Old-Fashioned American Ingenuity

One thing is certain: Richard and Nancy Ayres get around.

The couple opened their first Cedar Creek Inn in 1976 in a converted store in Lake Arrowhead, only to leave it behind a few years later to open two Cedar Creek Inns in the Palm Springs area. Then they sold those two, opened a Cedar Creek Inn in Laguna Beach in 1989, another in San Juan Capistrano in 1996 and finally one in Brea last year.

Having dined in their downtown Laguna Beach restaurant a few times and come away impressed with its serious, fine-dining approach to American cuisine, I couldn’t wait to see what the new one was like.

The various Cedar Creek Inns have similar menus featuring prime rib, rack of lamb and homemade desserts, but each site is distinctive. Compare the Laguna Beach restaurant--a warm, charming neighborhood favorite across the street from City Hall--with the Brea Cedar Creek Inn, a large, cool place set in a sterile office complex. If you go to Brea expecting something like the Laguna branch, you’ll be surprised.

I certainly was. First of all, this place is big--just the bar and patio area combined could make a good-sized joint. And it’s much less homey in design than the other Cedar Creek Inns. With its long flagstone walls, high exposed beams and ruddy earth tones, the place looks like a modern version of a ‘50s ski lodge.

The larger setting is perfect for Cedar Creek’s approach. Only a few restaurants take American food seriously, Long Beach’s Shenandoah Cafe being the local standard. Cedar Creek treats such rock-ribbed dishes such as pot roast with nearly gourmet flair and in doing so demonstrates how our vast national culinary melange incorporates ingredients and techniques from other cuisines and develops them into a distinct style. So brie- and pecan-stuffed chicken breast, scampi and prime rib fit together seamlessly on this diverse menu, which, despite a few letdowns, can easily please even the pickiest diner.

There is some interesting flavor blending going on, especially with the appetizers. The crab-scallop cakes, quite good just for the reason that I could taste the crab in them, have the added kick of a tartar sauce with diced jalapenos. The zucchini fritters come with a crisp, light-as-air breading and a tasty dill sauce for dipping.

Even the smoked turkey Zuni rolls, basically brew-pub finger food, feature an interesting, if a bit too sweet, raspberry chipotle dipping sauce. And how many appetizer menus offer potato skins and ahi sashimi?

The entrees show similar diversity, from seafood choices such as Norwegian salmon, ahi, herb-crusted halibut and swordfish to meat dishes such as New York steak, pot roast, beef medallions and a prime rib of pork.

Recently, my wife and I tried two extremes--a grilled swordfish and that pork. Swordfish is prepared differently each evening here. On this night, it featured a papaya, tomato and cilantro relish and a bed of steamed spinach. (Another night, the swordfish came with a pineapple chardonnay sauce.) Swordfish is a versatile ingredient and went well with the sweet papaya relish, but we found that the steamed spinach worked better eaten separately.

I was intrigued by prime rib of pork, a cut I’d never seen on a menu. When my plate came, of course, I realized I had seen prime rib of pork before. “Why, these are pork chops,� I said.

“Yes,� the waitress said, “but these are the best cuts.� But not the best prepared, as it developed. Not even an interesting apple brandy-shiitake mushroom sauce could compensate for the fact that they were a little dry and overcooked. Cedar Creek’s famous beef prime rib is a better way to go.

On other visits, we enjoyed some fine meals. The brie- and pecan-stuffed chicken breast has a creamy pear-sage sauce that draws a fine nutty flavor from the pecans. The large butterflied scampi, served with capers and diced Roma tomatoes, make a delicious and festive-looking plate.

And the pot roast, with its red cabbage, crisp potato pancakes, creamed horseradish and chewy beef smothered in thick, rich gravy, is a tribute to hearty German cooking.

On the lighter side, Cedar Creek Inn offers about a dozen inviting salads, from a house green salad with sliced pears, pine nuts and shaved Jack cheese to an inventive mess called Marcy’s salad--a bowl heaped with chicken, greens, apples, blue cheese, red onions, cilantro, corn, spicy peanuts, ranch dressing and crisp tortillas. I was encouraged to find a proper, finely chopped Cobb salad, but the dressing was a bit vinegary.

Cedar Creek Inn makes a specialty of homemade desserts and offers more than a dozen choices. My pick is the warm Tollhouse pie, a devilish goo of dark chocolate and pecans in a flaky crust and topped with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

That pie is Cedar Creek’s signature dessert and has been a mainstay since the Ayreses opened in Lake Arrowhead, nearly a quarter-century ago. Even as the Brea restaurant marks a move to a bigger, bolder sort of Cedar Creek Inn, it’s comforting to know that some of the old favorites that got them to this point still have their place.

BE THERE

Cedar Creek Inn, 20 Pointe Drive, Brea. (714) 255-5600. Open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. weekends. Dinner appetizers, $6.50 to $9.95. Dinner entrees, $17.95 to $26.95. All major cards.