It came as a shock to serious diners that Charlie Palmer is closing his eponymous restaurant at Bloomingdale’s South Coast Plaza at the beginning of May.
No more upscale, gorgeous setting and gourmet food.
In its place will be a Las Vegas hamburger concept, Holstein’s Shakes & Buns. I lament the loss of another fine-dining establishment in Orange County.
You have only this month to savor the Charlie Palmer experience.
I don’t know what will happen to the old Nieuport 17 building in Tustin that was shuttered only days ago. I do know that—from what the Sunday evening Fried Chicken dinner it’s been famous for, and that 10 of us shared as that one last meal told us—it was high time for this kitchen to give up.
You used to be able to have either white meat or dark meat chicken. We were told this time that the current chef didn’t allow that, so everyone got a mix of both. The plates came, cold as can be, with the cold green beans and the chilly scoop of unimpressive potatoes proving they’d been preprepped and lined up waiting for chicken to be plopped down. Sadly the chicken suffered drastically from someone’s idea of a remake, with breading so thick it made the chicken pieces look twice their size and was an unkind surprise when we cut into the meat. It took only one bite of chicken for everyone to grimace that something was wrong, different. The breading on the chicken was so spicy-hot that some of us couldn’t eat it.
Not a good ending memory after all. I shall choose to remember instead the years of pleasant meals at Nieuport 17 that dotted my dining adventures.
Meanwhile, Quinn’s Old Town Grill in Old Town Tustin caught everyone off-guard with its abrupt closing two weeks ago. This Irish pub had been a staple of tasty dining for such a long time. While it hummed with an Irish accent, the kitchen was ambitious in putting out an all-day menu that expanded possibilities into American sandwiches, salads and main dishes, as well as favorite Irish foods beyond what we perceive as mere pub fare.
The rough-and-tumble world of restaurants keeps surprising the public. This one I shall miss.
Wild for Fundraiser
One of the most amusing and taste-intensive evenings each year is the SOS Wild and Crazy Taco Night, which has more than two dozen of our top restaurants and their chefs—some of whom are also owners—participating.
They compete to make the most delicious and unusual tacos we’ve ever tasted. It’s so much fun, and best of all, proceeds support the SOS food pantry, which retrieves excess foodstuffs from local vendors and distributes approximately 215 bagfuls to low-income and homeless Orange County families each day.
Join in—have an abundance of smiles and tastes that will keep you talking for months, and help feed those in need.
It happens between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. on April 16 at SOS headquarters, 1550 Superior Ave. in Costa Mesa.
General admission is $80, and VIP tickets—they get you in the door at 4:30 to sample the tacos from all the chefs before the general public arrives—are $150. For reservations, which should be made by April 10, go to www.shareourselves.org/events or call (949) 270-2134.
Note that parking is unavailable on site. But structure parking is open at the nearby Hoag Health Center just down the street at 500-540 Superior Ave. in Newport Beach. SOS shuttles will transport you, or you can take the short stroll to the event.
I know that the prestigious chefs will dazzle us again since I’ve shamelessly sampled before, and I’m doing it again this year. See you there!
Tacos Deliciosos
Stopped by Taco María with one of my occasional lunch buddies, OCBJ Managing Editor Hannah Mitchell, since she hadn’t experienced it. It is part of The Mix at SoCo, the conglomeration of interesting shops, home furnishing stores, wine and tea venues, and a lot of restaurants.
The best seating at this humble little place is on the patio, which offers views of people walking through the adjacent manicured courtyard to and from the businesses tucked all around.
The lunch menu is a short list of selections, but they come as cute presentations and deliver fine flavors. Only five taco choices and a trio of appetizers are listed—that’s it. Saves a lot of perusal time, and those signature tacos are what we are there for anyway.
The restaurant says the chef honors humanely raised meats and sustainable fishing and farming for his ingredients and that all food is made fresh daily.
Some items change each day. Appetizers on the day we dined were Brussels sprouts with Meyer lemon and pork powder; Caesar Salad of Little Gem lettuce—small heads of hybrid romaine and butter lettuce—parmigiano cheese and anchoiade dressing (olive oil, garlic and anchovy); and ceviche-style local yellowtail with lime juice, serrano chile and cilantro.
We shared the Caesar—plenty for two—and it was impressive.
Tacos come two per order in the $13-to-$16 range. They are on smaller-sized, blue-corn tortillas, but the fillings are generous and quite enough as an entree. Hannah and I decided to mix and match, giving ourselves tastes of carnitas, black cod, hanger steak and Jidori chicken in ancho-almond mole sauce. To eat them is to understand why diners are enthusiastic about Taco María.
