You still have a couple weeks to enjoy the spirit of Oktoberfest, and I suggest you do it in high style at First Cabin restaurant at Balboa Bay Club & Resort.
For lunch or dinner, they are presenting an Oktoberfest menu of impressive dishes. I know what I am talking about,I’ve already tried most of them.
The biggest reason you should take note of this particular menu is because the president and chief operating officer of the Balboa Bay Club, Henry Schielein, and the food and beverage director are Bavarian, where Oktoberfest began. The chef is Austrian and the sous chef is Alsatian.
They all have some relationship to Oktoberfest, so naturally they are cooking up and enjoying the best of these seasonal specialties.
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First Cabin dining room: upscale Oktoberfest menu |
There’s nothing wrong with the casual side of this holiday,two places that come to mind are Old World in Huntington Beach and the Phoenix Club in Anaheim. But I know that many of my readers appreciate dining in an extraordinary place like First Cabin.
Why not enjoy the room’s glamour, the scenic view of yachts and homes as a backdrop, the stellar service and memorable food?
The haute quality and presentation of this Oktoberfest menu, which runs through the end of the month, speaks of the pride that Balboa Bay Club puts into every facet of its operation.
One time while dining there I asked my husband Patrick to slap my hand if I reached for one more rollmop. Love those things: hefty pickled herring filets,such a nice balance of sweet and tart pickling spices,rolled around marinated onions.
The lentil soup is the best of that genre that I’ve ever had with bits of apple wood-smoked bacon and sliced delicate wurst joining the tender, tiny lentils. The traditional “bread” to have with this kind of fare is a huge, soft pretzel, dappled with coarse salt and warm from the oven. I’m warning you: It’s hard to settle for just one.
Main dish considerations include seared veal medallions (kalbsrsahmchnitzel) in a creamy wild mushroom sauce with delicate spaetzle (tiny pasta). I wish this dish was around all the time,it’s that good but it’s not. Guess who will be going back again for more Oktoberfest food?
Wienerschnitzel of lean center cut pork loin features a nice duet of textures: pleasing crispness on the outside and delicate, juicy meat on the interior. There’s also pork prime rib sided with a Bavarian smoked sausage and half a bratwurst, plus sauerkraut and parsley potatoes.
Another delicately delicious entree is the Bavarian weisswurst. A steaming bowl comes to the table holding a small pond of milk in which the white, veal based sausages are poached. Scoop them out onto your plate, cut in little rounds and dip them in the hot and sweet mustard that is the traditional accompaniment, along with the requisite aforementioned pretzel. Of course, the menu also features sauerbraten with several slices of fork-tender braised beef that shares a plate with braised red cabbage and a mound of spaetzle.
Finish it all off with the quintessential Oktoberfest dessert, warm apple strudel. This one comes with a scoop of fresh vanilla bean ice cream on the side and, naturally, a good dollop of whipped cream.
There’s still two weeks left to enjoy this Oktoberfest menu. It’s available at lunch and dinner and prices are very affordable.
Three beers make the special menu, but don’t forget about the wine list, which features some outstanding German rieslings. I’ve had a few of them lately.
And, First Cabin has a winter menu ready that’s also studded with seasonal enticements. It’s too much to fit in here, but I’ll continue on that in a subsequent column.
First Cabin is in the Balboa Bay Club and always open to the public: 1221 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach, phone (949) 645-5000.
Vessia: Tried and True
Sometimes I go into one of our terrific restaurants and wonder how many of my readers are missing this.
Vessia, in the heart of Irvine, has such appealing factors. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been doing this good food-good feeling thing since owner Franco Vessia opened eight years ago, bringing with him a clientele of top-notch businesspeople and food aficionados who’d been his customers for years before, when he was working for others.
What we have to keep in mind is that this is not fast food, but they do offer quick-service lunches.
You can have an inexpensive lunch or affordable dinner with great food, friendliness and just the right amount of white table cloth sophistication. Vessia manages to be both a family friendly and business type restaurant, without either impinging on the other.
I am grateful for the blend of home-style cooking and sophisticated Italian regional dishes that the humble but stellar chef, Gino Buonanoce, presents. It gives me more latitude in ordering.
And that they do such a good job of making me and others feel welcome and appreciated, is the proverbial icing on the cake.
Franco and Gino make up the most Italianesque team, both born in Italy and learning their trade there before bringing all good things of the Italian table to us here.
This is the place where the food has never been heavy. For those watching their diets, you can opt for whole wheat pasta.
The recently updated menu stands out with things authentic, yet done in a lighter, tummy friendly manner. Take a trip to Italy and you will find the same trend of eating lighter over there.
