Food and creative concepts have been his life for 40 years
I remember the first time I tasted David Wilhelm’s food. I had read a restaurant review in the LA Times by Lois Dwan, and she raved about a six-table restaurant in Corona del Mar called Bon Appetit. Lois Dwan didn’t rave much about any restaurant, so I knew I had to try it.
Doug and I went to Bon Appetit in 1981 to celebrate our anniversary, and that is when my food journey with David Wilhelm began. We were so impressed with the food that I went into the kitchen to meet David and ask him to teach our gourmet club some classes. We enjoyed his expertise over the next five years and attended all his restaurant openings after that.
Background
Growing up in Flint, Michigan, the eldest of six children, David pursued a piano career at the University of Michigan before deciding it wasn’t for him and changed majors to History and English.
Having gravitated to the food business as a waiter in college, following graduation, David applied for a restaurant job at the prestigious Copley Plaza in Boston, He ended up in its four-year food and beverage program and ultimately became general manager of Copley’s, the hottest restaurant in the city at the time.
“They moved me to the Food and Beverage controls, where for 1 ½ years I learned more about food, food costs and working with chefs than any other period of my life.”
Next, David was promoted to Resident Manager, responsible for the hotel on the weekends.
“Eventually, I realized that it was the restaurants I really loved, not the hotel,” he says.
Coincidentally, around that time, David was mugged twice and robbed, which sent him to California to visit friends, where he fell in love with Laguna Beach.
The year was 1976, and he worked for Gulliver’s for one year, where he met Nancy Hunnicutt, his future wife. They decided they needed a change of scenery and moved to Boulder Creek, Colorado, where Nancy opened a gift shop and David befriended Don and Maria Durante, who owned a French restaurant called Le Mouton Noir. Don was the chef and Maria the host.
“I had never actually worked in a kitchen before, so I asked Don if he could bring me on as a line chef. I honed my skills as a chef there. Everything was made from scratch, and I fell in love with French food. They were serving 160 dinners a night.”
After four years, Nancy and David returned to Southern California, where David worked as a manager at La Cuisine in Dana Point, Brian Gemmell’s restaurant, and for Hans Prager at The Ritz Restaurant in Newport Beach before he met a man who wanted to finance a restaurant in Corona del Mar and needed a chef. That restaurant was Bon Appetit, and the rest is culinary history.
The Road to Culinary Fame
From Bon Appetit, David opened Pavé in Corona del Mar, formerly Pilar Wayne’s Fernleaf Café.
“Influenced by standout Southwestern chefs John Sedlar, Rick Bayless and Mark Miller, I served five to six Southwestern specials a night,” David says. “They were well received.”
El Torito king Larry Cano heard about David’s Southwestern take and approached him to develop a concept for a next-generation Mexican restaurant. Working with longtime El Torito chef Pepe Lopez, he developed the original menu for El Torito Grill, which opened in 1986 at the site of the former Velvet Turtle at Fashion Island.
Cano also had David retool menus for several of his restaurants, including Chanteclair, Las Brisas, Players, Remick’s, and Cano’s.
Four years later, with the dream of opening his own place, David teamed up with restaurateur Gregg Solomon to open Kachina in Laguna Beach. With its glowing walls and Southwestern fare, it was an immediate success.
“I was blown away by the accolades,” David says.
The Pacific Restaurant Adventures partnership went on to open Bistro 201 in Irvine with contemporary New York cuisine and live music, Barbacoa in Newport Beach with its wild, colorful décor, seafood fare and voodoo martinis, Topaz Café at Bowers Museum with an eclectic menu, and Zuni Grill, a casual version of Kachina, in Irvine. Diva, on the bottom level of Plaza Tower in Costa Mesa, was created when Henry Segerstrom approached David to launch an upscale restaurant for theater-goers at Segerstrom Center and South Coast Repertory.
“I had determined early on that with new restaurants opening, there would be no duplications in the cuisine,” he says.
David consulted with Taco Bell President John Martin to create Chimayo Grill at Fashion Island (a fresh take on Southwestern fare) and when Martin left Taco Bell, he took Chimayo with him and combined it with Sorrento Grill in Laguna Beach, which David owned, to create Culinary Adventures.
The partnership blossomed with the opening of French 75 in Laguna Beach, and, eventually, four other locations, Chat Noir in the performing arts district with French food and a jazz club, Savannah Chop House with its country club ambiance and hearty fare, and Chimayo at the Beach in Huntington Beach.
Martin had invested in a barbeque restaurant/concept that filed bankruptcy and because Culinary Adventures was dragged into it, everything was lost. At that point, David went to San Diego in 2010 and created a gastropub/tavern concept with American comfort foods he called Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern (JFAT). It was very successful, opening in four other locations, with Dana Point it’s most successful.
The New Eatery
After nine years, David decided to sell his stake in JFAT and take some time to play golf and enjoy life. It was then that he was approached by Jeff Reuter, owner of 3Thirty3 Waterfront in Newport Beach and asked if he was interested in buying it.
“I’m not a fool,” David says. “A restaurant in Newport Beach with second level harbor views – it doesn’t get any better!”
He approached former partner Gregg Solomon and Newport Beach had a new restaurant, Tavern House Kitchen + Bar.
“This is an opportunity to have some fun and celebrate 40 years of working with great people and revisiting some of the dishes I’ve created over the years. It could be called my ‘greatest hits tour,’” David says, laughing.
After a two-week renovation, Tavern House opened in July serving dinner Monday through Friday and brunch on Saturday and Sunday (the Bloody Marys are fab!). Its classic, creative American fare is receiving rave reviews, and David is there every night, perfectionist that he is, to make sure everything is in order.
I have never met a more talented chef and concept creator. He is just as good as creating new dishes as he is creating ambiance and décor. He is credited with introducing French/California fusion and Southwestern and modern Mexican cuisine to Orange County as well as small plates and the first martini bar (at Sorrento Grill).
Looking back, David says, “Of all the concepts I’ve done, my favorites are Diva, Chat Noir, Kachina and French 75.”
Who could forget Kachina’s side-by-side black bean and corn soup, French 75’s chocolate soufflé or drinking martinis and enjoying a fabulous dinner at Diva on a Friday night?
The memories continue…
Tavern House Kitchen + Bar, 333 Bayside Drive, Newport Beach 92660/949.673.8464/TavernHouseKB.com