A Real Garden Spot

It is a typically azure summer day at Sherman Library and Gardens when a friend and I arrive for lunch at Cafe Jardin.

At first we are nettled at having to pay the $3 fee to enter the property, but looking around at the beautifully planted botanical gardens, the entrance fee (waived on Mondays) seems worth it.

As we are led to our table, I note that the cafe is serving about 75 guests, most of whom are lunching happily on salads, open-face sandwiches and light entrees. There is one aspect to all this that I find otherworldly. Each and every person seated, besides myself, is female.

If Cafe Jardin is destined to become the new mecca of O.C. Ladies Who Lunch, they’ve certainly picked a pretty spot.

The lush botanical garden features well-kept lawns, charming brick walkways and a state-of-the-art conservatory that houses rare tropical plants, subtropicals, cactuses and succulents.

Our table is situated at the edge of a terra-cotta patio, within sniffing distance of fragrant rows of alyssum, and an arm’s length from groups of gorgeous Casablanca lilies. Soon a server is filling our glasses with freshly brewed ice tea and bringing a basket of sourdough ba^tard from a local bakery.

Life, put simply, is very good at this moment.

Cafe Jardin is the result of a collaboration between the library and Newport Beach chef Pascal Olhats of Pascal, who has staged private functions at the Sherman Library and Gardens for years. The cafe is only open for lunch on weekdays and for a midafternoon high tea that is highly unusual.

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Manning the stoves at lunch is Stephane Collomb, a young Marseilles-born chef who puts an unmistakably French spin on many of the dishes he serves. The tea service relies on the talents of pastry chef Judy Nagami, who uses her Japanese American heritage to create an imaginative East-West tea menu.

The lunch menu refers to itself a bit self-consciously as “coastal garden cuisine.”

Thinly sliced gravlax surrounding a pedestal of chilled couscous laced with pine nuts would be even more appealing if the strongly flavored green herb coulis were served on the side, so you could add as much or as little as you like. But a plate of three elegant tartlettes--eggplant, sun-dried tomato and ratatouille--is light and nearly perfect.

A salad and a sandwich compete for top honors on the lunch menu. Farmer’s salad is butter lettuce strewn with grilled, diced prosciutto, delicious croutons and a softly poached egg, dressed in a lively vinaigrette.

It’s a variation on the French salade lyonnaise, which is usually made with lardons, not prosciutto, and frisee (chicory) instead of butter lettuce.

An open-face sandwich of rare lamb on toasted country bread with yellow roasted peppers and basil vinaigrette is a tempting still-life in red, yellow and green. Braised halibut comes in a Mediterranean-style broth with aioli-smeared croutons. Though the fish is moist, it could be more flavorful. The best dessert is a buttery, wafer-thin apple tart, drizzled with ribbons of hot caramel sauce.

The lunch menu is pleasant, but nothing we haven’t seen before.

High tea may be called by the cutesy Tea In-Fusion, but the real surprise is how the name rings true to the experience. The three-course tea combines elements from the cuisines of England, France and Japan. And despite its eccentricity, Nagami’s stunning first course presents a pure example of true fusion cuisine.

For tea, guests are seated on a slightly higher level than the tables for lunch, near a gurgling outdoor fountain. A server brings out Japanese lacquerware, then cups of shiso tea and a flat green stone that has been arranged with five of Nagami’s bite-sized, jewel-like creations.

One is a fragile rice paper “beggar’s purse” filled with barely seared sea bass and raw vegetables, another a miniature mound of polenta topped with marinated shrimp and white beans. The third bite is a stack of poached scallop, mashed potato and a Gruyere cheese crisp capped with nori. Rice wrapped in seaweed forms a base for shiro-ae, grated tofu mixed with chopped mustard green. And, finally, there is a cooked salmon temaki rice roll, crowned by a colorful salad of julienned white radish, cucumber and carrot.

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Next, after a considerably long interval, comes a course of rich whole wheat scones dotted with dried mulberries, crumbly cardamom-scented scones and Devonshire cream presented inside the petals of a flower, served with a cherry compote and a soothing blackberry sage tea.

That is followed by a third course of vanilla almond tea and a dish of petit fours: a remarkable apple rosemary tart garnished with a rose of sliced apple, strawberries stuffed with chocolate and ginger, and homemade pistachio toffee. The piece de resistance is a mascarpone tart enrobed in chocolate and decorated with a tiny white chocolate butterfly suspended from a chocolate swing.

The degree of labor it must take to create this intricate tea is astonishing, even more so considering that Nagami does it all herself. The drawback is the time it takes. You’ll need to devote at least 1 1/2 hours for Tea-In-Fusion, which is enough to try anyone’s patience even in these loveliest of surroundings. Note, too, that tea service is offered with a one-day notice.

Cafe Jardin is moderately expensive. Appetizers are $4.95 to $6.95. Entree salads are $8.95 to $9.95. Sandwiches and entrees are $8.95 to $11.95. Tea service is $25 per person.

BE THERE

* Cafe Jardin. 2647 E. Coast Highway, Corona del Mar. (714) 673-2261. Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday; tea 2:30 p.m. sharp Monday-Friday.