There will be another prominent steak house on the scene when Sam & Harry’s opens in Newport Beach on Dec. 15.
Sam & Harry’s is set to debut as part of the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa’s $65 million renovation.
Next month is the hotel’s ritual “re-opening,” though the resort stayed open during the improvements.
The flagship Sam & Harry’s is in Washington, D.C., just five minutes from the White House. It’s hosted everyone from presidents to pro athletes, actors and assorted glitterati.
Sam & Harry’s has been mentioned in six books, including Pierre Salinger’s memoir, and also had a part in the movie “American President.”
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Mastro’s Ocean Club: overlooks ocean on Pacific Coast Highway |
Building on that success, Larry Work, owner of Sam & Harry’s, took on Fort Worth, Texas, where steak plays an even bigger role than here or D.C. Along the way, the restaurants have racked up a truckload of high-status awards for food, wine and service.
Work felt that the unique coastal blend of the casual and the elegant sensibility of Newport Beach made it a great location for Sam & Harry’s in Orange County.
Bill Gunderson, general manager of the Newport Beach Marriott, is excited to have such a well-known steak house ready to debut at “our beautiful slice of paradise.”
The restaurant will feature USDA prime steaks, fresh seafood flown in daily, an award-winning wine list and four private dining rooms for business and social events.
More Steak Coming
There’s lots of buzz for Mastro’s Ocean Club, which recently opened in the Crystal Cove Promenade shopping center in Newport Beach.
It’s hard to get a reservation and I’ve gotten positive feedback from my chatty gourmet friends. My own experiences have been quite impressive.
In the spring, there will be two Mastro’s in OC. The other will be Mastro’s Steak House, which is coming to the space next to Chat Noir in Costa Mesa.
The steak house will be in El Torito Grill’s former location. Before El Torito, the site was the beautiful Copa de Oro.
While a few steaks are served at the Ocean Club, the restaurant’s primary focus is seafood. I’m almost ready to write more about Mastro’s Ocean Club, but we have to eat a couple more meals so that I can try other dishes. Then I’ll let the words flow.
Tea for 12
Someone actually paid $8,000 for a High Tea auction item?
Sure. It was part of a recent fund-raiser in which one of OC’s great hoteliers and culinarians also was honored. Yours truly had the pleasure of taking part in the evening via the tea for 12 item.
I wrote some time ago about the banquet food and service at Balboa Bay Club & Resort being spectacular and on par with anything you’d get at a top-notch signature restaurant in the county. Chalk up one more exclamation mark for a performance well done for a worthy cause.
We recently dined as part of the audience for the Irvine Adult Day Health Services fund-raiser, an evening of food and celebration that had everyone cooing about eloquence and taste, decor and decorum.
We can attribute the fantastic food and decor to the exuberant passion of Henry Schielein,Balboa Bay Club’s president and chief operating officer,for fine food and good service.
There aren’t any gray areas for him when it comes to caring for guests at the table. There was a collaboration of chefs on this evening but Henry was part of the success from beginning to end.
How appropriate that Irvine Adult Day honored Henry for his decades as a renowned hotelier who always has been known to put service and guest satisfaction at the forefront of everything he’s done.
As one high note to the evening, Henry raised the bar in giving an acceptance speech. Mostly they are curt, with a few nods of thanks and perhaps a very short story or two to wrap it up.
Henry took the audience on a tour of his background that began in Bavaria, wandered through some other parts of Europe and brought him to America in 1957. It was educational and, at times, hilarious,a party within a party. No boring, humdrum speech on this evening.
About the food: Chefs Jeff Burt, Yvon Goetz and Christian Rassinoux came to share the kitchen and the courses of food preparation with Balboa Bay Club executive chef Josef Lageder and pastry chef Peter Wimmler.
Air-dried beef met goat cheese and delicately roasted peppers at the beginning. I doubt that I’ll ever encounter a better way with quail, porcini mushrooms, chestnuts or white truffle oil than in the to-die-for combination that came next.
