“Westwood Coast, the newest culinary venture from San Francisco-based Proof Positive, debuted in early July at Triangle Square in Costa Mesa. Proof Positive now makes its debut in Orange County with Westwood Coast by pairing an elevated, chef-driven steakhouse dining experience with lively country entertainment on the Weekends.”
“At the helm of the kitchen is Executive Chef Jayro Martinez, who brings over a decade of culinary experience to the venture. Martinez has led as an Executive Chef in several acclaimed kitchens, including Mayfield in San Juan Capistrano, AHBA in Laguna Beach, Social in Costa Mesa, and most recently, at Dana Point’s Outer Reef and then Knife Modern Steak under the tutelage of celebrity Chef John Tesar. Westwood Coast is bolstered by a team of powerhouse hospitality professionals, including Chef de Cuisine Dan Perry, formerly of The Ranch, and General Manager Michael Ruiz of BOA Steakhouse. Westwood Coast presents a unique experience that artfully blends exceptional hospitality, lively entertainment, and bold American flavors with premium cuts of meat.
“Shareable starters are brought to life with locally sourced peak-of-season ingredients in dishes like the Grilled Spanish Octopus, which shares the plate with fried green tomatoes and crispy Smoked Duck Wings. Martinez’s signature Corn Ribs are reimagined with tangy lime aioli and salsa macha powder. Standout entrees include Short Rib Agnolotti with bone marrow and shaved Brussels sprouts, and Petaluma Fried Chicken served with herby buttermilk and hot honey.” The creative sides including Bacon Creamed Spinach, and Wild Mushrooms with Bordelaise and thyme are worth noting, too.
Executive Chef Jayro Martinez and General Manager Michael Ruiz continue as our guests previewing all the tempting elements that are Westwood Coast.
This is Anne-Marie Panerinkin, Culture OC's food columnist. You can follow me online at cultureoc.org. When I want the best in food and dining news outside of Orange County, of course, I tune into the SoCal Restaurant Show on AM830KLAA. - And welcome back. It is hour two of the SoCal Restaurant Show. And happily, we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 AM until 12 noon right here on AM830KLAA, the home of Angels Baseball, 2024. And you can also catch us on the AM830KLAA Angels app. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show, kind of putting it all together. My colleague, Chef Andrew Gould, will be joining us a little later in the show with his usual Ask the Chef segment. And we're enthusiastically presented each and every week by Melissa's World's Riety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats. We're heading back to Triangle Square in Costa Mesa and talking with the team that has just recently opened Westwood Coast there, only about five weeks into it. And we are speaking with executive chef, Hyrow Martinez and general manager, Michael Ruiz. Gentlemen, thanks for hanging in there. Hyrow, we wanna talk about food. So Hyrow, a chef of your level for a regular steakhouse that you would find in a hotel. You have too much horsepower for that. So you are definitely an acclaimed fine dining chef and you are bringing all of that to bear at Westwood Coast. Of course, you have a great selection of steaks, which we'll talk about in a minute. But there are a lot of items that you would not expect to find on a regular steakhouse menu. Things like a toothé, duck wing, Spanish octopus, but let's start out with something simple that you have executed very well, particularly because of the accompaniments. Very simple item on your menu that is listed as biscuits. Describe that for us, Hyrow, if you would, 'cause it's more than biscuits. - Yeah, of course. So that's something that it's familiar to our guests. It's something that when you think of Western, something of kind of Southern inspiration, your mind goes to biscuits. It's always a good accompaniment. Steakhouses are huge in bread service. So that for us was kind of our way of introducing bread service without going to normal route of a steakhouse with popovers or Parker house rolls, as I used to do with my last locations. So this one was just a way more fun way to bring in that element. And that is paired with three different sauces. So we actually, well, we're gonna do it with a cultured butter. We do it with a big in general, a big in house. It's just a seasonal farmer's market compote that changes just based on whatever fruits are owned. And it's just a good way to kind of experience different types of flavors as well with instead of it just being just bread and butter straight forward. - Chef, it is definitely more than just bread and butter. Now, Hyrow, you mentioned something interesting that I wanna expand on a little bit. Do you still personally shop at area farmer's markets? - Yeah, yeah, I definitely do. Myself and my chef to continue. We tend to visit right here. They call you Center in San Juan, a local down to Santa Monica to just, you know, constantly see what's coming up. It's a big part of the creative process for us is seeing what's upcoming and talking to the farmers, what they're working on, what's new and exciting, you know, 'cause you're not gonna, a lot of these things, you kind of have to be there to get them in person 'cause they're made in such small amounts that it's not a big mass produced kind of ingredient. So that's the biggest purpose of us actually staying active and going on the ground level. - But Hyrow, that's a commitment to quality that I wanna share with our listeners, which you just did. So I'm glad we got that in there. - No, that's a huge thing for us. You know, it's the quality of every single thing that we do where even just, they just said, you know, the biscuits. It's a farmer's market complex. It's like we're going to the market. We're picking berries or we're picking fruit. Right now we're moving into peaches and stone fruits. So that's kind of the same thing where we're going and you won't know what's good unless we're actually there actively picking stuff out. - You bet. Now, another item, you know, chicken wings are ubiquitous and they're fine for what they are. But you don't see duck wings on a lot of menus, particularly with a little heat. And I really enjoyed the duck wings. So kind of tell us a little bit about those chef Hyrow, if you would. - Yeah, of course. So that's actually one of my personal favorites on the menu. The idea of hearing that was that, you know, staying a little bit on the casual side of things where as