New Eatery Cooked Up by Unlikely Duo in O.C. : Restaurants: Alliance between Taco Bell and upscale restaurateur David Wilhelm yields Chimayo Grill, set to open Monday in Newport.

Cross fast-food king Taco Bell with trendy Orange County restaurateur David Wilhelm and the result is Chimayo Grill, a new eatery at Fashion Island that will double as a culinary laboratory.

The eatery with the tony address will open Monday and mark Wilhelm’s return to the local restaurant scene after a two-year absence. But Chimayo Grill also is a carefully cultivated bid by Taco Bell Corp. to incorporate Wilhelm-inspired concepts as it plunges into the fast-growing casual-dining market.

The restaurant industry has been buzzing about the odd, two-year alliance between the Irvine-based fast-food giant, which feeds millions daily, and Wilhelm, a 46-year-old Michigan native who built his reputation by crafting a handful of Orange County’s best-known restaurants.

But Wilhelm and Taco Bell Chairman John E. Martin say they are both in the same business--feeding hungry people. Each agrees that restaurant dining is in the throes of change, and both hint that Chimayo Grill could lead to the creation of a new casual-dining chain.

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The public, though, may never realize that Chimayo Grill, with its barbecued salmon and sweet corn salsa, is related to Taco Bell.

There is scant evidence that the new restaurant is owned by Taco Bell, which whipped up a publicity storm this week by giving away $12 million worth of its new low-fat food.

“There’s no reason to have Taco Bell’s name on it,” said Wilhelm, who is consulting for the fast-food leader. “That would send mixed messages.”

Taco Bell’s name is on Chimayo Grill’s lease, but the familiar mission bell logo will not appear anywhere in the restaurant. Martin wants customers to view Chimayo Grill, with its blend of Southwestern, Mexican and American cuisines, only as a friendly, entertaining place to eat and drink.

“A lot of good things will flow out of Chimayo Grill,” Martin said. “But when the day is done, we’re counting upon it to do what all our concepts do: offer quality food and service.”

Taco Bell has hinted that Chimayo Grill might evolve into a chain of Southwestern-style restaurants that will augment Chevys, the sit-down, Mexican-style restaurant chain owned by Taco Bell. “Our company realizes that casual dining is a huge opportunity,” Martin said.

Industry analysts agree: Restaurant chains, including high-end eateries such as Morton’s of Chicago and Ruth’s Chris Steak House in New Orleans, are increasingly grabbing top spots on lists of America’s best restaurants. Local favorites, including the Claim Jumper in Irvine, also are proving to diners that chains can deliver mid-priced food and solid service.

For now, though, Martin is content to borrow culinary tricks from Wilhelm and incorporate them into Taco Bell’s existing restaurant operations. Wilhelm’s consulting role at Taco Bell includes offering advice on bolstering revenue at the Taco Bell and Chevys chains.

“If just one good idea flows through to Chevys,” Martin said, “then Chimayo Grill will be worth it.”

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Taco Bell’s announcement two years ago of the joint venture with Wilhelm jolted some restaurant industry observers. Even Wilhelm, 46, acknowledged that some of his associates thought the pairing “bizarre.”

But Wilhelm said he was intrigued when Martin approached him early in 1993 to discuss whether upscale restaurant food could be replicated at far-flung locations without ruining its flavor and texture. “I’m convinced that it can be done, that yes, you can ‘formulize’ it,” Wilhelm said.

While that is probably heresy to culinary devotees, Wilhelm argues that good food need not be synonymous with expense and pretense. That view is in keeping with the culinary gospel according to John Martin, who is rapidly pushing Taco Bell past traditional restaurant venues and into school cafeterias, supermarkets, airports and--in the case of Chevys--the fast-growing casual-dining niche.

“Fine cooking need not be shrouded in mystique,” said Wilhelm, who linked his ability to form the Taco Bell alliance with his own lack of formal culinary training. “There’s no reason why (dining) needs to be intimidating.”

Wilhelm is betting that Chimayo Grill’s menu--if not its upscale Newport Beach address--can be replicated elsewhere without a noticeable drop in the quality of food or service. “Maybe 5% of the people might perceive the difference (in food quality), but 95% will find it to be a (satisfying) level of food and service,” Wilhelm said.

Martin, who is credited with jump-starting the value-oriented revolution that is reshaping the restaurant industry, suggests that Chimayo Grill will flourish if it delivers a perceived value of “$20 to $25 for under $15.”

