Take A Seat

Mike & Anne’s is one of the better seats in town, if they don’t take it out from under you.
by Lesley Bargar

When I was growing up, my mother’s picky restaurant etiquette used to drive me absolutely insane. For instance, because of her European sensibilities (and a biologically confused insistence that lettuce sat lighter “on top of” all the food in her stomach), she liked to eat her salad last, not first. She was repeatedly (and vocally) irritated when a restaurant’s wait-staff would attempt to take her salad away at the end of the first course. So, as a Christmas present one year, my family had 500 cards printed that said “Please Don’t Take My Salad” in a polite script font, which she was to place on the edge of her salad plate when dining out to avoid (along with any further bus boy injuries) having her dish of greens snatched prematurely out from under her. No, really.
Stuff like this used to drive me crazy as a kid, and so I vowed never to get my feathers ruffled by anything a restaurant staffer did, as long as they did it with good intentions. Of course, that was before last night. It was about 9:50 p.m. and I was innocently savoring the last few bites of my  delectable Pineapple Right Side Up Cake dessert at South Pasadena’s new nouvelle-American spot, Mike & Anne’s, when I noticed that my dinner companion and I were the last two people on the patio. It’s a glorious patio by the way, spacious, casual and summery in a way that makes it an irresistible place to grab a down-home, upscale bite. It was 10 minutes before their posted 10 p.m. closing time—and a few moments before I was to sign off on a triple digit bill—when a member of the staff began stacking the empty patio chairs. One by one the tables around us were being cleared of candles, placemats, chairs, etc in an effort to get out by or before closing time. Now, we hadn’t been lingering over our meal. In fact, we’d just received our dessert a moment before when the first shufflings of “closing up” became audible. After a couple of minutes, the table and chairs at which I was still dining formed a lonely little island in an otherwise expansive concrete sea. Talk about awkward. At that moment I felt what I can only imagine my mother feels every time someone tries to suggest she is done with her salad when she most certainly isn’t. Despite the friendly wait-staff not knowing any better, it’s still presumptuous, rude, and just plain wrong. But at least the whole experience brought my mother and I closer together.

And with that now off my chest, I can finally get into the rest of my dinner at Mike & Anne’s, which was, thankfully, entirely pleasant. The place, again, has the best patio in South Pasadena. It’s the perfect place to sit back with a nice glass of wine on a summer night and not worry about laughing too loud. I can only imagine the warm, umbrella-shaded breakfast and lunch. The vibe is refreshingly casual for its menu quality, which boasts sophisticated ingredients and classy takes on American staples.

The menu changes every week or so, and on this visit I was happy to find my absolute favorite seafood siren, seared dayboat scallops ($12). They were cooked medium rare with nice browning on the outside, and were served on top of a highly truffled (my companion’s weakness) white corn purée. They were sweet and delicate, with an exotic background kick egged on by the candied kumquats served alongside. A coworker recommended we also start with the caramelized black mission figs ($10) that were plated with a sweet onion couscous riddled with thick chunks of smoky bacon and atop a puddle of blue cheese dressing—the only slight disappointment. The appetizer was definitely yummy as a whole, but when you’re working with such a classic combination as bacon, figs and blue cheese, it’d be nice if the plating had allowed for easier mixing of flavors—my bacony couscous was walled off by a cheese crisp round, kept far from the squishy sweet figs which had to be vigorously scooped through the dressing in order to pick up a hint of blue-cheesiness. But once combined, the result was to die for.

For a main course, I had a hard time deciding between the crispy skin chicken ($16) with “savory bread pudding, swiss-chard ragout and summer tomato chicken jus”—mmm—or the New Zealand organic salmon. For me, organic salmon is a rare treat to find on a menu, as I just can’t get used to the dry, muscle-y texture of wild salmon, and I’m also not so keen on the idea of all the dyes and fake supplements and whatnot. The generous-sized filet arrived on a bed of smooth cauliflower cream and magenta spinach, with a sweet orange carrot sauce and refreshingly firm baby red beets dotting the plate. The fish itself was delectably buttery, flavorful and on the rare side, while the skin had a nice pan-seared char that added a contagious crunch to the whole dish. My companion also had trouble deciding between the restaurant’s signature Black Angus burger ($13) and the pork chop ($18), but the piggy’s accompanying sweet potato purée finally sold him. While the meat itself was tragically overcooked, the overall quality of the dish was saved by the pungent garnishes and sides: summery starfruit salsa, tangy red cabbage, rich lingonberry pork jus and the aforementioned smooth sweet potato puree.

For dessert, what I could taste through all the chair rumbling was a fresh, doughnutty piece of cake atop a sweet, cured pineapple round next to a scoop of piña colada ice cream. It was, as I said at the time, Hawaii on a plate—and I mean that in a good way, not that it tasted like pork and a sunburn.

My overall Mike & Anne’s experience was salvaged—in spite of the chair incident—because of what came immediately following it. It’s what I use to judge the true, underlying quality of any restaurant, an area so many restaurants overlook, and the area in which I have the most expertise: espresso. The two espressos we ordered arrived piping hot, with a thick frothy cararmel-colored foam covering the entire surface area, and an even thicker taste. It was biting, palate destroying, and just the way I like it. Which, combined with the at least well-intentioned service and scrumptious dishes, is enough to have me give Mike & Anne’s another shot. Though to avoid another game of musical chairs, I’ll do breakfast. LAA

Location: 1040 Mission St. Suite 102, South Pasadena.
Phone: (626) 799-7199.
Vibe: Low-key upscale.
Price: Appetizers $9-$13; main courses $13-$21; desserts $7-$11.
Recommended dishes: Seared dayboat scallops, onion rings, New Zealand organic salmon, crispy skin chicken, pineapple right side up cake.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5