It Isn’t Madrid, But It Isn’t Hopeless : O.C. Eateries That Cater to the After-10 Crowd

Let’s get real. When it comes to late-night dining, we are not living in Madrid here. People in Orange County tend to dine at civilized hours.

But though most local restaurants are empty by the time the clock strikes 10, the situation is not as hopeless as you might imagine. Let’s say you’ve just seen a meaty performance by South Coast Repertory or a pithy 8 o’clock movie, and you want to sup in style. Or let’s say you’ve been working until midnight on that impossible project, you’re hot and grumpy, and you just want to roll up your sleeves and dive into a burger. You’ve got a baby-sitter you can trust or you don’t have an appointment until 10 the next morning. And things were so frantic that you haven’t eaten a thing since breakfast.

Well, surprise! There are restaurants of all shapes and sizes for after-hours dining in Orange County, where just about anything that strikes your fancy is being served. For this story, I’ve limited the choices to more familiar fare (a separate story spotlighting Asian restaurants is planned for a future date). Here is a short list of some noteworthy spots, and a few suggestions about what to eat in them.

Bennie the Bum’s Diner. Let’s assume that, for now, the fancy stuff is more than you can handle. It’s after midnight, and you’ve been working or doing some heavy partying. So you decide to head for the beach, and one of those oceanside diners like Edie’s, Ruby’s or any of the other late-night haunts that line Pacific Coast Highway clear up to Seal Beach. You clear your senses with a big whiff of that refreshing sea air, and then you head for Bennie the Bum’s Diner.

Bennie’s is one of those ‘50s-style diners with belligerent cooks and singing countermen, where people sit bleary-eyed in the turquoise booths waiting for their burgers with fries. Singles sit on turquoise stools at the pink-topped counter, staring down the giant Coke sign and the pictures of celebrities named Joey (Joey Bishop, Joey Heatherton) while waiting for service. No one is holding his breath, by the way.

The food at Bennie’s is basic but solid. There are a variety of classic American sandwiches; the Reuben, Philly cheese steak, hot dogs, burgers, and a delicious BLT. The chili fries are classic, a giant portion smothered in Bennie’s unctuous chili and gooey melted cheese.

Get there before 11:30 or so and they’ll cook you chicken, meat loaf, pork chops or other short-order specialties. If you request these dishes after midnight, the counterman had better like you a whole lot, or he’ll abuse you verbally for daring even to ask.

But there are always good milkshakes, a large selection of pies, a few soups and some soggy omelets. And the rather confused-looking crowd makes a fair bit of noise. In short, Bennie the Bum’s provides all-American, late-night entertainment, sort of like the Letterman show with catering. But if you’re after a classier establishment, read on.

Bennie the Bum’s Diner, 238 Laguna Ave., Laguna Beach. (714) 497-4786. Open 24 hours daily. Visa/MC. Food for two, $8-$18.

Gustav Anders. My unquestioned first choice for a late-night repast would be Gustav Anders, a sleek, sophisticated jewel of a restaurant that combines the spirit of a Paris bistro with the good sense of a Stockholm supper club.

The restaurant is centrally located, close to the Performing Arts Center and the area’s heaviest concentration of movie theatres. Dining there after hours is a joy. The restaurant’s “anytime we are open” menu features just the kind of light fare that goes down easy in the wee hours: several caviars, various smoked fish, innovative salads and elegant sandwiches. There is a superb wine list, full of top-drawer California wines and hard to find French champagnes like Salon, Cristal and Perrier Grand Siecle. And service, always deft and casual, becomes more relaxed and soigne when the crowds thin down.

Things are anything but sedate, however. The dining room is softly lit and its majestic beams recall a Scandinavian cottage. But a suave collection of art and sculpture makes the surroundings a challenge to the eye. And Thursday through Sunday, a pianist plays soft jazz, the better to sip champagne by and arouse your most primal instincts.

