Meat at the Beach

This town has smoothies, bagels and espresso well covered. It’s never exactly been known as a place for serious eaters, though.

That may be changing. An increasing number of restaurants in the beach area now go well beyond burgers and tacos, and they threaten to make this surfer’s domain into, of all things, a hotbed of regional American cuisine. Cajun Vic’s specializes in gumbo, jambalaya and po’ boy sandwiches. Lou’s Oak Oven Beanery is the place for Santa Maria-style barbecue, normally available only on the far side of Santa Barbara.

Vic is Victor Vinson, a sometime caterer and full-time son of Louisiana. His is the most modest of restaurants, a tiny storefront next to a pool hall. All it could claim for decor is a foot-long cloth alligator by the cash register and two or three bottles of blood-red Crystal hot sauce on the tiny counter facing Main Street.

There are only four stools inside, so a lot of customers order food to take out. If you prefer eating with both feet on the ground, there are also two patio tables outside. The bad news is that they are rarely vacant.

That’s because Cajun Vic’s is the real deal. It serves a simplified but authentic version of Cajun cooking, and most dishes really taste great. Chicken and sausage gumbo, a soup based on a Cajun browned flour roux, contains neither file or okra, but at $1.50 a cup, who’s arguing? It’s full of shredded chicken breast, chunks of spicy andouille sausage and rice, flavored with celery and onions. If you order the dinner-sized portion, $5.25, you get a piece of toasted garlic bread with it.

Chicken jambalaya, by contrast, is a rice-based dish that combines the same ingredients as in the gumbo with tomatoes, bell peppers and enough spices to make a gator sneeze. Vic’s jambalaya is mushy, meaty and only a few shades of red away from Tabasco; in short, definitely not for hot-food wimps. If you want a mild entree, the mildest--and most filling--would be the red beans and rice, a stew of red kidney beans and plenty of chopped sausage.

The po’ boy sandwiches, all terrific, are high-cholesterol items served on toasted French rolls and accompanied by a scoop of Vic’s mild, creamy homemade potato salad. The oyster po’ boy is a classic Louisiana specialty: fried oysters on a toasted French roll with lettuce, tomato, mayo and a spicy cocktail sauce.

The catfish po’ boy is filled with a generous helping of fried fish plus a sweetly eccentric honey mustard sauce. Meat eaters will go for a hot sausage po’ boy with cheese, or the roast beef po’ boy, stuffed with tender baked meat in a spicy brown gravy.

Serious Cajun food eaters should take note that Vic’s serves boiled crawfish in season. Which is not now, unfortunately. The feast resumes in November and runs until late June.

Cajun Vic’s is inexpensive. Dinners are $4.75 to $5.50. Po’ boys are $5.25 to $5.50.

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Lou’s Oak Oven Beanery takes its name from the Santa Maria-style pinquito beans that owner Lou Gaydos cooks slowly with bacon, jalapenos and barbecue spices. Actually, he’s about to change the name of the restaurant to Lou’s Oak Oven Barbecue, but fear not, the beans aren’t going anywhere.

Beans are an essential element in Santa Maria barbecue, a style of eating indigenous to the central California coast, and one that seems to be growing in popularity in the Southland. It is based on meats smoked over red oak, seasoned with nothing more than salt, pepper and garlic.

Gaydos barbecues his meats--the classic Santa Barbara lineup: tri-tip, chicken, pork loin and linguica--in a giant oak rotisserie visible through the restaurant’s front window. He doesn’t serve ribs, and for a noble reason. The restaurant doesn’t have a place to keep them warm after they finish barbecuing, and Lou is adamant about not serving anything reheated.

This is a cozy spot that serves drinks in Mason jars and food on enamelware pie plates. Everybody gets little dishes of bite-sized soft pretzels and a creamy Dijon mustard dip while the barbecue is being prepared. The best drink to go with this food might be a cold 16-ounce bottle of Stewart’s Root Beer, a brewed root beer Gaydos sells that is less sugary and tastes more of roots than vending machine root beer.

My favorite at Lou’s is the delicious roast pork loin. You can get thick slices of it on a platter with home-style mashed potatoes and applesauce, or in a sandwich with a mild barbecue sauce. Rotisserie chicken is another good bet. The skin is nice and crisp, full of red oak fragrances that penetrate the meat right down to the bone.

Gaydos buys his linguica (a citrus- and garlic-flavored Portuguese sausage) from a Bay Area purveyor. I’d call it an acquired taste. The one thing I haven’t liked at all here was the tri-tip. It’s a tricky cut to barbecue, and when I ordered it, what I got was tough and dry.

The side dishes are consistently good, though, especially the fresh chicken noodle soup and those tasty beans--tiny, tender beans in a soupy, deep-brown sauce. For dessert, there are complimentary fresh cookies, and you can also order a freshly baked double-crusted apple pie, made with hand-cut apples and a good short crust, full of butter and shortening.

Hear me now and believe me later, Huntington Beach. If you plan to hang ten after food like this, you’ll want to give it a little more thought.

Lou’s Oak Oven Beanery is moderately priced. Sandwiches are $5.99 to $6.99. Dinners are $6.99 to $8.99.

BE THERE

* Cajun Vic’s, 316 Main St., Huntington Beach. (714) 374-9446. Open noon-6 p.m. Monday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. Cash only.

* Lou’s Oak Oven Beanery, 21510 Brookhurst St., Huntington Beach. (714) 965-5200. Open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. All major cards.