Oak Creek Village Center in Irvine is home to a Gelson’s Market, a food court, a semimajor hardware store, an office supplier, a bank, and a corner that used to harbor a Pasta Pomodoro and a Pei Wei restaurant, both of which have now disappeared.
One of those spaces is still empty, but the other got a partial renovation to become a brand-new PdM Kitchen—the rebranded name of the former Pain du Monde bakery-cafe. This is the fifth of the Newport Beach-based minichain and the first to offer both craft microbrews and wine to go with the foods that now go well beyond breakfast.
The casual, rustic atmosphere features a wood bar—a prime spot for watching the cooks do their thing—and other rich wood accents, a comfortable patio, and warm, saturated colors throughout.
Use of locally grown organic and sustainably raised food products play a great part in the tasty menu items, and everything is made from scratch daily. The signature pastries are still compelling with a morning cup of coffee made from beans sourced from environmentally friendly plantations. These are just some of the dishes that brighten the early hours: eggs with Italian prosciutto and the perfume of fresh pesto; eggs Benedict served on a potato pancake and with either Canadian bacon or smoked salmon; a French omelet.
Lunch and dinner bring on several nice salads.
I was quite taken with the mango chicken salad dressed in a Thai-style peanut dressing. Sandwiches come with a side of couscous salad or green salad. Fresh fish is tucked into one sandwich and also appears in the tacos. In another delicious sandwich, the sun-drenched flavors of peppers, tomatoes and fresh basil meet mozzarella and Tuscan-styled grilled chicken on ciabatta bread.
In addition to the salad and sandwich items, daily entrées, such as fresh, grilled salmon and seared halibut, enhance the selections.
PdM Kitchen in Irvine: Oak Creek Village Center, 5781 Alton Parkway, (949) 336-6292.
Like Grandma Used to Cook
ARC Food & Libations in Costa Mesa, which opened this year, is enjoying good crowds and plenty of buzz. There’s a different sort of interest factor here that’s attributable to its unique concept and its location in the nouveau boutique and food-intensive conclave dubbed The OC Mix. Like The Lab and The Camp, this is an avant-garde destination for shopping and eating. A place like ARC fits perfectly.
You have to wander around the byways to find ARC. Just park and give yourself time to window shop the stores. When you come to a large doorway that seems to lead only to a coffee vendor and an olive oil purveyor, take a look inside. Turns out it’s a minimall inside of a mall with clothing and accessories joining wine and coffee bars and snack places. If you’re there on a lovely day, sit for a while in the central courtyard decked out with unpretentious chairs and tables.
ARC is the brainchild of Noah Blöm and Marin Howarth. Noah is also the co-owner of Shuck Oyster Bar in the same complex, but that’s another story. This one is his solo bow to old-fashioned cooking over a wood-fired grill or in an open wood-fired oven. No stoves, absolutely no equipment one would ordinarily associate with a restaurant kitchen today. The small, open cooking space is taken over mostly by the large pulley-system grill—the pulleys are for raising or lowering the cooking surface for precise results—and the oven, with its smoking wood and various baking dishes blasting out heat and aromas.
Every dish on the small, uncluttered menu owes its existence to the two cooking methods. Noah says he likes the little cooking space, where there is nowhere to hide from customers.
It qualifies as a fun place to watch someone who’s worked with a couple of world-famous chefs turn the tables on our perceptions of dining out. Startup expense was not for over-the-top decor, but only for those two cooking surfaces and a little back-kitchen prep stuff, a couple of walls of glass, some laid-back seating, and voila! Oh, yes, and several large stacks of wood to keep the grill and pizza-like oven burning.
There’s a decent-sized bar, the best place to watch the menu being cranked out. Also, sitting there might be a handy reminder to have one of their libations, whose names alone add to the frivolity. Consider these: the Boulevardier, with a base of rye whiskey; the Airmail, with rum taking the lead; Italian Snow Cone, with liqueurs, citrus and herbs trying to warm things up; the Gloom, based on gin and lavender; Missing Link, with gin and blueberry dancing about; or the best-selling Cigarettes & Coffee, resonating with rye whiskey, smoke and coffee beans. Of course, if you’re stuck on a cosmo or martini or anything else in the cocktail realm, they’ll whip that up, too. Wine and beer also beckon.
The remainder of the indoor space is given to booths accommodating about three dozen. Two patios opening soon will certainly help to expand seating.
