Photo by Johnny Baldaray

Every second and fourth Wednesday night of the month, legendary bartender/chef/restaurant insider Dave Mau hosts Dinner with Dave at Memphis at the Santora, where he treats drinkers to a free meal and live music as the evening progresses. To remind ustedes of this great night, Dave treats us every Wednesday morning that he's on to a random OC food or drink musing of his choice. Enjoy!!

I like to think of summer as an opera with its various acts/actors plying its sun-soaked stage and it's not over til the fat lady sings that last note of her final aria on the Tuesday after Labor Day. Even then, we in OC usually get a four-week encore, as our hottest months are often those that are considered something called "autumn" in other parts of the country. Grilling poolside at Casa de Mau is most definitely part of the seasonal program and that, like gravity itself, is a fact of life.

Recently three random events combined to make for an appealing addition to my grilling lexicon, so follow me here.

More »

Oh, Sid's...

Every second and fourth Wednesday night of the month, legendary bartender/chef/restaurant insider Dave Mau hosts Dinner with Dave at Memphis at the Santora, where he treats drinkers to a free meal and live music as the evening progresses. To remind ustedes of this great night, Dave treats us every Wednesday morning that he's on to a random OC food or drink musing of his choice. Enjoy!!

I wish I would have met Sid Soffer...........

I'm not saying we would have hit it off; it might have been like matter and anti-matter colliding for all I know. It could have resulted in a Newport Beach brawl that would have spilled out on to Old Newport Road and gone down in the annals of drunken OC pugilism, trumping even The Duke's whiskey-fueled exploits at the Balboa Bay Club. I'd like to think we would have been friends though, but that's because I have a lot of respect for him and the way he did things. I also like what he stood for.

More »

Every second and fourth Wednesday night of the month, legendary bartender/chef/restaurant insider Dave Mau hosts Dinner with Dave at Memphis at the Santora, where he treats drinkers to a free meal and live music as the evening progresses. To remind ustedes of this great night, Dave treats us every Wednesday morning that he's on to a random OC food or drink musing of his choice. Enjoy!!

Just beyond the wild, northern border of the OC lies Clearman's North Woods Inn, a wonderful remnant of a bygone era where everything tasted like Lawry's Seasoned Salt and smelled like Worcestershire sauce. Founded during the 1950's/60's Americana culinary boom, it's a welcome trip back to a simpler era. Back then, everything cool was coming out of Menlo Park and my parents' kitchen was awash in a sea of avocado-colored appliances, including a massive first-generation microwave. As children we called the joint "Snow Top" and I still get excited as a 6 year old kid every time I see the place. No joke.

More »

Every second and fourth Wednesday night of the month, legendary bartender/chef/restaurant insider Dave Mau hosts Dinner with Dave at Memphis at the Santora, where he treats drinkers to a free meal and live music as the evening progresses. To remind ustedes of this great night, Dave treats us every Wednesday morning that he's on to a random OC food or drink musing of his choice. Enjoy!!

The F&B biz can be nerve-wracking, strangely addictive and, if you are truly cut out for it, there is probably no way you are ever going to get away. Whether it's working the line, running tables or pouring drinks, it's a tough enough way to make a buck and when you put the people factor on top of that you have a recipe for breaking even the hardiest of souls. When that happens you don't need to wonder where that first time server you just spent two months training went to. They couldn't take the heat and went back to work at Costco stocking shelves.

More »

All photos by Dave Mau, if you already haven't got the drift...

Oh, gracious jar of beauty...

Every second and fourth Wednesday night of the month, legendary bartender/chef/restaurant insider Dave Mau hosts Dinner with Dave at Memphis at the Santora, where he treats drinkers to a free meal and live music as the evening progresses. To remind ustedes of this great night, Dave treats us every Wednesday morning that he's on to a random OC food or drink musing of his choice. Enjoy!!

