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White Horses in San Clemente Readies for Wine Dinner Featuring Napa Valley's Flora Springs
EXECUTIVE DINING
Certain names carry weight in Orange County. They take us down memory lane and occasionally bring us full circle to something that's happening right now.
That is the case with the new Ambrosia Restaurant and OC Pavilion in Santa Ana. It's a showplace reminiscent of a beautiful restaurant that carried that same name in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Costa Mesa.
The gentleman who owned that Ambrosia, Mike Harrah, closed it two decades ago but kept the dream simmering to one day open a truly glamorous supper club that harked of a more sophisticated time in fine dining.
The new Ambrosia is more for the eye, the soul and the palate than I ever envisioned from first hearing about it.
And I certainly did not expect to encounter this chic upstairs restaurant that shares a sisterly spirit with the first class theater on the first level of the building at 8th and Main streets in Santa Ana.
In an odd twist of fate, I worked for Bank of America on a service staff supporting all branches in OC a long time ago and this particular building used to be the district office for the bank and, thus, my home office.
Working for the bank was my day job and my fun job was teaching cooking classes in the evenings, so the bank career lasted only a few years.
There long has been talk for of downtown Santa Ana's renaissance under developer Mike Harrah, who has bought numerous buildings with an eye to renewal.
While the art and restaurant scene of the Santora area on Broadway kicked things off in a mild-mannered way about five years ago, there's talk of the entire downtown area becoming akin to the Gaslamp Quarter district of San Diego. Boutiques, galleries, restaurants and lofts for trendy living are the plan.
Well, that kind of redevelopment is a long way off, but the Ambrosia/OC Pavilion certainly is a grand beginning statement.
Who would expect to drive up to the "old" bank building and find it turned into a marble and glass tower with valet parkers helping customers out of their cars at...