The Menu at Daily’s Fit & Fresh Is Just What the Doctor Ordered

Cardio-thoracic surgeon Pat Daily hopes to give you a taste of his own medicine.

The concept at Daily’s Fit & Fresh, which opens on Friday in Laguna Hills, is low-fat, healthful and tasty food to stem the tide of increasing heart disease in this country. Daily opened his first restaurant in La Jolla three years ago; the Laguna Hills location is his third.

According to the menu, “all items contain 10 grams or fewer of fat and/or not more than 20% of calories from fat.”

They range from a side of black beans and brown rice (0.8 grams of fat) for 99 cents to a grilled fish pita pocket (5.3 grams) for $4.99 and a grilled chicken breast entree (3.6 grams) for $6.50. From the blender bar comes Choco-Nana Bliss--chocolate frozen yogurt with banana and apple juice--for $1.99.

Low fat’s not the whole story: The restaurant emphasizes foods that are “nutrient dense . . . with the right ratio of carbohydrates, fat, protein and fiber.”

Open Monday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

24351 Avenida de la Carlotta, Laguna Hills. (714) 472-0270.

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Dueling wine dinners?

Two of the top restaurants in Orange County, both French and both in Newport Beach, are staging dinners featuring the wines of Burgundy’s Maison Louis Latour on consecutive nights. Representing the seventh generation of the famed producer, Louis Fabrice Latour will attend dinners Wednesday at Pascal and July 27 at Antoine.

Can local wine and food lovers support two Latour dinners in such close proximity?

“We might not have done it if we’d known Pascal was doing a dinner,” admitted Barbara Eidson, spokeswoman for Sutton Place Hotel, where Antoine is located. “But the reservations are coming in hot and heavy.”

At Antoine, they’re coming in for 1992 Premier and Grand Cru white wines from Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet and Corton Charlemagne, red wines including a 1979 Nuits-St-Georges “Clos des Argillieres”--and at least one “surprise.” Among five courses are sea bass in a potato crust with sun-dried tomato coulis , and sauteed veal chops with roasted shallot balsamic sauce. The cost is $100 plus tax and tip.

At Pascal, five wines include the 1993 Corton Charlemagne and 1988 Charmes Chambertin, but according to chef Pascal Olhats, the spotlight is as much on Burgundy cuisine inspired by chef Bernard Loiseau of the Restaurant Cote d’Or in Saulieu: Courses include frog legs in garlic puree, and filet of duck with crispy skin and its own foie gras. Loiseau will not attend. The cost is $80 plus tax and tip.

A reception at 7 p.m. precedes dinner both nights.

Antoine, 4500 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. (714) 476-2001, Ext. 2158.

Pascal, 1000 Bristol St., Newport Beach. (714) 752-0107.