Goodbye to Scampi, Hello to Onotria in Costa Mesa

Orange County Business Journal, Oct 3-Oct 9, 2005 by Chao, Fifi

Vessia Ristorante Serving Up Sunday Brunch; New York Times Raves About Local Hot Spot

EXECUTIVE DINING

Scampi on Old Newport Boulevard closed last week. The lease was up and the landlord preferred not to renew it.

Perhaps it was the nudge that owner Massimo Navarretta needed to open another restaurant more closely tied to wines and vines and their ingrained place in the Italian culture.

I'm told that the new restaurant, Onotria, will serve wine country cuisine, which will incorporate the best dishes of Scampi with new dishes that speak of the casualness but high quality restaurant food encountered in places such as Napa Valley.

A tie-in to the new restaurant is the vineyards that Massimo has planted nearby. In about three years, the vines will produce grapes of sufficient character to make good merlot. That wine will be part of the labels that will bring the wine and food experience as a marriage closer to the diner.

Scampi has been a crowd-pleaser with its pastas, seafood, shrimp and lobster dishes for 17 years.

For those of you who remember Arnie's Manhattan Deli on Bristol Street, you already know how to find Onotria when it opens later this month. That space at 2831 Bristol St. is being redefined to fit this wine country vision.

Sunday's Best

Vessia Ristorante in Irvine has just begun Sunday Brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. After so much cajoling from his customers, owner Franco Vessia is giving them what they want.

There's a carving station with roasted turkey and top sirloin roast. The omelet station offers a wide selection of fillings while freshly made muffins, focaccia, croissants and breakfast pastries plus cereals fill a table nearby. There's bruschetta with smoked salmon too, along with an assortment of salads and vegetable dishes.

Of course, since Vessia is home to superb Italian food, chef Gino Buonanoce has included chicken parmigiana, rotolo di spinachi (a not-to-be-missed spinach and homemade pasta roll), meat and pasta dishes and great Italian pork chops with caramelized onions and balsamic glaze.

Chocolate-dipped strawberries are in the good company of fresh fruit tarts and profiteroles in chocolate sauce on the dessert table.

Price is $12.95 for kids aged 12 and younger and $19.95 for adults.

Vessia: 3966 Barranca Parkway in the Crossroads Center, Irvine, (949) 654-1155.

Fashion Plate of the Season

It just keeps getting better and better for Anaheim White House.

In a column called Romeo is Burning, writer Mark Jacobs wrote in the New York Times in August that "The fashion plate of the season is not a model but a dish served at the Anaheim White House: the Romeo Gigli Salmon."

This is Norwegian salmon with citrus beurre blanc sauce. He was adequately intrigued with the romance and beautiful flavor marriage of mashed potatoes whipped with some white chocolate that accompanies the dish.

He went on to describe several other "fashion conscious" dishes on the current menu that come with haute couture taste and that put this restaurant on a list worthy of being touted in New York.

We are all free to experience the delicious cuisine of Anaheim White House as our schedules allow, but there's another way to savor some first-class food here. That's by way of the guest chef dinners.

The next one is scheduled for Oct. 21, when chef Giacomo Pettinari of world-famous Valentino restaurant in Santa Monica will be cooking a multi-course dinner of his specialties.

Valentine is on the list of every grand gourmet and critic from here to Europe and is only a 45-minute drive for us.

But who from Orange County goes to L.A. to eat anymore? We are too content with the good food we now have here.

However, this time the chef extraordinaire with a Michelin three-star restaurant on his resume comes to us. These special guest chef dinners are limited in attendance, so make your reservation now.

Perhaps I should confess now that I was the first guest chef, launching the series back in June. My menu included crab lasagna and halibut with porcini mushroom sauce.

Chef Pettinari has not yet given us his menu-we do know it will be Mediterranean influenced-but knowing personally what he does at Valentino, you are in for a treat.

He was voted "hot Personality 2005" by the L.A. restaurant critics and Piero Selvaggio, the owner and global personality of Valentino, has been a long time icon of Bruno Serato, owner of Anaheim White House.

The Valentino/chef Giacomo Pettinari dinner begins at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 21. The price is $75 plus tax and gratuity.

Anaheim White House is at 887 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim. Call (714) 772-1381 now for reservations, which are a must.

Celebrate With Seafood

I recently told you about the new Restaurant 162' in the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel hotel. I forgot to remind you about the impressive Seafood Celebration Buffet on Friday evenings.

It will require some perusal and serious thought at the outset, just to see all that's offered.

A table full of marinated and tossed salads sure is a nice beginning. From marinated vegetable dishes, a clamoring of olives from around the world and cold seafood impresarios like the squid salad, it's fully satisfying for me without even getting to the rest of the tables.