Art of the vine
Mary Kittrelle likes food, wine, music and paintings, and you'll experience her exquisite taste in all four when you visit CasaVino in downtown Long Beach
Wine, women and song. Whichever prehistoric man first came up with that idea must have been a genius.
In those long-ago days, all there was to eat were grubs and weeds, and when you came home from work, the only thing on the wall were some primitive cave cartoons.
But the humans of today are more complex. They want good things to eat and delicious eye candy. So Mary Kittrelle added "food" and "art" to the ancient equation for happiness.
Actually, she also subtracted "women," but I can understand that because women today are too expensive. Only kidding.
So if you're strolling down Pine Avenue in downtown Long Beach and head south across Ocean Boulevard and on down the hill, look up and you'll see it's all there for you at a storefront at 51 S. Pine. The sign overhead says: "Wine, Art, Music & Food." It's CasaVino, and there's nothing else like it in this area.
Kittrelle used to work in corporate finance for Avery Dennison in Pasadena, and wine was her hobby. "I was going to wine tastings at various wine shops," she said in a phone interview this week, "but it would be like in the back room of the shop, so there wouldn't be much atmosphere, no comfortable seating and no food to speak of. Despite all that, they would sell out. People would just flock to these things."
Her epiphany came when she visited a wine bar in Los Angeles: "I said, 'Wow! This is what I like. This atmosphere is what I like. And there needs to be more of them.
"It was a time of my career where I was looking for the next opportunity. I have an MBA from UCLA, so I always had an interest in business, and I was looking to expose myself to other facets of business."
Kittrelle's niece is an artist and was attending Cal State Long Beach. Through her, Kittrelle came to downtown Long Beach and was excited by the redevelopment and the arts community. Her concept was to expand on the wine bar format by offering more food and incorporating art. "And the real estate was cheaper, honestly," she said.
She settled on an empty store that had once been a day spa, and "with all the delays," it took her a year to get ready. She finally opened in January.
I first visited her place many months ago and enjoyed the cuisine of Chef David Escandell. Just when I was ready to review it, the chef moved on, and the new chef Robert Buck naturally changed some things and began cooking his way. So I waited to see what would happen.
Well, not really much happened. The food is slightly different but still excellent, and the service and ambience is as pleasant as ever. When I ate there, only two entrees a night were offered, for about $16 to $20. Now there are four, and Buck says that soon this will be expanded to six. This does not include the selection of individual gourmet pizzas.
Everything I tried at CasaVino ranged from good to excellent, including:
Flank steak. Fresh steak is marinated overnight in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. It's sauteed to order in olive oil and butter and cut in "ribbons," according to Buck. "If you think of flank steak as a hand, you cut it so that the fingers open."
Polenta. The steak is served on top of polenta, corn meal that is cooked in a double boiler with butter, olive oil and salt. It's put on the plate, and then blue cheese is crumbled over it, and the steak goes on top. So the cheese melts between the steak and polenta.
Baby spinach. The steak plate has one more element, a ring of "gently sauteed baby spinach," as described by Buck. Baby spinach is "the young leaf of the spinach that has a sweet, tenderer texture," said Buck. "The stems aren't as long." By "gently sauteed," he means that the olive oil is not heated up before the spinach is added. The oil and spinach are combined, put on the burner and heated up together.
Chicken paprika. This was great in the version by the previous chef and also terrific a la Buck. An 8-ounce chicken breast is butterflied and browned on both sides in extra virgin olive oil. Then it's oven-roasted. The drippings from the chicken are combined with dry white wine, paprika, caramelized onions and roasted red bell peppers to make the sauce.
Oven-roasted potatoes. These come with the chicken. They are "usually russet, because the flavor is heartier with the chicken." They are roasted with rosemary, olive oil and paprika.
Toasted formaggio. One of the many interesting "small bites" — call them appetizers or tapas if you are confused — they are made from baby brie that's topped with honey and fresh slivered almonds, then toasted in the oven and served with a garnish of baby greens - a blend of organic red and green romaine, red and green oak leaf lettuce, spinach, mizuna, arugula, frisee and radicchio — Jana gold apples and multi-grain crackers.
Mixed green salad. This is the same greens, plus julienne red onions and fresh Roma tomatoes, tossed in a light vinaigrette. It costs $5 a la carte, but if you order an entre, you can get one for $2.95.
Caesar salad. Hearts of romaine are mixed with homemade croutons — pieces of French baguette covered with paprika, infused with olive oil and baked — freshly grated Parmesan cheese, black pepper and a Caesar dressing from a purveyor. Buck is working on his own Caesar dressing and promises to premiere it in January.
Stuffed tomatoes. The halved and cored Roma tomatoes are mixed with fresh oven-roasted garlic, basil pesto from a purveyor (Buck also has plans to make this from scratch) and sun-dried tomatoes, then topped with goat cheese and baked in the oven.
Croustades. This appetizer is made from white bread that's toasted with olive oil and cut into round pieces. The pieces are topped with caramelized onions and disks of goat cheese.
Chocolate mousse cake. It's from a purveyor, and it's a tasty version and popular with chocolate lovers like myself.
Buck was born and raised in Long Beach and attended Hoover and Jordan. His first job in a restaurant was at 15, and he's made pizza for the Italian Brewery in Huntington Harbor, cooked soups from a coffee base at the Dockside Brewery in Marina Pacifica, and made stuffed mushrooms at Limerick's.
For six or seven years he dropped out of creating food to do construction, sales, poetry and music, but CasaVino drew him back to kitchen creativity.
You can enjoy Buck's creations with Voss mineral water or sparkling apple cider, but if you appreciate wine, CasaVino is twice as much fun.
There are many wines by the glass available. "My philosophy is I like variety," says Kittrelle, "so we try to get wines that represent different regions of the world, not just California wines. We have different varietals (from different grapes) and different prices." A glass can vary from $5 to $15, and bottles from $20 to mid-$60s.
It's fun tasting the different wines from everywhere, but even more fun are the flights. These are 2 to 2 1/2-ounce samples of three or four wines, arranged on a platter the way they are listed on the menu, that are arranged around a theme, such as Italian whites or Spanish reds. "It gives people an opportunity to compare and contrast different wines," said Kittrelle. "It gets people talking about the wine and sharing their experiences and their opinions." The wine flights are usually around $10 or $11.
The art is by local artists, usually one or two at a time. The art is changed every two or three months, and all the artwork is for sale.
As for music, that takes place almost every Saturday in the form of an acoustic guitarist and vocalists singing mostly folk and pop tunes. There's so much musical talent in this area, that the quality is pretty high. On the first Friday of the month, there is a jazz guitarist. "When we don't have live music, we play our iPod shuffle," says Kittrelle.
Do you like wine, art, music and food? Do you like them even better if they're all good, all in one place and offered in a friendly, unpretentious atmosphere? Then there's finally a place for you in downtown Long Beach: CasaVino.
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The location at LB has the ocean which is SUCH A nice perk!
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