“Westwood Coast Steakhouse, 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 Steakhouse by pairing an elevated, chef-driven steakhouse dining experience with lively country entertainment.
At the helm of the kitchen is Executive Chef Jayro Martinez, a C-CAP graduate, 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 Texas-based celebrity Chef John Tesar.
“Westwood Coast is bolstered by a team of powerhouse hospitality professionals, including General Manager Michael Ruiz of BOA Steakhouse. Westwood Coast presents a unique experience that artfully blends attentive hospitality, lively entertainment, and bold American flavors with premium cuts of meat.”
A Dinner menu highlight is the massive 40 oz. Australian Wagyu Ribeye from Margaret River. The Korean chili glazed Duck Wings with sesame and green onion are worth contemplating, too.
Executive Chef Jayro Martinez is our guest to reveal all the diverse elements that are Westwood Coast Steakhouse and what he’s preparing (dual dishes) for the Grand Tasting tonight at Manhattan Beach Food & Wine.
The SoCal restaurant show is live from the West Drift, Manhattan Beach, an autograph collection hotel. Manhattan Beach is visited by 3.8 million enthusiastic tourists annually. And welcome back. It is the 12th anniversary edition of the SoCal restaurant show. We're proud to be supporting the inaugural Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival. The grand tasting is tonight right down the street. We are at the West Drift Manhattan Beach Hotel, an autograph collection hotel, who is the official hotel sponsor, and is also sponsoring our live remote this morning. And we have wanted for nothing. It is lovely to see a premium hotel that when they say they give great service, that they actually deliver that. Sitting across from me right now is Hyrow Martinez. Hyrow is very special to us for a couple reasons, but not the least of which is he is a sea camp alum, who has gone on to do well, very prominent in the Orange County area. He has opened some very successful restaurants in Orange County, worked with some very big celebrity chefs, and now has a new adventure in Triangle Square called the Westwood Coast Steakhouse. And with that is background, sitting across from me, it is a pleasure to welcome Hyrow back to the show. Hyrow, good morning. Hi, good morning. Thank you for having me. Well, of course. Now, Hyrow, we want to make sure that we sell out Manhattan Beach Food and Wine tonight. General admission starts at 7. There's still a few tickets available, ManhattanBeachFoodAndWine.com. Let's tease our audience, if you will, about what Westwood Coast Steakhouse is preparing for this evening. Yeah, perfect. So, for this evening, we put together a porquette with bread from La Brea Bakery, a roasted pork jou, sauce on the side for it to be more of a dip style. So, that's one that I'm really excited for. We get to kind of work with this amazing product and kind of just let the pork shine through for that one. On the opposite side of that, we have a short rib egg nullity with green apple that we're also doing. That's one that you will find on our menu consistently. So, we wanted to bring something that's more familiar with what we do in a restaurant and kind of showcase a big part of that as well. And you should mention, you sort of mentioned it, but you don't necessarily expect to have signature pasta dishes on a steakhouse menu. Yet at Westwood Coast Steakhouse, you do. And, of course, pasta is something, Chef I wrote that you're pretty familiar with in some of your previous fine dining restaurants. You definitely have the touch with pasta. Thank you. Thank you. Tell us in terms of pasta-wise, what else is on the pasta menu at Westwood Coast? So, currently, we have the short rib egg nullity that we will be showcasing tonight. Which is, I don't mean to interrupt you, but having had a chance to sample that previously, that is a standout dish, but you were saying. We also do a linguine with clams and an absence sauce that we make. We are currently working on a crab pasta and a spiny lobster pasta as well. So, a lot of a couple of fun things coming in and then it just gives my whole team just a chance to be creative and really see what fun stuff we can come up with working with these local fishermen as well out by the Dana Point Harbor. Chef, can't get any fresher than that. Now, you're very fortunate that you were teamed up with at Westwood Coast, a veteran general manager who really knows about service. Obviously, you know, the kitchen can be firing on all cylinders, but if you're not delivering on the service side, particularly for a premium steakhouse, because let's face it, you know, prime meat is not inexpensive. Tell us a little bit about the partnership you have with him. Yeah, so we actually do have an amazing team that we've put together, especially in the front end. We have our general manager, Michael, who comes from Boa Steakhouse out here, actually Manhattan Beach and, you know, literally right down the street. And our assistant general manager, Chris, who's just an orange county veteran, he's been there for the last 30 years of his life. He's operated endless amounts of restaurants out there and just created a lot