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Chef Pascal Olhats, who currently runs Café Jardin in Corona del Mar as well as Pascal Restaurant in San Juan Capistrano (and once had several other restaurants in Newport Beach) has won many chef battles over the years, but his latest battle is against a tough opponent. This...

January has barely begun and already the local dining scene is heating up, thanks to special culinary events including the annual Newport Beach Restaurant Week, Bluewater Grill’s annual France versus Italy fish stew battle, and SideDoor’s Ultimate Cheese & Charcuterie...

Taco Rosa Hosts Tequila Battle on Mexican Independence Day We love tequila, so you can bet we’ll be attending “Battle of the Tequileros” on Mexican Independence Day, Saturday, September 16th from 1 to 5 p.m. at Taco Rosa, Chef Ivan Calderon’s upscale Mexican restaurant in...

By Christopher Trela & Catherine Del Casale | NB Indy We popped into Bayside Restaurant last Thursday evening to catch the always fabulous Ron Kobayashi Trio featuring Jerry Mandel on saxophone. We were hungry, and asked owner Marc Ghoukassian, who came by to say hello, for...

By Christopher Trela & Catherine Del Casale | NB Indy “Let’s do brunch.” That’s a popular phrase in Newport Beach, with more and more restaurants offering special weekend brunch menus. One of those is Cucina Enoteca in Fashion Island, which has a brunch every Saturday and...

By Christopher Trela & Catherine Del Casale | NB Indy Warm weather and welcoming ocean breezes means it’s time to dine outside—but we’re not talking about your backyard barbecue, although summer is certainly barbecue season. Numerous Newport restaurants offer splendid al...

By Christopher Trela & Catherine Del Casale Whether you enjoy local wines or vino from Italy, this is the perfect time to take a wine tour to OC wineries and enjoy a luncheon with one of Italy’s most famous winemakers. Gaja Wine Lunch at Cucina Enoteca The name Gaja is...

Cucina Enoteca adds a rustic touch to Fashion Island’s roster of restaurants. By Allison Hata | Photos by Jody Tiongco   With a name that translates to “wine” from its native Italian, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Cucina Enoteca surrounds its patrons with...

By Christopher Trela & Catherine Del Casale The Fashion Island Tree Lighting continues nightly through the end of the year, so we thought we’d share a few of our favorite Fashion Island restaurants in case you want to grab a bite to eat before or after the tree lighting. Fig...

By Christopher Trela & Catherine Del Casale | NB Indy How popular is pizza? More than three billion pizzas are sold in the U.S. every year, making pizza one of the most popular food items in the country. Catherine agrees—she admits to eating more than her share of pepperoni...

By Christopher Trela & Catherine Del Casale | NB Indy Newport is turning Italian. We’ve noticed a number of restaurants have opened over the past several months that focus on Italian cuisine, and/or pizza. That certainly makes Catherine happy—she spent a semester in Italy...

By Christopher Trela & Catherine Del Casale The wait is over: CUCINA enoteca at Fashion Island is now officially open. The California-inspired Italian kitchen (how’s that for a morphing of cuisines) and wine shop is Tracy Borkum’s second restaurant in OC (she has ...

Restaurateur Tracy Borkum, whose CUCINA urbana is one of the most popular restaurants in San Diego, opened a sister restaurant, CUCINA enoteca, at Irvine Spectrum Center in December 2011. Now, Borkum is preparing to open a new 8,300 square foot CUCINA enoteca in Fashion Island...