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AfterWork: The Bench in Fullerton

July 30th, 2012, 7:42 am by

Perhaps you remember a bar named Mikey’s?

Does Homer’s ring a bell?

How about O’Flannigan’s?

All three bars occupied the same space in a corner of a nondescript strip mall along Yorba Linda Boulevard in Fullerton. At different times, of course.

Well, Mikey’s is gone. Homer’s is long gone. And O’Flannigan’s? It’s real gone.

In their place is The Bench, Orange County’s newest sports bar.

The bar, which opened only 10 days ago, is hard to see from the street because it’s wedged into a corner of the shopping center, but it’s worth a look.

It has been remodeled from one end to the other. In fact, owner Dave Guerra told me that the only piece of equipment that survived the change in ownership from Mikey’s to The Bench was the pizza oven.

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AfterWork: AnQi in South Coast Plaza

July 15th, 2012, 10:58 am by

Every restaurant has a kitchen. Not many restaurants have a secret kitchen.

In fact, in an industry overrun with open kitchens, where diners can watch chefs perform their culinary wizardry, secret kitchens seem to buck the trend.

The House of An doesn’t really care about trends, and their customers are just fine with AnQi’s secret kitchen.

Click here for a photo slideshow of AnQi AfterWork.

We’re not kidding; the restaurant on the Bloomingdale’s end of South Coast Plaza has a secret kitchen that it is off-limits to patrons and employees alike. Only members of the An family are allowed in the secret kitchen, which has a window that is usually fogged over to prevent anyone from finding out how they make their legendary garlic noodles or their spectacular roasted crab dish.

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AfterWork: Incahoots in Fullerton

July 8th, 2012, 6:48 pm by

At most nightspots, the only difference between one night and the next is the size of the crowd.

If it’s a Tuesday or Wednesday, chances are it’s going to be a light crowd. Weekend nights will bring in heavier crowds.

But the patrons will be pretty much the same; just more or less of them.

The same can’t be said about Incahoots in Fullerton.

Click here for a photo slideshow of Incahoots.

First, the country crowd that fills the place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays isn’t even there on Thursday nights. On that night, the place transforms into an 18-and-older hip-hop crowd. You won’t hear a lot of Garth Brooks or Tim McGraw on Thursdays.

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AfterWork: Brix in Sunset Beach

July 2nd, 2012, 8:53 am by

In the land of my dreams, I don’t have to find a delicatessen when I have a craving for a great pastrami sandwich.

In the land of my dreams, I could find a pastrami sandwich at almost any place I looked, including a wine bar.

Sunset Beach must be the land of my dreams.

It has been the land of my dreams since I discovered the wine bar of my dreams – Brix.

Click here for a photo slideshow of Brix AfterWork.

Frankly, I don’t care that much about wine, but I do care very much about pastrami, and Brix may be the least likely place anywhere to find a really good pastrami sandwich. Orange County is so pastrami-challenged that I should have figured that I’d find great pastrami in the most unlikely place imaginable.

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AfterWork: Three Seventy Common in Laguna Beach

June 25th, 2012, 9:09 am by

Have you ever had the pleasure of drinking in Chicago?

It’s a terrific drinking town, populated with an assortment of odd but warmly inviting neighborhood drinking establishments.

I was taken to one such establishment in a residential neighborhood during a long weekend attached to the wedding of a softball teammate. Like many Chicago bars, the building was long and narrow. I don’t know why so many bars in Chicago are long and narrow, but in at least one, it accommodated two bowling lanes inside the bar. I don’t recall the food being extraordinary at that place, but I will never forget how the wall shook whenever a bowling ball crashed into a set of bowling pins. I also will remember the hearty drinks.

I recently was drinking and dining at the eight-month-old Three Seventy Common in Laguna Beach, and I was reminded of that night in Chicago.

Click here for a photo slideshow of Three Seventy Common in Laguna Beach.

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AfterWork: Cantina Lounge in Fullerton

June 12th, 2012, 12:15 pm by

Let’s say you wake up one day craving a big juicy burger for lunch.

Later in the day, you decide that you want to watch an Angels game on TV in a sports bar. And you’re now in the mood for tacos.

After the game, you want to let loose and go clubbing.

You could drive all over Orange County; or you could park your car outside the Cantina Lounge in Fullerton and never leave.

