A 4th Feast to Go

If you’re planning a Fourth of July picnic on the beach and don’t want to spend the time putting your own picnic basket together, the Daily Grill restaurants in Encino and Studio City will sell you any one of eight different picnic boxes that might fit the bill.

At the lower end of the price scale, you can get a box with a dinner-sized salad for $14.95 a person--either a Cobb, a Nicoise with fresh ahi tuna, a Caesar salad with chicken, or a big Chinese chicken salad--plus bread and a fresh fruit cobbler for dessert.

At the upper end of the scale, you can spend $24.95 per person for a chopped vegetable salad, charbroiled peppered salmon with a cantaloupe salsa, a pasta salad with sun-dried tomatoes and broccoli, plus bread and a dessert of strawberries in whipped cream.

The restaurants offer six other picnic boxes in that price range.

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If, on the other hand, you want to dine out Friday--and not at the beach--the Encino Daily Grill has five new seafood specials on its weekend menu that contrast with the restaurant’s traditional fare--steaks, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, chicken, pastas, big salads and the like. The weekend specials: a pound of Alaskan king crab legs; Maryland soft shell crab either tempura style or sauteed in a meuniere sauce; linguine and Washington clams; and steamed Washington clams. Prices range from $14.50 to $19.95. The Studio City restaurant does not serve the same specials.

“We’re both offshoots of the Grill on the Alley in Beverly Hills,” says Darren Granard, the Encino restaurant’s general manager. “That one opened up in 1984, just as the big craze for nouvelle cuisine took off, and because the Grill on the Alley was a big steakhouse with traditional food, it was a hit.

“Everything is fresh here. We even cook our own turkeys for our turkey sandwich, and we cut the meat off the bone ourselves. That’s what people come here for, and that’s why they don’t mind paying $11.95 for meatloaf and mashed potatoes.”

In all there are nine Daily Grill restaurants in Southern California, including the two in the San Fernando Valley--at 16101 Ventura Blvd., Encino, (818) 986-4111, and 12050 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, (818) 769-6336.

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Look for Moez Megji’s popular seared ahi tuna special to migrate onto the regular dinner menu at Finn’s Creekside restaurant in Old Town Calabasas this month.

Megji and his longtime chef Roberto Leyva encrust the tuna with sesame seeds and black pepper, sear it quickly over very high heat, and serve it with a Szechwan soy sauce over wasabi mashed potatoes.

The $18.95 entree first showed up among the daily specials at Finn’s Creekside some weeks ago, and in keeping with practice at the restaurant, it will migrate onto the regular menu because Megji’s steady customers like it.

“We change the menu periodically--usually every two to three months, depending on our own imagination,” Megji says. “If one of our signature specials becomes popular, it goes on the regular menu and stays there. And then we have to go and come up with a new signature special.”

Megji was born in Kenya of Indian parents, went to school in England and immigrated to the U.S. by way of Canada.

The last special that made it onto the regular menu that way is a mesquite-grilled rack of lamb served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Megji originally served this dish on pasta when it was a daily special; now it comes with mashed potatoes.

“We also have many dishes on the menu from what I call our comfort zone--dishes we have prepared for our guests for years,” Megji says. “Our bouillabaisse is very popular--a medley of seafood in a saffron broth, for $19.95--and we do shrimp scampi in a garlic butter sauce for $13.95.”

Megji got his first taste of the restaurant scene in Southern California some two decades ago in a West Los Angeles restaurant that he sold five years ago. He opened Finn’s Seafood Grill in Westlake Village seven years ago and Finn’s Creekside in Calabasas last year.

Finn’s Creekside serves brunch on Sunday, lunch daily except Saturday and dinner every night. It is located at 23504 Calabasas Road, Calabasas, (818) 223-3467.

Finn’s Seafood Grill is at 982 S. Westlake Blvd., Westlake Village, (805) 494-6494.

* Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. He may be reached at (805) 492-7909 or fax (805) 492-5139 or via e-mail at JHovey@compuserve.com.