By
OCinSite
on September 15, 2011 9:47 AM
By Kedric Francis | Photos by Edward Duarte
Naming the ten best restaurants in town is sure to start a debate that can turn into an argument that may result in a family feud. People are passionate about their favorites when it comes to something as intimate and essential as eating. But perhaps the biggest obstacle to coming up with an ultimate top ten list is this: discerning diners can differ, and what’s an amazing gourmet accomplishment for some is just expensive art on tiny plates with hard to pronounce ingredients for others.
And so it is in Newport Beach.
So we created two top ten lists, one for Newport and one for what we’ll call Oldport—simple descriptors having little to do with age and with no offense intended.
The restaurants on the Oldport list are classics, with upscale interiors, often of dark wood and leather. They’re reliable, conservative and don’t follow the whims of fashion or trend. They offer big plates, rooms with a view and servers who don’t act like they’d rather be someplace else. You won’t hear the terms molecular gastronomy or locavore here.
The Newport list of restaurants change menus often, will note proudly which farm a product comes from and will offer dozens of “Martinis” on its cocktail list, but few made with gin. The servers will wax poetic and at length about the specials, the chef may have been on television, and there will be vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options for just about everything on the menu.
So with little explanation and even less apology, here alphabetically are the top ten restaurants in town—twice!
The Newport Top Ten
A Restaurant With a welcoming bar, intriguing menu and the fabulous Shelly Register running the market next door, this is the neighborhood place for a new generation. arestaurantnb.com
Andrea The Resort at Pelican Hill’s signature Northern Italian restaurant satisfies the resort’s international clientele in style. pelicanhill.com
Bluefin Taste Abe’s world-class sushi and forget the rest. bluefinbyabe.com
Crow Bar and Kitchen O.C.’s first gastropub now has Chef John Cuevas at the helm creating a new kind of coastal cuisine. crowbarcdm.com
Fleming’s It’s a Newport Beach-born steakhouse for a new century, with a crowd cool enough to try something new when offered—which is often! flemingssteakhouse.com
Mariposa The ladies who lunch at this super stylish Neiman Marcus café are among the coolest and chicest in town. neimanmarcus.com
Palm Terrace The newish interior is a bit old-school, but exec chef Bill Bracken’s menu is brilliant, and always changing. islandhotel.com
Sage Organic produce addict Richard Mead’s Eastbluff original is still his best, with some of the most creative dishes in O.C. sagerestaurant.com
SideDoor The restaurant that dragged Five Crowns into this century, this gastropub does just about everything right, from artisan beers to some of the best small plate bites in O.C. sidedoor.cdm.com
True Food Good, and good for you with pizzas made with spelt and flax seed crusts and healthy versions of street tacos. foxrc.com/true_food_kitchen
The Oldport Top Ten
21 Oceanfront Divine dining by the pier in this oceanfront historic landmark that’s a haven for adults amid the often chaotic peninsula scene. 21oceanfront.com
The Arches Dan Marcheano’s classic place has moved around a bit since it vacated the original space on PCH, but one thing hasn’t changed: his Semper Fi patriotism that supports almost every cause in town. And it still has one of the best staffs around. thearchesrestaurant.com
Basilic A tiny, six-table restaurant tucked onto Balboa Island that features classic Swiss French cuisine? Why not! It’s one of those places you either fall in love with at first sight, or not. Most do. basilicrestaurant.com
The Cannery Born as a commercial fishing cannery operation, Ron Salisbury’s restaurant honors it’s history well. The patio is one of the prime waterfront spots in California with traditional seafood fare, with a buzzing bar and sushi upstairs. cannerynewport.com
First Cabin at the Balboa Bay Club A refined restaurant for ladies and gentlemen where Chef Joseph Lageder is justly famed for his creative continental cuisine.
balboabayclub.com/dining.
