The Playground To Stop Serving Lunch

By Michelle Woo Tue., Oct. 16 2012 at 9:00 AM

Categories: Local Eats

John Gilhooley/OC Weekly

The Playground's kitchen staff is a tiny team that does it all--invent recipes, shop for ingredients, prep, cook, taste, repeat. But it seems that they are simply not finding enough hours in a day.

The restaurant announced via Facebook that it will be discontinuing lunch service. Its final lunch for the foreseeable future is this Saturday, Oct. 20. Read a message from owner Jason Quinn . . .

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We are truly devastated to break this news to you. The truth is, we are unable to maintain (and progress) the level of quality in our food. We have never been about making money, our core values lie in honing our craft. Testing, reevaluating, improving. But now we are perpetually behind. Always finishing our prep just before dinner, with no time to test and perfect. The result is our own insecurities about serving food that we are not 100% sure is our best. And my friends, we can not live with that. It is our goal as a restaurant to procure all the greatest culinary treasures of the world, treat them simply, and hopefully let them shine. Changing every day, we are on a never ending quest to learn more and work with the highest possible quality of ingredients. Unfortunately, we have such a small kitchen that we can not serve lunch with the same attention as we commit to dinner. By eating lunch here, you are having worse than our best (hopefully still wonderful). We are working on future endeavors in this area that will be better lunch options, we thank you for your patience.

Passion over profit,
Jason Quinn

Bummer. There goes Orange County's 28th Favorite Dish. The Playground's loyal fans seem to understand, giving Jason props for putting quality over dollar signs. Fortunately, the restaurant will still be serving its famed Sunday brunch.

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