“Located in Newport Beach, California on the site of the old City Hall, The Mayor’s Table is Lido House’s signature dining venue. Featuring a focus on seasonal, chef-driven cuisine, including an open action kitchen, Mayor’s Table is both a premiere dining destination and neighborhood hot spot. The ideal setting to enjoy a leisurely brunch or a memorable night out with friends, Mayor’s Table is the perfect place for celebrations large and small”
“In May the restaurant debuted an all-new dinner menu, complete with experiential and tableside offerings. This overhaul marks the most significant change to the Mayor’s Table menu since its inception in 2018. From the collaborative efforts of Chef-Partner Riley Huddleston, Executive Chef Jonathan de la Cruz, and Chef de Cuisine Nicholas Escobar, the Mayor’s Table culinary team proudly unveiled a bold seasonal menu showcasing their take on reimagined American cuisine.” Service is gracefully overseen by hospitality veteran and General Manager, Quentin Gravet
“As Executive Chef Partner of Lido House, Riley Huddleston brings a decade of culinary power to Lido House, driving the hotel’s food and beverage concepts including The Mayor’s Table restaurant, Topside rooftop bar and lounge and Crew Coffee + Cremerie.”
“Earning his chops as a chef, mixologist, pastry chef and restaurateur in elite New York and Chicago establishments, Huddleston is known for elevating fare with provenance as the starring ingredient. Huddleston’s innovative culinary style blends classic French training with modern cooking techniques. At Lido House, expect precision and playfulness from a menu that fittingly take cues from the hotel’s enviable waterfront in Newport Beach, offering a refined yet stylish celebration of Southern California’s coastal lifestyle and cuisine. The Mayor’s Table, positioned to be a Newport Beach hot spot, manifests a pacific pub-style vibe offering inventive cocktails and seafood- oriented fare including an open action kitchen.”
Executive Chef Jonathan de la Cruz and General Manager Quentin take a 2nd break from service to continue with us.
This is your captain speaking. I'm honor Jatin, captain of Holland America Line, MS Master. You're listening to the so-called restaurant show on AM 830 KLAA. And welcome back. It is our two of the SoCal restaurant show. And we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 AM until 12 noon, right here on AM830 KLAA, the home of Angels Baseball 2024. And the halos are on the road playing the nationals. Second game in the three game set and opening to even things up. And you can also catch us on the AM830 KLAA Angels app. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show. Welcome back. And we're enthusiastically presented each and every week by Melissa's World Variety produce and West Coast prime meets. And be sure to be listening in our 1130 segment. We're going to be talking about the hatch pepper season, which is now on for the next six weeks, but you will have your opportunity to enter our little Instagram contest very easy where the prize is the hatch pepper gift tray from Melissa's $75 gift that they will ship to you free. So if you're into hatch peppers at all, this is one that you will definitely want to be part of. We're journeying back to Newport Beach, specifically Lido House, an autograph collection property. And we're talking about their destination restaurant, the mayor's table, which is really something special. And we have the team with us, that being executive chef Jonathan De La Cruz, in general manager Quentin Grivait. Gentlemen, thanks for hanging in there and welcome back. Let me bring, if I can, Jonathan back into the conversation because Jonathan, we definitely need to talk about the food. You have a very playful starter that I know our audience will enjoy hearing about. And when you see it on the menu, you kind of look at it and say, hmm, tell us about the banana and caviar service. Yeah, so the banana and caviar service, definitely one of our favorites, right? It's two would have thought to put those two teams together. But yeah, we partnered with protrusion caviar. And it's something that's one of the world-class caviar, our personal favorites, that we paired with banana, right? Which is minus chef Riley's, you know, go to as far as, you know, dessert or, you know, just something to really incorporate food in. So, you know, conversational is how can we combine these two things and really create something that's very special and very unique. And that would just be something to showcase, hey, this is what you're in for when you're here at Mayor's Table. So, we took bananas and probably used them four or five different ways. You know, the caviar first, not only is it sort of in a tuna tin, but, you know, we have a really nice roasted banana butter that, yeah, she takes bananas, whole bananas. We roast them in the oven for about two, three hours, and we do what's called demi-fect, right? So, we cook all the water out of it, which concentrates the banana flavor. So, we're able to extract that from the roasting process and cooperate that in some house-turned cultured butter. And we'll add that a little bit to the bottom of the tuna tin there. We have some Thai bananas and chives, finished off with the protrusion caviar, and that is served with banana balini. So, it's really just a wonderful bite that, I think, really shines, especially at the beginning of the mill. >> Well, Jonathan, great fun and a good item to share. And as you say, a great way to start. We'll talk about this with Quentin, but there's a lot of table-side service at the Mayor's Table, which you don't see a lot anymore, but which is definitely a nice touch. Tell us about the presentation, if you will, Jonathan, of the Weiser Farm Beat Tartar. Because that's a lot more than just what the menu description is. And it's very dramatic when it's presented at the table. >> So, the beat tartar, it's super unique and super special to us. We, and kind of going back to the