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Martin first met Wilhelm at Kachina, a Wilhelm restaurant that opened in 1989 in Laguna Beach. Martin kept tabs on Wilhelm’s culinary growth when Bistro 201 opened in the Transamerica building, just a stone’s throw from Taco Bell’s gleaming headquarters in Irvine.

Wilhelm entered the Orange County restaurant scene in the early 1980s with Pave, a small restaurant in Laguna Beach. He subsequently joined forces with longtime restaurateur Larry Cano at the 200-unit El Torito chain, where he helped design the Southwestern-inspired menu and decor of El Torito Grill.

Shortly after leaving El Torito to open Kachina, Wilhelm teamed up with a Malibu businessman to form West Coast Restaurant Ventures Inc., which opened Bistro 201, Barbacoa, Zuni Grill, Diva and Cafe Topaz. Along the way, Wilhelm helped shape the menu and decor at Kachina Grill in Los Angeles, as well as the menus for the Roxbury and Roxbury South nightclubs.

“He had the golden touch, that’s for sure,” said Michael Rhodes, president of the Orange County chapter of the California Restaurant Assn. and president of Frontier Restaurants in Orange. “He made the interiors of his restaurants exciting, dramatic and different, and he delivered the food.”

“He developed a reputation very quickly, and he did a good job in making that reputation stick by providing restaurants that did hit home runs,” Rhodes said. “He had one hit after another.”

Those who know him credit Wilhelm with leaving little to chance. For example, he always works with top-notch chefs. Thomas Tran is the executive chef at Chimayo Grill. And Wilhelm pays attention to details, both on the menu and in the restaurant design.

“Larry Cano once told me that David was terrific at doing research,” said longtime Orange County restaurateur Hans Prager, who guides The Ritz in Newport Beach. “If you wanted to open a Guatemalan restaurant, he’d go do all the research and come up with an authentic Guatemalan restaurant.”

Wilhelm’s dramatic ascendancy was driven in part by an unprecedented economic boom in Orange County.

“We all had a very good streak,” said Antonio Cagnolo, owner of Antonello Ristorante in Santa Ana. “People were spending (freely) in the 1980s; people were going out to eat. It’s not like people were wasting money, but they were really spending money.”

Observers said that Wilhelm was the beneficiary of a growing demand for food more typically found in bigger cities.

“I think the reception was so warm because David was from our community,” said Lee Healy, an executive at Family Restaurants Inc. in Irvine who worked with Wilhelm at the El Torito chain. “He’d lived for years in Laguna Beach, so it wasn’t like we were importing something from Los Angeles. He brought a sophistication to the county that I think people were hungry for.”

If diners were hungry for Wilhelm’s Southwestern-style dishes, building owners were lining up to land a Wilhelm-inspired restaurant.

“You knew the quality would be there with David, and you knew that it would be unique,” said Tim McMahon, a retail leasing expert with Grubb & Ellis. “His restaurants were a real amenity for an office building. His restaurants were known as destinations, rather than just someplace to eat.”

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Diners continued to flock to Wilhelm-inspired restaurants during the early 1990s, as Wilhelm continued to open new locations. But behind the scenes, trouble was brewing, fueled in part by the economic recession that followed the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

As Orange County’s real estate boom stalled, free-spending diners began to cut back on expensive meals served by Wilhelm and other upscale restaurateurs.

The economic recession also put pressure on a fissure that was developing between Wilhelm and Malibu businessman Ron Semler, the majority owner of West Coast Restaurant Ventures, which had funded many of Wilhelm’s creations.

The dispute boiled over into public view in mid-1993, when West Coast Restaurant Ventures attempted to renegotiate the lease of Bistro 201, then in the lobby of Koll Center Irvine.

Wilhelm got a healthy dollop of unfavorable publicity when the Japanese owner of Koll Center unexpectedly padlocked the restaurant and West Coast Restaurant Ventures tried to drop the lease by plunging itself into bankruptcy.

“We ended up in a pot full of hot water, and I took the heat for the closing of Bistro 201,” said Wilhelm, who found himself in the unenviable role of company spokesman for a seemingly successful restaurant that had been forced to vacate its quarters.

Shortly after the Bistro 201 lease snafu, Wilhelm resigned as an officer and director of West Coast Restaurant Ventures. “It became apparent to me that the restaurants were no longer under my control,” he said.

