Navigating One’s Way Around Restaurant Charlie Palmer
Posted on March 16, 2009
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I reveled at a 65-inch Bang and Olafson plasma and a 60-inch Pioneer Elite plasma television, both magnificent but basically out-of-reach. costly electronic marvels, but mainly I journeyed to Bloomindale’s at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., to sample the fare at the relatively new Restaurant Charlie Palmer. My wife and I had dined a few years back at his Aureole in Las Vegas for my wife’s birthday, and it turned out to be a magnificent experience in all regards, food, service, ambience and overall satisfaction. We wanted to see how things were at his new venue.
The economy being what it is, and I being on poverty’s doorstep, I couldn’t really justify another of those expensive dinners like we had in Nevada, so we took advantage of the restaurant’s Fashion Plates lunch menu, prix fixe at $26 per. Must say, it wasn’t very memorable, though my lamb (which I rarely eat) tasted fairly good, if a bit too fatty, and my wife’s fish tasted like, well, grilled red snapper, but it came with a strangely sweet red sauce that didn’t complement it well at all. However, I’m sure if we ordered off the regular menu, we could find some heavenly delights.
Since after lunch my wife insisted on shopping (with little to no money) at one of the nation’s more expensive destinations, I had time to kill, and after experiencing the aforesaid television treats, I headed back to the lounge at Charlie Palmer, where I discovered some secrets to uncovering the magic of the place.
First, let it be known that there’s a happy hour commencing everyday at 4 p.m. (and again at 10 p.m. after the concert hall/theater gets out across the street).during which wine is half priced (thankfully, because I really overpaid for wine at lunch). Also, you can get three plates of food at reduced price, including the one I’d ogled on the menu at lunch and almost ordered–the Angus beef sliders with french fries, just $9 at happy hour!
Another secret, if you go on Mondays, you can buy whole bottles of wine for the retail price, which in some cases is fa airly substantial savings off the wine list. (The restaurant also has a wine retail license and sports a wine shop called Next Vintage.)
Tomorrow, on St. Patty’s Day, the lounge is serving up some terrific sounding Irish menu items. I may well journey back for that, especially if my local pub is filled to the gills, as Irish Pubs are wont to do on their patron saint’s day.
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