. He and his culinary team host prix-fixe dinners that showcase the food and sensibilities of other area chefs that Chef Adams respects and wants to share with the Laguna Beach community and other visitors to Three Seventy Common.

On Nov. 19 Chef Aron Habiger from The Crosby in downtown Santa Ana will present his food.

St. Roy at Vine’s chef Jared Cook will be featured Dec. 17.

Prices range from $50 to $75 per person. Dinner reservations are suggested and limited.

Themed days are observed at the restaurant, including Sunday Night Socials, Brown Bag Night on Tuesdays and Wino Wednesdays.

The wine list is as cleverly conceived as the food. You will discover two pages of most interesting wines, many of them in the $30-to-$50 range.

Adams and his sous chef/sommelier Mitch Gillan—another really good chef whose food I’ve known from other restaurants—are having a lot of fun, but both are also dead serious about honoring ingredients as they make the quick trip from farm to fork.

Put this restaurant atop your bucket list.

Three Seventy Common: 370 Glenneyre St., Laguna Beach, (949) 494-8686.

New Location

El Cholo is coming to Anaheim Hills.

The spring opening will make for six locations in the mini-chain of Mexican restaurants owned by Ron Salisbury. The restaurant is set for a site formerly occupied by Chevys Mexican restaurant at 8200 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road.

The Salisbury family opened their first restaurant in 1923 in L.A. with subsequent generations continuing the tradition. They’ve won a passel of industry awards, national dining surveys and local polls.

Rachel Ray and Nate Berkus have featured the tacos and green-corn tamales, respectively, on their TV shows.

Their green corn tamales have become internationally famous and have been shipped vast distances for decades.

An employee introduced nachos to the world via El Cholo in 1959. They pioneered the Cuervo 1800 Tequila Margarita that has been voted the best margarita in the county by the public.

My private hint: Order one of the spiked L.A. lemonades for a refreshing alternative.

Meantime, for traditional Sonoran-style Mexican food, you won’t have to wait till the next El Cholo is built. We have one in Irvine and the next nearest one in La Habra.

Two other locations are in Los Angeles and one in Santa Monica. The Salisbury family also operates the upscale Cannery in Newport Beach and the lovely Cat & The Custard Cup in La Habra.

Convenient Chinese

Fans of the Panda Express chain of Chinese-food restaurants have a new location to visit: 2318 N. Tustin Ave., Orange. Phone number: (714) 685-0476.

Not that we’re lacking for Panda Express restaurants in OC, which now will boast 41 among the chain’s 1,500 locations in 42 states and Puerto Rico.

Andrew Cherng and his wife Peggy founded the Panda restaurants in 1973, when I was cutting a wide swath in the county as a teacher of international cuisines, one of which was authentic Chinese cooking. I’d learned from two of my sisters-in-law who were well known for their cooking abilities and was relishing passing on real Chinese cooking techniques and recipes to my students.

Part of my sharing was recommending Panda as a restaurant in which to enjoy flavorful food, including their now-famous Orange Chicken, Beijing Beef, Honey Walnut Shrimp and Shanghai Angus Steak. This location will serve signature stir-fried dishes and more than 20 entrées, including their classics, from the steam trays in which items are replaced every few minutes to ensure freshness.

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