How do you tell a story without words?
In dance, you do it through movement. In music, you do it through sound. In the restaurant world, you do it through a dining experience where every detail, from the decor to the ingredients to the presentation, tells a story.
Story Bar + Kitchen in Anaheim Hills aims to write a narrative that blends inventive culinary inspirations with a comfortable yet eclectic ambiance so patrons can craft their own story as they dine.
Story Bar + Kitchen was created by restaurateurs Cynthia Vigil and Chad Reinhardt, the same duo who in late 2023 opened Benny and Mary’s in Irvine. Benny and Mary are a fictional couple created by Vigil. Her concept was that Benny and Mary threw the best dinner parties, and everyone wanted an invitation to their home to savor an eclectic yet upscale menu and ambiance.
With Story Bar + Kitchen, Vigil wants diners to explore their own culinary adventure, which is easy to do once you step inside the restaurant. There’s a vibrant bar and lounge, plenty of booths and table seating, and dozens of books carefully placed around the restaurant (hence the “story” aspect).
Helming the kitchen is Executive Chef Christy Gray, whose own story begins with her mother’s Filipino cooking and watching professional chefs on TV. She enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, then went to work at Michelin-starred restaurant Providence in Los Angeles.
After running her own catering company, Gray worked as a sous chef at Puesto in Huntington Beach and Anaheim before going to Benny and Mary’s, and now Story.
According to Gray, Story Bary + Kitchen gave her a chance to create something modern with Asian influences.
Gray’s menu features a variety of dishes that range from familiar staples, such as braised short rib, to more exotic entrees including pork belly bao, miso butter noodles and yuzu lobster pasta.
Story Bar + Kitchen, 8150 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road, Anaheim Hills, (714) 253-3413, storyanaheim.com.
Trela’s Hot Take
At a recent media tasting accompanied by fellow food writer Malena Gordon, we were able to sample 11 dishes, including nine entrees and two desserts. Fortunately, we were served tasting portions. The variety of dishes that we tasted gave us an excellent intro into Christy Gray’s menu and mind.
After trying miso butter noodles, ahi tuna tacos, chicken piccata, yuzu lobster pasta, pork belly bao, miso glazed Chilean sea bass, braised short rib and Caesar salad, clear favorites emerged.
I immediately fell in love with the miso butter boodles with mushrooms sauteed in garlic and noodles tossed with white miso butter and red pepper flakes, topped with fresh chives.
“It’s one of my faves,” Gray told the Business Journal. “It’s very different but I love it.”
So, did I.
The simplicity of the dish is deceiving. The mushrooms, garlic, miso and noodles are a match made in culinary heaven, and the addition of the red pepper flakes gave the dish a subtle though noticeable kick.
I was also captivated by the yuzu lobster pasta with butter poached lobster, cherry tomatoes, yuzu, black garlic butter, jalapeno and basil, topped with toasted breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese.
“The lobster pasta is my favorite dish on the menu,” Gray said. “Yuzu is Japanese citrus with a distinctive flavor. The black garlic compound butter is made with fermented black garlic.”
My dinner companion Malena Gordon was captivated by the sea bass.
“Every dish Chef Gray served had the perfect balance of flavors,” noted Gordon. “The fusion she creates truly shines in my favorite dish: the miso-glazed Chilean sea bass. I gathered the delicate sea bass filet on my spoon, soaking it with the vibrant ginger carrot puree and complementing it with the wasabi spinach pearl couscous. Closing my eyes, I was transported into a fantastical pescatarian world, each bite heightened by the perfect pinch of spice from the wasabi couscous.”
We also managed to save room for dessert: cherry ricotta cheesecake and hazelnut chocolate crunch. Both decadent, each worthy of their own story.
