Spark Woodfire Grill in Huntington Beach is offering Cooking Classes! Tuesday, January 19th, Tuesday January 26th and Tuesday February 4th, 2010 from 11am - 2pm; Basic Culinary Knife Skills, Soups, Roasted Meat, Savory Sauces and Gravies, Chocolate Walnut Bread Pudding, Ginger Spice Creme Brulee. $150 per attendee, reservations are necessary and space will be limited. Please call 714-757-4825 or email kathleen@sparkwoodfiregrill.com
Spark Woodfire Grill Cooking Class in Huntington Beach
Dining Out to End Cancer
November 2009
Participating Restaurants | Purchase Cards | Restaurant Resources | Sponsors
The Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation (JCCF) is pleased to announce the return of Dining Out to End Cancer, a fundraising campaign designed to partner Southern California restaurants with a world-class organization to raise funds for life-saving cancer research efforts. Beginning in October, JCCF will sell $25 Dining Out to End Cancer cards to donors and friends. During the month of November 2009, Dining Out to End Cancer card holders can present their cards at participating restaurants to receive a 20% discount on their check (excluding alcohol, tax and gratuity).
Proceeds from the sale of Dining Out to End Cancer cards will support highest priority cancer research at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC).
Restaurants interested in participating in this campaign are invited to complete the restaurant participation form or call (310) 794-2089.
Check out the latest list of participating restaurants.
Spark Woodfire Grill was opened in Studio City, California, in May 1999 by Partners Bill Chait, Danilo Terribili and Jeff Sladicka. The restaurant designed by Osvaldo Maiozzi, a noted restaurant designer, was an immediate success drawing guests from all over the valley and Westside areas. Located in a two story boutique style building, the original dining room sat 50 guests and had a small patio area located in front of the restaurant. In 2001, the Studio City location expanded by adding an upstairs private wine room that houses an expanding wine inventory (approximately 3000 bottles) to compliment the Spark Menu.
In 2002, Spark opened in Huntington Beach in a 2nd floor location with a large terrace and an open fire pit with a panoramic view of the Pacific ocean and the Huntington Beach Pier. This location, open only for dinner, seats 180 guests inside and outside on the heated terrace that is available for year round dining. Chef/Partner Tom Shields and his wife Kathleen oversee this Spark. Spark in Huntington Beach has a more expansive seafood section on the menu and also features a 1600 degree steak broiler made famous by other well known steakhouses (which we won't mention). In addition to an extensive wine list, this Spark has become known for its Martini list of over 50 different specialty Martinis.
In 2004, Spark Woodfire Grill opened in Beverly Hills (adjacent) in a location that previously housed an Italian restaurant called Orlando Orsini. Since this building was purchased by Spark and its partners, there was an opportunity to do something very special with the remodel and transformation of this location. After a year of design and construction, Spark opened a unique tri-level restaurant with three distinctive environments for dining and private parties. Spark Beverly Hills seats over 200 guests and can accommodate up to 250 guests for private parties, special events or receptions.
Spark Woodfire Grill ......................................................................................................
