Byron Gemmell Is Back, With a Piece of Paris in Dana Point
Harbor Area Bistro Offers French Cuisine in Stylish Setting at Sensible Prices
EXECUTIVE DINING
by Fifi Chao
If, like me, you relish finding a pretty place that brings back wonderful memories of someplace visited in your travels, then you’d better rush down to the Dana Point Harbor area and catch the stylishness and sensibly-priced French food at Gemmell’s.
There’s a small restaurant in Paris that I frequent. It’s a favorite of locals, which is important to me. It serves straightforward French food in a garden-meets-bistro atmosphere. Gemmell’s is like that, but even more attractive than its Paris counterpart.
Chef and owner Byron Gemmell is well-known to food aficionados in Southern California. He worked with the famous Jean Bertranou in Beverly Hills in the late ’70s. Then, he became chef at La Cuisine (Dana Point and Newport Beach) and was “discovered” by Gourmet magazine. It was the first time that a major culinary publication paid any attention to this remote outpost of dining called Orange County. Byron cooked for heads of state, celebrities, movers and shakers whose money was better known than their private lives and the rest of us who jockeyed for a table whenever we could afford it. When, in the mid-’80s, La Cuisine closed, Byron went to work for corporate entities. Many of us are so happy that his food is readily available again.
You enter this restaurant through white wrought-iron gates outlined in tiny strip lights. There are a few linen-draped tables on what is really an enclosed, fully appointed patio. Beyond is the main dining room with more tables dressed in pristine white and surrounded by traditional bentwood caf & #233; chairs. There’s a large bouquet of tropical flowers highlighting the room and several large potted palms and ficus trees are also strewn with those miniature lights. There is more colorful art on the walls, from modern art to French realism (scenes of ballooning in Burgundy), than I find in my Parisian caf & #233;. Before even seeing the menu, this restaurant is perfectly endearing.
We dined here again last week, on a night when Byron’s sweet pea soup was available. It happened to be the soup du jour,there’s always one of those, along with meltingly tender French onion soup. My husband has contended for two decades that Byron’s pea soup is the best he’s ever had, and he may be right. Like all of this food, the flavor is bright and allowed to be itself. We followed the soup with the airy duck liver mousse: a generous portion used as the body of a swan with wings, neck and tail made of puff pastry. It sat on tiny little cubes of gel & #233;e that looked like diamonds on the plate. Tender escargot swim in their garlicky sauce to be sopped up with the hot-from-the-oven bread. Another great appetizer is spinach souffl & #233; or another seasonal selection sandwiched between layers of puff pastry.
Entrees at lunch include suitable composed salads and a few sandwiches including a pleasant barbecue chicken affair with cheese and fried onion strings perching atop it all. Meat and fish entr & #233;es are also offered. Be forewarned, portions at any meal are generous, so pace yourself. Since a salad course is always nice, you might want to share a spinach salad because it has a superb hot bacon-Brandy dressing on it.
There are 10 entr & #233;es on the written dinner menu; however there are always a number of chef’s specials as well. I recommend you try the chunky white fish fillet with lemon butter sauce. Salmon is served with a very nice Champagne dill sauce. Swordfish and halibut often turn up as specials. Rack of lamb carries just a background of thyme and garlic, allowing the flavor of the meat to shine. Filet mignon is napped in a wild mushroom sauce. I just had the roasted duck again: a crisp-skinned leg and thigh left whole and cuddling with the sliced breast. Merely yummy. All entr & #233;es are accompanied by plenty of fresh vegetables and potatoes.
For wines, try the crisp “La Chatellenie” Sancerre at $30 for your white wine, or alternately the Premier Cru Chablis at $36. For reds, I’d go for the “Fleurie” Beaujolais for something light and fruity at $22, Chateau Le Caillou (Pomerol) at $48 or the Chateau Greysac (Medoc) for $45 when more substantial tastes are desired. If you just can’t get past California wines, there’s a good selection of those, too.
Desserts include a lovely lemon tart and oh-so-classic souffl & #233;s.
Correction
The first order of business is to correct the phone number of the beautiful French-Vietnamese caf & #233;, Le Jardin in Fountain Valley. I included this Saigonesque gem in my recent Fifi’s Best restaurant roundup, but for some reason an old phone number crept into my copy. When the error came to my attention, the issue was already printed. Sure enough, I had both an ancient phone number for that address and the correct phone number for Le Jardin in my database. I picked up the wrong one. So, please change your records and use (714) 593-8511 to make reservations, which you should do very quickly because this is one of the best restaurants in our midst. The food is lovely to look at and even more impressive to eat.
AT A GLANCE: GEMMELL’S
Address: 34471 Golden Lantern, Dana Point Harbor
Phone: (949) 234-0063
Open: Lunch and dinner
Prices: Dinner appetizers $3.95-$8.95, entr & #233;es $12.95-$27.95; lunch prices slightly lower