of concepts. So between them, they've been able to build something that's very elegant in a way that, you know, the structure works with the way that service just runs through with the steakhouse. You want something that's a little bit more elevated, something that's more knowledge-based when speaking a guest, you know, it's a lot of work kind of telling the story to the guests, but also with that being a mechanical bow and house and a late night and live music. You have to maintain the fun aspect of it, which I think that they've done a really amazing job at just hitting both ends. Well, you mentioned something interesting, Hyrule, for your restaurant, it really has a bifurcated personality. And what I mean by that is, is during normal dinner hours, you are a premium steakhouse. But late at night, there's a transformation. So just mention that to our audience because we don't want people to get confused. Yeah, so we are a steakhouse from 5 to 10, and then on the weekends from 10 to 2am, we'll do either a live band or a live DJ, everything is country-based. We do have a mechanical bow, which operates, and it's actually, it's a real fun kind of part of the restaurant because, you know, you get this beautiful, amazing meal, and then you just go and jump on the bow. And it's right there in the entrance as you come in. You can't miss El Toro. Yeah, and it adds a fun atmosphere, which is a little bit different with your usual steakhouses. You know, we steakhouses have this persona that you have to be stuffy and sit upright and be dressed up and, you know, huge glasses of wine and big steaks and everything's just very gorgeous for with us. It's more the fun part of it, the setting, the vibe that you're in a western style film, even if I've heard before from some of the guests where it's just feels like you're somewhere in Montana. And it's adding a whole other layer to one, what Costa Mesa is, a more up and coming with the food scene. You know, there's a lot more chefs and talent coming out there. But for us, it's kind of taking the idea of a traditional steakhouse and what a saloon would be where it's a little bit more diving and kind of just mixing to and finding a good middle ground for both. So a lot of fun stuff going on there. Yeah, I would definitely a high energy level there. Now, as we're bound out of time, another unexpected menu item is, is of course everybody's got chicken wings, but no, you know that you need to have something like that, but it has to be elevated. So very briefly, tell us about your duck wings, which again, if wings appeal to you when you come to Westwood Coast, this is something you should order. Yeah, so those actually came off of the same thinking where, you know, you want something that is familiar and comforting for, you know, the everyday guests as we're transitioning into teaching people about different products and time of the step out of their comfort zone. You still want to give them a little bit of something that they're comfortable with. So, you know, what's more known than a chicken wing. So for us, we're like, okay, well, you know, huge fan of duck. It's, it's more we've worked with it a lot like in the French style of cuisine that we've done before in the past, but for us, it's like, okay, well, how do we make it more steakhouse friendly? How do we make it more bearish friendly? So we went through the whole process of, you know, it's a really complex dish when you really break it down. It's about a three day process. I don't doubt it. You know, we smoke it, we braise it, we fry it, we grill it, and then it just even the sauce product for it is a good two days to complete. So, you know, a lot of work, but it does have kind of like an Asian type flavor to it. You will get some smoke. You'll get some of the like grill effect, even though it's a fried item. So, you know, it's over. It's a really fun dish for us to make and for us to eat. Really, at this point, we're just making a lot of things that we enjoy eating ourselves. So, nothing wrong with that. I always, we need to say goodbye. We're in Triangle Square is Westwood Coast because this confuses a lot of people. Yeah. So, West West Coast, it's on the corner of Newport and Harbor. It's right on the corner spot. You'll see a huge 50 foot American flag and ginormous wooden doors. So you really can't miss it. And it's on the first floor. Right. And plenty of parking there. People get scared about that, but a lot of parking there. And there's no cost. So, again, don't be intimidated. Ladies and gentlemen, one of our distinguished sea capsule alums, Hyra Martinez, it's Westwood Coast Steakhouse, but you can see them tonight at the Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival for the grand tasting. Hyra, thanks. We look forward to following your progress. Thank you so much for having me. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. It is actually our 12th anniversary show when we return. The executive chef of Wolfgang Puck catering, Eric Klein, a long time frequent guest on the SoCal restaurant show. So it's very appropriate for Eric to be with us today. We're probably presented by Melissa's World Variety Produce. Give us a couple minutes. We'll be back. [MUSIC PLAYING]