Dinner Menu $30
WINE
choose one
Leese Fitch Chardonnay, Sonoma County
Ancient Peaks Syrah, Paso Robles
Three Saints Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Ynez
California “King” Roll Seared Ahi Tuna Fork and Knife salad Pan Roasted Sea Bass Prime Sirloin steak Pappardelle with Italian sausage Filet Mignon Medallions Chocolate Hazelnut Torte Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding
STARTER
choose one
Wood Grilled Artichoke
with lemon garlic aioli
with Alaskan King Crab and avocado
With sesame ginger glaze
wedge of Iceberg with blue cheese dressing, blue cheese,
candied walnuts, red onion and fresh tomato
ENTRÈE
choose one
Served on a Sonoma Goat Cheesecake with sautéed mushrooms
and cherry tomatoes in a citrus shrimp glaze
Herb crusted and roasted, served with Gruyere scalloped
Potatoes and sautéed Brussels Sprouts
Wide ribbon pasta with spicy Italian sausage and fresh
Roma tomato in a basil parmesan cream sauce
With Cabernet Peppercorn sauce, buttered corn and wild mushrooms
DESSERT
choose one
Tahitian Vanilla Bean Crème Brulee
With a caramelized sugar crust, fresh raspberries and a chocolate hazelnut Gaufrette
Flourless chocolate torte with fresh raspberries and hazelnut crumble
Layers of toasted croissant, dark chocolate and walnuts, served warm
with vanilla ice cream and fresh berries
Glass of Trentadue Chocolate Amore Port
Useful Links:
Please note that the $20.00 of stored value for your Dining Club card will activate upon your registration of your card. Please present your card to your server to swipe in the restaurant and record your points. Your can register your card either before or after your purchase to receive the $20.00 of stored value however the $20.00 of stored value will not appear in your account online until you have registered.
Searching for the ultimate location for your special event? We'll help you customize your banquet with options ranging from passed hors d'oeuvres, to a sit down dinner or a combination of both, for your unique event. Additionally, enjoy a number of setup choices for your banquet. Choose from our various rooms or rent out the entire restaurant for larger parties.
Spark Woodfire Grill’s Beverly Hills banquet facility offers several private room options, depending on the size and nature of your occasion. The Premier Dining Room is located on the second floor and is appropriate for formal dinners for 60 to 115 guests. This simply elegant room provides plenty of space for your guests to enjoy themselves at the bar or banquet tables, and the room can accommodate up to 160 guests for cocktail parties.
For more intimate gatherings, consider the Blu Lounge on Spark Woodfire Grill's third floor. This popular spot has a martini bar ambiance and is ideal for smaller groups, privately accommodating up to 33 guests for formal dining and up to 60 guests for cocktail events.
If you'd like your guests to enjoy a main floor party with its own separate entrance, consider choosing the Bistro room located on the main level. This divine space includes an outdoor patio, dance floor, booth seating and more, and the Bistro gives the impression of a private restaurant especially for your event. For larger parties in the Beverly Hills area, consider combining the Premier Dining Room and the Blu Lounge or reserving the entire restaurant to accommodate up to 300 guests.
Here at Spark Woodfire Grill, you'll choose from a dazzling array of menu options, including Maryland blue crab cakes, grilled fresh artichokes and grilled jumbo shrimp and pesto. Our banquet coordinator will assist you in narrowing down the extensive list of delectable choices for your special event.
To schedule an appointment with our Catering Director, please contact Elizabeth Chait at 310.999.5319 and we look forward to making your event a very special one!
Beverly Hills Private Event Information
Studio City Private Event Information
Huntington Beach Private Event Information
Let the Creations Begin! Teams have one hour to create their “Dish”. Selected judge’s score on creativeness, best presentation and best tasting “Dish”.
An awards ceremony concludes your event with custom trophies awarded to each participant of the first place team.
After the Iron Chef event is completed, the guests are invited to sit and enjoy a plated dinner overlooking the Huntington Beach Pier and/or lively boardwalk.
Call 714-960-0996 or email Kathleen@sparkwoodfiregrill.com for more information.
Dinner at Spark Woodfire Grill this Mother's Day on Sunday, May 11th, 2008, is a great way to show your Mom how much you really appreciate her. Spark was selected by Bon Appetit Magazine as one of the "Best Neighborhood Restaurants" in the country and was also selected as the “Best restaurant in Huntington Beach” by the Orange County Restaurant Association. Whether you are on the West Side, in the Valley or out by the Beach, Spark has a convenient location near you.
Beverly Hills
An Oscar party is being hosted at Spark Restaurant in Beverly Hills. Echo Lake Productions along with Lionsgate Films is hosting a party for their two Oscar nominees Julie Christie for Best Actress and Sarah Polley for Best Adapted Screenplay for the movie Away From Her.
