Bennett: Noshing to the music at Mesa

It was all Adele everything last Tuesday night at Mesa, the ultra-hip, finally-with-a-sign-out-front, Costa Mesa-via-West-Hollywood restaurant, lounge and nightlife hotspot tucked into a dark parking lot corner of The Camp shopping mall.

Tables on Mesa’s dining side were prepped with tea tray altars to the musical guest of honor, including a framed portrait of the 28-year-old British singer surrounded by flowers, votive candles and sprinkles of pearls and fake diamonds. A copy of the evening’s special Chef’s Table menu — four courses of Adele-themed dishes with paired cocktails and wine pairings — was resting at each place setting.

“Hello from the other side,” the multi-platinum artist sang through Mesa’s state-of-the-art speakers as I entered, immediately filling the dimly lit space with her presence. But hearing the chorus for her best-selling single of 2016 was only the beginning; the radio would stay tuned to an Adele station all night, ensuring that even though Adele was not present physically, she was definitely there in spirit.

Mesa’s effervescent, purple-quaffed executive chef, Niki Starr Weyler, quickly arrived at the table, moved the tea tray and dropped the first course, a modern-art display of hamachi and tangerine with crunchy tortilla strips and swoops of avocado and tomatillo sauce. It was an amuse bouche that the menu called “Hello,” both a reference to the Adele song and an introduction to the chef herself.

“It’s about hitting on all notes of flavor for me, especially in a first course,” Weyler says by phone a few days after the dinner. “It’s light and super refreshing but also doesn’t forget any flavors, which is especially important for a raw dish.”

“Hello” was an easy way to get acquainted with Weyler’s penchant for that sweet-savory-acidic balance, intricate textural plays and whimsical plating, all skills the O.C. native honed over a decade in local fine-dining kitchens like French 75, Charlie Palmer and Broadway by Amar Santana. At the last two, she worked extensively under Santana, whom she (along with several other young O.C. chefs) cites as a major mentor.

In addition to showcasing Weyler’s creative talent — which isn’t always apparent if you’re sitting at Mesa’s bar noshing on shoestring fries — the Adele-themed starter also served as a preamble to Weyler’s 2017 Chef’s Table dinner series, which for the first time since launching two years ago is switching up the format to make it more accessible than ever.

When Weyler left Broadway to take the Mesa gig in 2014, she not only turned the once-cocktail-focused lounge into an elevated bar-food paradise, she also started hosting monthly prix fixe dinners. These single-seating, communal-table feasts held the last Wednesday of each month took influence from the bar program’s musical naming scheme (each cocktail is named after a song title) and turned some of Weyler’s favorite musicians and artists into multi-course dinners.

The first, held in January 2015, was titled “A Few of My Favorite Things” after the Sound of Music and featured some of Weyler’s favorite things to cook and eat.

“We’re so multifaceted at Mesa. We have a restaurant and a bar and a lounge and a nightclub and are all these things to different people,” she says. “So it’s fun for me to be able to have something for a foodie following which isn’t our regular customer base. I like being able to gather the people who are foodies and present them with something.”

Since then, Weyler has themed whole meals around artists like The Misfits, Sublime and Prince. Her Bob Marley dinner featured twice-baked potatoes that she rolled like joints and smoked in a cake presenter. For a Pink Floyd dinner, she arranged a brick-stenciled, baked meringue wall on the table for dessert and made everyone in attendance break it apart with their spoons.

Other installments have included guest chefs like Linh Nguyen of Foodbeast, who curated a Wu-Tang Clan-themed affair last year (yes, Wu-Tang Clams were served), and other members of the O.C. young-chef illuminati, who once participated in an “I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends” dinner.

Each dish is the culmination of weeks of research, including reading about the artist’s background and history as well as listening to their whole discography. She draws inspiration for how to convert their music into food form often late at night, after work and after a few glasses of wine.

“[The Chef’s Table menus] are definitely a lot of fun for me to plan and do. It breaks up the same,” Weyler says. “In a regular kitchen that’s not a Michelin-star kitchen that can’t change its menu every day, it’s nice to be able to do these things that are a little bit more avant-garde and let me draw from a lot of my fine-dining experience I’ve had in the past. It’s my time to flex.”

After two years of hosting Chef’s Table dinners as exclusive, 12-seat affairs, however, Weyler is now offering her monthly musical menus each Tuesday night during dinner hours to regular Mesa patrons at a lowered price of $60.

This means that a group can make a reservation for whenever they please, sit at their own table and order the Adele menu on any Tuesday night in January. In February, the Tuesday night Chef’s Table dinners will be Marvin Gaye-themed. Future 2017 plans include Biggie Smalls, Frank Sinatra and the Talking Heads. Drink pairings are available for an additional $25 and most often include custom cocktails, but sometimes a glass of wine or beer.

For the remainder of the Adele dinner — as everyone from Ed Sheeran to Sia came over the speakers — Weyler delivered each course personally, explaining why the mimosa-reduction-surrounded duck confit was titled “I’ll Be Waiting” (it takes two full days to prepare) and setting a lit match onto the dessert, a coconut-lime sorbet doused in green Chartreuse (appropriately called “Set Fire To The Rain”).

For a chef who spends her rare night off attending music concerts, going dancing and participating in the same kinds of events that she is so often cooking for, being able to put music on a plate is a creative dream come true.

“I’ve always been part of the nightlife culture, and now I’m able to do these two passions of mine at the same time,” she says. “It’s also almost a collision of the two worlds which I’ve definitely learned to love. You can’t always do that when you’re at a typical fine dining restaurant. I am lucky that I’m able to have my two worlds collide.”

SARAH BENNETT is a freelance journalist covering food, drink, music, culture and more. She is the former food editor at L.A. Weekly and a founding editor of Beer Paper L.A. Follow her on Twitter @thesarahbennett.