Kitayama Newport locals have been following Japanese businessmen and women to this place for a couple of decades for what insiders say is some of the freshest sushi around—arrive early for the sushi lunch special. kitayamarestaurant.com
Mastro’s Ocean Club Though some of the rich who live nearby may be nouveau, this stylish restaurant is definitely cut from the old- school cloth. Men in Italian suits and ladies dressed to thrill, all in for some mega martinis, serious seafood and stunning steaks.
mastrosrestaurants.com
Quiet Woman Steak, lamb and swordfish have been the staples at this CdM landmark since 1965. And even if the QW almost was disqualified from the Oldport list for calling out the provenance of its pork rack chop (Salmon Creek), the family-style Sunday suppers put it squarely back in the top ten. quietwoman.com
Tradition by Pascal Pascal Olhats came to Orange County in 1988, and instantly everything was better. He’s the father of French cuisine in Newport Beach and a leader in giving back to the community. pascalnpb.com
The Ritz Restaurant and Garden Known for impeccable service, classically inspired cuisine and a healthy pour at the bar, things have only gotten better since owner Ray Jacobi, former GM of the Island Hotel, took over. When the society ladies come to the lounge after a gala luncheon and they’re still there when the happy hour bar burgers are brought out, there’s no place we’d rather be. ritzrestaurant.com
By
Micaela Myers
on February 15, 2012 4:17 PM
Photo by Jody Tiongco
Located on the fourth floor of Montage Laguna Beach, The Loft restaurant features a welcoming environment, complete with stunning panoramic ocean views and creative American cuisine made simply with fresh, seasonal ingredients. “It is very fun and gregarious—somewhere you want to be,” Chef de Cuisine Casey Overton says of The Loft. “We embrace food as our life.”
Montage Laguna Beach employs its own forager to go out and find the best seasonal offerings. Our recent meal at The Loft started with a fairytale pumpkin salad with pomegranate vinaigrette. Chef Casey was inspired to create the salad after the forager brought in fairytale pumpkins. The result is a singular taste and texture experience.
“It’s all about different tastes because that’s how I like to eat,” chef Casey says of his cuisine. “I like to try different things.”
Other standouts on our menu included lentil soup with carrot foam, heirloom Italian wheat pasta with porcini cream and scallops, and butter poached lobster with veal sweet bread and black truffle sauce. Chef Casey strives to bring in different taste sensations—rich, sweet and savory. The spring menu will showcase seasonal ingredients such as spring garlic, Chino Farms radishes, white asparagus, chanterelle mushrooms, fava beans, artichokes and Harry’s Berries strawberries.
Chef de Cuisine Casey Overton (Photo by John Barber)
The Loft is home to it’s own 6-foot wood-burning rotisserie, has its own charcuterie and makes its own sausages. Another standout element is the interactive cheese gallery. “We have around 90 different cheeses from around the world,” chef Casey explains. “This program is specific to The Loft. What makes this experience so different is the fromagier. We concentrate on pairing the cheese with the perfect complement.
“We also have about 70 different honeys,” chef Casey adds. “We love to pair honeys with cheeses.” His personal favorite is a wildflower honey from France.
The Montage Laguna Beach also employs a team of certified sommeliers and a wine list boasting 45,000 bottles and 2,100 labels from around the globe. The sommeliers are happy to suggest wine pairings and introduce guests to new wines. The Loft also hosts The Artistry Of Wine series select Sundays from 2 – 4 p.m., featuring different varietals and vintages from wine regions around the world. With all it offers, The Loft promises a truly bespoke experience day or night.
By
OCInSite Site Admin
on February 14, 2012 11:13 AM
Fashion Island has had a serious aesthetic upgrade ($100 million worth!) in the past few years with new shops and fountains and such, but there’s also been a less noted makeover of the fast, casual food offerings at the top shopping address in NB. And for those who don’t still mourn the loss of Mickey D’s or more recently, Red Robin at the center, the changes are an inspired upgrade.
