Laid-Back Pacific Beach Restaurant Relies on the Sunset for Its Flash

Only one San Diego restaurant has a story that could be called a tale of two beaches.

There’s no denying that, physically, Armando’s The Green Flash, the replacement for the long-running World Famous, is part and parcel of Pacific Beach. And the style of the place fits this laid-back, seaside neighborhood to a T--or, for that matter, to a T-shirt that bears the motto “Life’s a Beach.”

But the name of the place is pure La Jolla Shores. To be even more geographically exact, the green flash means something quite specific to those who haunt the stretch of sand that separates La Jolla Cove from the private precincts of the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.

Generations of Beach and Tennis Club members and guests have claimed that, if one pays close attention at the precise moment of sunset--at the absolute moment the sun appears to slip into the swells at the far western reaches of the cove--one will see not red or orange or pink, but a green line that extends horizontally along the juncture of sea and sky. This short-lived “green flash” is a meteorological phenomenon of great rarity, to say the least, and many who doubt its existence have expressed the thought that those most able to view it have improved their vision with the aid of a few martinis. Those who insist upon the reality of the green flash, however, treat catching sight of it as an experience that affords them membership in a unique club.

The tie between the purportedly verdant La Jolla sunset and the unequivocally extant Pacific Beach restaurant is the marriage of Virginia and Armando Gemora. Both run the restaurant; Virginia, as an employee of the Beach and Tennis Club, has supervised the catering at many of its functions and is attuned to the sudden halt of activity that occurs whenever the sun is about to set and all faces face west. She is particularly famed for her onion sandwiches, which do not appear on the Green Flash menu.

The Gemoras, landlords of the choice corner property at Thomas Avenue and Ocean Front Walk that for many years housed World Famous, declined to renew the lease when it recently expired. The opening of Armando’s the Green Flash followed in relatively short order.

For all practical purposes, the World Famous format continues under the new name. The menu offers the full roster of quintessential Southern California beach cooking--including that curious stuff known to this cuisine as “rice pilaf”--beginning with assorted catches of the day and continuing on to king crab legs, steak, teriyaki chicken and the undisputed highest expression of surfside cooking, the steak-and-lobster-tail combo.

Other details have changed not at all. The service and dress code continue to be thoroughly beachy, which is to say pleasantly informal and comfortable. The decor also remains quite simple, and the smallish, wooden-walled dining room would seem almost Spartan were it not for the spectacle just outside the windows. The narrow bar still invites its patrons to turn their backs to the restless Pacific so close at hand, but the dining room prompts guests to focus on the waves and on the never-ending parade on the boardwalk.

There is an undeniable symbiosis between the beach and the beach restaurant menu, and the Green Flash bill of fare expresses it in detail. The appetizer list, reflecting Virginia Gemora’s catering experience, extends further than most and includes not only ceviche, cocktails of shrimp, crab or scallops (or all three in combination) and fried calamari strips, but steamed clams, oysters Rockefeller and various tidbits called pupus . The pupu platter, which serves two quite handily, is at best uneven; it offers skewers of exceptionally tasty beef teriyaki, but also perfunctory fried won ton, oily egg rolls and, rather strangely, breaded fish filets. These last seem workaday and out of place on an appetizer tray, which usually is understood to be rather festive.

Meals include the choice of another beach cuisine icon, clam chowder, or of a nicely composed green salad that tucks a number of crisp vegetables into the mix of tender and sharp lettuces. One waitress sagely insisted that the salad be doused with the “house” dressing, actually a layering of tart, Italian-style vinaigrette and generously chunky blue cheese dressing. This makes a happy combo.

The fresh fish list usually includes a respectable selection and recently included salmon, shark, red snapper, mahi mahi and soft-shell crab (this particular crab until recently was virtually unknown here and now turns up everywhere, which suggests less a sudden, local crustacean infestation than a new marketing campaign on the part of shellfish wholesalers). The crab is deep-fried; the other fish can be had simply grilled, or coated with a spice mixture and “blackened,” or, most interestingly, dusted with bread crumbs, basted with butter and browned on the grill, a venerable French technique that is almost never encountered these days.

The entree list also offers jumbo shrimp simply grilled, spiced “Cajun-style” or tempura-fried, although an order requested in tempura arrived breaded instead. They were, however, plump and tasty specimens, nicely gilded in the deep fat, and the substitution of styles was not the basis of complaint. Scallops are offered in the same choice of styles, as well as alternated on skewers with shrimp and chunks of fish and char-broiled.

Prime rib appears as a frequent special, but the standing meat list concentrates on steaks, begining with New York strip and continuing with top sirloin and Spencer cuts before relaxing into the realm of plainly grilled and teriyaki-style chicken breasts. Top sirloin can be a little more chewy than a strip steak, but it generally has a better flavor, and the Green Flash turned out a good specimen. The serving was unexpectedly large, thoroughly juicy and quite well-flavored. The accompaniments with this and other entrees are the simplest, and include sauteed mushrooms, a few mixed vegetables and a choice of baked potato, french fries or rice “pilaf.”

The dessert selection almost inevitably features cheesecake but also offers ice cream and ice cream sundaes, pleasant alternatives that used to be standard in restaurants but now can be frustratingly difficult to find.

DAVID NELSON ON RESTAURANTS

* ARMANDO’S THE GREEN FLASH

701 Thomas Ave.

270-7715

Lunch and dinner daily.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $35 to $60.