The Scene Is Right for an Outdoor Table Setting

With its long hours of daylight, flaming sunsets and navy-blue twilights, summer is the time to dine out--quite literally.

Yes, picnicking is the order of the season, and a number of restaurants stand ready to take care of the hassle of planning, preparing and packing for you.

McCharles House in Tustin gives an old-fashioned twist to the picnic with its portable teas. The Victoria’s Afternoon Tea would be appropriate for a shady arbor at 4 p.m. or an outdoor evening concert. Besides the Fortnum & Mason tea, it includes assorted tea sandwiches, madeleines, and McCharles’ scones with cream and preserves.

The Edwardian High Tea puts together cheese and fruits with either pate or sausages and baguettes and tea. There is also a sampler basket with an assortment of salads and desserts. Custom orders can be prepared too, as all McCharles’ fare is available to go.

Prices range from $10.75 and depend on whether the food is packed in a basket, box or the customer’s container. To order, call (714) 731-4063. (Incidentally, you can see the Victorian charm of McCharles House itself in the August issue of California Home and Garden magazine.)

At the Golden Truffle in Costa Mesa, owner and chef Alan Greeley puts the emphasis on light, refreshing summer fare for custom picnic presentations. Often he will fill customers’ English picnic baskets with courses to be served on the hostess’ Wedgwood.

Cracked lobster with Caribbean vinaigrette, Caribbean coleslaw (made with sweet potatoes), mesquite-broiled chicken with mango-papaya relish, cactus cocktail with abalone and Yucatan sauce, coconut tortes, lemon tarts, mango mousse in papaya are just a few examples of what he will fix. Prices range from $15 per person for a “traditional” picnic to $50 for something more exotic. Information: (714) 645-9858.

Although Zov’s Bistro in Tustin will prepare any item on its menu to travel, the favorites--for the Hollywood Bowl, the beach, wherever--seem to be the salads, particularly the Mediterranean-style ones. Also popular are the softened cracker-bread sandwiches that are rolled and cut into pinwheels, then filled with turkey, roast beef or California frittata. Often-requested desserts include lemon and other fruit tarts, creme brulee and flourless chocolate cake.

Salad charges, figured by the pound, range from $6.95 to $7.95; entree prices begin at $10. Customers may, of course, bring their own baskets and plates, but Zov’s will provide covered black or silver-laminate acrylic trays. For information call (714) 838-8855.

Showley Wrightson of Newport Beach will prepare picnic orders that include two salads (of the 14 featured daily), pate, cheese, fruit, boned and skinned chicken breast with a choice of sauces (satay, pesto or whole-grain mustard), plus an assortment of SW cookies. Utensils, plates and other items for cleaning up are all included with the food in a box tied with ribbon, ready to enjoy on the bluff at Laguna or at home on the patio. The orders are $20 per person.

“Of course,” Grant Showley added, “we can go beyond the standard with entrees” such as boned game hen, ballantine of boned chicken with remoulade sauce, grilled duck sausage with ratatouille. It’s best to order 24 hours in advance: (714) 760-9071.

ON THE MOVE: After two years as executive chef at Los Angeles’ acclaimed Citrus restaurant, Jackson Kenworth has left to become the new chef at the dramatic Towers restaurant atop the Surf & Sand Hotel in Laguna Beach. Kenworth, whose background includes La Varenne in Paris and Spago in West Hollywood, has introduced a new menu that emphasizes freshness, creative condiments, imaginative sauces and “unexpected ingredients.”. . . Sean Lewis, who left the manager’s post at Chez Cary after 18 years is now marking his 18th month as maitre d’ at The Cellar in Fullerton. It’s a more relaxed atmosphere, he says, but with elegance in appointments and service, and fine food. That food is now in the hands of the very French chef Marc Lehericey, who moved from La Vie en Rose in Brea. Lehericey has introduced a menu with a firm accent on--what else?--classic French. . . . John Stahler, president of the Orange County Wine Society and former sommelier for Chez Cary has moved to Britton Winery in Temecula as marketing director. . . . The Maniaci brothers, who will open Sapori restaurant in Newport Beach mid-August, lured Angelo Alfano from Italy to prepare their desserts.

ANNIVERSARY WALTZ: Le Midi in Newport Beach will celebrate “five years of Le Midi and 698 years of Switzerland” with Swiss music, wine and food on Aug. 1. Chef Walter will prepare an a la carte menu of ethnic dishes the different areas of Switzerland: French, Italian, German, and even the Romantsch. Romantsch? That’s Switzerland’s fourth language group, and its residents live in the mountains at the southeastern border. For reservations, call (714) 675-4904.

And if you’d like to prepare at home what you liked so much at Le Midi, you can learn how this fall when Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa offers three public courses to be taught by Chef Walter. He’ll give away his secrets for soups, stocks and sauces on Sept. 9, 16 and 23; wild poultry and fowl, Oct. 14; game meats, Oct. 21. Sign up at Orange Coast College, (714) 432-5880.

Also counting an anniversary is Villa Nova in Newport Beach. The restaurant is celebrating No. 56 through July and August with an offer of a complimentary after-dinner cappuccino for all 56-year-olds and all those born in 1956. Allen Dale opened the Villa in Hollywood in 1933, moving it in 1967 to Newport, where wife Charlotte and son Jim now own and operate it.

NEW IN TOWN: Ricky Wu, owner of the successful Wonder restaurant in Alhambra for many years, has opened a second Wonder in Fullerton. Wu calls the fare “Hong Kong style”--Cantonese and Mandarin. . . . Kitayama, a stylish Japanese restaurant that is cousin to Tokyo Kaikan in L.A., opens Tuesday at 101 Bayview Place, near Bristol Street and Jamboree Road in Newport Beach.