Several people had recently mentioned Old Vine Cafe in Costa Mesa and I finally found some time to discover for myself this three-meal-a-day restaurant in the counter-culture setting of The Camp, where several restaurants have come and gone. The latest casualty is AIRe Global Cuisine that was the next-door neighbor to Old Vine Cafe. Aire had been occupying the space that formerly had been the unsuccessful Lodge restaurant.
But Old Vine Cafe has a different perspective on dining that is energizing its end of the retro center. Once you get to the restaurant, after searching for a parking spot on busy evenings (the last time we were there, we parked across the street in the Pep Boys lot), its hideaway demeanor is quite relaxing and its food enticing.
The cafe is smallish and tucked beside a promenade of trees and plants that provide a natural canopy for outside seating at picnic style tables. Inside, the little room is scattered with delicately sized metal-topped tables draped in beige linens with black napkins for a dressy touch at dinner time. Raw stone vases hold little bundles of flowers. The walls sport some trendy colors punctuated with paintings.
The art scene is further cemented with the seasonal menu printout that is stapled to an actual artist’s painting on canvas. Tucked at one end of the restaurant, inside an alcove, are wines and gourmet items for purchase.
Somewhere behind one wall, chef Mark McDonald is laboring away at his creative dishes while his brother Brandon is attending to customers as general manager. The brothers honed their skills in years of waiting tables at various restaurants before choosing different paths of culinary education.
Mark, 28, completed a professional cooking program here and furthered his cooking studies in Italy, where he acquired culinary certificates in both savory foods and pastry arts. Meanwhile, Brandon, 32, worked on his prestigious sommelier certificates in London under the tutelage of OC’s master sommelier, Peter Neptune. Mark also took the mid-level wine exam. Having had some good training as waiters and then professional training in their individual disciplines, they were ready to launch Old Vine Cafe this past summer.
Mark’s cuisine begins with a good backbone of organic produce and other natural food products. The menu, especially at dinner, lends itself to tapas style smaller plates that allow for many tastes within a meal.
I am really enthused about the wine list that even includes nine superb European beers. There are four pages of wines by the glass at amazingly affordable prices that have yielded us a Zardetto Prosecco Zeta sparkling wine (Italy), Laurenze Singing Gruner Veltliner (Austria), KWV Steen Chenin Blanc (South Africa), Conde de Valdemar Reserva Tempranillo (Spain) White Oak Cabernet Sauvignon (California) and a Chateau Lamothe Guignard Sauternes (France). Nine pages of wines by the bottle, mostly in the $17.99 to $35 range, take us to some remarkable boutique vineyards and connoisseur serious wineries around the world. Only a few bottles reach the $50 to $70 level. I don’t know of another wine list that is friendlier to our wallets or our taste buds. Should you want to bring in your own wine, corkage is a mere $10.
Breaking Out The BLD
Breakfast is elevated quite a lot above the mundane. All savory dishes are served with Spanish-style potatoes and choice of toasted fresh baked bread or bagel. Mark makes five kinds of marmalade and nut butters and you choose one to accompany your bread.
There are omelets laden with meats and cheeses indigenous to particular countries,you can venture to Italy or Mexico via what’s inside the fluffy egg exteriors. Or you can go American with the omelet stuffed with hand pulled barbecue pork.
There are two quiches: an Italian version tap dancing with tasty bits of sausage and a chile verde version that brings together the richness of brie cheese and the zest of mild green chiles. Even the breakfast egg combo plate takes on new meaning by allowing you to choose delicious artisan sausage.
The breakfast menu also includes plenty of sweet beginnings. Caramel-apple or blueberry brioche French toast, homemade granola and things as simple as fresh berries stud this category. But one must pay particular attention to the crepes that come filled with a delicate cheese mousse, berries and fresh cream or bananas and pecans with fresh cream.
At lunch, one finds salads composed of organic greens and fruits, some incorporated with shellfish and things like prosciutto and American blue cheese. Panini style sandwiches are plentiful and I recommend the sliced prime rib with Italian white truffled cheese or the pulled pork with gouda cheese. Several small plates feature intriguing international ingredients in both savory and sweet categories.
At dinner, a four-course tasting menu is priced at $60 with matching wines,a separate one for each course,and $40 for food only. The current tasting menu begins with saut & #233;ed sea scallop on crunchy leeks, then handmade fettuccine with pomodoro sauce, followed by a small Niman Ranch filet mignon with fried onion straws. Dessert is Grandma’s cheesecake with berries and a slice of artisanal cheese. Matching wines are from France, Italy, Argentina and California respectively.
Any of the above courses can be ordered a la carte or one can pick and choose from an extended menu. It’s such a nice touch to have a suggested wine listed beneath each item on the menu and all wines can even be ordered by the half glass, giving more leeway to an evening of full-fledged tasting.
More of those interesting salads are featured on the dinner menu. And appealing appetizers include artichoke halves wrapped in prosciutto and carpaccio of octopus. From the entree section, one readily notices “mac” and cheese with porcini mushrooms, sesame-crusted ahi on wonton crisps, saut & #233;ed prawns with a splash of Albarino (Spanish wine), fresh lasagna noodles layered with organic zucchini and sausage and hand-crafted cheese and a vegetarian version of jambalaya.
Spanish influenced version of creme brulee, Grandma’s cheesecake and fresh berries with a fluff of ricotta cheese mousse make up the trio of desserts.
Old Vine Cafe incorporates a m & #233;lange of meanings: it’s a little bit international cafe, part neighborhood hangout, part gourmet shop and a newfound food and wine adventure. It’s hanging on to its nouveau dining spot reputation at the moment and that means a good and curious customer base.
AT A GLANCE – Old Vine Cafe
Address: 2937 Bristol St.
Costa Mesa
Phone: (714) 545-1411
Hours: Breakfast is served from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily; lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily; dinner nightly, except Sunday and Monday,
from 5 p.m.
Prices: Breakfast $6.50 to $9; lunch entrees $6 to $12; dinner plates
$9 to $14
Extra Enhancements: Wine and Cheese tasting every Monday from 4 to 7 p.m.; $20 for 4-6 cheeses paired with 4-6 wines
