Weekend Escape: Laguna Beach : Surf ‘n’ Sentimentality : A Couple Who Have Been Visiting the Appealing Orange County Beach Town for a Quarter of a Century Come Back in Style

LAGUNA BEACH â€”  My first romantic weekend here occurred in 1969 when, as an 18-year-old, I brought my college girlfriend home to meet Mom and Dad.

The same girl and I recently returned to Laguna for another romantic weekend, marking the 25th anniversary of our first. We left behind two teen-agers of our own and set out to rediscover Laguna through the lenses of a couple married 22 years, tinted with fond memories of this place.

We checked in Friday afternoon at the Surf & Sand Hotel on Coast Highway, south of the heart of town. The local grande dame, Hotel Laguna, where we’ve stayed in the past, may exude an aging charm, but for exquisite comfort, it doesn’t compare to the Surf & Sand.

Our top-floor, oceanfront tower room was elegant and as fresh as the day it opened--or at least when the nine-story tower, constructed in 1969, was renovated along with the rest of the hotel five years ago at a reported cost of $27 million. The room was done in soothing beiges that delivered the colors of the sand below; a tabletop bromeliad offered a dazzling splash of red and green. On our walk-out balcony we toasted the sunset and watched sea gulls soar below us.

We began the first evening with cocktails in the piano lounge alongside the hotel’s ninth-floor restaurant, the Towers. We found ourselves looking up at the ceiling as much as out of the windows because the mirrors above us reflected the breaking waves below. Then before dinner, we strolled along downtown’s Forest Avenue, peeking inside the Mark Alan Gallery at the brilliantly colored acrylic portraits by a Russian artist, Vadik Suljakov.

On the advice of friends who live in Laguna, we had made dinner reservations at 5’0 (as in “five feet above sea level�), at the corner of Glenneyre and Mermaid, downtown. We were told--accurately, as far as we were concerned--that it offered the most exciting dining experience in town. Chef Michael Kang calls his menu contemporary Chinese cuisine. At 8 p.m. the restaurant was jammed but our table was awaiting us. Five Feet’s ambience was curiously contrary, both elegant and garish--as in the contrast between a single red rose petal on the edge of the black, gold-edged place setting and the pink neon house lighting. In the background, an epic soundtrack swelled, forcing everyone to talk still louder. Pop art decorated one wall.

We started with two appetizers: excellent coconut prawns over exotic greens with a Thai lime vinaigrette, and lobster giyoso (a dumpling-like dish) served with a tomato relish and crispy onions.

For the entree, Jeanne was drawn to a duet: rack of New Zealand lamb and Colorado lamb sirloin, served over stir-fried garlic chive, aged tofu, sweet onion and hot potato. I asked our server for her recommendation. The catfish is requisite for first-timers, she said. And it was, stunning both in presentation and taste.

Our post-dinner stroll took us into the Engman International art gallery on Glenneyre at Forest Avenue. Tucked behind the gallery is its outdoor sculpture garden, which shimmers tantalizingly with accent lighting at night but, sadly, must be viewed through a fence because it usually is only open during daylight hours, when much of its magic is lost.

Down Forest Avenue, the dinner crowd was giving way to the coffee-and-dessert crowd at the Renaissance Cafe. Patrons jammed against both the wine and beer bar and the coffee bar, and filled every table, including those spilling outdoors against the sidewalk. We were drawn in by the jazz-blues offerings of a harmonica-playing vocalist and his acoustical guitarist sidekick, and we were seated within 15 minutes. We whiled away nearly an hour over desserts, Mexicali coffee and Italian soda, enjoying people-watching even more than the music.

Saturday morning we called on an old friend for breakfast: the Beach House Inn, perched between Coast Highway and the beach, behind Vacation Village. The family-run operation has offspring in Rancho Mirage and Cardiff-by-the-Sea, but the Laguna matriarch is the most quaint of the trio, operating out of the one-time home of Slim Summerville, an original Keystone Cop.

Snapshots of a Saturday in Laguna:

The Laguna Village, a bluff-top collection of 21 small shops on Coast Highway at Legion Street, is largely forgettable. C’mon, toe jewelry? But it does offer an elevated Kodak viewpoint of picturesque Main Beach.

At the Fil Mottola Fine Arts Gallery, a block from our hotel, the manager brusquely insisted as we walked in that we buy only from local masters, such as the ones she represented, versus some rank amateur.

Western art and curios? Trails West Galleries on Coast Highway is a must, even if you don’t need another cowhide-covered piano.

We tried for a late lunch at Las Brisas--which I knew as the Victor Hugo Inn until 1979--but got there five minutes too late. Shepherded to the bar, we ordered chicken nachos--which were good--and margaritas that were too bitter for our taste.

Our walk along Heisler Park, which stretches along the bluff top north of Main Beach, was among the most relaxing moments of our weekend. Others must have agreed; along the pathway, couples cuddled on park benches or walked hand-in-hand while others tiptoed through the tide pools below us.

We thought of visiting more art galleries but instead retreated to our hotel room. Jeanne threw open the slider, adjusted the shutters and nested with a favorite book in the large chair. I napped to the chorus of a crashing surf.

Our dinner site, Sorrento Grille on Glenneyre, has the feel of a nouveau Italian villa; it is as wide and long as a 10-lane bowling alley, and--like Five Feet--just as noisy. But it offers upstairs dining: a balcony that runs above the length of the kitchen, then hooks around at the end. Our table, No. 52, offered a full view of cooks and diners alike, an excellent vantage point for people-watching and spying the most popular meals of the evening. Our favorites: the wild mushroom soup, which was better than fine; Jeanne’s garlic chicken breast grilled “under the brick,� and my vinegar-glazed pork chops, the house specialty.

For our final Laguna meal, Sunday brunch at Splashes, the beachside restaurant at the Surf & Sand, we secured an outdoor table 20 feet from the surf. The sky was a cloudless blue; space heaters eliminated any morning chill, and the meal--off a menu, versus a buffet--was exquisite.

We spent the rest of the day in downtown Laguna and chanced upon the Laguna Craft Guild’s outdoor show. (Another is scheduled for May 29-30.) We ended up at the Lumberyard on Ocean Avenue, which used to be a real lumberyard until it was converted into a collection of art and gift shops. Lo and behold, behind it was another coffeehouse: Cafe Zinc, just enough off the beaten path to have forged its success on the trade of locals.

I couldn’t help myself and ordered a coconut cream pie. Jeanne looked disgusted with me, so I got her a lemon bar. And by the end of this weekend, we were overstuffed copies of that cute couple 25 years earlier.

Gorman is a Times Metro writer.

Budget for Two Gas, valet, parking/tips: $33.70 Surf & Sand Hotel, two nights: $469.00 Towers drinks, Five Feet dinner: $97.35 Renaissance Cafe: $13.50 Beach House Inn, breakfast: $20.02 Las Brisas, nachos, margarita: $13.00 Sorrento Grille, dinner: $84.94 Splashes, brunch: $52.52 Cafe Zinc, desert and soda: $8.10 FINAL TAB: $792.13 Sand Hotel, 1555 South Coast Highway, Laguna Beach 92651; tel. (800) 524-8621.