Room Remains for Chewing Out the ‘80s Decade

With virtually every restaurant and hotel in the county mounting New Year’s Eve celebrations, is it too late to make a reservation? At this writing (and, of course, the picture changes by the minute), here are a few spots that may still have tables available.

At the Dana Point Resort, there are a few openings for the two seatings at Watercolors Restaurant, 6 to 7 p.m. or 9 to 10 p.m. Both offer a four-course feast with several entree choices, plus a bottle of champagne per couple. The early seating is $135 per couple. The late seating includes live entertainment, dancing and party favors at $175 per couple, inclusive of tax and tip.

The hotel, which supports MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, also offers several “take the elevator home” packages, geared to ending the ‘80s in safety by encouraging guests to stay overnight at the hotel. Each package includes the “Big Chill” New Years’s Eve Party, featuring rock ‘n’ roll from the ‘50s and ‘60s. With the four-course dinner, you have your choice of a bottle of white or red wine, party favors, a bottle of bubbly. Packages are $399 per couple for three nights, $369 for two nights, and $309 for one night. Reservations: (714) 661-5000.

Beginning at 9 p.m. the new Il Ristorante Bagatta in Newport Beach serves a six-course dinner, including steamed John Dory and mixed vegetables, rack of veal with morel mushroom sauce and dolce di San Silvestro. The dinner is $75 per person. Reservations: (714) 675-4020.

For a romantic evening atop the Surf & Sand Hotel in Laguna Beach, the Towers Restaurant presents a five-course menu, wines, piano entertainment, champagne, party favors and complimentary valet parking for $265 per couple, including gratuity and tax. Seating begins at 8:30 p.m. and is limited to 50 couples. The dinner menu includes medallions of lobster with tomato and fennel in a puff pastry, roasted lamb loin with goat-cheese ravioli. The wines: Mondavi Chardonnay, Jordan 1985 Cabernet, French champagne. Reservations: (714) 497-4477.

Gandhi in South Coast Village offers belly dancers and an Indian feast, starting at 9:30 p.m. Dinner includes an array of appetizers, chicken makhani , rogan josh (lamb medallions), saag shrimp, matar paneer and vegetable pulao . Dessert is kesar pista ice cream. It’s $35 per person. Reservations: (714) 556-7273.

John Dominis’ “End of the ‘80s Extravaganza” begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Newport Beach restaurant. Executive chef Robert Reach has created a seven-course dinner, which includes lobster and apple

bisque with ginger and lemon grass, caviar with Finlandia vodka in ice or poached tiger prawns with tomato, caper and fennel relish and crisp pasta. Entrees vary from sauteed Hawaiian opakapaka with macadamia nut sauce to grilled double Colorado lamb chops with essence of rosemary. $125 per person covers dinner, wines, an open bar, live entertainment, dancing, party favors, tax and gratuity. Reservations: (714) 650-1220.

The traditional upside-down Christmas tree still hangs at the Revere House in Tustin, where doors open for the New Year’s Eve dinner-dance at 7 p.m. $24.95 per person includes complete dinner, complimentary bottle of champagne, favors and dancing to the Lee Ferrell Trio. Reservations: (714) 543-9319.

AND NOW, THE NEWS: It’s official: Rex Chandler announced last week that a new Rex Restaurant will open in Fashion Island, targeted for mid-August unveiling. Concerned by what he termed “premature reports,” Chandler was not talking until he could declare that the lease with the Irvine Co. is “live.”

“It will be upstairs, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, but we’ll have our own entry at street level,” he said.

Chandler described the restaurant as “upscale, with the menu brought to higher levels.” The look will be 1930s Art Deco, “more of a tuxedo-Fred Astaire look,” with granite, marble, etched glass, an emphasis on the timeless, not the faddy. The new Rex Restaurant will also offer entertainment and dancing.

Chandler will retain the current oceanfront Rex Restaurant, re- naming it 21 Ocean Front (its address). “It will remain identical,” he promised--same chef, same Victorian turn-of-the-century look.

