Looking Back at Great Meals; Restaurants Lost, Gained

This is the column when I wax nostalgic on the dining year and ramble on about various memorable things.

We had some dinners,sometimes just my husband Patrick and I, other times with several friends along,that really surprised us with their creativity and content. It’s taken Orange County a long time to get to the fine dining stage, but we have arrived. The level of cuisine has risen to include a global scope and enough edginess in preparations to make those ego-driven big cities of dining (New York, Chicago, San Francisco come to mind) take a look at what’s happening here.

We lost La Brasserie after 31 years, which was one of the original gourmet restaurants in the era that included the first version of Ambrosia (now revived in Santa Ana, thanks to developer Mike Harrah), Chez Cary and Villa Fontana. Of course, back then, we considered eating trout almandine and drinking Lancers or Mateus or Blue Nunn, while having velvet footstools for the ladies, as quite the gourmet experience. How quaint it all seems now.

So, while we lament the closing of La Brasserie, we anticipate the new restaurant that is about to take its place, Chateau 202. The name is derived from the address on Main Street in Orange. From the work that’s being done on the building, The French vestiges of country comfort with hanging copper pans as part of even the dining room decor, along with trailing ivy and an amicable bar in the middle of the scene appear to be segueing to a French manor home ambiance. It should open about late January.

When we talk of meals that have soared far beyond what anyone would expect, there are three that I am glad were shared with friends who are now shouting about the amazing food.

First, let’s talk about Vue, the restaurant with the ocean views in the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort. This is one of the gems of Southern California. From the dining room menus, the food at lunch and dinner is so creative and flavor-driven by way of lots of organic, sustainable food products and a duo of chefs, David Scalise and Anton Cossi, who serve up literal memories on a plate. And for a breakfast buffet that redefines fine food in the morning, this one will blow you away.

Then, there’s Stonehill Tavern, the ultra high end of dining Michael Mina style,he’s the famous chef and proprietor from San Francisco and Las Vegas who cut the deal for Stonehill Tavern to be in Monarch Beach’s St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa.

Yes, it’s expensive and exclusive. But the culinary journey is like no other. Michael is famous for presenting three takes on one primary ingredient. Marching down the elongated plate might be a specialty meat, seafood or game. Perhaps the first bites feature a flavored foam from the new gastro-molecular trend in food preparation. Then that same ingredient might reveal an accompanying vegetable reduction sauce of unbelievably layered flavors and then a wine sauce like no other to keep us sighing. This sensational food, appetizers to desserts, is camera worthy and completely memorable.

We are chattering incessantly about a recent meal with friends at Leatherby’s Cafe Rouge in Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Concert Hall. Two couples in attendance had been on a great culinary journey in France that I hosted, which resulted in our dining with several two- and three-star chefs. We all agreed that we’d had nothing with those vaunted chefs that was better than the food that chef LuLu Derouen rolled out course after course for our meal. I’ve eaten duck, one of my favorite things, about every way it can possibly be cooked. Yet nothing I’ve tasted before was better than LuLu’s version,perfectly tender and rare with the taste of the duck accompanied, but not masked by the most amazing sauce. To die for. This young lady is going places and I’d advise everyone to have her food soon.

Wildfish Seafood Grille in the Bluffs Center in Newport Beach has been one of those restaurants stuck in my memory. It keeps on plying us with terrific fish meals,and some prime meats as well,amid a modern yet warm decor. For anyone who has missed the Hong Kong-style steamed sea bass or the parmesan-crusted sole, those are dishes you should be chasing. And their bread pudding for dessert is still one of the best sweets around. Bread pudding may be commonplace now, but this one combines the best of this down home dessert highly peaked with a souffle topping. The result is a dessert treat that sings of comfort and cravings.

Bluewater Grill in Newport Beach trucked right along with nothing amiss. This summer, Bluewater Grill in South Coast Plaza Village closed in order to give Jim Ulcickas, the proprietor, time to concentrate on the brand new Bluewater in the evolving District at Tustin Legacy center. Bluewater continues to please us with simply prepared & #252;ber fresh seafood.

