Restaurant Hopes Gaslamp Will Turn Into Prime Locale

The restaurant business in many ways can be called the Disneyland of private enterprise--people enter this trade for a multiplicity of reasons, many of them rooted purely in fantasy.

For example, it is not uncommon for an entrepreneur who has made a pile of money in some other business to decide that it would be quite pleasant to open a restaurant. In the typical case, this person thinks that owning a restaurant would be a great way to win friends and influence people.

Then again, there is the type who whips out a calculator and figures that if he fills 100 seats twice a night, and thrice on weekends, he’ll be a millionaire before the year is out. Usually the math is accurate, the only problem being that customers are scarce in this thoroughly saturated market. San Diego is known among restaurateurs as a “Friday and Saturday night town,” meaning that many dining rooms are empty the other five nights of the week.

As a result, the restaurateur often turns to bankruptcy proceedings to escape the disappointing venture.

From a purely academic point of view, the Gaslamp Quarter’s new Prime Cut is interesting for the forthright way in which it faces facts. Acknowledging both its not-quite-fashionable location and the weekend nature of the restaurant trade, this upscale eatery operates during limited hours, but those most calculated to turn a profit. The place serves lunch on weekdays--when the business crowd is on the prowl--and limits dinner service to Friday and Saturday nights.

Fortunately, Prime Cut also is interesting for its gastronomic efforts, which, as might be deduced from its name, tend toward the meaty extravagances of the classic urban steak house. This latest entrant in San Diego’s Beef Bowl specializes in extra-large cuts of steak and prime rib, with all auxiliary dishes and garnishes more than generously apportioned.

This restaurant replaces the long-defunct Pacific Wine Bar, the rather likable bistro that evidently was too far ahead of its time. The decor at the Market Luther King Way location apparently has been changed not a whit, but the mood at dinner seems more upbeat, thanks primarily to the jazzy piano played throughout the evening. As before, patrons dine in a softly lit, brick-walled cellar that nicely combines the qualities of a Greenwich Village basement with those of a Parisian cave.

The dinner menu is rather ambitious for a place that serves dinner only on weekends and extends well beyond its central meat-and-potatoes orientation. The lists of starter courses take up perhaps more space than they ought, but the entree selection includes such rarities as pork in two guises (this meat, so long the Western world’s mainstay, unjustly continues to be the poor relation of the restaurant trade); veal; chicken, and an insincere listing of seafoods that ignores San Diego’s bountiful maritime resources.

To start with steak, Prime Cut offers two basic cuts, a New York sirloin and a tenderloin, that through variations (pepper steak, and, for better or worse, the ignobly designated surf ‘n’ turf) are parlayed into five choices.

The tenderloin is a noble cut, shaped into a mellow round of richly flavored meat that in size and circumference nicely resembles a baseball. One usually demands but two things of a steak, that it be tender and cooked as ordered, both of which specifications were met. A light sauce of red wine and mushrooms coated the meat, a circumstance that by no means would please all steak lovers, but it was nice enough, and, of course, it is possible to request that the steak be delivered without sauce.

An order of prime rib arrived with the waiter’s apologies, because it was quite well done, instead of the medium-rare cut that had been requested. It was possible to deduce nothing from the serving other than its generous size, because the meat was dry and tasteless. The serving, however, came with the kitchen’s offer to replace it with something else (apparently, it was the last remaining slice of the evening’s roast), so there was nothing about which to complain.

The breaded pork loin in creamed mushroom sauce was unusual not only for its presence on the menu, but for the relatively modest quantity in which it was served. Expert pan frying (a simple enough operation, but so often done poorly) gave the meat a beautifully gilded crust and an ideal, thoroughly cooked but moist finish. The advantage of this simple treatment, which is the same given to Wiener schnitzel and allied dishes, is that, when done at the proper temperature, the meat is cooked at precisely the moment the crust turns an appetizing brown.

The simplest accompaniments--a choice of a good rice pilaf or a nicely creamy baked potato--garnish the entrees. Meals also include a relatively simple green salad that would be substantial were it half its size; the house dressing, a vinaigrette, would benefit were the proportion of oil reduced and the mustard increased.

The appetizer list begins predictably with shellfish cocktails and continues with various vegetable tempuras and a couple of pastas. Both of these last were sampled, and while the kitchen might be complimented for the restrained hand with which it stirred pesto (the pungent Genoese blend of basil, garlic, nuts and cheeses) into a dish of fettuccine, it can be loudly condemned for stirring much chopped garlic into another serving of the same pasta, this time billed as Alfredo. Alfredo, no matter what liberties a chef may think he can take with the process, is an immutable recipe that calls for noodles to be tossed with butter, cream and Parmesan cheese. Should a chef insist upon adding garlic (a frightful concept, as this misadventure proved), no one can restrain him, but he should not call the resulting mess fettuccine Alfredo.

One or two of the limited selection of desserts issue from the Prime Cut’s kitchen, but overall, this department is not the restaurant’s strong suit. A slice of mocha cake included the sort of stiff, gooey butter cream that really makes too rich a finish to a heavy meal.

The wine list surprisingly pays more attention to whites than reds, and tends to be be on the expensive side. There are some good choices, though, and a couple of the relatively inexpensive bottles are good finds at the price.

PRIME CUT

480 Martin Luther King Way.

238-0900

Luncheon served Monday through Friday; dinner 5-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Sundays.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a bottle of wine, tax and tip, $40 to $75.