Spark’s Oscar party will take place on Academy Awards night, Sunday, February 24th, 2008, at 4:30pm and is closed to the public. The Oscars will be broadcast in Spark’s tri-level Italian Brownstone which offers three bars, a lounge, outdoor patio plus three dining rooms. It’s the perfect spot for private parties! For the Oscar party, four giant screens will be set up so the 300 expected guests can view the Academy Awards while enjoying a culinary feast and luscious martinis. The menu for the evening includes Spark’s most popular dishes. The appetizers include Maryland Blue Crab Cakes with chipotle aioli, Ahi Tuna Tartar on homemade potato crisp, Gourmet Woodfire Roman style pizzas including the mouth-watering asparagus goat cheese.
A lavish buffet will then be offered which will include Spark’s famous Cesar salad with polenta croutons, falling-of-the-bone tender slowly cooked Iowa baby back ribs with the BEST BBQ sauce west of the Mississippi, Chicken breast stuffed and tied with asparagus and goat cheese, Santa Rosa Tri-tip, Wood Grilled Atlantic Salmon with a killer tarragon sauce and an artichoke lasagna that will make all the vegetarian guests feel that they are in heaven. After the broadcast, a wickedly decadent dessert buffet will be offered that will include a variety of dessert bars such as Pecan Chocolate, Luscious Lemon Squares, Meltaways- Dark chocolate, walnuts, butterscotch, coconut, Caramel Apple Granny, Brulee Cheese Cake, to name a few. Guests will be able to enjoy a variety of signature martinis from three bars. Spark’s most popular is the Cantaloupe Martini.
Partner/Special Events Coordinator Elizabeth Chait is very excited that Echo Lake Productions chose to host another Oscar party at Spark. “We have a wonderful partnership with Doug Mankoff, President, and Andrew Spaulding, Executive Vice President, of Echo Lake . They often choose Spark to host many of their power lunches. It’s especially convenient because Spark is only two blocks away from Echo Lake ’s Beverly Hills office.
This is the third Oscar party that has been hosted at Spark. Two Foreign Film nominees "Water" and "Tsotsi " have been hosted at Spark in the last two years. Yes, Oscar has been in the building! It was VERY exciting when "Tsotsi" won for South Africa's first Best Foriegn Film Award!”
For more information about Private Parties or Special Events, please visit here or contact Elizabeth Chait directly at 310-999-5319.
Press Release
(For Immediate Release - Simi Valley, Calif.) Very fresh fish, simply prepared with the best of ingredients, in a contemporary and welcoming atmosphere, all complimented by an exhibition mesquite fired grill and a "community table" with views of a raw seafood bar and exhibition fish cutting room. This is the latest concept from the team behind Spark Woodfire Grill. The newly opened Red Fish, located in the Simi Valley Town Center, serves a variety of fresh fish and shellfish brought in daily from the local seafood markets of the west coast and the famous Fulton Fish Market in New York City. For those who prefer their protein from land, a fine selection of prime meats is also featured on the menu. At the helm of Red Fish are Chef Fredy Escobar formerly of Alto Palato and Rex Il Ristorante and Manager & Operating Partner Brad Wood, an eight-year veteran of Ruth's Chris Steak House.
Conceived in the modern style of a contemporary fish house, Red Fish features a fresh raw seafood bar offering a variety of oysters, clams and shellfish from spicy tuna tartare made with sashimi grade tuna to chilled oysters with green apple jalapeño and grapefruit mint granita. The restaurant's policy of serving only "very fresh fish" is a big part of the experience at Red Fish, where guests are privy to observe the techniques essential to keeping fish at its optimum at the exhibition fish cutting room. Also on view, is a masterfully crafted glass walled walk-in refrigerator that incorporates a unique fish filing system where temperatures are kept at 33º to assure the highest integrity of the fish.
