Adventurous Eateries

Just in front of Disney’s new theme park, California Adventure (more about that later), sits the mouse’s answer to Universal Studios’ CityWalk. It’s called Downtown Disney, and it will try to lure your liras with retail shops, entertainment venues and eating establishments.

Acting as a money-drawing Main Street that sits (admission- and gate-free) between Disneyland and California Adventure, Downtown Disney boasts a number of noteworthy places to eat. When DD officially opens to the public Friday, most of the restaurants will be open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Most will deal only in foot traffic, not taking reservations.

Two of the eateries were built by Joachim Splichal’s Patina Group and his new partners, Restaurant Associates of New York.

The latter controls Naples Ristorante, a casual pizzeria and cucina with a wood-burning oven inside and seating for 380 outside on its patio and second-story plaza. Naples Ristorante will focus on the cuisine of Southern Italy. The chef, Corrado Gianotti, will be making Neapolitan pizzas and pastas. Main courses top out at about $19.

Catal is controlled by the Patina Group, which runs L.A.’s Patina restaurant. It features a tapas and wine bar outside at street level that will offer 40 to 50 wines by the glass. The tapas will run $5 to $8 per plate. Upstairs, Catal will serve a full menu of dishes from Spain, the South of France, Greece, the Middle East and North Africa. Main dishes top out at $16.95 for lunch and $19.95 for dinner.

Consulting chef Octavio Becerra, who trains many of the Patina Group’s chefs, will be working at getting Catal on its feet. He said that opening a restaurant in the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas helped prepare him to deal with the kind of traffic that could come through Downtown Disney (which Disney officials told Catal would be an estimated 35,000 to 75,000 people per day). Catal’s executive chef is Brett Thompson, who has worked at Pinot Bistro in Studio City and DC3 in the Santa Monica Airport. His chef de cuisine is Ray Luna, who comes from another Patina Group restaurant, Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse.

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La Brea Bakery’s bakery-cafe will feature Nancy Silverton’s rustic breads, now found at Campanile and La Brea Bakery in L.A., as well as specialty stores and supermarkets all over Southern California. The bakery-cafe will serve sandwiches, soups, salads and coffee at tables outside its Craftsman-style building. Inside you can sip wine, beer or coffee at the counter or grab a to-go container.

The Brennan family, responsible for New Orleans’ historic Commander’s Palace, is opening Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen, featuring live jazz performances as well as traditional New Orleans foods. It’s made up of three dining venues. Downstairs is the quick-service Creole Cafe; next to that is Flambeaux, for table-service dining with entrees running from $10 to $24. Upstairs is the fancier Carnival Club, which features fine dining with reservations taken. Entrees there run $18 to $25.

A few chains have made their way into the Downtown Disney mix. The House of Blues will open another of its Southern restaurants here. Expect live gospel, jazz and blues music, and Southern food with lighter California touches.

At its second Orange County location, Rainforest Cafe has built another steamy atmosphere of waterfalls and tropical animals, dotted with tables and chairs. This “wild place to shop and eat” serves mostly standard American fare with tropical influences. Entrees run $9.50 to $22.99.

Now, about the new theme park. Disney’s California Adventure has three sections: the Golden State, Paradise Pier and Hollywood Pictures Backlot, with plenty of dining choices in each. In a first for Disney in Anaheim, alcohol will be sold inside the gates.

In the Golden State area, but accessible to people without tickets to the park, is the Grand Californian Hotel, which houses the Napa Rose restaurant. The chef will be Andrew Sutton, who hails from Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley. His California wine-country dishes should go with at least one of the 600 bottles of wine in the restaurant’s wine cellar. Magnums of wine signed by California vintners will be on display and for sale on the restaurant’s “wall of fame.” The display kitchen will serve lunch and dinner daily. The restaurant seats more than 200.

At the base of the park’s Grizzly Peak sits the Golden Vine Winery, sponsored by Robert Mondavi Wines, complete with vineyards, winemaking facilities, wine-tasting counters and a restaurant. Also in the Golden State area is Pacific Wharf, a loose replica of Monterey’s Cannery Row. Disney’s version will feature a tortilla factory set up by Mission Foods and a sourdough bread factory run by Andre-Boudin Bakeries.

Inside the Paradise Pier section of California Adventure sits a sandcastle-shaped seafood restaurant called Avalon Cove. Celebrity restaurateur Wolfgang Puck is the man behind this multistory eating establishment, which overlooks a faux bay. Seating 350, the restaurant and cocktail lounge are decorated to resemble an undersea world as seen through the artistic sensibilities of the 1920s and ‘30s.

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Restaurant Menu

Downtown Disney

* Naples Ristorante, 1550 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim; (714) 776-6200.

* Catal Restaurant and Uva Bar, 1580 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim; (714) 774-4442.

* La Brea Bakery, 1556 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim; (714) 490-0233.

* Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen, 1590 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim; (714) 776-5200.

* The House of Blues, 1530 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim; (714) 778-2583. (This phone number won’t be active until Friday.)

* Rainforest Cafe, 1515 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim; (714) 956-5260.

Grand Californian Hotel

* Napa Rose, 1600 S. Disneyland Drive, open for lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and dinner 5:30-10 p.m. Reservations recommended: (714) 956-6755.

Disney’s California Adventure

* Golden Vine Winery

* Mission Tortilla Factory

* Boudin Bakery

* Avalon Cove

All: 1313 S. Harbor Blvd., (714) 781-4565.