Net-Scape

I remember the moment I decided to move to California. It was a Saturday morning in October six years ago, over breakfast at a Malibu place called Neptune’s Net.

I was out from New York to attend a wedding in Santa Barbara. Driving up Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles, I found myself marveling at the coastline’s rocky fascination, the way the shore pressed sharp and ragged against the sea. Back East, another stark winter was in the offing, but here I was surrounded by brown hills and hidden canyons, the Pacific blue and choppy in the foreground, wetsuited surfers bobbing among the waves.

A mile or so north of the Ventura County line, my friend suggested we stop for breakfast at a ramshackle establishment just across PCH from the ocean, and then everything fell into place. Low-key and slightly run-down, Neptune’s Net was delightfully funky, half-full of people who looked as if they’d just awakened or else never gone to bed. In short, it felt like home.

Six years later, the laid-back atmosphere at Neptune’s Net hasn’t changed. It’s still quiet on weekday afternoons when sun-blasted locals get together out front for a beer, low-key busy on weekend evenings as families eat early dinners before heading home from the beach.

Early in the morning, you can sit at one of the short plywood counters built into the front landing and sample the breakfast menu, which is served until 11 a.m. Although the fare is largely nondescript, the Western omelet, with buttered toast and hash browns, is fluffy and good, specked with bits of green pepper and small, thin squares of ham. The coffee, while hardly gourmet, is hot and caffeinated, just the thing to ward off the chill of an offshore breeze.

As for the amenities, don’t expect anything fancy. You serve yourself and pick up your own foam plates and plastic cutlery at stations both inside and out. But that just makes it easier to grab your meal and head to the parking lot, where patrons mill around motorcycles and pickup trucks or cross PCH to watch the surfers as they gather in the early hours on the bluff above the beach.

Inside are two dysfunctional video games and additional tables, as well as beverage coolers and the fry counter. An enclosed side porch is filled with picnic tables. Behind it, a separate room offers steamed shellfish, prepared to stay or to go.

The steamed shellfish is what to order at Neptune’s Net. You can pick your own crabs or lobsters out of wide, shallow tanks and buy fresh shrimp and clams by the pound. The Dungeness crab is especially delicious: flaky and moist, perfect for dinner with an ear of corn and bottle of beer. Served with only a cup of drawn butter and some tartar sauce, it’s as no-frills as anything else here, but when it comes to steamed seafood, less does seem to be more.

The jumbo shrimp, firm and sweet, are a good choice too, and the New England clam chowder, although a little heavy-handed with the butter, is perfectly decent. If you decide on Eastern lobster, ask the counterman to undercook it just a touch; otherwise it can be overdone. But because the steamed food comes entirely a la carte, you can easily put together a feast of all the fruits of the sea.

I don’t want to suggest that Neptune’s Net is worth a trip from L.A. just for the food--particularly not for the fry counter’s food, an ordinary burger-hot-dog-burrito menu plus deep-fried seafood. I’d carefully steer clear of the latter, whether in Neptune’s Net combo platters or as entrees. In stark contrast to the steamed shellfish, the fried seafood comes in a thick, lumpy batter that gives everything--shrimp, fish or calamari--the taste of greasy dough.

But if you’re driving up or down the coast, it’s a great place to stop. Order some steamed shellfish and check out the Pacific, or eavesdrop on the surfers and bikers in the parking lot. Who knows? You might even catch a glimpse of some soon-to-be former-out-of-towner at the very instant he decides to make his move.

Where to Go:

Neptune’s Net, 42505 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu (county line); (310) 457-3095. November through March: Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. April through October: Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Cash, Visa, MasterCard, Discover. Takeout. Lunch for two, $15 to $20. Dinner for two, $25 to $40.

What to Get

Western omelet, steamed Dungeness crab, Eastern lobster, steamed jumbo shrimp, New England clam chowder.