table-side service, that's something we take a lot of pride in. And you'll actually see a lot of the chefs, or as we call them, white coats, out in the dining room better. Not only running the food sometimes, but we'll showcase the food and fashions as the Weiser Farm Beat Tartar. This dish, we created, being very, I've seen it in California and having such a broad season where there's so much available at our defense here. We wanted to create a tartar that was, it had the flavor profile of, as you expect, a beat tartar, right? The egg yolk and the mustard and the humami, so we both the beats, right? The presented season, a way you would attribute to a beef tartar with some onion oil, some sous vide egg yolk, a little bit of absence mustard from France. And the chefs would go to the table, we kind of explained the dish and talk about it and the story and the creation behind it. And we have a stipend where we are able to aerate some goat cheese. And the goat cheese moves, we add to the stipend and we aerate it with some CO2 and we're able to frost our foam mat right over the goat cheese. So it's really a fun sighted feed and adds so much to the dish. >> And, again, absolutely delicious. And what a great way to experience beats directly from the farm. Bringing Quentin back into the conversation. Quentin, I want you to talk a little bit about your wine list. And also, a lot of your cocktails are presented table side. If you could tell us a little bit about that, that would be great. >> Correct, correct. So for the cocktail, we just recreated the whole cocktail list. I will say, like two months ago now. We decided there was the food to have multiple items that we do. Turbo serve was like a nice touch, that with a smoke at the table or like a best tequila and soda, so that the soda and the tequila will be put together, put together, add the tables, nice presentation, nice touch. As you mentioned before, having either the chef or the manager coming to the table and doing that for the guest is one of the service test plans that we want to bring to the show. We want to have that first introduction from the hotel, from the appetizers, add the table. >> No, no, it's definitely a nice touch, Quentin, and it definitely elevates you. Now, a great way to experience the mirrors table for a special occasion is the Dine Like a Mayor menu. Quentin, can you explain what that is? >> Well, that's a chef, Jonathan, special there. >> Oh, then maybe you want to let Chef Jonathan talk about it. Jonathan, you're on. >> Yeah, of course. So, Dine Like a Mayor, right, of course, being made in the mirrors table, found it on the old City Hall, right is our way of showcasing what we're about, right? It's where the guests can sit back, just relax, you know, they'll let us know their preference, say we like a lot of seafood, or we like a lot of vegetable, and we are able to create a menu that would fit within the parameters that allow us to have fun and showcase the best of the best, and really who we are as a restaurant, and really create that memorable experience. >> You have some fun desserts, too, Jonathan, that we don't want to neglect. Everybody is looking for a very decadent chocolate experience, typically. Tell us about the Bruce. >> Yeah, so the Bruce, it kind of goes back, I think, to mine and the chef's kind of childhood. There was seen by this movie, right, that came out, I think it was in the '90s, but it was called Matilda. And there was a portion of the scene where there was a student, his name was Bruce, right? He got in trouble for eating the principal's chocolate cake. Later on in the movie, it shows the chocolate cake, and it's a huge chocolate cake. It's probably a four-man cake, like the whole, and it was such an experience for the student that his cake was covered with chocolate, and it was just so much. We wanted to kind of recreate an experience like that, so here we made a 13-layer chocolate cake that we cut it down for service before it's cut down. The cake is probably about 18 by 15 inches, it's a monstrous cake. Three portion down is glazed with a chocolate mirror glaze, chocolate mousse, and a super decadent dark chocolate powder. So the experience is you kind of get that all-American chocolate cake that is, you know, different, it's layered, and there's different textures and different components, but it's definitely a very chocolatey experience. >> Well, and Chef, it's one of those chocolate experiences that it looks great on the plate, but it's also properly decadent. And sometimes, showy desserts don't deliver the goods in terms of flavor. So the Bruce is one that wins on both points. Is we're about to run out of time, I want to bring Quentin back into the conversation. Quentin, what is the website to be able to see the current menu for the Mayor's Table at Lido House, and then just one more time, you know, where you are in Newport Beach? >> Yeah, the Mayor's Table and Kitchen, so you can find it at the Lido House Hotel.com or Mayor's Table.com as well, so both will redirect to Mayor's Table. And we are on Newport Boulevard, 3300 Newport Boulevard and Newport Beach. >> Hard to miss. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're looking for a fine dining experience that really delivers the goods, you couldn't do much better than the Mayor's Table Pacific Pub and Kitchen in Lido House, boutique hotel in Newport Beach. There's also an incredible rooftop that at night, the 180 degree view that you get from up there is pretty spectacular and a lot of great libations. We've been talking with the Executive Chef of the Mayor's Table, Jonathan Day-Le-Crous and the French General Manager, as you recognize, Quentin Grivet. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. When in return, we're going to Inglewood in Los Angeles County for 1010 wine and events. It is the SoCal restaurant show. We're proudly presented by Melissa's World Variety Proters and West Coast Prime Eats. Give us a minute. We'll be back. [MUSIC PLAYING]