Anaheim’s Offerings

It’s a go: Anaheim has come into its own with restaurants sprouting hither and yon. Morton’s redefined a bit of Harbor Boulevard when it opened. Great steaks and that classic ambiance delivered all over again with a dash of fresh seafood and shellfish for additional serious dining.

Then, right on the heels of the Morton’s opening came Ruth’s Chris Steak House, only a block away, to keep us in the loop about steakhouse rivalry. This Ruth’s Chris is a beautiful place, presenting upscale New Orleans architecture and a fine red meat and shellfish driven menu.

Now, on Anaheim’s GardenWalk, the refurbished area of Katella Avenue, just east of Harbor, we’re doing a double-take on the big rendition of Cheesecake Factory and the casual seafood abode called Bubba Gump’s, soon to be joined by more recognizable names.

Old Vine Cafe emerged this year and is the best reason I can find to go to The Camp in Costa Mesa. I enjoy the unique factor in dining that comes from this menu, much of which is built around small plates that can be ordered a la carte and as part of a prix fixe lunch or dinner. And, if you thought breakfast was routine everywhere, Old Vine Caf & #233;’s clever twists on everything for the morning hours will convince you breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. It’s snuggled among the trees and winding walkways of that center, another plus.

The Winery might have been the most talked about new restaurant of the year. A trio of restaurant veterans, backed by some major athletes, went for it big time in their District at Tustin Legacy location. With J.C. Clow as general manager, William Lewis as sommelier and Yvon Goetz,a wunderkind originally from Alsace, France,in the kitchen, the restaurant has been packing them in since opening a few months ago.

This was the year that we celebrated having Richard Mead and his Sage restaurant in the Eastbluff center in Newport Beach with us for 10 years. Richard, a product of high profile dining in Santa Monica, was once the only chef in OC to actually attend a farmer’s market. He is now the only chef here to do much of his produce shopping at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. No wonder we are obsessed with his food at Sage and his more recent restaurant, Sage on the Coast in Newport’s Crystal Cove Promenade.

Doubling the longevity of Sage is Irvine’s Bistango, which celebrated two decades. We continue to celebrate this one-of-a-kind darling of dining. It’s impossible for words to parlay the marvelous and gorgeous art gallery and cafe-beneath-umbrellas restaurant combo that also gives us live music every evening. It’s an authentic powerhouse of business lunches. I enjoy eating here midday, but it’s the romance of the evening that always leaves me so comforted.

Memory Makers

Oh how happy we have been to have a duet of restaurants that offer culinary interest, persuasive design and terrific food in the Quail Hill center on Shady Canyon Road (off the San Diego (I-405) Freeway) in Irvine.

The Chinese food at Crystal Jade will invigorate even the most jaded palate. You will not find a better dish anywhere than their sauteed green beans with julienned pork (more meat than green beans). This is a menu that’s stacked with utmost quality and unbelievable flavor.

Also in that center, next to Crystal Jade, is Lucca, a family owned and operated oasis that’s cute as can be and has a menu of Mediterranean-tinged food that will have you wondering how they do it. Small plates and trio tastings,three takes on the same ingredient,keep us fascinated. This is also the place where we are smitten with the variety of artisanal cheeses and salumeria products to eat there or take home. They have a good wine tasting program to go with the interesting food.

I must include Break of Dawn in Laguna Hills as a memory maker. This is that bastion of unexpectedly unique and wonderful breakfast and lunch food given to us by chef/owner Dee Nguyen, former executive sous chef of our Ritz-Carlton hotel.

The newest must-see restaurant is Pelican Grill at Newport Coast. The Irvine Company promised big things and we were not disappointed. It’s a masterful and stunning dining scene of the Palladian and Tuscan genre done with more elan than one could ever imagine. This swath of elegance encompasses dining rooms, a vast and panoramic patio with heated floors and a large cocktail lounge laden with onyx, leather walls, a massive fireplace and literally tons of granite. The food is decidedly American and delivered from the exhibition kitchen with the panache that the surroundings dictate.

There’s so much more that has delighted us food crazies in the past year. A few of these other things lend themselves to being incorporated in some of my upcoming articles, so we’ll chat more in the new year about the old, the new and the changing.