Wahoo’s Fish Taco and Subway moved from the upper level down to the Atrium Food Court in part to make way for the new upscale Island Cinema, which offers a bevy of alcoholic beverages and better concession stand choices.The reserved theater seats are comfy and spacious, and it’s cool to sip Veuve Clicquot, Schramsberg or a Stella while watching a film that’s free from the gaggle of giggling tweens that make Fashion Island their personal playground. Only two theaters allow alcohol, and they’re 21+ only. However, the food failed to impress. It’s definitely better than Regal’s norm, but we expected more from the menu, which doesn’t measure up to the wine list. The chipotle chicken panini was tasty, but cold in the middle, and the hot dog condiments still come in little plastic packets. But the staff is earnest and enthusiastic, so we’ll hope for an upgraded (if not gourmet) menu in the future.
For now, our pre-film fast and casual meal will be at Wahoo’s, which has a full bar at its new location down the escalator where Design Within Reach once wasn’t—within reach, that is. That place was pricey! Wing Lam and his brothers have outdone themselves with the new location that includes patio seating on the up-to-now underutilized plaza between Dick’s Sporting Goods and Barnes and Noble. We imagine it will be jamming come summertime.
Up where Wahoo’s once was, we’ll soon be able to satisfy our vegan urges (hey, it could happen!) when Native Foods Café opens later this year. We love our meat, but chef/owner Tanya Petrovna’s restaurants at The Camp in Costa Mesa and up in Aliso Viejo offer oddly (for us!) satisfying meatless meals. Perhaps it’s because you can get anything there on the spicy side, which is also why we love Five Guys Burgers in the Atrium Food Court. It may be sacrilege in SoCal, but we prefer the newcomer to In-N-Out. It’s all about freedom of choice, and at Five Guys, the spicy condiment choices trump all that “animal style” off-the-menu stuff.
If you need some sweet after all that spice, follow the line of tweens to the new Casey’s Cupcakes by the kid-friendly Iris fountain. Former O.C. celebutante Casey Reinhardt and family should be proud of their burgeoning business. While most of the other Laguna Beach show beauties are still famous for doing little but starring in subsequent reality shows, Casey is actually working for a living and doing quite well at it, as her sweet empire continues to expand.
-Kedric Francis
By
Lauren Simon
on February 07, 2012 12:03 PM
Photos by Sean Armenta
AnQi at Bloomingdale’s South Coast Plaza is a relative newcomer to the bustling O.C. restaurant scene, but in two years, it already has garnered a reputation for exciting, eclectic, healthy and delicious Asian-inspired dishes served in a glamorous setting that caters to upscale fashionistas, on-the-go professionals and late-night sophisticates who appreciate the unique combination of cuisine and couture built around AnQi’s signature 60-foot glass catwalk.
The restaurant is the newest project for the highly successful An family, which also owns Crustacean in San Francisco and Beverly Hills, Tiato in Santa Monica, and the family’s original restaurant, Thanh Long in San Francisco. Named for her family and for the Chinese word “qi” for “life energy,” AnQi is An’s first venture on her own and in a new market, both geographically and in terms of price point.
“Crustacean has always been a family business, and although I was instrumental in starting it, AnQi was the first time I said I want to do something different and on my own,” Elizabeth explains. “I wanted to have a new concept as the family business grew that would be more mid-range. I felt that a mid-range price point worked better in a plaza shopping retail experience.”
Whereas Crustacean is known among Hollywood celebs for its formal, white tablecloth service, AnQi is a “gourmet bistro,” says Elizabeth, where she welcomes customers to try three distinct dining experiences: the main room, which features a full menu; a lounge with happy hour, before- and after-theater menus and small plates; and a 12-seat noodle bar, where diners can be in and out in 15 minutes for less than $10. Located across from Charlie Palmer’s, AnQi also offers a private dining room for up to 50 people and 18-seat Chef’s Table, where lucky diners may catch a glimpse into the famous, whispered-about An “secret kitchen,” accessible only to family members and chefs who have been with House of An for more than 10 years.
Haute Cuisine and Couture
But AnQi is more than just an eatery. It also is a community gathering place where Elizabeth hosts fun and fundraising events, such as the recent New Year’s Eve/Second Anniversary bash where Berlin performed live.
In September 2011, she organized a fashion show to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Proceeds from the event, which featured Costa Mesa firefighters strutting their stuff in the likes of Polo Ralph Lauren, were donated to the Costa Mesa Fireman’s Fund and the Uniformed Firefighters Association Widow’s and Children’s Fund.
