Lisa McKinnon|Ventura
What's the best way to proceed when your company buys two well-known Ventura County restaurants — one of them founded by a James Beard Award-nominated chef,the other a neighborhood favorite for 16 years running— and you want to make a few changes?
For the new owners of what is nowcalled Cocovin Restaurant & Barat the former Brasserie Communautaire in Oxnard, and of what continues to operateas Meridian's Cafe in Ventura, the answer is: Carefully. But consider adding a double-decker bus to the mix.
"You want to attract new customers without upsetting the existing ones," saidAlan "Viet" Nguyen, general director for a Southern California-basedgroup that ownsengineering businesses and restaurants. The latter include a bakery in Little Saigonthat provides baguettes and pastries for the company's Thai, Vietnamese and French-fusion restaurants in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
TheVentura County locations were addedthisspring and summer.
At Cocovin, Nguyen said, the intentional misspelling of the traditional French stewcoq au vinhints at the not-so-traditional variations on Mediterranean cuisine that he and chef Jorge Angel have up their sleeves.
So are the marble statues of womenNguyen added to thedining room. Each holds adifferent harvest symbolwhile dressed in pastelgarments that pop against the walls, newly painted in an it-came-from-Tiffany's shade of blue. The color was selected to heraldupcoming changes to the restaurant'sbrunch service, he said.
OnOct. 29, Sunday brunch from 10a.m. to 2 p.m.will switch from prixfixeto pick-and-choosea la carteservice.
Diners will have the option of ordering appetizers like deviled eggs, shrimp co*cktails and a Green Goddess saladin addition to entrees, or they can skip straight to the main course.A sneak-preview print out of the brunch menuincluded mains ranging from the sweet (French toast withorange-fennel syrup, $12) to the savory (eggs atop ratatouille, $12, and musabaha falafel, $14).
Weekend brunch hours will launchNov. 4-5,a Saturday/Sunday combo that will continue thereafter.The restaurant has a beer and wine license, so mimosas are also available. Nguyen hopes to have a full-bar license in place at the start of 2018.
Angel, anOxnard native who earned his culinary degree at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Artsin Pasadena,started working at Brasserie Communautaire under its original chef and owner, James Chan.
"I think it will loosen things up a bit,"Angel said of switching brunch service to a la carte orders. He speaks from experience: The restaurant discontinued its prix fixe approach to dinner before Chan's departure. An evening menu this week offered starters ranging from Caesar salad ($8) to "ultra luxe" mac and cheese topped with buttered breadcrumbs ($9). Entrees included mushroom risotto with roasted garlic($24) andbouillabaisse($32). On Wednesdays, the happy hour menu($5-$27, the latter for steak frites with truffle butter) is available all night, along withthe regular menu.
The restaurant still bears the Brasserie Communautaire sign put in place when Chanopened the business in March2016. Nguyen is in the process of getting the necessary permits to change it. But he also has plans for more free-wheeling forms of promotion to draw attention to the restaurant, which is locatedoff the beaten path in theWestport at Mandalay Bay portion of the Seabridge development (4308 Tradewinds Drive, 805-985-5614, https://www.eatcocovin.com).
The largestis a double-decker bus that will be parked nearby, advertising both Cocovin and the availability of the bus itself as a self-contained catering vehiclefor hired trips to nearby beaches, Nguyen said. Designedby Jay Ohreberg's Hollywood Cars, the bus is equipped with a food truck-style kitchen on the first floor and seating for about 40 diners on the second. Afoldable awningprovides shade, turning the bus into a sort of mobile patio.
TheVentura County debut of the bus is tentatively scheduled for early December — a delay caused by a traffic accident on Interstate 215."It was on its way here in late September when someone rear-ended it," said Nguyen. "The vehicle that hit it had a hook on the front that tore out the fuel lineand transmission when they reversed out of the bus. We were verybummed about it."
Once repaired, thebusmight also make a promotional appearance atMeridian's, located in theVonsshopping center at Harbor Boulevard and Seaward Avenue in Ventura's beachy Pierpont neighborhood.
Meridian's was founded in 2001 by Greg Colliton and Joseph Williams.All these years later, it still has a giant map of the world in the dining room and an array of salads, sandwiches, pastas and pizzas on the menu. (The Mediterranean, topped with grilled chicken, fire-roasted pepper sauce and four kinds of cheese, $14,has been a staple from the beginning.) Service isorder-at-the-counter casual, with folded playing cards identifying which for-here order belongs to which patron (2417 Harbor Blvd., 805-676-1756, http://www.meridianscafe.com).
"The locals are so accustomed to Meridian's that wearen't making major changes there," Nguyen said. "But who doesn't want to see a double-decker bus come by?"
OPEN, SHUT AND IN BETWEEN
Sabra Fish Grill, anon-chain restaurant at The Collection at RiverPark in Oxnard, closed this month after more than twoyears of business at 663 Town Center Drive. Locateda blockfrom the comparatively new EMC Seafood & Raw Bar, the restaurant closed "due to fluctuations in the economy and increased competition, none of which were within our control," according to the Oct. 24-dated letter seen taped to thepatio's glass gate.