Until the last few years, achiote was a relatively unknown ingredient outside the humble kitchens of your favorite abuelita and has only recently become a cryptic culinary possibility with most of us crusty gabachos. Mexi? Maybe. Less Michoacán, más Yucatan. Perhaps as much smell as taste, a waft of flowers floats to the roof of your mouth mixed with pungent spice, earth and a hint of citrus. Our own Niyaz Pirani did a great spot on its use in Cochinita Pibil here.
More »

Oh, the fun you'll have!

Every second and fourth Wednesday night of the month, legendary bartender/chef/restaurant insider Dave Mau hosts Dinner with Dave at Memphis at the Santora, where he treats drinkers to a free meal and live music as the evening progresses. To remind ustedes of this great night, Dave treats us every Wednesday morning that he's on to a random OC food or drink musing of his choice. Enjoy!!

Let's make one thing perfectly clear. Owning a restaurant is a lot like owning a car or a house. You're gonna say you own it, but in fact, you're probably just making the payments. More importantly, at least at the outset, your shop will own you just as much as you supposedly own it. That is a fact.

The funny thing about the following list is that these reasons are also some of the best to get in The Biz, thus spins the schizophrenic nature of our industry.


More »

All photos by Dave Mau, if you already haven't got the drift...

One heroic drink

Every second and fourth Wednesday night of the month, legendary bartender/chef/restaurant insider Dave Mau hosts Dinner with Dave at Memphis at the Santora, where he treats drinkers to a free meal and live music as the evening progresses. To remind ustedes of this great night, Dave treats us every Wednesday morning that he's on to a random OC food or drink musing of his choice. Enjoy!!

We on the West Coast have a stronger affinity for all things Tiki than most and it has become an integral part of our national cultural lexicon as well, working its way eastward to even the most stalwart of New England lounges. Since its revival in the 90's due to many diverse influences, including the works of the one and only Shag himself, it's become all the rage to embrace the aesthetic and slam it into the mid-century/atomic ranch/Palm Springs kitsch sandwich that all the cool kids here in the OC find so appetizing. And that's not a bad thing either.
More »

Anderson: Nice beard!

Every second and fourth Wednesday night of the month, legendary bartender/chef/restaurant insider Dave Mau hosts Dinner with Dave at Memphis at the Santora, where he treats drinkers to a free meal and live music as the evening progresses. To remind ustedes of this great night, Dave treats us every Wednesday morning that he's on to a random OC food or drink musing of his choice. Enjoy!!

I'll freely admit I don't know a goddamn thing about coffee. I'm not totally oblivious: I can tell the difference between that over-roasted Starbuck's crap and the watered-down Farmer Brothers stuff from the corner gas station that tastes like someone stirred a twig in a cup of hot water and handed it off to me. I've also experienced what is called "campfire coffee" on the trail with the High Sierra Pack Station crew which entails adding more grounds to an institutional-sized pot each day as the trip progresses and by day five or six is literally as thick as mud and potent enough to jump-start a bulldozer. Aside from that, however, I'm fairly oblivious to its finer aspects (and surprisingly at ease with my lack of knowledge). In fact I'm the kind of guy that makes a half pot of coffee and leaves it sit for a few days, nuking one cup at a time, much to the chagrin of my more erudite friends. Blasphemy indeed.

More »

Every second and fourth Wednesday night of the month, legendary bartender/chef/restaurant insider Dave Mau hosts Dinner with Dave at Memphis at the Santora, where he treats drinkers to a free meal and live music as the evening progresses. To remind ustedes of this great night, Dave treats us every Wednesday morning that he's on to a random OC food or drink musing of his choice. Enjoy!!

My relatives from the Midwest think I'm nuts. Let me say that one again. My relatives from the Midwest think I'm nuts. They don't think I'm nuts like everyone else does. Most people think I'm a jumping-off-the-roof-into-a-Palm-Springs-pool-while-holding-a-pastrami-sandwich-and-half-empty-bottle-of-whiskey kind of nuts. Or-shooting-guns-at-VVR nuts. In fact, they don't even know about the really insane stuff I do and they STILL think I'm nuts.

More »