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Community Corner

What's on the Menu for San Juan's First Restaurant Week?

The nearly 20 restaurants participating make decisions difficult: beef bourguignonne, double deluxe burger or grilled salmon?

As San Juan Capistrano's first Monday, spunky Teri Garza, the town's regional library manager, was among the first to pick up her fork.

Her first stop was Skimmer’s, where grilled panini stuffed with buffalo chicken, corned beef, sauerkraut, roast beef and other hearty lunch fare is  sharing the stage with fixed-price menus from more than 20 other local eateries. On Tuesday night, Garza and fellow bookworm Jean Vincenzi ate dinner at Sarducci’s. Wednesday, she'll be at Marie Callender’s.

Garza called this tasting whirlwind "payback."

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“The restaurants have been so good to [the library] that we want to give back," she said.

Vincenzi, president of nonprofit Friends of the Library, agreed. She paid $10 for a VIP bracelet that gives her an extra perk when she eats at any of the participating restaurants. At Sarducci’s, the VIP perk is a choice of a martini, a margarita or the sweet, moist fried bread pudding.

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Mark Bodenhamer, executive director of the San Juan Capistrano Chamber of Commerce, said he is "blown away" by the number of restaurants participating. 

He said the story he hears most is that people who come to visit “from far-off lands such as Mission Viejo and Irvine” didn’t realize how many great restaurants call this quaint town home.

"It’s really putting the spotlight on San Juan Capistrano," he said. "Hospitality and restaurants are critical to the town’s economy.”

Laguna Niguel resident Donna Feeney and her husband, John, are are likely to go to Café Mozart, since her husband likes Wiener schnitzel, she said.

“These are restaurants we like anyway," she said of Mozart and L’Hirondelle. But "the opportunity to get a wonderful meal at a reduced price is certainly inviting.”

Restaurant Week is designed to draw new people to town and get locals to try new restaurants, he noted.  Will there be a second annual San Juan Capistrano Restaurant Week?  “I’d be surprised if there wasn’t,” said Bodenhamer.

Here’s a sampling of Restaurant Week menus for 10 of the participating restaurants.  The prices for prix-fixe, three-course meals range from $10 to $15 for lunch and $15, $25 and $35 for dinner. The courses are being offered at 25 percent off of regular menu prices. Check out how to get a VIP perk for $10.

Lunch menu sampling:

Price: $15 for two courses includes soda, iced tea or lemonade.  Choice of one starter (vegetable minestrone or Caesar salad) and choice of one entrée (fettuccine Toscana, grilled salmon or specialty sandwich with French fries or pasta salad). 

VIP Perk:  Scoop of mango sorbet.

RUBY'S DINER (menu the same for lunch or dinner): 

Price: $10 for a choice of traditional or Caesar-style salad, double deluxe burger with refillable fries and any flavor 12-ounce shake or malt. 

$15 for Ruby’s Skyranch Saloon Menu of a cup of "Trail Boss" chicken tortilla soup, carne asada sandwich with refillable fries, caramel brownie sandwich or cowboy custard flan.

VIP Perk: A dessert

Price: $10

Choice of any sandwich (turkey avocado, roast beef or ham and cheese), chips and a drink (soda, iced tea, bottled water or hot or iced coffee) and a cookie.

VIP Perk: One small latte or cappuccino

CEDAR CREEK INN

Price: $15

Choice of cedar planked salmon, Marcy’s salad, French dip sandwich or short ribs, plus choice of dessert (coconut supreme cake or warm Toll House pie).

VIP Perk: Choice of Caesar salad or lobster cappuccino soup

SKIMMER'S

Price: $10

Any Skimmer’s sandwich with side, a fountain drink and regular scoop of house-made gelato.

VIP Perk: An order of Skimmer’s crouton fries

Dinner menu samplings:

Price: $25

Choice of soup or salad, Wiener schnitzel or jaeger schnitzel, served with red cabbage and homemade spatzle.  Choice of dessert included.

VIP Perk: Complimentary Mozart cocktail

Price: $25

Choice of soup du jour or house salad, poulet Marie Antoinette or beef bourguignonne and dessert

VIP Perk: Glass of house wine


Price: $10

Selections include parmesan-encrusted chicken, sliced flatiron pork, skirt steak, two-bone rack of lamb and mango tilapia and tempura shrimp and baby-back ribs.  Each includes a salad and prix-fixe side for each dinner.

VIP Perk: A martini, margarita or fried bread pudding

Price: $25

Choice of one of four different appetizers (crispy wonton, spring rolls, shrimp wrapped in crispy pasta shell, chicken satay), a soup or salad (choose one), a choice of one main course item (yellow chicken curry, egg noodles with shrimp, scallop, calamari, sautéed shrimp, stirred fried fillet of basa sole or spicy sautéed shrimp, scallop, calamari).

VIP Perk: Choice of a glass of wine, beer or well drink

Price: $10

Any two-item combo, small nachos and a drink.

VIP Perk: A glass of wine or a shot of tequila

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