Galley Girl – She's in Your Kitchen

Unless you are a contortionist, or stockholder in Murphy Bed-style ranges that can fold into the wall, one hundred square feet is barely enough room for a wine locker, let alone a restaurant. Le Cordon Bleu, Pasadena-trained chef Pete Stavros and his girlfriend Antoinette are neither, yet they have been thriving in their one hundred square foot restaurant, Peter’s Gourmade Grill for over a year now.

ABC Burger

Is it even legal? Do elbows get in the way? Do tempers flare like fryer grease? I don’t know. Because, like surly teens, it’s nearly impossible to get a hold of them on the phone to ask. But cut them some slack: they don’t have a land line, just a machine that spews out your text order. The other number on the site is Stavros’s cell, and he’s slaving over the grill just now. What I do know is the food and menu are steadily improving and the staff serves the line of customers quickly and efficiently.

Lunch Bunch

The pastrami is popular, but it lacked flavor. Better the ABC Burger with its lacy-edged hand formed Angus beef patty dripping with juices and topped with thick cut bacon, grated cheddar cheese and sweet, spicy pickles chips. It’s served on a  soft, malleable potato bun wrapped neatly in paper.

Gas station hummus.

 Hummus at a Valero station? Yes. Peter’s mom Maria makes the rustic, grainy textured garlic-infused version served with warm pita, little pools of olive oil and Kalamata olives. My other faves are sited in my first post on Peter’s Gourmade Grill categorized under ‘truckstop’. Why truckstop? Help! I’m not sure what else to call this little stand. Suggestions?

Peter’s Gourmade Grill 16851 McFadden Ave. Tustin. 92780 gourmadegrill.com text your order to: 714 273 7922.

Update: Peter’s Gourmade Grill has closed in the Valero gas station and is slated to reopen soon right down the street on the corner of  McFadden and Newport in Tustin. Will keep you posted!

With the economy, everyone is putting a spin on their business, and chef celebs are no exception. There isn’t a toque in town who hasn’t pimped out his or her mad skillz to charity events, Food Network reality shows or prix fixe menus for the Groupon set. One chef I know recently marketed himself by teaching  kiddie cooking classes after school in the teacher’s lounge at a local elementary where the only culinary implements on site were a few mis-matched Tupperware containers and five packages of Sweet N Low from 1971.

DG Burger

Another popular way to bring in bucks is by opening a more casual, separate dining concept based on your larger brand. Wolfgang Puck, CPK, Cat Cora and Marcus Samuelsson have all gone this route. The latest is Charlie Palmer, who opened DG Burger, a hamburger stand located inside  the existing restaurant adjacent to but separate from the main dining room floor.

Potential DG Devotees.

It’s the same-premises/dual concept that doesn’t seem to work here. Anqi by Crustacean, right across the hall has its casual noodle bar concept 0n premises, but it was part of the plan from the beginning, and its cool. Over at CP, nothing has been visibly done to the washed out looking former private banquet  room except replacing linen table cloths with paper and stemware with condiment caddies.

Glass walls and doors make it possible for DG Burger patrons to see CP guests perusing the eWinebook for a bottle of Grüner Veltliner while nibbling on the last of Amar Santana’s charcuterie while they sit in what resembles the donor recovery room at your local Red Cross.  

Damn Average.

The burger itself is a bulky, rotund orb of juicy Angus beef. The default cooking temp is medium well, ill advised for a Costco patty, let alone Angus.  I added cheese and avocado, at the advice of a counter person, and they were two dollars each. The semolina bun is alright, but the bun to meat ratio is like a catcher’s mitt to a baseball. Fries, too, were just decent. Dipping sauces can be had for 75 cents a piece after the first one, and fries are plentiful, making it worth while to try them all. Garlicky sour cream gives them a baked potato edge. Bacon mayo? Good enough to slather  liberally on everything you order.

Chef Kim's Kobe-style sliders.

 My DG Burger with cheese and avocado was 12 dollars. The next day I went to the bar in Charlie Palmer and ordered executive sous chef  Seakyeong Kim’s three generously-sized  juicy,  flavorful Kobe-style sliders for a mere ten dollars. The patties were cooked a judicious medium. The sesame-flecked buns were spread with rich, savory black truffle mayo and garnished with crunchy house-made pickles.  I added a trough of rough hewn, crispy fries with a soft molten core. They were served with both ketchup and chipotle aioli: no extra charge. I ordered the sliders to contrast with the DG Burger, but the rest of the bar menu beckoned with a well-curated list of yummy sounding noshes.

CP’s former executive chef Chef Amar Santana has gone to open his own restaurant in Laguna’s Five Feet spot, and he hasn’t been replaced yet. Meanwhile, eating at DG Burger is like being at the kid’s card table on Thanksgiving.  Looks like Chef Kim and his nicely-executed bar menu are holding down the fort for now.

Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdales/DG Burger 3333 South Bristol Street Costa Mesa, CA 92626. 714.352.2525.

While other restaurant’s backsides feature dumpsters, bike racks and other unsightly F&B industry necessities, Richard Mead’s latest project, Canyon  has a professionally-tended garden out back. What he doesn’t have yet is the Kingsolver-inspired bumper crop one might expect from such a dedicated  space. Give him time. 

Beet it.

Chef/Owner Mead, (also of Sage in Newport Beach) like David Slay of Park Ave. in Stanton nurtures a viable on-site garden that will provide seasonal, organic produce to his restaurant. Don’t expect either to install an abattoir anytime soon, but in the vegetable department, both are D.I.Y. enough to bring farm to table in a matter of yards.

Open just under a month, Canyon is true to the Mead aesthetic of serving comfort food in an upscale setting with easy-drinking wines. Consider garnet-hued beets dotted with walnut halves, tender goat cheese morsels and peppery arugula in a gossamer horseradish and Dijon vinaigrette. I love it with a glass of grapefruit aroma-laden Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. Crispy, sweet Blue Crab cakes with grilled corn relish and creamy roasted garlic tartar sauce benefit from off-dry Kung Fu Girl Riesling. 

13 buck chuck.

Some dishes don’t work. A mushroom soup had all the earthy funk of varied fungi, but I can’t get past the the spa mud treatment color. Tuna tartar with wasabi crème fraîche was surprisingly bland. 

 Natural and repurposed design elements abound, occasionally looking as if someone scored on craigslist with Walker Zanger samples and Ganahl Lumber remnants.

With Slater’s 50/50 down the street serving carnal gut bombs versatile enough for a team party or  debauched cougars night out,  Canyon needed their burger to be a contender. They deliver with an oozing, juicy ground chuck patty topped  with cheddar and pancetta. Sesame seed-flecked Asian slaw, house-made fries and subtly smoky ketchup accompany it. 

Jasana's asana.

Canyon hired Laguna Beach native and nascent pastry chef  Jasana Singer to do desserts.  We tried Panna cotta with blood orange sorbet. The rich, vanilla bean-flecked cooked cream against the astringent bite of citrus is a fifty-fifty creamsicle without the freezer burn or stick. Next time: her molten chocolate cake with Merlot sauce. 

5775 E. Santa Ana Canyon Rd. Anaheim Hills, Ca. 92806. 714.283.1062. Dinner for two, $65.00, food only.