MARY FURR -- Dining Out

At last there is a real full service restaurant at the marina in Peter’s

Landing in Huntington Beach. Opened two months ago by chef and owner

Gerard Petito, the Chicago Grill comes as an answer to a prayer -- his

and ours.

It’s at a great location -- just off Pacific Coast Highway with lots of

windows overlooking bobbing sailboats. The decor adds to the charm with a

12-stool mahogany bar, tables and cozy booths with bead-fringed

Tiffany-style lamps. Each booth has a gold-framed painting of rainy

streets in Paris circa 1890 hung inside.

Petito, a North African-born Frenchman, was raised in his family’s

restaurant in Bordeaux. Upon visiting the Sunset Beach area with his

French Canadian wife, he felt this was the place for a restaurant of his

own.

The Chicago Grill, named because Petito said that city means great steaks

to him, offers French cuisine influenced by the recipes of Louisiana

Cajuns and the Vietnamese -- both areas the French settled. Petito calls

it “colonized cuisine.”

The Anaheim Bay location offers a nice lunch break with a menu of

sandwiches, salads and pasta. There’s Thai chicken ($9.95), a great

grilled chicken breast marinated in soy sauce with garlic and lime juice.

It is served on rosemary bread with fries or potato salad.

Turkey avocado ($8.95) is stacked high with tender breast on a wonderful

cranberry walnut bread with a side of pasta salad stuffed with celery and

carrot. The sliced avocado is spread with tomato and onion on a purple

cabbage leaf. A unique combination served with French flair.

The Chicago Grill burger ($8.95) is a huge, lean patty with lettuce and

tomato and the cheese melted on top of the bun. A fresh side included

honeydew melon, blackberries and raspberries. The burger was tasty, but

the bun could have been warmer.

Petito has a unique approach to every dish.

A great dinner special is the stuffed pork chop ($21.95). Served on top

of a pile of lumpy mashed potatoes, the thick, tender chop is slit to

hold a filling of goat cheese, cranberries and pine nuts. The goat

cheese, French Chevre, is pure white with a tart flavor -- moist and

creamy with big pieces of cranberries and loads of delicately flavored

pine nuts. The chop and potatoes come with a fine, dark mushroom gravy. A

medley of yellow squash, green zucchini and orange carrots add a touch of

color to a perfect presentation.

Fresh seafood is a specialty at the Chicago Grill, and our server brought

out a platter for selection. Swordfish ($15.95) was chosen and served

with a smooth, creamy coconut aioli sauce. Aioli is a strongly flavored

garlic mayonnaise from Provence, in the south of France.

Chicago Grill has something different in the way of takeout -- a picnic

basket for boaters in which your order is packed with dishes, wine

glasses and silver to be picked up before sailing from the marina.

Make no mistake about it. The name might be from the windy city, but the

food is not. This is a French restaurant in the grand manner.

Aren’t we lucky our prayers were answered?

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have comments or

suggestions for her, call (562) 493-5062.

FYI

CHICAGO GRILL

WHERE: 16450 Pacific Coast Highway, Sunset Beach

HOURS: Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and

Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9

p.m.

CALL: (562) 592-5966 or (562) 592-4546

FAX: (562) 592-1396

MISC.: Credit cards are accepted.