Chaparosa Grill at The District in Tustin has closed. When it was open, the place was noted for its Caribbean totems, color-splashed walls, and numerous ceiling fans that swoop the air as if the place was in the tropics. A large framed photo of their bald chef, Tony Corke, a native of England, lorded over the room like a conquering leader.
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For a while, they touted a Recession Lunch Special, where $10 bought you
a soup or salad, and your choice of three selected sandwiches or a
linguine with tomato, zucchini and basil. But even then, I remembered
being one of only three parties in the large, spacious dining room during the
middle of a weekday afternoon. Now the restaurant has been gutted and any mention of the Tustin branch has been scrubbed from the restaurant's website.
The original Laguna Niguel branch of Chaparosa Grill still stands.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.