Bennett: Outpost is the in place for Aussie food

Calling a restaurant “Australian” is about as useful as saying a place serves “American food.” Because despite our visions of Americana diners and burger stands, America is still a very diverse place to eat. Modern American cuisine has been influenced as much by the traditions of the European immigrants of our past as it has been by the Asian and Latin American immigrants of our present.

Likewise, we might have heard about the vegemite and meat pies of Australian food cliches — or, perhaps, more blasphemously, Outback Steakhouse’s “Crocodile Dundee” vision for what is eaten on the country-continent. But in reality, contemporary Australian food is defined by its own hodgepodge of European, Asian and South Pacific influences, along with a coastal culture that champions fresh, local ingredients, house-tended meats and healthy, hearty meals.

If you have lots of money to burn on a tasting menu dinner (and time to spend refreshing the online reservation system hoping to snag a coveted seat), high-end Aussie cooking can be found in L.A. at both of celebrity chef Curtis Stone’s restaurants, Maude and Gwen.

For Orange County’s low-key, surfer’s dream version of Australian brunch, head to Outpost Kitchen, a hideaway of a cafe that for all its modesty is still one of the best new restaurants in recent memory.

Founded in April 2015 by Jay and Elizabeth Lewis along with the Australian-born, clean-food chef Andre Sickinger, Outpost draws less inspiration from Stone’s school of opulence than it does from O.C.’s all-organic, non-GMO grocer Mother’s Market — if Mother’s was a coffee shop on Abbot-Kinney in Venice circa 1970.

Sickinger’s seasonally rotating menus of vegan, raw, paleo and allergy-free dishes — which ran the gamut from a not-so-simple avocado toast to a limey-coconut Southeast Asian-style charred-salmon salad — defied expectations of both Australian cuisine and health food.

The high-top communal tables where you eat meals on tin plates, the black-and-white photos of vintage surf life that transport you to the lip of the Pacific Ocean and the actual record player that spins funk, jazz, soul and rock vinyls all day according to cashier preference also defied expectations of a Costa Mesa restaurant.

At the end of last summer, Sickinger moved on, and without his globally recognized clout (the man was known as “the surfer’s chef” and famously used to cook for pro surfer Kelly Slater), there were murmurs about whether or not Outpost would be the same. Thankfully, it got even better.

Under owner Jay Lewis’ helm (he’s also an Australia native), Outpost Kitchen has expanded its breakfast and lunch menus, maintaining the dedication to affordable, seasonally designed dishes along the way.

The restaurant manages to do a lot in-house with its surprisingly tiny space. Mason jars full of the chefs’ herbs and spices and pickled things line the long glass casing that separates the small open kitchen from the equally small dining area, and if you walk in at the right time, you’ll smell the daily dose of salmon being smoked.

Add all that to a list of fresh-squeezed juice combos and blended smoothies that seems to change every week and Outpost is one place that takes care of its ingredients and presents them in exquisitely creative combinations.

That means that regardless of whether you order the lavender banana pancakes (which come with an Indonesian-style fried banana on the side), the Shipstern’s Salad (an English colonial nosh of tumeric-roasted chicken, English peas and dates), the Westside Burger (using Electric City beef and pork for the patty, it pops with a fried egg and tomato-fig jam) or the Purple Rain juice (coconut water and blueberry with a tang of lime), you can guarantee that what will be brought to you will be entirely original and entirely good for you.

Since Jay and his wife took full control of Outpost, many of the seasonal changes have also widened the definition of Australian food even further by taking on a distinctive SoCal flare (she is an O.C. native).

Earlier this year, a so-called Aussie bahn mi (made Australian by the addition of pickled beetroot) graced the menu board, and over the summer, a kimchi fried rice made with Electric City chorizo was offered as a breakfast dish. This month, the restaurant switched to a more autumnal menu, which meant the addition of huitlacoche tacos, an order of which comes with chipotle cauliflower, carrot escabeche and a house salsa verde.

But the best pleasures at Outpost are often baked into the experience of being a customer there: using it like your local coffee shop by grabbing a flat white and a Brekky Sandwich (crunch-butter bread, a fried egg and shatters of prosciutto) on the way to the office; ordering the pan-roasted seabass because you’re craving fish and discovering an undying love for dukka, a Mid-East dry dip that took on its own personality in Australia; getting giggly after being handed a laminated version of Hootie and the Blowfish’s “Cracked Rear View” album cover as your call number after placing your order.

With plans to expand into dinner territory and the possibility of a second location within the year, Outpost is a novel concept that might have been born on the fringes of modern Aussie cooking, but it took on a laid-back life of its own right here in O.C.

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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.