Laguna’s New Kids on the Block
By OCinSite At-Large | September 26, 2011 10:17 AM
By Rich Manning
Photos by Jody Tiongco
Opening a successful restaurant in Laguna Beach can be a tricky proposition; there are tourists to lure and locals to retain. Culinary creativity needs to co-exist with comfort. Everyone involved in the operation must realize the guy at the end of the bar decked out in a Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops could very well be a high-powered CEO. The unique combination of world-class luxury, coastal serenity and independent spirit better known as the Laguna Beach vibe must flow freely throughout the venue at all times. Above all, a successful Laguna Beach restaurant must incorporate all of these rules of gastronomic engagement while retaining its own personal character. Each new culinary concept, menu design and dining space must contain a singular appeal compelling enough to draw diners to their doors.
Over the course of the last several months, Laguna Beach has seen a quintet of restaurants open their doors for the first time, eager to take on the challenges that the city’s discerning palate. Each of these new establishments are the collective endgames of journeys borne out of intriguingly different roots: One rose from the ashes of a longtime city favorite; another is the product of a veteran restaurateur acting out on her instinctive connection with the city; still another cobbles a path that can be traced back to its chef’s early days in Manhattan. Despite the varying paths that each establishment has forged en route to opening, each restaurant has succeeded in creating venues that honor Laguna Beach’s unique sensibilities in their own distinctive voice.
Starfish: Taking Downtown Down Town
Restaurateur Nancy Wilhelm knows what it takes to be a major player in the Laguna Beach dining scene. After all, her first restaurant, Tabu Grill, has been consistently lauded as one of the city’s prime culinary jewels. So when she sensed her new venture, Starfish, needed to bring the lively and laidback ambience of downtown Laguna Beach to the city’s southern end, it shouldn’t be too surprising that her intuition was correct. Indeed, since Starfish opened its doors across from the Montage Laguna Beach in June, the dizzying buzz that surrounded its launch has grown into the kind of praise that demonstrates how in tune Nancy is with the town. “I have received a lot of compliments from locals saying that they are so glad we’re here,” she says. “They’ve told me they don’t necessarily feel the need to go downtown every time they want to have the kind of fun, upbeat experience that we offer.”
Nancy’s execution of her vision for Starfish is an organic process. The restaurant itself sits quietly in a corner of a lengthy strip mall. The interior space is anchored by a centralized bar whose warm lighting counters the dark, mysterious hues of the surrounding dining area. The menu items created by chef Jarvis Yuan offer a fusion of Asian flavors and American sensibilities—Nancy has dubbed the concept “Amer-Asian”—and offers upscale yet easily accessible dishes like garlic noodles and baby back ribs touched with an off-beat flair. Because of the comfortable persona that Starfish strives to cultivate, Nancy expects the venue to attract an eclectic band of visitors ranging from all walks of Laguna life. It is an element of variety that she embraces wholeheartedly. “It doesn’t matter if you come in wearing a suit wanting a full meal or if you are a person coming off the beach looking to grab some spring rolls and a glass of wine,” she says. “We want to be known as a place that has something for everybody.”
Katsuya: LA Style, Beach Sensibility
To say that the hospitality and entertainment juggernaut sbe did its due diligence in selecting the perfect spot to launch Orange County’s first Katsuya by Starck restaurant would be an understatement. The fact is that they spent nearly five years scoping the area to find the ideal location to launch the trendy Los Angeles-based sushi venue before they staked their claim to the elevated building formerly occupied by Hush.
While this lofty perch makes for an ideal showcase for the glamorous dining concept created by the one-two punch of master sushi chef Katsuya Uechi and designer Phillipe Starck, a conscious effort was made to infuse the famously chic eatery with a mellowed elegance befitting the Laguna Beach lifestyle. “We aimed to model the Laguna Beach restaurant after our Brentwood and Glendale locations,” says General Manager Jenny Morinaka. “We wanted it to include more family-friendly options and be less Hollywood.”
Make no mistake: Katsuya by Starck does carry a strong sense of sleek, chic ambiance that allows it to stake a claim as Laguna Beach’s proverbial place to see and be seen. Yet the unique attention paid to children does set this location apart from its LA compatriots. For instance, the venue boasts a kid’s menu that has been designed “specifically for the Laguna Beach community,” Morinaka says. Additionally, kids (and adults) who are not quite sure about taking that initial foray into sushi can choose from a special selection of grilled items from Katsuya by Starck’s unique, interactive robata grill.