Michael went over a little bit earlier, the whole persona of being a country bar, but also kind of hitting the notes of an elevated steakhouse, where it was something fun, where, you know, we are going to get people that are going to come in here and they are going to want wings or something like that. So we're like, okay, well, let's make it a little bit nicer. Let's give them a product that's a little bit better. So then it's a little bit more technical and fun for us to actually get in the kitchen. And with those wings, for instance, that's a whole two-day process where we're squilling them, we're smoking them, we're braving them, then we're frying them just so that we can get the softness of the meat with that crisp on the skin, ultimately. And then we're making this other soft stuff in the three-day process. So it's a very casual kind of this to the guests, but the technique behind it and just like the care that goes into every single batch. You know, it's one of my favorite things to make and eat on this menu. - Well, Chef Hyro, you know, it's a standout dish. It's a two napkin affair. It's a little messy, but, you know, it's-- - It's definitely required a couple of webinars. - But, you know, it is definitely worth the effort. Now, another menu item you have that is delicious, but highly Instagrammable because it's very distinctive. Tell us about the corn ribs that have been insanely popular at Westwood Coast. - You see a lot of those going out. - Yeah, yeah, so that's actually, that's like a really fun dish that I kind of started first working on at. Now, you feel there was one of those dishes that just like really took off something that's so simple. You know, may feel it was a lot more vegetable heavy. So I kind of still love maintaining that part of myself where I'm working with just like amazing products. And you just happen to run into some really good corn. And I was like, you know what? Ribs, it's a steakhouse, so it's a good option for vegetarians and then the whole seasoning behind it was really for my roots growing up in Los Angeles. And, you know, having these corn carts coming around with the same type of spices where you have the mayo, the chili powder, and the butter over it and the cheese on it as well. So that was kind of how that whole, all those components came together into a way more fun way of eating corn than just, you know, simply on a cup. - I would agree. And again, that is a must-order dish. Now, Hyro, you are a steakhouse. So we have to do justice to that. You know, let's go for the El Supremo. Why don't you tell us about the 28-day dry-aged ribeye? 16 ounces. That definitely is not for the faint of heart. - Yeah, so that's actually quickly becoming our most popular steak here, which is one that I'm like super excited for because we're getting it from a really great farm. So that 28-day ribeye comes from Flannery beef out of San Rafael, which is just up from San Francisco. So it's something that's local to us here in California and its Holstein cattle, which is the black and white cows. It's just an amazing product. They do the aging there. It's a father-daughter butcher team that just has been in this industry for numerous amounts of years and their work is just extremely high quality. Some of the best steak that I've ever had in my life. And that's actually my personal favorite on this whole menu is that bone and ribeye from them. You know, so we get it directly from them, shifting about twice, two, three times a week. And it's just incredible how quickly we're running through it. Definitely a good news problem. Now, before we run out of time, I'd like to bring Michael back into the conversation. Michael, if you could, just one more time go over days and hours and what meal service is going on. And of course, do mention brunch because we're on the weekend. - Yeah, absolutely, Andy. So we are closed on Mondays and Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we have dinner service from five to 10. Thursday night, as we mentioned at the beginning of the show, we have line dancing. So line dancing goes from 10 to midnight on Thursday. Friday, we have those extended hours again, dinner service from five to 10. And then we have the bar service from 10 to two in the morning. We will extend our menu to 11 o'clock if people still wanna order food because we wanna capture that crowd that wants to come in and drink. And if they wanna bite to eat, we have a limited menu that we can extend to 11 o'clock. Same goes on Saturday. So we open up from Saturday and Sunday at 10 in the morning till three in the afternoon for brunch and our brunch menu is phenomenal. I can't wait for you to come in and try our brunch menu, Andy. And then we shut down from three to five and we open up for dinner again at five o'clock. Saturday again, we have those extended hours from five to 10 is dinner service from 10 to two is live entertainment and/or a DJ. And that's on Friday and Saturday nights. Sunday, after brunch again, we close at three o'clock. We open up again at five and dinner service is in five to 10. I do wanna include on Sunday brunch, we do have a solo artist performing. And on Thursday nights, before line dancing, we have a duo performing for dinner service from six to nine. - Michael. - I think it's important to let our guests know that Friday and Saturday nights because we are open till two, we try to either book a DJ or a live band on those two nights. And I just wanted to throw that in there. - Great. Michael quickly as we need to say goodbye, what corner are you at in trying to go square one more time just so people have more of an identifier? - Absolutely. We are right on the westernmost point of the triangle square opposite of time nightclub in the Halloween shop. And we are right on the corner of Harbor and Newport Boulevard. You can't miss us. - Ladies and gentlemen, it is Westwood Coast newly opened in Triangle Square in Costa Mesa. We've been speaking with their general manager, Michael Ruiz and also their executive chef, Hyrule Martinez, definitely one that we will continue watching. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. When we return, it's one of the best artists and bakeries that is in the greater LA area, bub and grandmas, what a story. And they also have a bakery cafe that is pretty sensational. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show we're proudly presented by Melissa's World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats. Give us a minute. We'll be back. [MUSIC PLAYING]
