Chef Amar Santana is opening Vaca while competing on ‘Top Chef’
Amar Santana during a special opening for his new restaurant, Vaca at South Coast Plaza’s Park Tower in Costa Mesa, in December. Santana also owns and operates Broadway by Amar Santana in Laguna Beach.
Fans of chef Amar Santana are now able to dine at his new Spanish steakhouse and bar, Vaca.
Santana and business partner Ahmed Labatte, who collaborated in 2012 in opening Broadway by Amar Santana, the popular American cuisine restaurant in Laguna Beach, reunited to open Vaca in Costa Mesa.
The new restaurant, which offers traditional Spanish dishes and a selection of steaks from grass-fed Argentinian beef to Japanese Kobe, focuses on small and shared plates. The menu, listing items in Spanish and English, also features chicken croquettes, smoked chicken with foie gras, four types of paella and bocadillos, or Spanish sandwiches.
“There’s nothing like this,” Santana said during an introduction Tuesday night for about 300 people, including members of the media. “Orange County is not a culinary destination, and I want to change that. I love feeding people and making people happy, and I can’t wait to get to work. It’s all falling into place.”
The restaurant, across from the Westin South Coast Plaza, will officially open Saturday. It will offer only dinner until February, when the restaurant plans to add lunch Mondays through Fridays.
The space will be able to seat 125 indoors and outdoors on two patios.
The focal point of the restaurant is the dining room, with its high ceilings and open view of the chefs in the kitchen, which has a wood-burning grill. At Broadway, guests can also overlook the activity in the kitchen.
“We like people to be interactive and for them to be curious and comfortable and ask questions when they see food being made,” Labatte said.
But all eyes at Vaca may well be fixated on the jamon de bellota, a pure, Iberico acorn-fed ham perched on a wooden ledge as part of the charcuterie station. A leg costs $1,000.
“We wanted this to be a fun place and not be pretentious,” Labatte said, explaining that the food overall is less costly than the real high-end restaurants like Flemings.
Santana and Labatte’s vision for Vaca was influenced by their six-week trip to Spain and Morocco, where they saw how the region’s history shaped traditional and modern Spanish cuisine.
The bar will offer close to 100 Spanish wines as well as a few California choices, craft cocktails and specialty gin and tonics.
Guests who had known Santana and were frequent customers at Broadway said they were looking forward to trying his second restaurant.
“He’s the best,” said Elizabeth Jocson, whose husband Carlito is corporate executive chef with the Yard House chain of restaurants. “He serves the best.”
“It has a fun vibe,” said Michael Cho, who said he has been a fan of Santana’s food since Santana worked at Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale’s South Coast Plaza.
Transforming the Orange County culinary scene into a food destination has been Santana’s mission since opening his successful flagship restaurant in Laguna Beach.
Santana was born in the Dominican Republic, and at age 13 moved with his family to Queens, N.Y. During his sophomore year in high school, he was placed in a cooking course sponsored by Careers through Culinary Arts Program sparked his interest in the culinary industry.
Three years later, he interned at Chanterelle, one of New York’s famous French restaurants. It closed after 30 years.
Soon after finishing studies at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., Santana was running the kitchen of Charlie Palmer’s first Southern California restaurant, Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale’s South Coast Plaza.
He’s currently competing in Season 13 of the Bravo television network’s cooking show, “Top Chef,” which began Dec. 2. He said that because of confidentially agreements, he can’t reveal details about the competition.
“It was awesome, crazy and a lot of fun,” Santana said. “But now I can get back to this and I’m enjoying the ride.”
Vaca is at 695 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.
