The Future is Bright for Shades

The Future is Bright for Shades
By Rich Manning

In many respects, unveiling a new menu can be a restaurant’s most daunting endeavor. After all, there are a host of questions that naturally rise up from such a culinary paradigm shift, and more often than not, they tend to carry negative connotations with them. Will people like the new items? Will people complain that some of the items they enjoyed have been pulled? Will the whisper of second guessing the menu change become a scream after a couple months? Will this change ultimately hurt business? These are just some of the internal inquiries that have kept many an enterprising and innovative restaurateur or executive chef from consistently maintaining any semblance of a sleeping schedule.

However, if a new menu rollout is done right, the concerns that are entwined with these inquisitions will fall by the wayside rather harmlessly, crumpled by the outpouring of praise lauded upon the new entrees to explore. Such is the case at Shades, located in the majestic Hilton Waterfront Hotel steps from the shores of Huntington Beach. Recently, Shades debuted a sampling of their new menu as conceived by executive chef Jeff Littlefield, and after working through its highlights, it is clear that Jeff has nary an item to worry about.

Any fears we may have had about the new menu being subpar were immediately eradicated with the first course: A lovely sampling of appetizers that included deviled eggs with smoked paprika, goat cheese stuffed piquillo peppers, spiced lamb skewers, and baba ganoushe; all served individually but ready to be given the family style treatment. Each item was steeped in various degrees of excellence, although the way the tartness of the goat cheese blended with the piquillo’s natural spiciness made it stand out from the pack. Then again, if you caught me on a different day, I may give the highest accolades to the skewers and the perfectly minty quality of their accompanying drizzle of cilantro yogurt.

Our second course featured one item and one item only -- a massive Kobe meatball slider. Shades has this item listed on their menu’s tapas section, so I was initially surprised that it was not featured with another small plate. However, I was very thankful that it was able to be featured by itself, because it was most worthy of such an iconoclastic position. Usually, one does not equate a meatball with terms such as “juicy” or “succulent,” but these terms most certainly applied in this case. The added zing of the smoked mozzarella that slightly oozed off the top of the sizeable roll of Kobe goodness further forwarded its epic quality. Truly, this is what a typical Kobe beef slider wants to be when it grows up.
The lone salad of the evening came our way in the third course along with more appetizer goodness in a style much like the first course, as a lovely beet salad was trotted out alongside a wonderful trio of dry aged beef carpaccio served with watercress and black pepper dressing, jumbo lump crab cake and seared jumbo diver scallops served with a lemon risotto. The flavor of the crab cake was tremendous because the crab was the dominant flavor of the dish as opposed to the conduit that typically holds the cake together, plus it had the smoked chili oil it was prepared gave the natural sweetness of the meat beguilingly darker notes. The lemon risotto added a great depth to the scallops, and I cannot recall a better presented carpaccio than the delectable dish served here.

Like the first and third courses before it, the fourth course – yes, it was a bit of a challenge to reserve room considering the bounty that came before it – was served individually. However, because it was the main course, other dishes were not as readily passed as they had been in previous courses. No matter, though, since the grilled half chicken with mole had superb flavor that was big on subtlety as opposed to drowning your taste buds in mole. This allowed the ideally moist juiciness of the chicken to grab its own rightful portion of the spotlight. And although the accompanying spinach was a little flat, the grits that was served underneath the fowl was beautifully on point in its consistency and taste. I was able to score a couple bites of my wife’s bbq rubbed salmon, and after tasting it, I realized how lucky I was that she allowed me a couple tastes. The glaze on the fish gave it each bite a smoky tang at the outset, which mellowed into some of the fullest flavored salmon I’ve had in quite some time. If you love salmon dishes, you owe it to yourself to come here and enjoy.

Somehow, we found just enough room in our gullets for the fifth and final course. Then again, when said course consists of a dessert called baked hot chocolate, room somehow magically manifests itself. Served in a cup, this diabolical treat was like a fudge brownie that was stuck in limbo between the liquid and solid worlds, and it was wonderfully dense without being overtly rich. It was so delightful, I was filled with the urge to take it home and read it some Lord Byron. Yes, such a proclamation may sound a tad bizarre, but if it does, I’m guessing that you either find Lord Byron to be a bit of an antiquated bore, or you haven’t tried it yet. While there may be no cure for the former excuse, there is only one way to rectify the latter.

And honestly, there was a lot going on at Shades that are ripe for the lyrics of poets. Certainly, they knew how to maximize the usage of the Waterfront’s space to create a memorable outing. With our tables set on their outdoor patio area, against the backdrop of a killer sunset dipping into the Pacific Ocean whilst the air was filled with the decibel friendly live music provided by singer/guitarist Mike Kelsen – seriously, do yourself a favor and watch this man perform here during the weekend and thank me later – Shades created a transcendent atmosphere that the abundance of food further enhanced. It was an experience that excited my eyes as much as my tongue.
At the end of the evening, there was only one question that I was left pondering as I sipped the snifter of milk that Jeff so graciously gave me to accommodate the baked hot chocolate. That is, what am I going to enjoy the next time I come back?

To learn more about Shades Restaurant visit www.waterfrontresort.com