Imagination in Preparation Is Stirring Appreciation : Cafe Pacifica: Oldest Child Heads to Sea

Sigmund Freud probably never contemplated the question of sibling restaurants, but perhaps we who live in more modern times should do so.

Chain eateries do not enter the discussion because no matter how legion their members may be, they tend to be clones, rather than the offspring of enlightened parents. The result is that they rarely exhibit individual personas.

But it does happen from time to time that proud restaurateurs decide to expand the family, as was the case when Kip Downing and Deacon Brown, owners of Cafe Pacifica in Old Town, presented downtown San Diego with the Pacifica Grill.

Pacifica Grill, in the process of maturing into one of the area’s better restaurants, threw occasional tantrums as it went through stages that took it from nouvelle California cuisine to a militantly nouvelle Cajun attitude and, finally, to its current and quite self-assured nouvelle Southwestern point of view. It has been Southwestern for a year now and seems comfortable in that role.

The less trendy Cafe Pacifica has matured in an entirely different way since it lost its only-child status and became an elder brother to the impetuous Pacifica Grill. The Cafe has followed a path that led it toward an ever-more-thoughtful and well-considered California cuisine manner of presenting seafood.

Imaginative seafood is, in fact, Cafe Pacifica’s idee fixe , from which it bends only long enough to offer a grilled chicken breast and dressed-up New York steak to those whose pulse rates slow at the mention of anything that swims, even when it is halibut with macadamia nuts and pineapple salsa, or mahi-mahi with orange-papaya-mint vinaigrette.

The last two dishes make it sound as if the Cafe is casting a longing eye at the islands, but such novelties as pineapple salsa and fruity vinaigrette are well within the style of California cuisine. The restaurant’s menu, printed daily, actually speaks a variety of languages--typified by mentions of escargot, calamari, wasabi and salsa cruda (but not in the same dish)--that have been homogenized into the lingua franca of good contemporary cooking.

It is an absolute pleasure to read the appetizer list, which, once it gets past the obligatory shrimp cocktail, runs to such teasers as Japanese eggplant with fresh mozzarella and tomato-parsley relish, and smoked swordfish with horseradish-sour cream dressing. It even offers a new approach to snails, lifting them out of the garlic butter rut by combining them in a sort of stew with fennel, mushrooms and tomato. The grape-sized gastropods, which can be rubbery little busters, were in this case quite tender, but the dish unfortunately was marred by an unpleasantly smoky flavor that, if experience is any guide, came from its being heated over a charcoal grill. This problem recurred later, and it can only be said that sauced dishes always should be warmed in an oven or on the stove top.

Another first-rate starter combined woodsy-tasting wild mushrooms with Fontina cheese in a handsome circle of crisp puff pastry; the flavors blossomed in the mouth. Apalachicola oysters were presented quite simply on the half shell with a tomato-basil salsa cruda that one guest quite liked, but that could certainly be regarded as optional. In any case, fresh top-quality oysters like these are always a pleasure.

The menu descriptions are sometimes melodic and sometimes dissonant.

For example, the warm spinach salad dressed with bay scallops, pancetta (Italian bacon), oyster mushrooms and a citrus vinaigrette sounds rather nice. But a dish of linguine with grilled shrimp, cherry tomatoes, oyster mushrooms (again), bell peppers and pesto vinaigrette sounds like the sort of concoction that might be dreamed up by a drugstore lunch-counter impresario, were such fellows still among us.

The entree list is divided between grills and sautees, and both seem to be handled equally well. A nice slab of swordfish was grilled to the just-done stage, a delicate matter of timing with swordfish, and got along cheerfully with its lemon butter sauce companion. The raw tomato-basil salsa that topped the fish seemed less to the point, presumably because truly ripe, flavorful tomatoes are not an easy find at this time of year.

Cafe Pacifica also offered up a likable catfish filet that had been lavishly coated in Cajun-spiced mustard and bread crumbs, and given a crisp finish in sizzling butter. The mustard packed a punch, but it smoothed the rather distinctive catfish flavor, and the flesh itself was notably succulent. This would be a good introduction to the fish for anyone who has wondered if an acquaintance was worth the effort.

Cioppino, a San Francisco-Italian favorite based on the Genoese ciuppin , generally suffers at the hands of San Diego cooks, who frequently cook tomato sauce down to a near-paste and then throw in a handful of mixed seafoods that, given a choice, would not consent to the indignity. Cafe Pacifica instead served up a bowl of lightly tomatoed broth packed with clams, mussels, shrimp, Dungeness crab and sea bass chunks.

The seafood was generously portioned and nicely cooked (which is to say not overcooked, another typical problem), and the quantity of crab was especially impressive. The point could be made that the broth could have been more pungent--the kitchen was uncharacteristically shy about adding herbs--but the question is moot because this dish also bore a heavy, smoky flavor that dominated everything and rendered it quite second-rate.

The entrees included extremely generous garnishes of lightly cooked slivered carrots and creamy, gratin dauphinoise- style potatoes. In both cases, less might have been more, and the potatoes also suffered from the practice, born during the Age of Aquarius and not yet universally disowned, of leaving them unpeeled. The skins provided an unwelcome texture and a rather musty note that, since the dish included cream, seemed particularly pronounced.

The hands-down winner among a trio of desserts was a coconut macaroon ice cream of explosive flavor. A buttery pear tart also proved quite pleasing, but little could be said for the dry, lackluster chocolate mousse cake. The great favorite among the Cafe’s desserts is the creme brulee , which it helped popularize in San Diego; it went unsampled on this visit, but was always a reliably rich indulgence.

As a final note, the restaurant has decorated itself for the holidays in wonderful style, with delicate pink poinsettias on every table and elegantly oversized green wreaths on the walls.

CAFE PACIFICA

2414 San Diego Ave., Old Town

291-6666

Dinner nightly

credit cards accepted

Dinner for two, including tax and tip and one glass of wine each, about $40 to $80.