Wooing a wider audience

When I heard that big changes had been made at NeoMeze, I was concerned about removals, replacements, altered states and altered steaks.

After its opening last year, I had liked the place the way I found it: cool, gracious, without pretense, with a tasty new crop of small plates served late into the evening. It offered a beach party array of cocktails and appropriate lounge entertainment that seemed to be doing wonders for Pasadena's nightlife.

NeoMeze
20 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 793-3010
www.neomeze.com
Full bar/Dinner only/Late night dining

Why tamper with a good thing? "Only to make it better," said Hagop Giragossian, partner and general manager. "Our lounge menu was doing OK, the bar was busy and there were good crowds for entertainment, but there weren't enough people returning to eat dinner."

To show off the restaurant's serious side, the partners hired MaryAnn Salcedo (who gained celebrity as Gordon Ramsay's sous-chef on the FOX TV show "Hell's Kitchen") and David Haskell as consulting sommelier. Haskell is the former owner of West Hollywood's oenologically gifted BIN 8945 and is also a veteran of New York's Le Cirque and Paris' Guy Savoy.

Salcedo's cooking style interweaves techniques she learned at New York's Institute of Culinary Education with rich ethnic traditions and acquired refinements from working in some of New York City's finest kitchens. These included an internship at Restaurant Daniel, under famous French chef Daniel Boulud, and service as executive sous-chef at René Pujol Restaurant, a hot spot in the city's Theater District.

Working on an organic farm in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts "contributed to my philosophy of showcasing high-quality ingredients, uncompromised by excessive embellishments," she said. "When you have a great piece of Kobe beef, you don't have to dress it up in a hat or suit and tie."

Serving as a sous-chef to Michelin-starred Chef Ramsay on "Hell's Kitchen," she says, was an honor, but the conceded that trying to "teach waffle-house cooks" the finer things can be slightly absurd.

I wondered if Salcedo, like so many other smirking New Yorkers, makes fun of California cookery; it seems whether we broil, poach, fry or roast, the New Yorker leaves no burn unstoned. "Not at all," she said, "but I do wonder why you put avocado on everything."

Although partner/sommelier Haskell worked at Le Cirque, New York's ultimate society restaurant, he wasn't given to tsk-tsking around the bar. When someone asked why no California restaurant has ever gotten a three-star Michelin award, he replied tersely, "We don't deserve them."

Talking wine with Haskell was deliciously funny. There weren't any of those flowery recitals that keep everyone but wine aficionados out of the loop. When someone countered, "We'll never get a star from Michelin as long as we have unisex restrooms," and another declared a certain red wine tasted like "Hello Kitty strawberry jam," he was very agreeable and carried the evening with diverting and amusing expressions, along with reliable information. That included learning that dripping cold water over a sugar cube atop a slotted spoon into a glass of NeoMeze absinthe won't make you short.

Haskell spent two months composing a new wine list to match Salcedo's completely revamped menu - a colorful bazaar of Mediterranean small plates and mini entrees. Although I liked the old menu, I was won over by the one-two punch. Clearly, the pair is proving that they know how to bring the right flavors of food and wine together.

It worked for me, especially in pairings like merguez sausage, an encasement of smoky lamb spiked with chiles and mixed with fruity ground sumac berries. Another special partnership developed with a 100 percent Loire Valley Cabernet and orange quail over a braised black kale, sauced with a unique foie gras. I never knew that a quail could be that tasty.

Forgive me, David, but I became so overwhelmed by a host of snappy appetizers like smoked-salmon potato knish, grilled African prawns with anchovy aioli, and entree plates like red mullet, smoked pepper pork and neo steak, that I forgot the names of the wines that you served so thoughtfully.

Meze appetizer platters range from $8 to $16; entree plates from $15 to $18. Some 80 wines are available, priced between $24 and $160 a bottle; a good many are served by the glass at $6 to $40.