Music at Salt Creek Grille; Accents Adds Dining Room
Someone asked me recently why certain restaurants, hotels and, lately, bars get mentioned fairly frequently in the columns of OC restaurant writers, including mine. Simple answer: they have more going on that the serious diner or wine-friendly person wants to know about,not to mention entertainment that can make your life happier,and they have the good sense to let the writers know about it. We, in turn, can tell you.
All writers get phone calls asking why we’ve never written about the restaurant whose owner is on the other end of the line. Consider first that there are thousands of restaurants and dozens of hotels; no one person can cover them all.
Now, I think I’m going to step out on a ledge and live dangerously by saying that most hotels and restaurants are back in the Stone Age when it comes to understanding marketing. They join convention bureaus hoping they’ll get a few reservations when the big groups hit town. They contact convention planners hoping that they’ll book dinners for attendees when the three-day event takes place months from now. Meantime, the locals want to know where to go to eat well and have an interesting experience. They’re potential customers every night of the year and the restaurants forget to let them know why their business would be appreciated.
They also never bother to let the restaurant writers know that they’ve hired a good chef, that their concept is different than those of competitors, that they have an interesting wine selection, or that their location is unique. I could go on. The short version is that writers do have an obligation to research the area and try to find interesting places, but we do have limited time in life and unless the h & #244;teliers and restaurateurs let us know what’s happening inside their walls,in writing please,we sometimes do not have a clue.
That said, we still will not be able to cover every scene. However, restaurant writers are constantly asked for recommendations. We send a lot of customers to restaurants just by word of mouth. So, just because a restaurant or hotel doesn’t get immediate ink from us does not mean that we don’t share the information we receive.
Now, I forget things I’m told over the phone. I get too many messages on any given day. I love having press releases sent by e-mail, or by surface mail, because I’ll have something staring at me as a reminder to at the very least start doing some research.
I suspect that this will get me some additional mail, not all of it useful. But, to borrow the amusing phrase from Colin Quinn, “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
Did I Mention …
You already know that I like eating in both the dining room and at the bar at Salt Creek Grille. Let me give you one more reason to consider relaxing in this very attractive craftsman-style restaurant: Derek Bordeaux, a long-time fixture on the OC music scene, who plays a superb mix of popular music and old standards, entertains on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
Dining tip: Start with the delicious lobster and shrimp bisque studded with fresh herbs and, for an entr & #233;e, either the seared sea bass dusted with sesame seeds or the double-thick pork chop with apple chutney.
Change of Accent at Sutton Place
Sutton Place Hotel has news to share. Until recently Accents has served as the all-purpose, all-day restaurant. However, when the hotel was known as Le Meridien, dinner was served in the beautiful, serene front dining room, which has been used only for special functions for the past few years. Now, in a smart move, the hotel is serving only breakfast and lunch in the gardenesque Accents, while dinner is offered in the more luxuriously appointed Accents Dining Room adjoining the main lobby.
This hotel also has one of the most impressive wine rooms around, a perfect setting for up to 14 for dinner.
The Wine Cellar houses one of the largest private collections of rare Bordeaux wines Lafite, Margaux, Latour, Haut-Brion, d’Yquem, Petrus, even the very rare Le Pin and new superstars such as La Mondotte and Chateau de Valandraud. Connoisseurs (dare I say habitues) of California wines will find the most acclaimed boutique names tucked in the Philippine mahogany racks as well.
Screaming Eagle is the current rage of California labels with literally tout le monde “screaming” to get a bottle, a glass, a sip of this extraordinary, and very limited wine. It is available here. Every month the hotel also introduces a new vintage to complement the hotel’s award-winning gourmet food. The wines are available wherever you happen to be dining in the hotel.
Finally, Mike Grgich, the famed winemaker who put California wines in the international vocabulary when he was working at Chateau Montelena in the ’70s, is appearing in person for dinner in the Accents Dining Room on Friday, July 21.
For 25 years, Mike has been impressing a global following of aficionados with the Grgich Hills wines from his Napa winery. A gourmet menu will be matched to his wines and throughout the evening, Mike will entertain you with stories of how the wines came to be. Price is a mere $95, plus tax and gratuity. For reservations, which should be made quickly, contact Dominique Roche at (949) 476-2001, Ext. 2194.
