San Diego Spotlight : RRR’s a Toothsome Resort for Lunches With a View

Some of us, when we travel to spots with magnificent scenery, like nothing better than viewing it over lunch through the windows of a good hotel dining room. There’s something about having a toothsome mess of pottage (or even a thoughtfully composed club sandwich) in the foreground that makes distant forests, mountains or seascapes all the more appetizing.

Idylls in Monterey and Tahoe aren’t easily come by on a moment’s notice, but, if the day outside is irresistibly appealing (as has been true lately, thanks to the storms that have scrubbed the local air), it is possible to conjure up a brief vacation over lunch by driving out to one of the county’s several good resorts.

The newest of them, Loews Coronado Beach Resort, has given a name to its cafe that may be a touch too cute for a dining room, even one found in a hotel virtually surrounded by water. But that minor point aside, RRR’s offers carefully prepared and imaginatively designed food that, on a truly perfect day, combines with the scenery in a way that makes you feel more than a little distant from the bustling city up the bay.

Written properly, RRR is a nautical term that means “red right returning” and directs helmsmen to observe a certain right of way down a channel. Since Loews boasts its own marina, a seafaring theme extends to most public rooms and spaces; in the cafe, this largely is restricted to the unusual name and to the massive paintings of 19th-Century ships under full sail.

Within the hotel, RRR’s plays second fiddle to the grander Azzura Point, which serves dinner only. But, as a retreat for lunch, RRR’s has several attractions, including the undeniable oddity, probably unique in these parts, of appearing to be located in Southern Florida. Guests look out at the houses of the adjacent Coronado Cays--some more appealing than others, to be sure--but also at broad canals lined with yachts, all neatly framed by the potted palms on the veranda. On sunny noons, the ripples in the water seem tipped with diamonds. The potted palms repeat in the dining room, an airy, whitewashed space floored in pale wood. Perhaps to remind that this is but a cafe, the marble-topped tables bear humble reminders of lunch, including containers of mustard and ketchup and surprisingly, industrial size bottles of Tabasco sauce; still, the silver gleams brightly.

The menu has virtually nothing in common with the formal lunch lists offered at downtown hotel restaurants, since RRR’s is the wrong setting for that sort of fare. By and large, the dishes seem to have been designed with a good deal of imagination, and there are just enough local references--the inescapable Caesar salad, the quesadilla (fancied up with crab and jalapeno-spiked Jack cheese) and the tortilla soup--to provide a sense of place for hotel guests.

Crab and shrimp are put to much good use on this menu, appearing with spicy andouille sausage in the seafood gumbo, and again in tandem in an entree-sized salad dressed with remoulade sauce. The sauteed crab cake sandwich seems perfect for the setting, and this is a reasonably perfect sandwich, since the cake consists of nothing more than a mass of crab, lightly browned, brushed with a lemony mayonnaise and slipped inside a crusty, seeded bun.

The shrimp “poor boy” sandwich might not be recognized as such in New Orleans, the home of this particular creation, but that hardly matters in Coronado; although unusual, it also is quite good. The roll, not quite the French bread it ought to be, is piled with an unusual cole slaw flavored with toasted peanuts (a simple trick, but inspired), which serves as a bed for a total of three massive, batter-fried shrimp. When fully assembled, it can be difficult to get the mouth around the sandwich, but the effort is worth it. These and most sandwiches are garnished simply with what the menu calls “crispy new potatoes,” or wedges and halves of small potatoes that have been lightly browned in hot oil. This is just a variation on french fries, of course, but, once again, it is this sort of simple trick that lends RRR’s a bit of style.

The remarkably large bottles of Tabasco that rise on every table probably reflect the tastes of the menu’s designer, who evidently likes strong, bold flavors. A clever grilled vegetable sandwich (which could be a rather dull creation) is given personality by the addition of fresh goat cheese and tapenade , a highly seasoned sauce based on minced black olives. Even the steak sandwich, presumably offered for die-hards (there are many more imaginative choices), is spread with Worcestershire sauce-flavored aioli, or garlic mayonnaise.

Among other substantial offerings are an omelet filled with avocado, smoked bacon, tomatoes and jalapeno cheese; pasta with bacon, sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese sauce; grilled salmon on a bed of greens and a grilled chicken breast garnished with roasted corn, a scallion relish and a rosemary-pinenut-mustard butter.

The restaurant serves entree-sized salads in basins, and one must like greenery enormously to get all the way to the bottom of the bowl. But, once again, the choices are good, especially the Nicoise, a salad massacred by many restaurants; RRR’s substitutes grilled fresh tuna for the more typical canned product, which produces an entirely different effect. The Cobb salad, a California original that also is less understood than it ought to be, misses out on one point: The romaine that forms the base should be finely chopped. But the presentation is attractive, and the ingredients are top quality; arranged in neat colorful rows for tossing together or nibbling on separately are bits of grilled chicken breast, creamy Maytag blue cheese, crisp slab bacon, avocado, Greek olives and, remarkably, vine-ripened tomatoes.

The desserts, relatively expensive at $5.25 but sized to feed two generously, tend to the super indulgent; as a saving grace, the menu also offers fresh berries. But the sweets are hard to resist, and winners include the crisp fruit cobbler with vanilla-bean ice cream and the “Chipwich,” a pairing of two giant, buttery chocolate cookies glued together with ice cream and lavishly finished with hot, bittersweet chocolate sauce.

RRR’s

Loews Coronado Bay Resort, 4000

Coronado Bay Road, Coronado

424-4000

Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily

Sandwiches and entrees cost $7.75 to

$14.95; lunch for two, including a glass

of wine each, tax and tip, about $30 to $45

Credit cards accepted