San Diego Spotlight : A Chef Becomes Owner, With Savory Consequences

When a proprietor sells a restaurant to his chef, the act is not unlike handing the fox the deed to the henhouse. It goes without saying that a sly chef will know exactly what to do with all those chickens.

Neil Stuart, long the executive chef for all three of the locally owned Pacifica restaurants--Cafe Pacifica in Old Town, Pacifica Del Mar and Pacifica Grill in downtown San Diego--recently purchased the latter from owners Kip Downing and Deacon Brown. The net result at Pacifica Grill, now that Stuart writes his paycheck as well as the menu, seems an even further freeing of his creative urges, which in any case never seemed overly restrained.

A talent for experimentation--more important than a simple willingness, which does not automatically lead in desirable directions--has been Stuart’s trademark since he signed on with the Pacificas, and that talent now has led to such formidable morsels as a souffle-like tamale of lobster and fresh corn, and even to the fine simplicity of a salad of baby greens given an Oriental taste by the addition of lemon grass to the vinaigrette dressing.

Pacifica Grill always has chugged off in new directions; in recent years these have included the nouvelle Southwestern and Pacific Rim cuisines. Stuart now jumbles these by terming them “the regional flavors of the Pacific Southwest,” and the styles are in any case so arcane that they could not be said to be widely spread. Probably the only place at which many of them may be sampled is Pacifica Grill. This restaurant also attempted, early in the 1980s, to introduce the concept of “grazing,” or dining on a succession of appetizers, that enjoyed a vogue in some big cities but never quite caught on here. The term has been passe and even unstylish for some time, but the act remains quite possible at Pacifica Grill, where a couple of the “small plates” (a term that replaces “appetizer” and in practice means the equivalent of an ungarnished entree), or one of them in tandem with a soup or salad, easily can stand in for a more traditional meal.

The menu continues to include a number of the signature dishes that Stuart created during his reign over the kitchens at the three Pacificas, including such starters as the soup of black beans and epazote (a sourish Mexican herb that much resembles sorrel), the “Northwest” Caesar salad, fleshed out and flavored with smoked salmon jerky, and the whimsical “Martini,” served in a cocktail glass, of Dungeness crab and a mild version of Korean-style pickled cabbage.

Other notable choices in the opening categories--and it is certainly true that a couple of these will easily double as a meal and make a pleasant and less expensive alternative to the appetizer-cum-entree route--include the “gazpacho gold,” a cold soup made with yellow tomatoes rather than red, the flavor more pronounced than in the usual Spanish salad-soup, and the Southwestern pot stickers, a cross-cultural creation that fills dough pockets with a cilantro-flavored minced chicken filling and sauces the product with an earthy, roasted corn cream sauce. An enjoyable aspect of these items is that they illustrate that familiar dishes can be altered for the better.

A particularly clever new offering, the lobster tamale, consists of a few lobster chunks and some fresh corn souffle, piled into a halved, small lobster shell and baked until puffy. The flavor is exquisite, somewhat hotly seasoned but delicate. The presentation--Stuart makes an unusual point of presentations--matches the dish, beginning with the weird but delicious salsa of honey and chipotle chilies streaked in bands across the plate, and continuing with the avocado puree (obviously, a product similar to guacamole) from which a grove of angular, fried tortilla chips rise up like geometrically perfect trees in a mathematician’s forest.

Among other small plates are the shrimp machaca , a stew-like dish of chopped shrimp, tomatoes, onions and peppers, served with hot tortillas as a nice but not overwhelming variation on the traditional Mexican machaca of shredded beef scrambled with eggs, and the warm spinach salad with oyster mushrooms and grilled, sliced beef. The menu also offers a trio of pastas (they are inevitable these days), in themes to suit the general tone of the cooking; choices include black bean ravioli with smoked pheasant, goat cheese and red chili salsa, and corn flour fettuccine with spiced shellfish.

The entrees show little letup from Stuart’s Southwester-Pacific Rim urges. Mustard-coated catfish with jalapeno-flavored tartar sauce leads off a fish list that includes sea bass, garnished with roasted artichoke salsa (when is the last time you heard of this one?) and baked in a banana leaf; Yucatan-style barbecued king salmon seasoned with lime, and a grilled swordfish steak “ asada “ dressed with tequila and sun dried tomatoes.

The meat list takes a slightly more calm tone, opening with grilled chicken with sun-dried cranberry salsa (Daniel Webster goes to Guadalajara?), and closing extravagantly with the “mixed thrill” of grilled lobster, beef tenderloin and Chinese-style barbecued pheasant. The pheasant also is available by itself and is very good, the meat boned and rolled into little packages inside its own, semi-crisp skin. On this plate, however, the garnish outshines the meat; the stir-fry of oyster mushrooms, bias-cut celery, fresh corn and hoisin sauce is not authentically Chinese, but it is the sort of combination a good Chinese chef might admire.

The dessert sampler does well for two guests and always includes a small pot of the Grill’s inimitable “burnt cream,” or cream custard crusted with glazed brown sugar. Other items may be assorted berries and a square of the flour-less cinnamon-chocolate torte, which is very light but fudgey. A recent special of a pie of mixed raspberries, blueberries and cherries was not only All-American but delicious, and the chocolate malt ice cream on the side only seemed unlikely in concept--in practice it brought a smooth “roundness” to the plate.

PACIFICA GRILL 1202 Kettner Blvd., San Diego 696-9226 Lunch weekdays, dinner nightly Small plates cost $3 to $7 and entrees $12 to $20; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $50 to $75 Credit cards accepted