New Downtown Restaurant Gets Off the Ground Floor

Look down from the Brittany Brasserie to catch the flashing neon marquee of the Spreckels Theatre reflected in the windows of the Pickwick Hotel. For diners, this is downtown San Diego seen from a novel angle.

Lower your gaze further and drink in the romance of the bus station, just across First Avenue, then cock an eye upward to view the last, shooting sparks of the sun flattening into momentary pools of color against the new towers of West Broadway.

This most unusual restaurant calls itself “the new addition to San Diego’s high-rise dining scene,” although in downtown terms the Brittany Brasserie is the high-rise dining scene (as a members-only room, the University Club atop Symphony Towers cannot be included in the restaurant category). Part of an unusual venture that has taken over the former Cuyamaca Club on the seventh and eighth floors of what is now called the Executive Complex (once upon a time, this was known as the Wickes Building), the Brittany Brasserie occupies the athletic facilities of the defunct club, redecorated in a contemporary, sophisticated style and the beneficiary of grand views west to San Diego Bay. An adjacent room is undergoing remodeling into what Brittany publicity calls “an upscale billiards club,” a pool room-in-the-sky designed to appeal to yup-scale downtown types. On the floor above, the Cuyamaca Club’s ballroom has been transformed into the Brittany Club, a setting reserved for catered events.

To complicate the issue further, the Brittany Brasserie--but not the Brittany Club--is owned by Tony Kopas, one of the city’s two top caterers. The menu, designed by Kopas and executive chef Larry Rinehart, borrows heavily from the hors d’oeuvres and more substantial plates that the pair have devised in recent years for charity galas and corporate events.

This menu reads more like a series of snacks than a traditional restaurant list, a situation that has both advantages and drawbacks and seems a resuscitation of the brief “grazing” craze of the early ‘80s that never quite caught on in San Diego. Heavily influenced by Oriental styles, and to a much lesser degree by Southwestern and Caribbean cuisines, the cooking comes across as tentatively Pacific Rim. Anyone who has experienced much catered food, however, will instantly notice the distinctive “catered” style of the cooking: Everything goes for major effects and offers big, bold flavors that, if good by themselves, can become overwhelming by the end of the meal.

A tray of highly seasoned sauces arrives with the other small plates, and includes a “Chinese salsa” of chopped tomato heated with jalapenos; a rather uninteresting cilantro-soy dip, and a wonderfully flavored amalgam of Chinese hoisin and plum sauces that, because of its color, is called “mahogany.” An especially clever touch is the wooden steamer basket filled with freshly crisped won ton skins, offered in lieu of bread and entirely appropriate to the menu.

The small plate list starts with Szechuan pot stickers, meat dumplings that the menu specifies as grilled--although pot stickers customarily are static-fried--but which recently were steamed. Consistency, it would seem, has no place in a contemporary kitchen. The dumplings, sufficiently flavorful but no more, were arranged on a “Chinese pesto” of pureed cilantro that would have benefitted from a dose of fresh ginger.

The spicy coconut shrimp, deep-fried, crisp and succulent, are a popular trademark of Kopas’ catered events and translate well to the Brittany menu. The jerk chicken quesadillas (“jerk” is a Jamaican method of spicing) combine Caribbean and Mexican themes effectively, and, despite the suggestion of spice and heat, these actually are one of the milder offerings. Siew mai , or Chinese shrimp dumplings, also are pleasant and mild, and quite like those served at Chinese dim sum brunches. The filling of the beggars purses, or won ton skins tied up around a mixture of spinach, black mushrooms and herbs, had a soggy texture that did this appetizer no favor. Perhaps the best of the bunch from a list that also includes Vietnamese spring rolls and “won ton ravioli “ with a shrimp-scallop stuffing are the Chinese beef buns, described as the “house hamburger” and sandwiching toothsome, marinated skirt steak slices between soft, savory, Chinese-style steamed buns.

The more substantial plates sampled did not come off especially well. A roast pork tenderloin, although cooked medium-rare so that it remained pink at the center, rather remarkably proved both tough and dry. The presentation, at least, was successful, the sliced meat fanned over an attractive stir-fry of vegetables. A duck breast again was notable mostly for the garnish, a novel and quite likable stir-fry of cabbage, radicchio, red bell pepper and--perhaps inspired by Indonesian cooking--tiny cubes of firm egg omelet. Other choices from the brief list of more substantial plates are a seared ahi salad; a Peking duck pizza; roasted, garlic-flavored chicken; grilled Norwegian salmon with the “Chinese pesto” mentioned above, and a Thai-style salad of papaya and grilled shrimp.

The well-chosen dessert list runs from an exceptionally eggy, ginger-flavored creme brulee, to an elaborate cappuccino torte spread with hazelnut cream and an excellent selection of gelati , or Italian ice creams. On fortunate nights, the choice includes a cardamom flavored cream, that, with its Indian overtones, is the ideal finale to the Brittany Brasserie’s Asian-inspired cooking.

Brittany Brasserie

1010 2nd Ave., San Diego

231-9203

Lunch Monday through Friday, dinner Tuesday through Saturday

Appetizers and entrees $1.95 to $9.95. Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $35 to $60

Credit cards accepted