Plan on an average of $10 to $15 for dishes, all good for sharing, as they are generously portioned. A few items will hit a higher price point.
Some offerings aren’t on the menu, so you might want to ask what’s available behind the scenes. We asked for a burger; what a decadent surprise. About a pound of meat into which ribbons of their house-cured, thick-cut bacon was woven, stacked with all the accoutrements in a fantastic bun. Were it the only thing we ordered, two of us might have been able to finish it, but for me, a really curious gourmet, there’s always more. We haven’t had a steak yet, but I know Noah dry-ages them from three to four weeks.
A lot of the food comes in small castiron skillets pulled directly from the flaming hearth. Such were the duck-fat potatoes I heard about. Here’s why they’ve gotten a reputation: The rounded nuggets are drizzled with duck fat just before entering the fiery cave, and come out crisp, gorgeously browned and extremely tasty. Duck is important for me.
Yet another little red-hot skillet brimming with a pile of fork-tender duck arrives, perfectly matched with crisply browned Brussels sprouts.
A quick rundown of other intrigues takes me to these: meatballs with garlic and whiskey; lemony calamari; a casserole of pork and white beans; and a crispy tart laden with onion, parsley and bacon.
One other thing people talk about: no desserts.
Just walk around the center after your meal, and you will find plenty of places to have a simple sweet or an uptown dessert should you really need one. I’m happy with one of their attention-getting drinks as my dessert.
ARC: 3321 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, (949) 500-5561
Wines Go High-Tech
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar in Newport Beach is stirring things up, inviting us to brunch and playing with iPads these days. It already has a lively bar scene and fascinating happy hour drinks and menus, an acclaimed steak and seafood menu, plus specials like the prime rib dinners on Sunday evenings.
Now they’ve added a cocktail cart to wheel tableside for making perhaps a distinctive bloody Mary while we indulge in the Sunday wine country brunch it just launched.
And should you want wine with your meal, the selections are now all on a database in an iPad presented at your table. The good thing about having them on the electronic gadget is that we can sort all of its wines by any varietal, peruse any region of the world to see those wines, and sort by other considerations. If you still prefer a printed wine list, those are also offered.
The Sunday brunch hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., an a la carte affair that starts with fresh, fluffy biscuits with butter and preserves. A trio of signature bloody Marys with eye-catching names is listed. Fish and chips finds a jumbo shrimp hanging out on the edge of the glass with a couple of house-made potato chips for the crunch factor.
The Bacon and Blue Cheese bloody Mary introduces brown sugar bacon and a blue cheese-stuffed olive to the party. Mary en Fuego is its chipotle-spiced rendition with Sauza Gold tequila, fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes and fresh cilantro chiming in. All have a spicy kick that will immediately perk up your taste buds. Other customary brunch libations are also readily available.
The brunch menu strides away from the mundane and toward creative territory. Onion soup, steel-cut oats with brown sugar and banana brûlée, and a very modern take on the wedge salad are among the starters. Entrées cut a wide swath through true breakfast-type items—meat and fish enticements and sandwiches with decided personalities.
Smack dab in the center of the entrées, one finds the lemon-ricotta pancakes that I had been told are delicious. An order of the airy pancakes served with wildflower honey, blueberry maple syrup, and country sausage made a believer of me.
The French blue crab omelet is a winning combo, with plenty of the crab meat atop it and spinach, seasonal mushrooms and gruyère cheese tucked inside. Eggs Benedict take on filet mignon as the meat element or take a seafood turn when smoked salmon is introduced.
French toast is baked and comes as a surprise of brioche layered with vanilla and orange custard and topped with a walnut streusel. We ordered a side of bacon that was well presented, but for some reason the rashers were covered in too much black pepper, so inquire how it’s prepared and you won’t be caught off-guard.
Anyone for a prime rib melt? Or a barbecue-style Scottish salmon filet? Prime rib with a trio of sauces? And lobster tempura sounds way uptown.
They get a shout-out for the kid’s menu items that are not what everyone else is serving our younger set, including filet mignon with scrambled eggs. Most meals are $7.95.
A final note: The downstairs wine room has been beautifully redone, and the new mosaics of many famed in the wine industry are highlights of the romantic atmosphere. It’s an impressive space for a private party.
Fleming’s: 455 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, (949) 720-9633.