Asada: Replacing a Legend
When Javier’s moved up the coastline to Newport Beach, it not only left behind one of the choicest locations in downtown Laguna Beach, it also created a void for refined, approachable Mexican food to enjoy amongst the area’s cluster of boutique shops and art galleries. It was a culinary cavity that Scott Macintosh felt compelled to fill. So Scott, who already struck Laguna gold by co-founding the popular eatery Nick’s, took over Javier’s former space and created Asada, his take on the Mexican steakhouse concept. However, Scott is quick to point out that Asada is very respectful of what they are replacing. “The building that Javier’s was in was sacred ground to a lot of people,” he explains, “so we didn’t want to come in here and just replicate what Javier’s did.”
Together with General Manager David Bos and Executive Chef Andres Miramontes, Scott is making sure Asada carves out a singular name for itself through the ambiance it cultivates. “We know it can’t be all about the food,” he says. “It has to be about the experience, as well. We want Asada to be the kind of place that you can walk into and you can just feel that it’s going to be good.”
Of course, that’s not to say Asada’s food and drink do not play a big part in creating its ambiance. Indeed, Asada’s menu of simple yet polished traditional Mexican cuisine gives a slight nod towards California cuisine to help tap into the downtown Laguna Beach environment. Plus, Asada’s tequila bar furthers the relaxed atmosphere by affording guests the chance to enjoy the popular libation in a host of different ways, from artisan flights to handcrafted margaritas.
Three Seventy Common Kitchen+Drink: An Uncommon Re-Invention
For a lot of Laguna Beach residents, the closing of Sorrento Grille after 23 years of operation marked a sorrowful end of an era. Yet for Ryan Adams, the shutting of the venerable eatery where he served as executive chef represented a beginning, one that allowed him to launch his new dining concept called The Three Seventy Common Kitchen+Drink in the late restaurant’s space, set to open near the end of September. At the same time, it gave Ryan the opportunity to unleash his dream of creating a neighborhood place that is completely driven by his own vision, from the design of the menu and dining space to the mundane financial aspects of running a restaurant.
Ryan’s ambitious culinary model will also afford him a greater chance to interact with his clientele, which is an opportunity he relishes. “One of the problems with always being in the kitchen at Sorrento Grille is that I never got to know the customers as much as I would have liked,” he says. “Since I’m going to be so hands-on with the day-to-day operations, I’m going to be able to come to the front of the house and get the chance to be a little more in tune with what my guests want.”
For Ryan, naming his venue Three Seventy Common Kitchen+Drink represents everything that he is seeking within his idea of a neighborhood place. His menu places a strong emphasis on food that’s local, seasonal and sustainable, a perfect match for Laguna’s sensibilities. Ryan is also very excited about how the simple pleasures of eating and drinking in his restaurant has the potential to bring Laguna Beach’s residents together, bolstered by the fact that the venue features communal seating areas designed to encourage different groups to sit down together and mingle.
Broadway by Amar Santana: East Coast Meets West Coast
Before he was earning acclaim as the executive chef at Charlie Palmer’s at Bloomingdale’s South Coast Plaza, Amar Santana was building a passionate zeal for cooking through the hyper-competitive kitchens in his native New York City. So when he and business partners Rich Cadarette and Ahmad Labbate had the opportunity to open a restaurant in Laguna Beach (set to go live toward the end of September), he felt compelled to create a venue that would honor his culinary roots. “I always wanted to have a restaurant that had a New York feel,” he says. “I wanted that vibe to be so strong that locals would feel like they didn’t need to travel New York to have the kind of experience I was offering.”
Named after the famed New York thoroughfare (as opposed to Laguna Beach’s passageway to the canyons), the industrial-themed Broadway contains theatrical elements from Amar’s hometown. Case in point: the restaurant’s enormous open kitchen—a space that Amar claims is the most visible of its kind in Orange County. The work area’s transparency serves a purpose that is very important to him. “The reason the kitchen is so visible is that I want people to see what I am all about and that I love food,” he says. “I want them to know that they’re getting the real deal when they come here.”
Once Amar develops this connection with his Laguna Beach clientele, he plans on deploying a culinary strategy filled with Gotham-sized dramatic bravado, as envelope-pushing items such as calf’s liver and sweetbreads will be available alongside his diverse assortment of contemporary dishes.
