- Overall 5
- Food 5
- Service 5
- Ambience 5
I am a California native from Orange County. By the time I was a teenager in the 1970s, I had been exposed to the cutting edge of food in America, when I spent my junior year of high school in New York.
After returning to California from New York, I very quickly discovered that the food I was looking for -- centered on fresh, organic, seasonal ingredients prepared in a way that brings out the natural flavors of the few ingredients thoughtfully chosen for a dish -- could not be found in Orange County, so I traveled to Los Angeles, Berkeley and San Francisco for the kind of restaurant experiences I had grown to expect. Alice Waters and Thomas Keller were my heroes. Los Angeles became my regular dining destination.
On a recent Saturday evening to celebrate our anniversary, we were headed to the Forum to hear Jeff Lynne's ELO, and as he always does, my husband asked me to take care of a restaurant reservation for the evening. This time, since we did not want to battle the traffic caused by the World Series, I researched places between Laguna Beach and Inglewood and was happily surprised to find a small, charming restaurant in Long Beach whose commitment to fresh, seasonal ingredients thoughtfully prepared matched my own.
Owned by siblings, Philip and Lauren Pretty, it has its own farm connected to it, much like my favorite restaurants in other parts of the world. From the moment we arrived, our experience was subtly and comfortably choreographed. The food on the seasonal tasting menu was well-prepared and delivered to our table by an attentive server at perfect intervals. Fresh bread was not an afterthought (as it sadly is in many restaurants today) it was instead, presented in the middle of the meal and provided a delight that I have not experienced since my mother's homemade bread in the 1960s. I also was delighted to experience a place where substitutions are discouraged, allowing the kitchen to prepare consistent delicious food to all.