In 1994, Bistro 201 relocated to a waterfront space in Newport Beach that was formerly occupied by Barbacoa, another Wilhelm-inspired restaurant that had been closed by West Coast Restaurant Ventures.

Some industry observers suggested that the split with Semler was inevitable, given the economic realities of the 1990s. Semler, they said, is a businessman, while Wilhelm’s forte has always been his ability to create attractive concepts.

Some of Wilhelm’s restaurants appeared to be good concepts that opened in the wrong locations.

Zuni Grill, which he envisioned as the first in a chain of mid-priced restaurants, opened in an Irvine shopping center in 1991. But the menu proved too pricey for the area’s value-oriented families, and the restaurant eventually closed its doors.

Competitors suggested that the popular Bistro 201 restaurant in Koll Center Irvine was unable to turn a profit because of its costly lease--not an unusual problem in the restaurant industry, where space often comes at a premium.

West Coast Restaurant Ventures, which continues to operate Wilhelm-inspired restaurants, has modified some of its menus to keep pace with changing consumer tastes. Wilhelm said that he has not talked to Semler in more than a year.

Wilhelm has maintained a low public profile since leaving West Coast Restaurant Ventures. But he has remained busy as a consultant, for both Taco Bell and a handful of other restaurant operators.

One measure of the culinary shadow that he cast across Orange County is the fact that many diners still believe him to be the guiding force at Bistro 201, Diva and other restaurants under West Coast Restaurant Ventures’ control.

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In recent months, Wilhelm has been scrambling to ready Chimayo Grill for its Monday opening. Renovating the space formerly filled by Slades Harvest Restaurant & Bar has taken longer than anticipated because original design drawings were not available, and construction has been slowed by the discovery of long-buried electrical and plumbing conduits.

Just two weeks before its grand opening, Chimayo Grill still looked very much like a work in progress as crews rushed to complete a large, two-sided fireplace; install red flagstone flooring, and hang huge ceiling beams that lead to the garden patio.

Chimayo Grill takes its name from a small town in New Mexico that is known for beautiful scenery, stunning sunsets, apple orchards and red chilies. Not surprisingly, the restaurant’s design takes its cues from the pueblo’s Southwestern heritage. But the design also incorporates elements from a broader Western theme.

Its menu, bearing Wilhelm’s eclectic signature, draws upon a blend of Southwestern, Mexican and traditional American cuisine. Diners at the 150-seat restaurant can choose among such entrees as ahi steak with poblano chile mole sauce, pan-roasted chicken on green chile and white Cheddar polenta and barbecued salmon with sweet corn salsa.

Chimayo Grill’s mid-priced menu puts it in competition with PF Chang China Bistro, the Cheesecake Factory and El Torito Grill at Fashion Island, as well as many other of Orange County’s growing number of upscale yet casual dining places.

“It’s not a concept that you can put in every neighborhood,” Wilhelm said. “How many (restaurants) there eventually are is not a question that we’ve asked. Right now it’s a working laboratory for new ideas. And hopefully, people will respond to it.”

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A Culinary Career

Whether creating a concept or setting a menu, David Wilhelm has left his mark on many of Southern California’s best-known restaurants. He designed, owned or operated more than a dozen fashionable eateries. Here are some notable ones:

* Pave, opened March, 1986, in Laguna Beach. Closed in 1988.

* Kachina, opened April, 1989, in Laguna Beach.

* Tacos Tacos, opened May, 1989, in West Hollywood.

* Bistro 201, opened June, 1990, in Irvine. Moved to Newport Beach in 1994.

* Barbacoa, opened December, 1990, in Newport Beach. Closed in 1993.

* Zuni Grill, opened January, 1991, in Irvine. Closed in 1994.

* Cancun Cafe, opened April, 1991, in Laguna Beach. Closed in 1992.

* Diva, opened May, 1992, in Costa Mesa.

* Cafe Topaz, opened September, 1992, at Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana.

* Kachina Grill, opened January, 1993, in Los Angeles.

* Roxbury South, opened October, 1993, in Santa Ana.

* Chimayo Grill, will open Monday in Newport Beach.

Kachina, Bistro 201, Diva and Cafe Topaz are now owned and operated by West Coast Restaurant Ventures. Tacos Tacos, Kachina Grill and Roxbury South are owned and operated by other companies. Chimayo Grill is owned by Taco Bell.

Researched by GREG JOHNSON / Los Angeles Times