An Invitation to Irvine

By DENNIS ARP

Dec. 24, 2000 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

On a crisp December morning, the view from the 12th floor of an Irvine office tower extends for miles and miles. But inside the building, there’s even more to see.

Here the view stretches clear into yesterday.

The walls of the sky-high Irvine Museum offer a glimpse of California as it was a century ago: Wildflowers splay across undulating hillsides; waves crash on pristine beaches; fountains gurgle alongside adobe buildings. This is the Golden State, as captured by artists of California’s impressionist period (1890-1930), and it’s a blissful state indeed, especially compared with the bustle of modern life 12 stories below.

The paintings provide welcome respite from holiday traffic. Stressed out by long lines and short tempers? Take two landscapes and everything is likely to look a whole lot rosier.

Better yet, after viewing the landscapes, amble across Von Karman Avenue to Bistango, which mixes an eclectic array of contemporary art with traditional and contemporary American cuisine. It makes for a day free of artistic challenges but full of escapist enjoyment.

Impressionist Art

Think art, and the last thing that might come to mind is a shiny, sterile office building. Which makes it even more pleasant to find that amid the insurers and entrepreneurs just southeast of John Wayne Airport is the Irvine Museum (18881 Von Karman Ave., Suite 1250, [949] 476-2565.)

The museum reflects the singular vision of heiress Joan Irvine Smith, who founded it in 1993 with donated artwork, all by California impressionists. Her largess pays for a staff of four and means there is no admission charge.

Critics have called the artwork everything from historical to accessible, sentimental to insipid. At the very least, most visitors probably will agree, the paintings offer colorful transportation to, as Smith writes in a museum brochure, “a time long ago when the land and its bounty were open and almost limitless.”

The current journey is “Along El Camino Real: The California Missions in Art.” The exhibit features 53 paintings and 14 etchings depicting the chain of adobe structures that links California to its Spanish past.

Look southeast, and there’s Saddleback Mountain, providing a backdrop to the gleaming office buildings of Irvine. Scan the walls nearby, and there are works such as William Wendt’s “San Juan Creek Near the Mission,” in which Saddleback looms beyond terraced hillsides and a meandering sliver of water.

San Juan Capistrano, “The Jewel of the Missions,” appears often in the show, captured in dusky grays and blues by Sydney Lawrence, in firelight by Alson Clark and framed by bright bougainvillea and California poppies by Charles Percy Austin and Arthur G. Rider.

The exhibit is a magnet for fourth-graders studying California history, said Christine Leedom, the museum’s education coordinator.

“Busloads of seniors often arrive on Thursday mornings, when a docent leads a tour of the museum,” she said

The exhibit on missions continues through Jan. 20 and will be followed by “A Woman’s View: Paintings by Women Artists From the Irvine Museum Collection,” opening Jan. 27.

The museum is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Artistic Palate

The sculptures can be grand, the photography intriguing and the contemporary paintings pretty much all over the map--as well as all over the restaurant--at Bistango (19100 Von Karman Ave., [949] 752-5222.)

But the really deep artistic question posed on the first floor of the Atrium office building seems to be: Can anything in the fine arts match the joy-producing power of a top-notch chocolate souffle?

OK, so that’s not such a profound question, but it’s about as deep as we want to go as we enjoy our seared scallops ($24.75), New Zealand rack of lamb ($27) or porcini-dusted, free-range chicken breast ($17).

It’s not unusual for diners to get up from their entrees for a closer look at works such as Robert Landau’s photos of everyday life in Los Angeles or Don Fitzgerald’s glass, steel and ceramic sculptures. That pleases Karen Ghoukassian, who helps run the restaurant her father, John, opened 12 years ago.

“We view Bistango as a gallery as well as a fine-dining experience,” Karen Ghoukassian said. Irvine art consultant Antoinette Sullivan works with the elder Ghoukassian to put together the shows at Bistango, which display as many as 140 works at a time. All pieces are for sale, and a new show is organized about every three months.

“We consider ourselves a bridge between the artists and the community,” Sullivan said. “We have works by local and international artists; some are emerging and others are well-established. We had one artist come from Germany and he arrived carrying his paintings under his arms. They are always so glad to have their works shown here.”

Sullivan said more than one diner has turned into a collector after an evening at Bistango.

The restaurant is open weekdays 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch, then serves a bar menu 3 to 5:30 p.m. Dinner service begins nightly at 5:30, closing at about 10:30 most nights, about 11:30 Friday and Saturday.

Going Casual

Just looking for a quick breakfast or lunch? Two choices are within easy walking distance.

Checkers (19100 Von Karman Ave., Suite 190, [949] 752-8887) is also in the Atrium building and is just steps from Bistango. It features full and light breakfasts as well as soups, salads and sandwiches for lunch. The soups are homemade, and the salad bar ($4.25 a pound) offers more than a dozen items. Recommended: the meaty chili bowl ($2.85). Checkers is open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Across the street, at the foot of the office tower that houses the Irvine Museum, is Cappuccino Coffee House and Cafe (18881 Von Karman Ave., [949] 250-8662). Among its main attractions are breakfast burritos, tabouli salads and vegetarian sandwiches (all $3.75).

But the cafe’s most-identifying feature is its architecture. The tiny glass and stainless steel building looks like a cross between a lunar module and that spider-like contraption in the movie “Wild Wild West.”

“People call us the spaceship,” owner Matthew Davoodian said.

Cappuccino is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday.

If You Go

Getting there: Exit the San Diego Freeway at Jamboree Road and go south one mile to Campus Drive and turn right. Stay on Campus for a half-mile, then turn right at Von Karman. Take the first left at Martin and then left again into the parking lot behind a tall office tower, which houses the Irvine Museum.

Parking: Behind the building is a pay parking structure. The museum validates. There’s free valet parking across the street at Bistango.

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Irvine

1. Irvine Museum

18881 Von Karman Ave., Suite 1250

(949) 476-2565. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tuesday-Saturday

2. Bistango

19100 Von Karman Ave.

(949) 752-5222. 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; 5:30-11 daily

3. Checkers

19100 Von Karman Ave., first floor