Got word that a new Mexican restaurant called SOL Cucina is slated to open in Newport Beach at the end of the month in the space vacated by Ristorante Mama Gina (251 Pacific Coast Highway, Newport Beach, CA 92660). Here are snippets from the website: “An open 'proscenium' kitchen with customer seating on three sides brings the immediacy and freshness of a beach taco bar to guests.”
Although most of the tacos I've eaten come from Santa Ana taquerias, most often grimy hole-in-the-walls with their own kind of “immediacy”, I can see the appeal of transplanting this food to more touristy surroundings. In my head, I imagine the kind of scene from those Carnival Cruise commercials (if they actually stopped in Mexico after the swine flu scare).
The place is headed by a cookbook author named Deborah Schneider. Her specialty is, of course, Mexican. Here's more from her website on what she plans to serve: “Pacific seafood and shellfish, wagyu beef, heirloom pork and poultry and locally raised vegetables in an array of antojitos (small plates) and freshly-made tacos as well as entrees like Spiny Lobster Paella, grilled wagyu beef with garlic spinach, and Caldo 7 Mares.”
And of course, there will be margaritas. Tiny umbrellas? Unconfirmed.
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.