Should you desire something stronger than champagne, Maitre’d Bill Magnuson (Gustav) has added an aquavit bord-- an hors d’oeuvres table featuring several of candinavia’s celebrated, caraway-flavored liqueurs. The sharply lined, zinc-topped bar has been laden with goodies--oysters on the shell, carpaccio, house-cured herring, gravlax, even smoked reindeer--and the aquavits are potent and icy cold. It can all be had for one price, $22, a price I’d say was a steal. Just make sure someone else is driving home. Aquavit is definitely not for drivers, or wimps.

Gustav Anders in South Coast Plaza Village, the corner of Bear and Sunflower streets, Santa Ana. (714) 668-1737. Aquavit bord and bar menu served until midnight nightly. All major cards. Late supper for two (food only), $30-$60.

Cedar Creek Inn. Maybe you’re after a bouncier setting, one where you can get lost in the crowd. And maybe the grand dining experience makes you want to gag at this hour.

Well, at Cedar Creek Inn on Forest Avenue in downtown Laguna, you can sip, nibble, nosh and boogie to your heart’s content, and you don’t have to take it all so seriously. The restaurant is basically a rather conservative dinner house in the early evening, but after-hours it undergoes a Kafkaesque metamorphosis. Loud, live entertainment, mostly jazzy rock, is staged nightly. Don’t come here for intimate conversation.

It’s a dark, clubby room with lots of beams, Tartan lamps and latticed windows draped with fussy, flower-print curtains. Sit at the oyster bar where hungry night owls hunker down, or at one of the small tables adjacent to the stage. The bar menu is always available after 10.

The menu’s basic focus is finger foods--chicken strips, fried zucchini and sloppy, spicy nachos heaped with jalapenos. You can also have more upscale treats like fresh-shucked oysters, sashimi or crab cakes. Portions are substantial, not for those seeking a light snack. They certainly don’t skimp on oil or batter, the heavier components.

I recommend steamed clams, good and garlicky, or the big juicy burger, wrapped in paper like you’d get at a drive-in. Sweet tooths are in for quite a ride. There is a large dessert list filled with homemade goodies; Hershey Bar pie, boysenberry lush (a fruity cheesecake in a walnut crust), praline ice cream pie, and a brownie sundae topped with obscene amounts of whipped cream and hot fudge sauce. If that doesn’t get you wide-eyed, the restaurant makes an intense, artful espresso.

Cedar Creek Inn, 384 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach. (714) 497-8696. Oyster bar menu served until about midnight. Visa/MC/Amex accepted. Supper for two (food only) , $15-$25.

Mezzaluna. The artists among you should go for the brash, bright Mezzaluna, a new restaurant proving to be quite controversial. It’s a New York-style Italian trattoria with New York-style prices, open just over one month, and initial reports seem to dwell on its noise and inconsistency.

But the late-supper menu--pizzas, focaccia, salads and desserts--is a real winner. The pizzas and focaccia are made in a special, wood-fired oven constructed of yellow cotto brick, and the two dishes are as delicious as I’ve tasted anywhere.

It’s an informally colorful place with a tile floor and walls full of lithographs depicting various interpretations of mezzaluna, half moon in Italian. Owner Romano Molfetta has tried to infuse the proceedings with some authenticity (sun-bleached servers make half-hearted attempts to pronounce the names of the dishes in Italian, while the managers dress like fashion models).

Things quiet down after 10 here. You’ll see well-heeled locals airing out trendy libations like Nonnino grappa (a heavyweight Italian brandy around $16 dollars a shot), and couples exchanging loving glances over the marble-top tables. Pizzas are the thin-crusted, crispy type, with creative, unusual toppings. Pizza con scamorza e radicchio, with smoked mozzarella and lots of bittersweet radicchio, is terrific. Pizza with pancetta and onion is the perfect blend of sweet and salty.

Focaccia, an oil-rubbed bread with various fillings, is also featured and comes in eight varieties. Try tonno, pomodoro e cipolla, with tuna, tomato and olive, or ragu di funghi, a wild-mushroom ragu.