“Because I love fashion, and fashion has been like my second life, I always wanted a restaurant where fashion and food would marry together,” Elizabeth says. “When I was approached by Bloomingdale’s and Henry Segerstrom said, ‘Come to South Coast Plaza,’ I said I’ve got to have a catwalk in my restaurant.” Now, every Friday is Fashion Late Friday from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., and several times a year, AnQi hosts dinner fashion shows featuring South Coast Plaza retailers, such as La Perla, Pucci, Cartier and Mikimoto. Students from the Art Institute of California Orange County have also shown their works on the AnQi runway.
Saigon to San Francisco
Elizabeth’s familiarity with food comes from years of working in the family business, but her dream of a career in fashion began as a way to escape the poverty brought on by her family’s sudden departure from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon, when Elizabeth was 8 years old. Typically gracious and composed, Elizabeth, 43, is moved to tears when she remembers that time. “I recall being outside in the yard when my mother called and said, ‘Pack up kids. Now. We’re going away on vacation.’ … [but] when we got to the airport, I knew this was not going to be a vacation.”
Elizabeth’s early life in Saigon was a luxurious one, lived primarily inside the protected walls of the family enclave, with plenty of money for entertainment, clothes and dolls, and servants catering to her every need. “I never even went to the streets of Vietnam,” she says. “I never even went to the marketplace, and all of a sudden, I find myself with people at the airport crying and yelling, wives looking for their husbands, mothers looking for their children, little kids looking for their parents. It was really scary.
“Before I knew it, we were shoved into [an American] military cargo plane like sardines in a can—pushed into the back of the plane. My mom told us to hold onto each other because there were no seat belts.”
The An family spent the next several weeks as refugees at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. There, Elizabeth’s mother, Helene, desperately searched for her husband, Danny An, a pilot in the Vietnamese air force. Once they were reunited, the family then relocated to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, Calif., before eventually landing in San Francisco, where four years earlier, as fate would have it, Elizabeth’s grandmother, while vacationing in San Francisco, had bought an Italian delicatessen on a whim.
“My grandmother heard about the concept of American picnics, how American women go to the beach, wear bathing suits, get a tan,” Elizabeth explains. “So she was walking to the beach … and there was a sign on the [deli] door that said, ‘Picnic baskets to go,’ and ‘hot dogs.’ My grandmother never heard of hot dogs, so she said to her cousin, ‘We’re going to do this right, do it the American way, so let’s go in and buy this hot dog.’ ”
Grandma Diana never made it to the beach. Instead, she spent the whole afternoon talking to the deli owner and by evening had agreed to buy the business for $44,000. “Little did Grandma know,” Elizabeth says, “that would be the foundation for our family business in America.”
Always in Fashion
One of five sisters, Elizabeth spent many years working in the restaurant, which Helene and Diana converted from an Italian deli to Thanh Long. After school, Elizabeth sang happy birthday to customers, cut vegetables and wrapped egg rolls. By the time she was 16, she wanted a change, so she took a part-time job at Macy’s. Eventually, that experience along with business studies at San Francisco State University led to work as a clothing buyer and later as proprietor of a San Francisco boutique, but through it all, Elizabeth remained close to her restaurant roots.
“I wanted very much for my fashion friends to have a place they could go after work, but they would never want to go to my restaurant because it was in the middle of nowhere, and it wasn’t a cool place,” Elizabeth says. “But I saw how restaurants were so successful with the fashion crowd, so I went to the family and said, ‘Let’s do a restaurant that’s a step up from Thanh Long.’ I wanted a place for my friends to hang out that I could be proud of and have fun with.” With the family’s blessing and a $99,000 investment, Elizabeth spearheaded the opening of the first Crustacean in 1991. She was only 23 years old.
