Pescadou: French Country Fare Without the Pretense
EXECUTIVE DINING
by Fifi Chao
Just last week, we had to meet a friend for a business dinner. After a small discussion on where we’d meet, our friend suggested we go some place casual but interesting and he thought I’d have a pocketful of those suggestions at the ready. Not really, but what I think is possibly the best place of all for such situations popped right into my mind: Pescadou in Newport Beach.
First of all, there is no way anyone could fail to relax in this cute and very French small-town bistro setting. Second, after you settle into the charm of this uncomplicated place, the food sounds so interesting and the little wine list impresses with its terrific French boutique labels that remind us there’s life in the glass at reasonable prices beyond California wines.
Finally, the chef and owner starts right off impressing us with a basket of hot bread and a generous appetizer of the day to titillate our palate. And, there’s the nice realization that a complete four-course dinner costs just $19.95, with a quartet of the meals at only $14.75 on Tuesday through Thursday evenings.
The concept had simmered in the minds of Daniel Sidhoum-Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, long before they opened Pescadou in mid-1998. For all the talk and publicity about the famous restaurants and chefs in France, the French themselves are not spending that kind of money every day dining out.
They are, however, always in their little local places where the customers talk from table to table about the food they are eating and comparing thoughts on what the chef does best. Daniel and Jacqueline have fostered this kind of hospitality between themselves and their customers and I don’t remember a time when I have not chatted with those seated near us about what we, and they, had ordered.
The happy colors of southwest France predominate in a laid back way. One wall is painted bright blue, a wall of simple shelves to hold a few artifacts is light pumpkin color and the molded plastic chairs that surround the tables are in citrus tones.
As you enter, there’s a very large antique country cupboard that Daniel found in France and had shipped over. It, and one other sideboard, suffice for “furnishings.” It is enough. It allows our attention to focus on the aromas, the plates of food going to other tables and the fact that many of the customers are speaking French,a good sign, indeed.
All of the entr & #233;es,four to 16 of them,are listed on a blackboard that is brought to your table. You get the house appetizer, soup or salad, entr & #233;e and dessert for the price. Only a couple of entr & #233;es such as scampi and herb-crusted rack of lamb run $2.50 to $3.50 higher.
There are certain things that I simply must have when they are on the blackboard: veal sweetbreads, tenderly poached; frog legs in a redolent Proven & #231;al sauce and veal kidneys in Dijonaise sauce, the latter harking back to most of my trips to France wherein the veal kidneys are usually my last meal. Keeping in mind that I was raised next to my French grandparent’s farm and we ate everything, you should not feel this is the totality of Daniel’s menu,these are only a trio of entr & #233;es that those of us who speak French crave.
The Bouillabaisse (my husband’s favorite) is a saffron perfumed broth chock full of chunks of fish and lots of shellfish. Beef Bourguignon is the traditional tender beef stew simmered for hours in a red wine broth with complements of small mushrooms and white onions. Pot-au-feu also is a stew of meats and vegetables in which the personality of each ingredient is allowed to commune in the rich broth that results. Pork chops are thick and sometimes sided with a great house-made cranberry sauce.
Of the two steaks offered, I would opt for the tenderer filet mignon. There are always two or three kinds of fresh fish. Salmon, on one of our recent evenings, was napped in a delicious lobster sauce. Chicken sometimes is oven roasted in a sauce, sometimes braised and merely dappled with the reduced pan juices. It, like all else, never veers from being very French.
I would be remiss to neglect mention of the wonderful roast duck, a most beloved French entr & #233;e wherever it appears. Now, while I freely admit that I cannot handle more than the four courses that make up a meal, I am still enamored enough of the cheese plate to save room for it, since so few places offer this “necessity” of dining as the French perceive it.
Here are some suggestions for wines to order with your meal. For white wines: 1996 Croze Hermitage “Les Launes” from Delas Freres, Tournon Rhone ($32) and “Le Carre 2000” Pays D’Oc Chardonnay ($22). It may have all been consumed by now, but if the red Labour & #233; Roi Nuits-St-Georges, 1er Cru, Les Damodes ($35) is on the list, try it for a smooth and balanced enhancement to your meal. A trio of other reds to consider: Beaujolais Village 2000 “Louis Tete” ($28), Merlot du Pays d’Oc from Labour & #233; Roi ($22) and Ch & #226;teauneuf du Pape 1994 “Clos St. Jean” ($45).
Daniel has a passion for cooking the simple and pure tastes of French country fare. No pretense, no architectural presentations; just the best main ingredients, the perfect mashed potatoes, the correctly cooked vegetables and the friendliest French desserts this side of the ocean. PS: by the time you read this, Daniel and Jacqueline almost will be ready to open their second restaurant in downtown Laguna.
AT A GLANCE: PESCADOU
Address: 3325 Newport Blvd., Newport Beach
Phone: (949) 675-6990
Open: Tuesday to Saturday from 5 p.m.
Prices: $19.95 for four-course dinner; several choices $14.75 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
