Arizona Chain Expands to S.D. : Anderson’s Offers Favorite Tastes of Phoenix

Arizona sends so many of its citizens here each summer that it only seems logical for the state to begin exporting its residents’ favorite restaurants as well.

Dale Anderson’s Other Place, a small chain that apparently enjoys a large following in its native Scottsdale, recently opened a branch in the new Embassy Suites Hotel in the Golden Triangle. Anderson’s urge to move west is not without precedent, as La Jolla’s Avanti also is a branch of a Scottsdale establishment.

The menu is quite Phoenix-like, but sufficiently similar to the fare served at many of our own restaurants as to be immediately and comfortably familiar. In other words, Anderson’s primarily belongs to the salad-steak-lobster tail-baked potato school, but there are sufficient differences to make the place interesting.

Anderson’s Golden Triangle location is the product of a new trend in the hotel industry. By definition, hotels are expected to offer their guests food and drink but, thanks to the proliferation of restaurants, many hostelries’ dining rooms and bars consistently operate in the red. For this reason, some hotels and hotel chains lease their dining rooms to outside operators.

Lush Surroundings

This eatery occupies a spacious corner of the unexpectedly massive Embassy Suites, which features a graceful, sky-lit atrium that rises to the top of the tower. Guests approach the restaurant through a somewhat pastoral lobby that includes lush plantings and a koi pond.

The dining room itself is attractive in an eclectic sort of way: Electric pastels accent a rather formal and demure gray and pink background, and the effect is possibly like what might have happened had the late Andy Warhol been invited to partially redecorate Boston’s famed Ritz-Carlton. But there is a distinct Southwestern touch, especially in the exotic potted plants and in the bright bouquets that bloom on each table.

The menus consist of narrow strips of paper, each listing a single dish, pinned to a long, wood-framed corkboard. This sort of arrangement makes it possible to change the menu at a moment’s notice, but other than the list of the day’s fish, which the waitresses recite, the menu seems largely immutable.

Appetizers likewise are mentioned orally, when they are available, but they seem mostly an afterthought, even if they do come at the beginning of the meal. Fried zucchini sticks were offered on one visit, and nothing at all on another. This disdain of the dainty little gewgaws with which some folks like to open their meals doubtless arises from the fact that portions are generous, and that most entrees include both soup and salad.

The standing soup choice, gazpacho, is one of those Pandora’s Box type of preparations that can be made any way the chef likes so long as it includes tomato and onion, by far the dominant ingredients at Anderson’s. An accompanying condiment tray allows guests to season the soup to taste by adding chopped onion, cucumber and green bell pepper, as well as unfortunate commercial croutons. (Why, in 1987, do restaurants serve these odious and somewhat sordid chips of suspect origin when they could make fresh ones so cheaply and easily?)

An alternative daily soup always is offered, with happy results; on one occasion, a dark onion soup, freed of the French cheese-and-crouton combination that usually tops it, was deeply satisfying, and another night’s cream of broccoli also pleased.

The salads, mounded high on the plate, are commonplace in composition but feature good, fresh ingredients, with tiny, pickled ears of corn lending a note of interest to the tomato and lettuce combination. Best bet for dressing is the house vinaigrette, which includes a healthy dose of mustard.

The entree list starts best-foot-forward with the “skilletful” of fried chicken, apparently an Anderson’s trademark and a feast to be reckoned with. The portion includes a full bird (jointed, of course), floured, crisply fried to a juicy finish and served with a pitcher of honey and a tennis ball-sized biscuit. This plate makes a good meal (and at $9.95, one quite reasonably priced), and one that usually promises something to take home. This particular plate does not include first courses, vegetables or potatoes, however, which can make the experience seem a bit monotonous, if no less filling.

The teriyaki chicken breast is done exceptionally well, the basting sauce thicker and sweeter than most, the double breast carefully broiled so that it remains moist and succulent.

Heavy on Beef

Beef unsurprisingly makes a major statement on this menu, primarily in the form of top sirloins that run from the plain, ungarnished article to a teriyaki version and a combo plate that pairs the steak with a serving of fried chicken. Other beef choices include prime rib, filet mignon, a trio of small filets garnished with Madeira and bearnaise sauces (be careful here), and a steak sandwich. The latter turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise, and much grander than was expected: A thick, well-cooked and altogether handsome steak arrived nestled between triangles of flavorful garlic toast. The plate, more substantial than anticipated but still not too heavy, proved just the ticket for a Sunday supper.

A disappointment in the meat category was the veal Oscar, at $15.95 the most expensive dish, and in any case the most ambitious. Although veal Oscar is an absolute snap to make (flour and saute a large, thin veal scallop, then top it with some crab meat, a few asparagus spears and a generous spoonful of sauce bearnaise), the dish is just a bit too continental to seem at home on Anderson’s all-American menu. The kitchen stumbled over the veal, tripped over the asparagus (cooked almost to mush) and fell crashing to the floor with the bearnaise, a simple sauce that nonetheless requires a certain felicity in the wrist that whips it up.

Anderson’s would not be the sort of restaurant it is were the menu to exclude broiled lobster tail, Alaskan king crab legs and large shrimp finished in garlic butter. All these, naturally, are available, but better seafood choices can be found among the daily offerings, notably fresh scallops finished with a bit of white wine, garlic and parsley, and crab-stuffed shrimp baked in garlic butter. Recent finned choices have included snapper Veracruz, blackened sea bass, mahi mahi and orange roughy.

The dessert list primarily features catered sweets, and mostly cheesecakes at that, but it does include a homemade apple pie that may be good.

DALE ANDERSON’S OTHER PLACE

In the Embassy Suites Hotel, 4550 La Jolla Village Drive.

453-0400

Credit cards accepted.

Lunch and dinner daily.

Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $30 to $50.