The four-year-old restaurant, on the former site of the venerable college hangout Off Campus Pub, is all things to all people – particularly to people who like burgers, tacos, sports bars and nightclubs.

Click here for a photo slideshow of Cantina Lounge.

And the best night to satisfy all those needs is Tuesday. In Orange County, Tuesday is taco day.

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AfterWork: Fleming’s in Fashion Island

June 4th, 2012, 9:51 am by

If you were in the mood for hot wings or nachos during happy hour, you’d have a pretty good idea of the type of place to go. I’m guessing a sports bar.

But if you were craving more exotic fare, like baked Brie in puff pastry or roasted mushroom ravioli, then you most likely would head straight for a high-end steakhouse.

Click here for a photo slideshow of AfterWork.

For the sake of argument, let’s say that you couldn’t live without a big juicy cheeseburger, but didn’t want to pay an exorbitant amount of money for it. It doesn’t take a genius to assume that you would opt for the former location. Those burgers at fancy restaurants can cost a mortgage payment.

Well, that sports bar might be the wrong move.

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, a fixture in Fashion Island for 14 years, is just the type of place to find the aforementioned baked Brie and mushroom ravioli. But it’s now also the place to get that burger you desire.

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AfterWork: Café Tu Tu Tango in Orange

May 29th, 2012, 7:19 am by

I may be going out on a limb here, but I’m pretty sure that there aren’t a lot of happy hour places in Orange County that offer customers an opportunity to build their own S’mores.

But at Café Tu Tu Tango, in the outdoor mall formerly known at The Block, making the dessert popularized by the Girl Scouts is just one of the things that make this place different.

Click here for a photo slideshow of Cafe Tu Tu Tango.

Opened 14 years ago, Café Tu Tu Tango resembles a Spanish artist’s loft, and follows through on that décor with a policy that assists local struggling artists. The walls are festooned with the works of those artists (all for sale), and there are various artists who use the restaurant regularly as a studio.

As for the cuisine, the restaurant specializes in small plates, with a range that runs the gamut from pizza and burgers to seafood, skewers and Roasted Pears (a house specialty).

There is an outdoor and indoor bar, and an ample happy hour that runs from 3-6:30 p.m. (Monday-Saturday), and 10 p.m.-closing (Sunday-Thursday). Besides half-off on beer, glasses of wine and mixed drinks, the restaurant offers a dozen appetizers at a reduced rate. Among the discounted items are the S’mores and the Cajun chicken egg rolls (another specialty of the house).

By the way, The Block is now known as The Outlets at Orange. New name; same Café Tu Tu Tango.

Photos and article by Barry Koltnow, the Orange County Register.

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AfterWork: Ten Asian Bistro in Newport Beach

May 21st, 2012, 9:06 am by

It’s hard to believe that Ten Asian Bistro has been around only seven years.

The trendy Asian fusion restaurant near the airport has been talked about so much and for so long that I assumed that it had been a fixture on the Orange County nightlife scene for decades.

Click here for a photo slideshow of Ten Asian Bistro.

The restaurant and adjacent nightclub, which was known as Tentation Ultra Lounge when it opened, was the place where the Real Orange County Housewives hung out (or so we were to assume from the TV show). Later, the restaurant and nightclub achieved an unwelcomed notoriety swirling around its previous owner. There seemed to be a perpetual dark cloud hanging over the place, and some of the troubles were criminal in nature.

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AfterWork: The District Lounge in Orange

May 14th, 2012, 9:01 am by

If you asked me for a nightlife recommendation, and I suggested that you check out the post office in Orange, you might think that I had gone postal.

But you would be assuming that I was talking about the current post office, and not the city’s original post office from the 1920s.

Click here for a photo slideshow of the District Lounge in Orange.

If you walked into the historic building that housed the early 20th century post office, you would find yourself in The District Lounge, which delivers on many fronts, but not the mail.

The District is a dance-and-DJ hot spot Thursdays-Saturdays, and offers one of the county’s only seven-day-a-week happy hours (2-7 p.m., with an extended happy hour on Thursdays to 10 p.m.). Regrettably, the bar has no food discounts during happy hour, but makes up for that with its popular Monday-night “Build-your-own-burger” offering, and the Tuesday “All-you-can-eat” tacos for $5.

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