Twenty years later, the An family has six restaurants, and Elizabeth aspires to open a dozen more noodle bars in and around O.C. (perhaps even in Newport Beach) in the next two years. With her focus on growth in the SoCal market, Elizabeth divides her time between homes in Los Angeles and Corona del Mar. She married aerospace exec Gordon Clune in 2009, and their combined family includes six children between the ages of 16 and 25. Of the six, two have shown interest in the family business. But with three generations of Ans still going strong and their restaurants and a catering business expanding, Elizabeth may have many more family partners in her future.
By
OCInSite Site Admin
on January 17, 2012 5:41 PM
By Kedric Francis
When I go out to eat in O.C. I generally choose items that I would rarely, if ever, attempt to make at home. The Ritz Egg; seared foie gras with a huckleberry reduction; abalone; the short ribs (and everything else) at Marché Moderne; a burger with bone marrow butter from Crow Bar (or any bone marrow dish, for that matter); the prix fixe lunch at Golden Truffle, which might on any given day include an obscure South Pacific mollusk prepared and paired perfectly with a glass of small label Champagne.
But sometimes the simplest dishes reveal as much or more about a new restaurant than the most complex, especially when dining at a new spot developed by seasoned corporate pros, like Paul Martin’s American Grill at the Irvine Spectrum Center.
The menu at Paul Martin’s offers a myriad of mouthwatering choices, most all marked by the now nearly ubiquitous culinary marketing terms: heirloom, organic and sustainable. But after eating our way through much of the menu, our favorites sound simple: salmon, chicken and meatballs—items that are highlights of our home cooking repertoire. But never like this.
The salmon baked on a cedar plank with shallots and bacon was the first thing we tried, and it had us at hello. It’s so easy to make succulent salmon at home (buy fresh wild salmon from Bristol Farms, rub it with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, watching it closely so as to not overcook), and what we find at restaurants is so often underwhelming that we rarely order it. Well, we’d order this dish any time (we crave it, in fact), and the same goes for the lamb meatballs with white beans and the Pitman “brick” chicken with mashed potatoes (the fried chicken is also amazing, but we prefer the bone-in entrée to the tenders offered on the $8 happy hour menu).
Oh, and did we mention the cheese and spinach dip appetizer? How good can that old standard be, you might ask. Imagine large, leafy pieces of organic spinach with sundried tomatoes swimming in a sea of melted Grafton cheddar. We’d drive down to the Spectrum just for it, paired with a glass of Eric James Pinot, or perhaps a cocktail or icy cold beer (literally—the tap is covered in permafrost!), before seeing a movie.
The team that created Fleming’s and P.F. Chang’s is behind Paul Martin’s, so we expected high levels of service and professionalism—and we aren’t disappointed. My only quibble with the Paul Martin’s servers is their uniform, or lack thereof. Someone at corporate apparently made the decision to let them wear their own button-down shirts, leading to an eye-irritating mishmash of styles and especially colors. I’d put them all back in black. I want to be able to spot a server at 100 paces and not risk flagging down some UCI student who is just trying to find the facilities.
By
OCinSite At-Large
on January 09, 2012 10:56 AM
Courtesy of Raya
Maybe it’s chunks of freshly prepared lobster served in black bean puree, chile de arbol salsa, cilantro and avocado. Or maybe it’s the surprise of Korean fried chicken with dragon sauce, kimchee and a lettuce cup, or perhaps it’s thick and juicy smoked swordfish in a freshly warmed tortilla—regardless of whatever’s inside the taco, the ever-changing menu that chefs Richard Sandoval and Marissa Gerlach of Raya roll out each Tuesday offers something delectable for taco lovers.
Raya takes the fun of taco Tuesday and imparts its own distinct flavor on the great SoCal tradition, as unexpected culinary surprises greet diners that come in for the always-fresh weekly specials. Tacos are $4 each, and are best devoured by the plateful—from 6 - 9 p.m. each Tuesday. (One Ritz-Carlton Dr.; 949-240-2000; ritzcarlton.com/raya)
Tuesday or not, favorite tacos in town? Let us know on Facebook.
