There’s a very special luncheon that happens once a month in Anaheim.
Tuesday is the day I will be there,how about you? It benefits the girls of Caterina’s Club, a part of the Boys & Girls Club of Anaheim. Bruno Serato, owner of the Anaheim White House, certainly one of the best restaurants in the county, founded Caterina’s Club to help girls at risk.
To subsidize this much-needed club, he holds regularly scheduled lunches and donates 100% of the proceeds.
Making this lunch all the more special, Bruno’s mother Caterina, for whom he named the club, will be there to visit with everyone. She lives in Verona, Italy, and only comes to visit occasionally.
Caterina is such a marvelous lady and, as the honored namesake of the club, it’s an unusual treat to have her at the lunch.
Everyone gathers at 11:30 a.m. for a glass of champagne. Lunch is scheduled for noon. This always is one very gourmet lunch. Cost is $55 per person, all inclusive.
All it takes is a quick phone call to (714) 772-1381 to save a space, savor a fine meal and help this most worthy cause.
Bruno has raised thousands of dollars for the Boys & Girls Club of Anaheim and serves on its board. Helping the Club tremendously is a $1 million donation from Disneyland Resort. Hooray for Bruno and Disneyland.
Anaheim White House: 887 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim.
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Roy’s in Newport: Lei Day coming |
Celebrating Hawaiian Culture
Also on Tuesday is the Second Annual Roy’s Lei Day Celebration. As you can tell from all the mentions it gets in my columns, Roy’s restaurant in Newport Beach has many celebratory dinners throughout the year to keep our culinary adventures going.
Given that I get such good feedback from readers who attend them, here’s yet another I am happy to share with you. At Tuesday’s dinner, real flower leis will be presented to those who wish to order the menu befitting the occasion. The lei is a symbol of Hawaiian culture, love and friendship.
This is not a group dinner. You are free to make your reservation for the time that suits you best. The cost of the prix-fixe menu is $75.
The meal begins with a Kona lobster cocktail and 2002 Murphy Goode Fume Blanc. Second course will be pan-seared scallops matched with 2001 Murphy Goode “Island Block” Chardonnay. The main course is Asian style peppercorn steak and 2000 Murphy Goode “Robert Young” Reserve Merlot. The Murphy Goode Alexander Valley 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon will accompany dessert: a dark chocolate and toasted macadamia nut marquise.
There will be live music and hula dancing throughout the evening. The joy of Hawaii certainly will be present at this dinner. For reservations, call (949) 640-7697. Roy’s: 453 Newport Center Drive in Fashion Island.
Savoury’s Has New Chef
Thanks to all these culinary tasters I’ve surrounded myself with, I hear that Savoury’s in La Casa del Camino hotel in Laguna Beach is back on very good culinary footing after a dip in the happenings toward the end of the run for the former chef and his crew.
I’d had a decent group of my culinary buddies in there for a multi-course gourmet meal a couple of years ago and it was wonderful. But then, a few people who wished they could have dined with us that evening, but weren’t available, joined me for a smaller group dinner and it was a completely different experience.
The food lacked excitement in taste and the careful attention to eye appeal that we’d previously enjoyed. Only after that meal did I hear that the chef was off doing some other project, catering perhaps, of his own. Then a few months ago, he was gone altogether.
Well, it seems the hotel has regrouped and that a new chef from Los Angeles is featuring his own exciting and creative menu and that the flavors and looks of the dishes are worthy of a special trip again. The terrific upstairs caf & #233;-like deck, with its own bar and glorious views, will be opening for the warm weather months. The street level main dining room looks very much like an intimate restaurant you’d find in Napa or Sonoma. I’ve just added Savoury’s to my revisit list.
Savoury’s: 1287 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, (949) 376-9716.
Tamale Fever
It’s Green Corn Tamale Season again at the El Cholo restaurants through Oct. 1.
There’s no tradition richer than the seasonal tamales that this small restaurant chain has forged over the decades. It used to be the high-maintenance movie and TV stars and athletes who made it their yearly thing to eat lots of El Cholo tamales in their seasons: the green corn tamales in the summer and fall months and the holiday tamales with different savory and sweet fillings made in the winter.
Then, all the locals began their love affair with the undeniably wonderful tamales. Along came a major culinary magazine a few decades ago, waxing poetic about the tamales and it opened the door to the world. I am not kidding.
The tamales have become a modern day legend and foodies who found out about them from the ongoing national press over the years now order them in great quantities and have them air-shipped directly to their homes afar. Is there anyone who has missed the inclusion of the winter tamales as a specialty gourmet item in the holiday issue of the Williams Sonoma catalogue? Zagat also says the El Cholo restaurants serve the best margaritas. So have one of those, some Sonoran cuisine and a tamale or two to build memories upon.
This is your season, your opportunity to savor a very special treat. The tamales will be served in all El Cholo restaurants for the next five months. Here are the restaurants where they are available. El Cholo Cantina in Irvine: 5465 Alton Parkway, (949) 451-0044; Caf & #233; El Cholo in La Habra: 840 E. Whittier Blvd., (562) 691-4618; El Cholo Caf & #233; Santa Monica: 1025 Wilshire Blvd., (310) 899-1106; Sonora Caf & #233; Los Angeles: 180 S. La Brea, (323) 857-1800; and The Original El Cholo Caf & #233;: 1121 S. Western Ave. in L.A., (323) 734-2773.