The menu is slightly expanded at dinner. Recent menus have featured fresh fish with yuzu and cabbage, duck breast with date mole, Dungeness crab porridge, and a kabocha squash tamale. Its Chilaquiles served at Sunday brunch have their own fan base, with good reason. The crispy tortillas hold a filling of your choice (confit of chicken, rib-eye steak, or mushroom chorizo) and some chile cascabel and queso cotija. Add an egg to the plate, and you’ve got a dish to remember.
Prix fixe dinners—four courses for $59; wine pairing is an additional $26—are available Wednesday through Saturday evenings.
The restaurant has racked up Best Restaurant and Best Mexican Restaurant accolades from several publications.
I love introducing people who like a little adventure with their meals—like Hannah—to places like this that are friendly and deliver a brand of singularly unique food. My recommendation is to add this restaurant to your “to do” list.
By the way, chef Carlos Salgado got some national recognition last week when Food & Wine magazine named him one of the 10 best new chefs in the U.S. It said he serves “exceptional” tacos.
3313 Hyland Ave. Costa Mesa, (714) 538-8444
Dramatic Dining
Leatherby’s Café Rouge has given dining a brand-new twist. It’s the first time I know of that a local dinner menu matches the highlights of a current theater production. Chef Ross Pangilinan has an interesting modern American menu all the time, but this puts a little more panache into the meal.
Here’s how it works: During the runs of “Guys and Dolls,” April 14 through 19; “Annie May,” April 13 through 24; and “Motown,” June 16 through 18, the chef has a separate menu that in some way connects to the theme of each performance.
The famed musical numbers from the show are likely to be the titles of dishes deliberately customized for the particular menu. Cost is $45 ($64 with wine pairings). I ate from one of the menus, and every course was gorgeously presented and tasty. Menus for the special dinners can be seen at patinagroup.com/leatherbys.
Have a look at the a la carte lunch, dinner and brunch menus while you are perusing the colorful Web page. I think you will be impressed with any meal you happen to have. Here’s a plus: The sleek and restful surroundings of this dining room add yet another layer of pleasure.
Restaurant is at Segerstrom Center For The Arts, 615 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, (714) 429-7640
An Addiction Embraced
Waterman’s Harbor opened last fall at the Dana Point Marina. The old Jolly Roger was completely stripped, and the style changed to industrial mod with views of the yachts and the broad Pacific from every seat on two levels. Outdoor patios and a very long bar space upstairs boldy state the restaurant’s purpose.
It has just started serving lunch; before, it was happy hour and dinner only. The schedule is strictly adhered to—lunch is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and happy hour is from 4 to 6 p.m. on weekdays, with only three food choices (we were caught off-guard and showed up at 3 p.m. since that had been the beginning of happy hour until then; it had just been changed to the new slot). Dinner menu starts at 5 p.m.
I guess it’s good to get the confession out of the way upfront. There were four of us, and three of us are oyster freaks. The pull here is that during happy hour, freshly shucked oysters—the chef chooses one variety per day—are only $1 each. Well, while our friend Roxanne Checkor ate the two other choices available—fish tacos and crabmeat beignets—Patrick and I and her hubby, Norm, shared 48 oysters. So perfectly briny in their shells and without fancy vinegar sauces, just cocktail sauce, lemon wedges, and extra horseradish if you want, to up the ante. We ordered 24 oysters to share, then another dozen and, still gullible, a final dozen. The patio we were on was packed with others doing the same.
As for the other two choices—$3 each—those beignets are almost pure crab meat and deep-fried for a fine textural crunch. The tacos were piled high with the freshly fried fish and shredded cabbage.
We thought of having a bowl of chowder or something shareable when the 5 p.m. dinner hour rolled around. We ended up sharing the Fish and Chips, which came as a bed of decent, though not crispy, fries topped with half a dozen “sticks” of delicious cod.
There are adequate seafood-centric choices at lunch and dinner: Mussels, poke, ceviche, Maine Lobster Roll, Peel & Eat Shrimp and many kinds of fresh fish, and salads, too, with or without added protein. Land specialties are also offered: Pork Chops; Blackened Short Ribs; Pan-Seared Organic Chicken with pot-au-feu vegetables; a burger; beef filet; and much more.
I can go for the rest of it, but those $1 oysters at happy hour have their hook in me.
34661 Golden Lantern St., Dana Point Harbor, (949) 764-3474
Tidbit
Lark Creek Restaurant at the Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach closed unexpectedly March 28 after two years serving fine modern American food. More to come on the news in my next column.