Wildly inventive desserts often miss the mark. A few of them, like melon mousse and carmelized pear tart, work well. But the house coffee is great, the cappuccino is foamy and the mood is stimulating. The jury is still out on Mezzaluna as a dinner house (for a full review, please see Page 24), but for late-night dining, it’s a welcome, sorely needed addition to the local scene.

Mezzaluna, 2441 E. Coast Highway, Corona del Mar. (714) 675-2004. Late-supper menu served from 10 p.m. to midnight, nightly. Visa/MC/Amex accepted. Supper for two (food only) , $25-$40.

The Arches. If you’re on a really heavy date, ready to move in for the kill with someone, you’ll probably want to sit real close in one of those dark, intimate booths that you can slide down into and practically disappear. The Arches, at the not-so-intimate junction of Newport Boulevard and Coast Highway, has just such appointments. It’s been there since what sounds like forever--1922, when the Romantic Period was still within memory. In case it is food you are after, the complete menu is available until 1 a.m.

It’s a surreal, intimate room that glows a somber red from chandeliers that would look more appropriately placed in a New Orleans bordello, and the walls are covered with splashy murals. Waiters wear stiff tuxedoes and do lots of table-side cooking. After hours, almost everybody’s wine bottles are upside down in the buckets.

Give partial credit to the restaurant’s killer wine list (since 1983, The Wine Spectator has honored the restaurant) and gaudy menu earmarked with refined elegance. Twenties-style dishes like lobster Thermidor and veal Cordon Bleu abound, plus exotica like frog legs, shrimp and crab curries, and the gamut of flambes . French-cut lamb chops are thick and juicy, and there is a luxuriant Caesar prepared on the cart served with garlic toasts. Most of the meats can be ordered with sides of Escoffier-style sauces like Madeira, Hollandaise and Bearnaise. Everybody takes the proceedings with the utmost seriousness.

Now that Chez Cary has cooked its last meal, The Arches is about the closest you can come to anachronistic dining in Orange County. In the grand days, when late-night dining was the fashion, this may have been no more than just another dinner house. Today, it stands alone. An institution.

The Arches, Newport Boulevard at Coast Highway, Newport Beach. (714) 645-7077. Service nightly until 1 a.m. All major cards. Late supper for two (food only) , $50-$75.

Belisle’s. Finally, the late, late supper: breakfast.

Those few who stay out really late may not be looking for a romantic corner to swish claret in a crystal goblet, and they may not want to fight a crowd, either. Maybe they just want some eggs.

Orange County doesn’t have a late-night deli for industry hipsters like Canter’s on Fairfax, or terminally cool Hollywood-style hangouts where a dude in Ray-Bans thumps an electric bass until dawn. But it does have a spate of all-night coffee shops.

Belisle’s is one you won’t soon forget. It’s a slice of Americana big enough to satisfy the most fulsome appetite, a metaphor for color and excess. If you can finish one of their super breakfasts, chances are you’ve been a very naughty camper that evening. If you can finish the Texas breakfast, 12 eggs and a 26-ounce steak, the Rams could use another nose guard.

Super breakfasts come with 32-ounce beverages, four eggs, a mountain of home fries and a choice of oversized hot cakes or biscuits with country gravy. A choice of meats is included too; like six or seven sausages, or a granite-sized slab of ham.

If you must stray from breakfast fare, there are giant sandwiches, bottomless bowls of salad and complete dinners served on platters that must weigh 5 pounds apiece. I merely nibbled on the hot turkey sandwich, mostly bland sage dressing blanketed with a pasty yellow gravy. Meat loaf is a better choice, a crumbly, tasty loaf that you won’t put a dent in. The barbecue is tasty too, particularly the beef ribs. Beef ribs at 3 a.m. are not everybody’s idea of a nightcap. Most of us have to work in the morning.

Belisle’s, 12001 Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove. (714) 750-6560. Open 24 hours , daily. Visa/MC accepted. Breakfast for two , $25-$40.