Thebusiness phone for Sabra Fish Grill is disconnected. Its Facebook page was still liveasof Thursday, although the most recent post at that time was dated Aug. 29.Mysteriously, a banner across the Sabra Fish GrillYelp page describes the closure as temporary, with a reopening scheduled for "Feb. 28, 2018."
Another mystery is unfolding at the sole remainingDickey's Barbecue Pit in Ventura County. According to a signed taped to the door, the Ventura restaurant was scheduled to close for remodelingfrom Oct. 23-25, with plans to reopen at 11 a.m. Oct. 26. On that date, calls to the restaurant were answeredby a generic "the person you are trying to reach is unavailable" message. (My voicemail had not been returned by deadline.)Throughout the week, the restaurant's Facebook page continued to post what appeared to be automatically generated status updates touting its daily specials(6100 Telegraph Road, Suite F, 805-212-4240, https://www.dickeys.com).
UPDATE: Dickey's Barbecue Pit in Ventura reopened on Oct. 27.
Published in The Star's Business section on Oct. 25, this week's Open and Shut column contained information about the newopening date forGrocery Outlet Bargain Marketin east Ventura(Psst! It's Nov. 9), with news on the opening of Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream in downtown Ventura, the closure of The Ice Bar Cafe in Camarillo, and more. To read it, click on http://bit.ly/2h5OaDL.
Read more: Grocery Outlet opening in Ventura slowed by parking lot
BUY THE BOOK
The national release of"Eat Less Water"by Oxnard-based author andactivist Florencia Ramirezwill be celebrated from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 1 with a beers-and-book-signing event at Leashless Brewingin downtown Ventura. The book (Red Hen Press, $17.95) combines recipes and interviews with farmers and other food producers.
TheFarm & Flame food truck willbe on site, and a Day of the Dead altar "dedicated to individuals who committed their life's work to protect the environment" will be displayed (585 E. Thompson Blvd.). For more information about the book, click on https://eatlesswater.com. For more about Ramirez, read The Star's Cook du Jour feature about her athttp://bit.ly/2xquwbO.
Read more: Quiche recipe an homage to the taco
LIVIN' LARGER
Roughly fiveyears after he turned a former Domino'son Moorpark's historic High Street into a production kitchen for his French-style caramels,Justin Chao is expanding — with a combination cafe-retailshopin Los Angeles' Thai Town.
"I will have caramel-filled waffles and a 44-inch caramel fountain from which we will serve hot, fresh caramel sauce," Chao said of the shop, which is slated to open in late November or early December at 5158 Hollywood Blvd.
Raised in Westlake Village, Chao studied architecture at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design before switching career gears. He trained at the Ecole Gastronomique Bellouet Conseil in Paris, moved back to California to work at Water Grill in Los Angeles and was just getting his caramel company, Le Bon Garçon, off the ground when the candies were featured in the December 2011 issue of Oprah Winfrey's magazine, O.
The search for a kitchen that could double as a retail space led Chao to the vacant pizza joint on High Street, a neighborhood he remembered from childhood visits to the now-shuttered Secret Garden restaurant nearby, Chao told me in 2014.
These days, his soft caramels sprinkled with sea salt come in flavors like honey-lavender (made with ingredients from Ojai), plus seasonal options like pumpkin spice (October), hot toddy (November) and gingerbread spice (December). The candies are sold online andat boutique food markets. Chao alsoopens the doors at the Moorpark locationfrom noon to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Don't bother looking for a sign: There isn't one (481 E. High St., 424-272-6677, http://www.lebongarcon.com).
DIGGING INTO FARM DAY
Ventura County Farm Day, a free, self-guided tour of more than 20 working farms, ranches, orchards, packing houses and other ag-related spots from Ojai to Moorpark, will mark its fifth anniversary when it takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 4. For a map of locations, click on http://venturacountyfarmday.com.
New to the event this year will be a free, pre-tour breakfast of coffee and pastries from 8 a.m. at Whole Foods Market at The Collection at RiverPark in Oxnard(650 Town Center Drive). The first 350 people to show upwill receive goodie bags containing coupons, sunblock and more.
A ticketed, post-tour barbecue from 5-9 p.m. at the UC Hansen Agricultural Research & Extension Center (aka Faulkner Farm) in Santa Paula will include a meal prepared by Dearmore BBQ Catering, plus local beer and wine, and music by Coldwater Canyon. Proceeds from tickets, $45 for adults and $15 for kids younger than 12, will benefit SEEAG, the nonprofit organization that presents farm day. Call 805-901-0213 or click onhttp://bit.ly/2gAlnqV.
Lisa McKinnon is a staff writer for The Star. To contact her, send email to lisa.mckinnon@vcstar.com. To have theVCS Eats newsletterdelivered directly to your inbox, visithttp://bit.ly/VCS_Eatsand type in your email address.
