Joints Are Jumpin’

Last week I stopped by two venerable Orange County steak joints and made some discoveries.

One was that red meat consumption is booming, despite all the negative things that have been written about it. The other was that, different as they are, the two restaurants--Sid’s and La Cave--enjoy virtual cult status. Don’t even think about walking into either place without a reservation.

La Cave (pronounce it to rhyme with “suave,” please) has been around for 35 years. A Newport Beach friend who ate there in 1965 says it hasn’t changed an iota in all these years. It’s not a cave, of course, but a catacomb-like basement dining room under a rather nondescript office building. (Hey, you wouldn’t expect them to call it Le Basement, would you?)

To reach the dining room, you board a rickety elevator and ride it down one flight. Expect to blink when the doors open. Suddenly you’re in a noisy, dimly lit inner sanctum dominated by brick arches, a lounge-style bar and about a dozen tables crowded closely. One side of the room houses the display grill, where a single white-toqued chef silently cooks everyone’s steak, scampi and fish.

Your fellow diners are an upscale, conservatively dressed and older crowd, people for whom La Cave offers a needed break from the late 20th century. I’d describe the food as solidly retro: ‘50s-style cheese bread, Caesar salad and surf ‘n’ turf entrees.

The cheese bread is the first thing you encounter. Your veteran waitress will bring out a basket of hot white bread slathered with butter and completely covered with browned Parmesan. It may not be a health food, but it’s rich and satisfying.

If you wish, you may move right on to Caesar salad tossed (in the the kitchen, rather than at the table) with a supremely creamy dressing. Meanwhile, the waitress wheels over a bubble-topped plastic cart laden with the evening’s offerings for you to peruse: top sirloin, filet mignon, prime rib, halibut, Alaskan king crab legs, lobster tail and the like.

The four entrees I’ve tried were perfectly good. The prime rib, a thick cut weighing maybe 14 ounces, was quite juicy, and the filet mignon was more tender than most. The Eastern halibut was properly fresh. Top sirloin, the least expensive entree on the menu, came nicely charred and flavorful. Everything comes with a choice of baked potato, twice-baked potato or pilaf.

Among the desserts, the chocolate mousse pie was light and creamy, if a little too sweet. The lemon cheesecake is a stiff confection with a thick glaze on top, and mine suffered from refrigerator burn.

Dessert over, you take the elevator back up to the outside world and the ‘90s.

La Cave is expensive: appetizers, $6.95-$13.95; entrees, $15.95-$43.95.

*

NEWPORT BEACH--If La Cave is the Johnny Carson of O.C. restaurants, Sid’s has to be the David Letterman.

It has the feeling of an in-group hangout. The restaurant is set back from the street near an A-frame motel on Old Newport Boulevard, and palms in front of the door make it even harder to spot.

This no doubt sits well with the regulars, a howling, yuppie-looking crowd that can easily be heard over the Mississippi Delta music that plays in the background. The motto printed on the menu is “Don’t tell nobody,” but that advice appears to have come a little late; the place is jampacked, every night of the week.

What is the reason for Sid’s wild success? It’s simple, really. Sid’s may offer more bang for the buck than any other place in the Southland. Can you beat a terrific meatloaf dinner with all the trimmings for $5? Or an 8-ounce filet mignon--beautifully cut, butter-smooth--for $12?

Don’t even show up at the front door, though, if you aren’t into funk. This is a restaurant for the troglodyte, and the decor is eclectic in the extreme: tables covered in red-checkered oilcloth and darkly paneled walls decorated with cheesy, framed reproductions of Spanish dancers, George Washington and a host of others.

Most customers start with pitchers of beer or with wines from Sid’s extensive list. Then they order basket after $1 basket of the foil-wrapped garlic bread--addictive, crusty, hot French bread that tastes as if it’s been dipped in margarine before baking.

Barbecued shrimp (a dozen, in the shell) come swimming in a zesty, Worcestershire-dosed red sauce. The spinach salad (only $4) delivers squeaky fresh spinach leaves, fresh sliced mushrooms and chopped tomatoes in a great bacon dressing.

Many complete dinners are only $5. Besides meatloaf, choices include beef stroganoff and chicken (half an exquisitely seasoned bird). All come with a side of real mashed potatoes with mahogany-brown gravy and a pile of candied carrots sweet enough to make your teeth hurt.

The more upscale items run to seafood cooked to your taste, grilled or blackened. Selections include halibut, salmon and sea bass. I recommend the thick, baseball-like cut of swordfish with an intense lemon caper sauce.

But they’re all way up there in the (gulp) $10 range. With filet mignon available for only $2 more, the red meat renaissance seems like a force of nature.

Sid’s is inexpensive to moderate: appetizers, $1-$5.50; entrees, $5-$21.

BE THERE

* La Cave, 1695 Irvine Ave., Costa Mesa. (714) 646-7944. Lunch, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; dinner, 5:30 p.m.-midnight Mon.-Sat. All major cards.

* Sid’s, 445 Old Newport Blvd., Newport Beach. (714) 650-7437. 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m. daily. All major cards.