By
OCInSite Site Admin
on December 06, 2011 4:53 PM
By Ashley Breeding and Kedric Francis
Cucina Enoteca
Cucina Cachet
If you’d told us at the start of the little restaurant renaissance we’ve been experiencing the past few months that one of our most anticipated new spots would be at the Irvine Spectrum, we might have scoffed. But with San Diego favorite Cucina Urbana opening its first O.C. spot in early December at the suddenly foodie-friendly center, we couldn’t be more aquiver with anticipation. Here’s why: the restaurant (called Cucina Enoteca in O.C.) hits that sweet spot of creative cuisine at fair prices. How does antipasti like yellowtail crudo with duck crackling and pickled Fresno chile sound? Or a pizza with speck, pineapple and Serrano chile? Plus, there will be a retail wine shop in the restaurant, something rare in O.C. (Old Vine and Onotria come to mind). Chef Lulu De Rouen (formerly at Leatherby’s and Pinot Provence) will be chef de cuisine.
Old Vine
Gourmet Getaway to Italy
Timing is everything, and this holiday season, we’re hoping this 10-day Splendors of Italy getaway is stuffed in our stockings. Perfectly planned after the holiday craze and just in time for spring, chef Mark McDonald of Costa Mesa’s Old Vine Café will guide foodies through Southern Italy March 10-19, 2012. An Italian Culinary Institute grad, McDonald is calling upon institute master chef and sommelier John Nocita to help give guests an insider tour that features off-the-beaten-path wine dinners, an organic farm serving a fully sustainable lunch, and private cooking lessons. With an unlimited flow of the area’s finest varietals, guests will pick up gourmet tricks in Calabria, indulge in Sicily’s best cannoli, and discover locals-only kitchens in Sicily. ($3,500 per person, includes everything but airfare; chefmarkmcdonald@yahoo.com)
SoCo Market
Good Will Farming
As awareness is raised about the benefits— both healthful and environmental—of organic, locally grown produce, the demand for these pesticide-free, nutrient-rich gifts from nature (and farmers) abounds. Adding to the supply, a hip new market in O.C. boasts some of the freshest fare around, including an array of local fruits and vegetables; gourmet artisan foods like cake, cheese and kettle corn; certified grown plants; and a rotating lineup of tasty food trucks. More than 25 vendors roll into the SoCo Certified Farmers Market at South Coast Collection from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Saturday to set up their sale carts, and share recipes and culinary secrets with patrons. With the belief that healthy habits are adopted at an early age, the market also hosts Kiddie Corner, a sustainable fun zone where youngsters can enjoy educational arts and crafts, scavenger hunts and farmers demos from little sustainably designed seats. 3303 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa; socofm.com
By
Jason Sanford
on November 25, 2011 2:47 PM
Photo by Jody Tiongco
“It has to be good for my guests for it to be good for me.”
Stella’s new chef, Marco Mariselli, wants his visitors to experience superb food, a great dining atmosphere and to enjoy his culinary mastery, a passion borne of his drive for preparing some of the best Italian food this side of his home country.
“I’m just so proud of what we do in the kitchen,” Marco says. “But everyone needs more than just food as a reason to go out and eat.”
And while the name would be misleading if fresh, seasonal and stellar cuisine weren’t the star of the show, Stella’s Serious Italian offers a decidedly “borough-influenced” experience. Live music on a near-nightly basis, courtesy of the talented Brooklyn saxophonist Gary King, sets the mood for a memorable evening, and guests can enjoy a refreshing Negroni or glass of Chianti along the handsome, NY-inspired bar.
Whether the food and ambiance takes diners to New York, Italy or just to their happy place for a couple hours, chef Marco is doing his best to live up to restaurant’s namesake.
“We’re very dedicated, passionate people here—and once people come here, they almost always come back,” he comments.
(17 Monarch Bay Plaza, Dana Point; 949-234-1679; stellasitalian.com)
By
OCInSite Site Admin
on November 19, 2011 8:00 AM
By Brad Johnson
One pizza. One salad. One dessert. And an almost impossible reservation. That’s pretty much all you need to know about the pizzeria jointly owned by celebrity chefs Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton.
