Made From Scratch Beach Grub

January 22, 2016

It’s been almost a year since the Beach Barrel, the self-dubbed rustic beach grub eatery, debuted on the peninsula, across from the old City Hall in Newport Beach. Co-owners Jared Jones (former Midnight Muncheez delivery service owner) and Mac Carlson (Green Room surf shop and former Social Costa Mesa owner), built the restaurant from scratch with charming beach décor and table tops made of thousands of pennies. Jared and Mac’s vision was to create a rustic quick serve style restaurant where they can get creative with food while using all fresh ingredients from local farmers markets and continuing to deliver…

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Small Plates, Big Flavors in Laguna Beach

January 21, 2016

One of our favorite local chefs, Craig Connole at K’ya Bistro at the historic La Casa del Camino Hotel in Laguna Beach offers a tapas-style dinner menu with more than 40 delicious small plates to choose from. His seasonally inspired dishes range in price from $5 to $16—making it one of the best values in OC. The ever-evolving menu—ideal for cool winter weather—is always eclectic and delicious. Some favorites on the menu include lobster meatballs with truffle and bacon mashed potatoes; bacon wrapped dates; flash fried calamari with thai glaze, peanuts, carrot, bean sprouts, cilantro and green onion; Buttermilk Fried…

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Stack it Up, Stack it In

January 20, 2016

It’s been five years in the making and finally, the first Stacked:Food Well Built just opened in Orange County. Stacked is on Edinger Avenue in Huntington Beach, with other locations in Thousand Oaks, Torrance, San Diego and Cerritos. The award-winning concept features an innovative “build-your-own” ordering system. Stacked uses an iPad-based system, so that you can customize your order and pay via tapletop iPads. You can choose from hundreds of ingredients to customize your burgers, pizzas, salads and mac ‘n’ cheese and just drag and drop your order to build your meal on the screen. You will be literally ‘stacking’…

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Celebrating 10 Years of Good Taste! Newport Beach Restaurant Week

January 19, 2016

Newport Beach is celebrating the longest running restaurant week in Orange County! The 10th anniversary of Newport Beach Restaurant Week is running now through Sunday, January 31st. You get 14 days of incredible prix-fixe lunch and dinner menus starting at just $10 for lunch, and $20 for dinner. The options range from international cuisine, locally sourced seafood, grilled steaks, vegetarian specialties and much more. Premier eateries to choose from include The Ritz Prime Seafood, Fig & Olive, Provenance, Five Crowns, Pizzeria Mozza, Sushi Roku and Andrea at Pelican Hill. Participating restaurants will be serving up special prix-fixe menus, with lunches…

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The Finest Sweets of Paris in OC

January 15, 2016

The finest in French sweets can be found at a new boutique, Douceurs de Paris in Corona del Mar. It’s the creation of Anne-laure Deconinck of Paris who is bringing her favorite memories of France in the way of fresh French macaroons and premium French chocolates, beautiful candied almonds, toffees and teas. It’s the perfect place to find gifts for holidays, baby showers or weddings, or just as a treat. “Born in a French food merchant family, I had to open a French food store allowing Americans to travel through my childhood food and flavors,” Anne-laure said. “Since my early…

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