Bloom Restaurant + Bar opens for dinner service at 4 p.m. today, Dec. 2 in San Juan Capistrano. Bloom is the sixth dining concept for owner Russ Bendel and his partners chef Jared Cook, beverage director Gabe Whorley and operations VP Kyle Simpson.
The 2,400-square foot space seats 87 diners. A 10-seat backlit bar will serve 10 signature craft cocktails, eight craft beers, and 22 wines by the glass. Beverage director Gabe Whorley predicts that two cocktails in particular will be popular at Bloom.
“The vodka-based Daily Affirmations. It has POG — passion fruit, OJ, guava fruit — plus a popsicle in the middle. It’s light, refreshing with fresh mint, and a little yuzu in there,” Whorley says. Then there’s the Ortega. “It’s a play on the Paloma,” he says. The cocktail has a little Aperol, mint, a Tajin-dusted rim and it’s garnished with a tamarind candy. The drinks sound fun and match the old western vibe of the area.
“We’re trying to make something refreshing,” says Whorley, “If you go to the beach, it’s always five degrees hotter here so cocktails are always popular. Plus with The Daily Affirmation, everyone needs that.”
The Irvine-based Steiner Studios design team worked with Whorley to get the bar just right. Then chef Jared Cook added his vision to construct the retractable glass exhibition kitchen. The modern look of the bar and kitchen is juxtaposed with the restaurant’s historic brick interior, which features large arched windows and beamed ceilings. The space has seen many transitions over the years.
“This building was constructed in 1930,” Bendel says. “It’s been around a long time. It was the original city hall, a fire station, and a pharmacy.”
Knowing that the building holds a special place in San Juan Capistrano history, the owners wanted the Bloom Restaurant + Bar logo to be a subtle homage to the city. Incorporating the mustard plant was chef Cook’s idea, since the vibrant yellow flowers cover the surrounding hills in the spring. Ty Mattson of Mattson Creative was consulted to bring the logo to life.
“His office is right around the corner here,” Bendel said. “He thought it would be a cute idea if we did a hidden tradition of San Juan (Capistrano) built into the logo. So if you look at the leaves, there are two swallows facing each other.” The swallows symbolize Bendel and his wife, who now call the city home with their daughter Brooklynn, their son Russell, and a new baby due in January. Bendel’s wife grew teary-eyed when Mattson told her, “that each of the leaves represent our three children.” There are also six flowers at the top, which represent the group’s sixth brand.
Bendel’s restaurant empire began nine years ago when he took over Vine in San Clemente. Chef Cook was the brains behind the kitchen so Bendel made him a partner. Now the dining group includes six concepts ranging from Ironwood Restaurant in Laguna Hills to Olea in Newport Beach and Sapphire in Laguna. But for Bendel, expanding into San Juan Capistrano made sense.
“I love the town,” he says. “I love everything that’s going on down here.” The partners were looking for a space but this location, directly across from the Mission San Juan Capistrano and within walking distance to the train station, was ideal.
“You can’t beat the location,” says Bendel. “You can see the historic Mission right there and it’s central to all our other restaurants.”
The Mission’s annual Capistrano Lights festival returns on Saturday, Dec. 3 and surely will bring visitors to the area. “That will be our second day of business,” Bendel says. The prime view from Bloom Restaurant + Bar, with its large rounded windows will be coveted once people realize the restaurant is open.
“This corner is amazing and our view of the mission is just unreal,” says chef Jared Cook. “I can look at the mission while I’m in the kitchen. And in the summer, when the windows open, it’s just going to be unreal.” Besides the view, chef Cook is looking forward to his new menu. San Juan Capistrano is giving him freedom in the kitchen.
“I wanted to do something different,” he says. “We have 50-60 percent similar menu items at the other locations. But I wanted to start fresh here.”
The menu is inspired by the idea of rustic San Juan Capistrano. The dishes will skew “New American with a kind of ranch vibe with the chicken fried steak and the barbecue quail.” Cook, who grew up in Oregon, enjoys the comforting country cooking flavors. “Chicken fried steak, quail — that’s just what we ate and those are things I like,” he says. Though the menu will still include Cook’s elevated wine country influences with California coastal and Mediterranean flavors.
“I really wanted us to be the San Juan local spot,” says Cook. “You know, the location is amazing. Everyone can come in and get tidy, nice elevated food and they can get a burger any day of the week as well as a nice steak and a bottle of wine.” The slimmed down menu will feature nightly specials. Though Cook thinks Bloom’s signature dish will be the quail served with a green tomato chow chow. His version of the Southern-style relish is made with green tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, vinegar, mustard seed, salt, and sugar.
“It’s basically a nice pickled vegetable relish,” he says. “I made a coleslaw, which is kind of a sweet and tangy, shaved carrot, shaved onion.” The semi-boneless quail dish is slathered with an apple cider-mustard barbecue sauce. Don’t let the petite quail description fool you — the portion is not small. “We did three halves,” says Cook. “So there’s one-and-a-half quail on the plate.”
Another notable entrée, according to Bendel, is the country fried steak.
“The chicken fried steak is on another level,” says Cook. “Where I grew up, it’s exclusively a breakfast dish, so in Oregon, you have chicken fried steak with a couple eggs and sausage gravy. In the South, they eat it at night. They have mashed potatoes and corn. So here, I made a nice bearnaise that goes on top. It’s a prime hanger steak, instead of something from the round, which is what they normally use for chicken fried steak. It’s so tender and crispy on the outside. It’s the best that a chicken fried steak could be.”
The bearnaise is more elevated than your traditional gravy and keeping with the wine country influences, the dish is topped with a shaved fennel salad.
“It’ll have mashed potatoes underneath,” says Cook. Though his “mashed potatoes” are crushed red potatoes mixed with créme fraiche and green onions. “It’s rustic but the flavors are really there.”
Cook and Benel are excited to unveil Bloom’s brunch menu in 2023.
“So the chicken fried steak with eggs, that’s a no brainer. That’s going to be the hands-down signature for brunch” says Cook. “I’m almost more excited about the chicken fried steak for brunch rather than dinner.”
The brunch menu will also have some similarities with Sapphire’s offerings in Laguna Beach.
“That’s the only other place that we do brunch,” says Cook. “That’s the first place that I got to do brunch and I love the brunch menu there. It’s been hugely successful. The pork belly benedict, both of the waffles — the nutella and the meyer lemon berry creme fraiche waffles, they just fly out of there. So there will be items like that but there will be unique items to this location as well.
As far as the time frame, maybe we give it a month and get through the holidays, and we’ll kind of hit the ground running with it.”
Location: 31760 Old Mission Road, San Juan Capistrano; 949-503-2654; BloomSanJuanCapistrano.com