First, the fennel sausage pizza: It’s important to adjust your expectations about the crust. Mozza’s dough doesn’t taste like typical pizza crust. It’s not modeled after the styles of Naples or New York or Rome. Instead, it’s got the snap-crackly crunch and tangy DNA of Nancy Silverton’s La Brea Bakery sourdough. It’s extremely puffy around the edges but micro-thin in the center.
Typical pizza strategy is simple: Reach, grab and pull. First person to grab the biggest piece wins. A different tactic is required here—more of a two-handed scoop, shuffle and plop. The sauce on the fennel sausage pizza is nothing more than softly whipped cream, which melts into the already thin midsection so that it collapses the instant you try to lift a slice from the plate. The sausage will tumble right off if you employ the wrong grabbing maneuver.
Second, the Caprese salad. It’s an entire branch of cherry tomatoes still attached to the vine, roasted in the wood-fired oven until blistered and shriveled, then served atop a generous, fist-sized glob of milky, gooey, marshmallowy burrata cheese, the whole of which is then slathered with fresh basil pesto and supremely high-quality olive oil. It’s the perfect complement to the fennel sausage pizza because it delivers my much-desired tomato and cheese fix that’s missing (but not missed) on that pizza. It’s the best of both worlds in alternating bites.
Third, the butterscotch budino. It’s a pudding fit for a Medici, a cocktail glass filled with silky butterscotch pudding with a quarter-inch sheen of translucent caramel on top, liberally sprinkled with flakes of Malden sea salt and crowned with a wispy cloud of aerated crème fraîche.
In a nutshell, that’s Pizzeria Mozza. Give me those three dishes and a bottle of nebbiolo or sagrantino, and I couldn’t be happier. But there’s more to it than that, of course. And the best things about Mozza are the ones that emerge from the wood-burning oven, heavily singed or charred around the edges, slightly smoking and smelling of ash. The duck confit (served only on Tuesdays), for example, or the lasagna (served only on Sundays). Or the marrow bones, three or four cross-sections that arrive at the table like miniature volcanoes, their gelatinous centers still boiling, ready to be spread on thick wedges of heavily oiled and griddled bread.
I have to admit that after repeated visits—three visits in Newport, one visit in Singapore and countless visits to the original in L.A.—I still haven’t tasted the entire roster of 17 pizzas. It’s hard to resist the lure of fennel sausage. And I love the simplicity of a good margherita, always my second choice here. I figured I would never get around to trying Hawaiian-inspired pizza with pineapple, ham and jalapeños. Hawaiian pizzas, of course, have been popular in California since what, the ’70s? And I’d learned long ago that Hawaiian food rarely lives up to the hype.
But the other afternoon, I was sitting at Mozza’s pizza counter, drinking a glass of barbera, eating my margherita, nibbling on a Caprese, and I watched in awe as the cooks assembled a nonstop stream of pizzas to be shoveled into the wood-burning hearth. I was shocked by what I was witnessing. One out of every five pizzas being assembled that day was the Hawaiian-style Pizza alla Benno (named after one of Silverton’s sons) I knew then that my fate was sealed. When I returned for my next visit, I had to give it a try.
It’s funny what happens to a pineapple when it’s been shaved into paper-thin whispers, instead of sliced into hefty chunks, and layered atop tomato sauce on a thin pizza crust and shoved into a 1,500-degree kiln. The pineapple melts like cotton candy. It completely dissolves into the sauce, giving it an ever-so-slight sweetness that tastes nothing like tropical fruit but rather extra-sweet tomatoes. Combine that sleight-of-hand with the blistering sting of fresh jalapeños and a fine, salty ham, and I’ll be damned if this isn’t now my second-favorite pizza.
Third place is a densely clustered tie that includes a pizza with spicy salame and Fresno chiles (the closest thing Mozza has to pepperoni) and one with four types of pork: bacon, spicy salami, fennel sausage and Guanciale (pork jowl). Also in the running is an off-the-menu secret my waitress turned me onto one night: the pizza Bianca (fontina, mozzarella and sottocenere cheeses and fresh sage) with the addition of fennel sausage, which gives a whole new meaning to the fennel sausage pizza. The pie with squash blossoms, although extremely popular, doesn’t really do it for me. I prefer my flowers stuffed with ricotta cheese and fried as an appetizer.