A fricassee of chanterelle mushrooms were topped with crusted day boat scallops. As if we hadn’t been pampered enough, then came an awesome Colorado rack of veal with peppercorn cognac sauce and baby bok choy.
Beautiful, delicious and decadent describe the dessert,a hazelnut crunch torte set on a pistachio cr & #269;me.
Amid the food dishes came a live auction of many upscale items. Thousands of dollars were raised for Irvine Adult Day.
This was when Patty Vidovich and I entered the picture. Patty, an interior designer who owns Interior Design Solutions, is a big supporter of Irvine Adult Day.
She and her husband Mark, former chief executive of organizer maker Day Runner Inc., are important not only for their monetary support, but also for offering their home for charity dinners.
Patty decided not long before this fund-raiser to offer a High Tea for 12 in her home. Ten days prior to the event, she asked if I’d like to “hang out” in the kitchen during the tea. I was happy to serve and plate food for a good cause.
Auction of the High Tea began briskly enough, but auctioneer Larry Zucker is good at his craft and he invoked everything he could to lure bidders.
Bids swelled and the tea item sold to Barbara and Tom Nash for $8,000. The Nashes also bought one of the international trips for $5,000, making them the biggest spenders of the evening.
To say that Patty and I were thrilled and flabbergasted at getting $666.66 per person for that tea would be a gigantic understatement and we surely owe a massive thank you to the Nashes for their support of Irvine Adult Day.
Given the bid, I’ve really got my thinking cap on. Patty and I are working on making the tea a truly memorable event.
Just in case anyone would like help in making over their work or home space, feel free to call Patty, who has some stellar clients on her resume. She can be reached at her office in Irvine, (949) 856-1947.
Smooth Drinking
We recently tasted some wines from Frog’s Leap Winery in Rutherford. Sourcing the best of Napa Valley’s organically grown grapes, the winery’s commitment since coming on the scene in 1981 has been to keep the best traditions of varietal wine tastes through scientific know-how and hands-on craftsmanship.
The winery has earned a fine reputation for responsible and sustainable farming and complete respect for the flavors that come from the soil and climate placement of the vineyards. And a very important component is that owner and winemaker John Williams and his staff never have lost their sense of humor and warmth that comes through in the wines.
Most Frog’s Leap wines can be found in good wine shops, but a few, because of limited production, might sell out quickly. Now it’s the time of year when some of the Frog’s Leap wines are being released, so chat with your local wine shop and enjoy some of the following.
The 2004 Sauvignon Blanc is nicely crisp and fruity.
Fun and good taste reach an apex in the 2004 Leapfr & #246;gmilch, which is Frog’s Leap’s vivid riesling/chardonnay mix. Its forward apple and pear fruit, good complexity and richness ends in a dry, mineral finish that loves seafood, shellfish, pork and chicken. It’s also a first class match for most Asian food.
I didn’t taste the 2003 Napa Valley Merlot, which is made entirely of merlot grapes. Also still on my “to taste” list is the 2003 Syrah that’s 100% of that varietal from the Carneros region.
But, since I’m on a bit of a zinfandel kick, the 2003 Zinfandel (a meritage-like blend of 76% zinfandel with some petite sirah, carignane and Napa gamay in the merger) seemed a must. It’s a more genteel representation of zinfandel, good for sipping alone or matching with food with refined sauces.
One of the wines that demands a smile upon just seeing the label is the 2004 Pink,subtitle le Grenouille Rougant & #233;, which I take to mean blushing frog.
It’s made from 100% valdiguie (Napa gamay grape), a relative of the pinot noir grape that should not be confused with gamay or gamay Beaujolais grapes. Turns out that Pink is a red wine that goes well with hearty meat-based dishes.
Finally, there’s the 2002 Rutherford Blend, 89% cabernet and 11% cabernet franc, harking back to the traditions that made some of the Bordeaux wines so famous for so long.
Frog’s Leap is known for its balanced and substantially complex wines.
The winery isn’t into making sharp curves in the mouth, but rather for touching something in our memories that makes us appreciate their respect for tradition and giving us the little, but terribly important, background nuances that make great wines.