There is much to cover on the food front. For lunch there are several panini style sandwiches. Eggplant parmigiana on toasted focaccia and Italian sausage with lettuce and tomato call to me. Others include marvelous meatballs, breast of chicken and steak as their centerpiece flavor.
There are a dozen pastas in the $10 to $12.50 range. Salad eaters will find several of those too, interspersed on the menu with lots of smaller plates that can serve as appetizers or mini courses that can be combined to further refine your dining experience.
Such smaller portions turn up on the dinner menu as well. At lunch or dinner, Gino and his kitchen crew make some swell pizzas. There are times when I sit down with intentions to go my pasta, risotto or polenta route, and then start craving one of the pizzas as I see them listed on the menu. Crispy crust, a fine array of toppings and a totally Italian experience is always the result.
Here’s a another one of my culinary secrets,I sometimes ask Patrick to pick up a pizza from Vessia and bring back an appetizer portion of its awesome eggplant parmigiana as well.
He always is up for ordering something there for himself or sharing my choices,it’s a toss-up in our family as to who likes Gino’s food most.
On a recent evening, I was craving soft polenta (cornmeal). Vessia has polenta in a grilled version, which also is tasty. If you’re craving meat, seafood or poultry with soft polenta, Gino gladly will make a portion for you, rather than the pasta that would ordinarily be served with the dish. I had it topped with the sausage and exotic mushrooms in a made-to-order tomato sauce that is on the menu.
I also enjoy risotto as an alternative to pasta. Vessia makes a version of the day and the “must have” osso buco (veal shank) comes atop saffron flavored risotto.
In the protein category, the flank steak (brasciole) rolled around pancetta, parsley and cheese, and braised in a chunky tomato broth is a staple of southern Italy and one of the comforting home-style dishes.
I used to teach my cooking students to make it and now I get my fix at Vessia whenever I need it. Rack of lamb is a full rack, five tender chops when carved, grilled beneath a coating of fresh herbs. Veal scaloppini is a tender classic and the diner chooses the sauce: lemon piccata, Marsala or shiitake mushroom version.
Who would imagine that a balsamic vinegar glaze could turn roasted chicken into something that sings with extra vigor?
Of course, there are always fresh fish of the day and some shellfish dishes that lend their essence to the pasta they are joined with.
Lunches range from $10 to $12.50,with a few a la carte items in the $15 range,and dinners are $15.50 to $31.50 (rack of lamb). Another nice way of dining comes via the Sunday evening family dinners priced at $26.95 per person, plus tax and gratuity. The family meal features an assortment of appetizers, three kinds of pasta, meatballs, chicken, grilled sausage and pork chop. Vegetables also are part of the shared feast as well as an assortment of desserts. Now, that’s a real bargain.
The wine list has eight sparkling wines from France, Italy and America and a nicely representative list of white and red wines from those same countries. There are 22 wines by the glass in a good range of styles. There are about 45 labels priced under $40, several of them in the mid-$20 range.
Vessia really should be on your list of important restaurants. Lunch is served Monday through Friday, and dinner is served nightly.
Don’t forget, if you need catering, they do a brisk business for home and business occasion needs. Vessia is in the Crossroads Center at the corner of Culver Drive and Barranca Parkway in Irvine, phone (949) 654-1155.
Zov’s Expansion
Zov Karamardian, the woman at the head of Tustin’s popular Zov’s is expanding her concept.
Currently, Zov’s incorporates a bistro, an all day cafe with food and freshly baked pastries, a bakery and a jazz lounge.
What I can share now are some very preliminary notes about two restaurants, also called Zov’s, which are set to open in 2007.
This offers an opportunity for the family’s second generation to step into the scene as the day-to-day operators. Zov’s son and daughter have been working with her and husband, Gary, for several years now, so they are pretty seasoned.
The first will open in Newport Coast in spring 2007, followed by one in Irvine at Orchard Hills Village Center later that fall.
The new Zov’s restaurants will feature a Mediterranean-inspired breakfast, lunch and dinner menu in a casual, contemporary setting. Both restaurants will be 3,200 square feet in size. Indoor and alfresco dining will be available.
For those used to traveling to Zov’s in Tustin for almost the past two decades it will be ever so handy to have her touch in the Irvine and Newport Coast areas. She launched the bistro in 1987 and it was successful so quickly that her husband quit his job and joined her in the restaurant venture.
As the time draws near, I will give you all the other parameters of location and menus for the two new restaurants. In the meantime, you can always find the family taking care of customers at the original Zov’s in the Enderle Center, 17440 E. 17th St. (just off the 55 Freeway), Tustin. Phone is (714) 838-8855.
