Warm Gulfstream Yields Few Laments for the Old Cowboy
EXECUTIVE DINING by Fifi Chao
Many things have changed at the old Cowboy restaurant in Newport Beach,for the good, I might add.
The name was jettisoned, along with food that was not interesting enough to get me to write about it. Even the overly energetic Thursday night crowd that kept everyone else at bay on that evening is gone.
In a remake of their concept, it’s now called Gulfstream and the food is riding a decidedly high wave. They now serve lunch, a time that works well for me for business meetings. It, like Bandera down the street, is part of the collection of restaurants created by the founders of Houston’s.
Gulfstream can be summarized as a neighborhood restaurant now serving the freshest seafood, oysters and steaks, with added fresh ingredients used by the purveyors in their inventive sandwiches, salads and side dishes.
The restaurant is casual enough, but it still packs plenty of style. The architecture harks of Frank Lloyd Wright. The best of the interior from the old Cowboy was saved. Watching the action in the fully open kitchen that flows from the end of the dining room without a wall barrier of any kind is it’s own entertainment, if you want it to be.
There is plenty of comfortable seating via red leather booths and tables arranged in such a way that an open, airy atmosphere predominates, helped along by soaring beamed ceilings. At the front of the restaurant is a good-looking bar and lounge with sufficient cocktail tables inside and a sand patio outside furnished with lots of Adirondak style chairs and fire pits,in keeping with the beach scene of the city, you know.
The bar itself is an attractive thing fronted by lighted glass blocks. The best view of the mixologist’s action, and to savor fresh oysters on the half-shell or tempura style with olive relish, naturally, is from one of the dozen barstools cozying up to this granite-topped bar.
Full meals also are allowed at this relaxing expanse of nature brought indoors.
The menu of chef Phil Kastel features only signature items made from scratch. In the corporation’s quest for quality food at value prices, all seafood is air-shipped to the restaurant within 24 hours of hitting the docks; the remainder is provided daily by a stream of purveyors who deliver just-picked produce and other fresh ingredients.
I began one meal with freshly shucked oysters, briny and bright on the palate. As much as I love raw oysters, I have in subsequent meals ordered the tempura-battered fried oysters instead. With the fresh ocean flavor beneath a crackling crust and the zesty olive relish that chef Kastel makes to enhance them, they are simply the best fried oysters I’ve tasted in Orange County.
Crab cakes are another delicious offering. These are made only of crab with what the chef describes as a “dab of our magic mayonnaise” to bind them. No bread or vegetable fillers to cut cost, just a forkful of chunky crab with every bite.
Chopped vegetable salad is also a winner as an entr & #233;e or appetizer. This one has 11 ingredients ratcheting up the taste treat. There’s another salad, dubbed Tuna-Copia, that is comprised of a tuna salad with sliced melon, tomato and Port Salut cheese on the side. I find it light, refreshing lunch fare in this hot weather.
A slab of medium-rare tuna makes a good impression when served “burger” style. Crisp shoestring fries on the side complete the picture. Incidentally, sandwiches are served at both lunch and dinner.
There are fresh fish offerings each day, most of them simply grilled and sided with roasted beets and a very nice wild rice salad with the added pizzazz of almonds, corn and onion and merely a hint of vinaigrette running through it.
Salmon can be roasted on a cedar plank or grilled. An ample abundance of seafood studs the cioppino. A saffron perfumed broth sports huge shrimp, clams, scallops and chunks of fresh fish.
Short ribs are literally falling off the bone and come with a mustard-enhanced barbecue sauce. Rib eye steak is tender, as beefy tasting as a steak can get and simply grilled in purist fashion. It seems everybody serves rotisserie chicken. This one is nicely complemented with a bed of white beans, cooked ragout style with herbs, and a pile of colorful saut & #233;ed broccolini hugging one side of the dish.
Desserts, all priced at $6, consist of a very nouveau hot fudge sundae with candied pecans, a simple but good cr & #269;me br & #369;l & #233;e and an outstanding, misnamed “flan cake.” It’s actually a tres-leche (three-milk) style Mexican cake.
A barely sweet genoise is soaked with milk and cream and surrounded by fresh berries and slices of banana. It is yet another signature item not found elsewhere and you should not miss this pleasing marriage of sleek flavors.
The wine list deserves mention inasmuch as it features hand-picked wines from some of California’s finest small-production wineries, along with a smattering of French and Italian counterparts, all priced at only double wholesale.
Those that I have tried recently: Prosper Maufoux 1999 Sancerre from the Loire (white) at $26, Rick Sayre’s 2000 Bearboat label Russian River Pinot Noir at $26 and Groth’s 1999 Michael Wies Napa Valley Merlot at $43.
You might find wines new to you, and you will certainly appreciate these value-oriented prices. They get a big round of applause for having no corkage fee. Of course, given the interesting wines already available, not a lot of people are bringing in their own bottles.
A jazz trio entertains Sundays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Monday through Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. A rotating selection of Southern California musicians performs on piano, bass and guitar.
The turn-around here is very evident.
A passable menu has turned into a carte of interesting dishes with quality in high gear. The atmosphere has been polished and the service is really professional. And yet, it has a friendliness to it that makes you want to come back with the children and family in the evening.
I think for business lunches, it’s an ideal atmosphere.
* * *
The address for The Catch in last week’s column should have been 1929 S. State College Blvd., Anaheim.
AT A GLANCE: GULFSTREAM
Address: 850 Avocado (in Corona del Mar Plaza at MacArthur and Pacific Coast Highway, Newport Beach
Phone: (949) 718-0188
Open: Daily 11:30 a.m. through dinner
Prices: Lunch entr & #233;es $8-$14; dinner entr & #233;es $8-$25; kids’ meals $6