GOSSIP VS. REPORTING: Hans Prager, owner of the Ritz in Newport Beach, has dismissed as gossip reports that the restaurant may be for sale, saying: “I’m going to operate this restaurant to the best of my ability until someone gives me a number that’s too big to turn down.”

AND MORE OPENINGS: The long-awaited Emperor’s Fortune debuted last week in South Coast Plaza Village. The lavish design displays Chinese artifacts against a backdrop of modern elegance. With French service, the cuisine is Chinese contemporary and entrees vary from lamb curry with angel-hair pasta to lobster with Sichuan sauce, scallops with squash. A la carte entrees: $13 to $28. The owner is William Liu, who owned award-winning restaurants in Denver. . . . Mario Zanetti, who developed a loyal following before selling Mario’s Place in Mission Viejo, is back. Last week he opened Mario’s by the Sea in Dana Point. Everything is the same as before, he promises, including full dinners for up to $11. But now he has an ocean view and seating for 75 inside, 45 on the patio. . . . Kotobuki, which recently opened in Oakbrook Village in Laguna Hills (behind Trader Joe’s) features traditional Japanese food and “new-wave sushi,” according to owner-sushi chef Hiro Watanabe. . . . Singapore Corner, new in Laguna’s Coast Inn Hotel, offers American-style breakfast and daily luncheon specials from Singapore and Indonesia. It’s a joint venture of catering partners Albert Tan, Johanna Vanderweid and Ruby Bokmeyer. Current hours: 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. . . . Carmen Fredrickson bought Patsy’s Seafood in Dana Point and renamed it the Dublin Inn, though she has kept Patsy’s cook and recipes. Sure and it’s Irish, with corned beef and cabbage (as well as prime rib, orange roughy), Harp beer and Guinness on tap and the Finnians, two Irish boys, playing Saturday and Sunday.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: A sixth Ruby’s will debut in Laguna Beach in May at the site of Duke’s Burgers on the Coast Highway. Originally conceived as a drive-in, instead it will have a “movie set drive-in” ambience, according to Ruby’s partner Doug Cavenaugh. With a million-dollar budget, the “set” will spotlight six restored 1940s cars in front--climate-controlled cars into which you can step, sit and eat. The menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner will be similar to the other Ruby’s, but with more breakfast baked goods. . . . Sam Tila, owner of the Royal Thai restaurants in Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, will open a new restaurant, Lemon Grass in Dana Point, early next year. It will feature Thai cuisine in a high-tech ambience. . . . A second Viva Italia, with much the same styling as its busy new successful sister restaurant in Laguna, opens next week in Laguna Niguel at Crown Valley Parkway and Greenfield Drive.

COMING AND GOING: John Pohl, of the late restaurant of the same name, is now banquet manager at the Red Lion Inn in Costa Mesa. . . . Eric Steinbock moves this month from the Irvine Hilton and Towers to his new post as food and beverage manager of the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point.

HERE ‘N’ THERE: New at Morell’s in the Irvine Hilton and Towers: the 30-minute executive luncheon, featuring a different daily hot carving board selection (such as roast tenderloin of beef wrapped in prosciutto, whole salmon stuffed with scallop cilantro mousse). Morell’s has also introduced a special three-course dinner (plus dessert) for two tabbed at $38 per person. Current menu: sauteed prawns in mustard sauce, Caesar salad, roasted pheasant stuffed with macadamia nuts and dried fruits in port wine sauce, pastry. Reservations: (714) 863-3111. . . . Bet you didn’t know the restaurants at Park Place, the former Fluor corporate headquarters in Irvine, are open to the public. Popular for lunch at the Garden Court Restaurant are a Mexican Cobb salad with lemon herb dressing, grilled fresh fish and fresh pasta, priced from $5 to $8. The cafeteria serves breakfast from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m.; at lunchtime it becomes a food court, with various “stations.” (Italian, a Mexican cantina, salad bar with 20 toppings, Asian--including stir-fry--and a large dessert array.)