Sapphire Shines

The Last MusketeerThe remaining French 75 rises above its confusing corporate past ItNs still a world of uncertainty out there, especially in the tenuous business of restaurants. On a recent Friday afternoon, I was looking forward to trying the...

Before opening the much-beloved Sapphire in Laguna Beach, owner and chef Azmin Ghahreman was the executive chef of the four restaurants at St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa in Dana Point. Before that, the well-traveled, Iran-born chef studied...

Today's installment of our three-part Q&A with chef Azmin Ghahreman of Sapphire is one in which we get a little more personal with our subject and he tells us what George H.W. Bush asked for him to prepare. If you missed the first part, click...

This story begins not at Huntington Ramen, but at a new restaurant I was originally planning to review for this issue. It looked promising at first: The place had a catchy name, well-curated social-media accounts, an eclectic menu and a bar with...

It was another great year, food-wise, for Orange County, with the opening of new restaurants by talented youngsters putting us on the SoCal hipster map; an explosion of craft brewers, burger parlors and serious mixologists returning eaters to our...