And the fried blossoms are just one of several antipasti born of the deep fryer. Florets of cauliflower arrive piled in a golden mound, too hot to handle right away, but I’ll knowingly burn my tongue anyway. Extra-crispy fingerling potatoes are delivered in a tall cup along with the herbs and chickpeas with which they were fried.
I was initially worried what would happen when Mozza expanded beyond its original location. Typically, when restaurants are cloned and spread across the globe, they become something entirely different. Fortunately that’s not the case here. This location, and the one in Singapore, too, are shockingly faithful facsimiles. The exact same woodworking. Same lamps. Same menu. Same graphics. Same uniforms. Same loud rock-and-roll soundtrack. Similarly sized dining rooms. Shockingly identical food coming from the kitchen. Same insanely difficult reservations—and that’s what almost kept me from dining here.
I called for several days, redialing more or less nonstop for two hours at a time, to no avail. Finally, I had to call in a favor of a discreet, high-powered friend who had connections on the inside. He made a call to an unlisted number. We got in.
Determined to return, I tried calling again. Nothing but busy signals and an over-capacity voicemail box. So I just showed up unannounced, a little on the late side. And guess what? There was never a wait for a seat at the counter. That’s probably the biggest difference between this location and the one in L.A.—though as the newest Mozza makes its mark, your results may differ.
By
Jason Sanford
on November 09, 2011 1:04 PM
Photos by Jody Tiongco
By Jason Sanford
You know you’ve done something right when a tiny little 600-square-foot pizza joint turns into a franchise so prominent that it’s just as easy to order a pie in Reno as it is in Riyadh. This is the magnificent development of the revolutionary Z Pizza, a trendsetting vision well ahead of its time that was born and raised right here in Laguna Beach.
Sid Fanarof, founder of Z Pizza, recently chatted with Laguna Beach Magazine about the location, the spirit and the ingredients that started Laguna’s biggest culinary export.
LBM: Tell us about how Z Pizza got its start here in 1986.
SF: My partner and I had the idea of either originally doing Mexican food or French, but we found this location, and the only thing that could really fit here was pizza. And neither of us knew anything about making pizza, so we literally took a recipe out of a book and went from there. It caught on here by offering quality pizza at ordinary prices.
LBM: There are many options for people who want pizza nowadays, so what has set Z Pizza apart?
SF: Our pizza is made better, not faster, which makes sense since less than a third of our business is delivery. We use organic ingredients, organic dough, we offer gluten-free options for all our pizzas, we like to do well while we do good if you know what I mean. Our pizzas have better ingredients and are better for you—you don’t need to use a napkin to mop up the grease; it’s pizza you can feel good about eating.
LBM: Z Pizza went from one tiny store in South Laguna to over 100 franchises in places as far as Vietnam and the Middle East, how did that happen?
SF: It started with quality; we were the first to make gourmet pizzas at affordable prices, and it just spread by word of mouth. Most of our franchisees actually come from just eating in our stores. Also, we try to do good things, like use recycled cups and boxes, and we also take pizzas to the local homeless shelter once a month.
LBM: You take a lot of pride in your pizza being a healthy alternative to most, so what makes Z Pizza a better option?
SF: Well, we bring gourmet to the table at fast food prices. We’re proud of being innovative and ahead of trends, with our organic ingredients and crust. We’re always looking to improve the quality and bring more organic, health-conscious ingredients to the menu. For instance, we use pepperonis without nitrates or preservatives, and we also use fresh pineapple instead from a can, just as an example.
LBM: What do you see on the horizon for Z Pizza?
SF: We just opened Z Café in South Coast Plaza, which is a really nice venue, but we’re just going to keep improving the quality of our food. And if you’ve never had Z Pizza, taste it and you’ll understand.
Is Z Pizza the best in town? What’s your slice of happiness? Speak up at our Facebook page.
Page 1 of 4 pages 1 2 3 > Last ›