The dining room is highlighted by a refrigerated wine room and Cruvinet with an extensive wine selection by the glass, an au courant lounge with full service bar offering a menu of "food drinks" from honey bourbon whiskey with cantaloupe on the rocks to a lychee fruit cocktail. Libations have been carefully created to enhance the flavor of the seafood. There's also a cobra head draft beer system for a fine selection of micro brews and a "community table" where guests can observe the fish cutting area, seafood bar and delight in this vehicle for gathering rarely seen in the North Valley.
The organic fresh salmon promises to be one of Red Fish's most popular dishes. Rich in Omega-3 oils, this fish is perfect for cooking over the restaurant's displayed mesquite fired grill. Grilled lemons accompany the salmon atop the grill and onto the plate, caramelizing from the heat to complement and accent the fish with their subtle sweet juice. Delicate white fish is prepared in a variety of ways in a combi-oven with steam and convection heat. In addition to delicious exclusively fresh seafood, the menu features certified prime rib chops, Colorado lamb, Berkshire pork and barrel center cut filet mignon supplied by Newport Meats, the premier vendor of certified Angus beef and prime meats, and prepared under a 1600º Southbend Broiler. Protein whether it's from the air, land or sea is served with a choice of one side: charcoal roasted baby red & golden beets, creamed spinach, charred broccolini with roasted peppers, sea salt "smashed" potatoes with chives, grilled asparagus with lemon and more. A wide array of appetizers, salads and specialty dishes round out the menu from wild gulf prawn cocktail, oysters Rockefeller, crab and shrimp salad, 20 garlic chicken to lobster macaroni and cheese.
Red Fish is a restaurant concept created by Bill Chait, Jeff Sladicka, Danilo Terribili and Tom Shields owners of Spark Woodfire Grill in Studio City, Huntington Beach and Beverly Hills (http://www.sparkwoodfiregrill.com/). Chef Fredy Escobar (Alto Palato and Rex Il Ristorante), Tom Shields and Jeff Sladicka were instrumental in the development of the menu. Escobar's father and grandmother both owned restaurants in Guatemala and taught him early on that quality and freshness were the key to preparing fish. The restaurant is managed by Operating Partner Brad Wood (Ruth's Chris Steak House, Black Angus and Restaurant Enterprises Group). "We really liked the Town Center and felt that the North Valley really needed a restaurant like Red Fish," comments Managing Partner and Co-Founder Bill Chait of Red Fish and Spark Woodfire Grill. "With Spark, we have taken great pride in the quality of our ingredients and our distinctive cooking processes. Two of our most popular menu items are wood grilled seafood, and we felt there were very few restaurants in the area offering high quality seafood prepared in our style at Spark which is healthy, full flavored and simple. We hope to continue that tradition with Red Fish and anticipate this to be the first of many."
The owners collaborated on the development of the concept with selected designer Osvaldo Maiozzi (Angelini Osteria, La Terza, Palmieri, Il Grano, Valentino at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Testavere, Alto Palato and all the Spark Locations) to create an atmosphere that is sophisticated yet casual, modern but comfortable, and stylish with high energy. Interior designer Debra Gregory of DiG Interiors augmented Maiozzi's effort.
The bar is made entirely of redwood from Eureka, California, and the community table with reclaimed Brazilian hardwoods from the rainforest. Redwood burl slabs are used throughout the design of the restaurant, which are cut from redwood stumps that have been dead for 100 years. The distinctive exhibition kitchen was designed by Abrams and Tanaka (Katsuya, Bastide and Chaya Venice). A large patio area adjacent to the restaurant is ideal for al fresco dining. There are views throughout the 8000 square foot restaurant (250 occupancy) into the open kitchen areas.
Red Fish is located at 1555 Simi Valley Town Center Way (in the Simi Valley Towne Center), Simi Valley, CA 93065; telephone 805.823.4756 and tollfree 866.480.1146. The Website is http://www.sparkredfish.com/. Open seven days a week; hours are 11a.m. - 3p.m. Monday through Friday for lunch and 5p.m. to 11p.m. for dinner; 11a.m.- midnight on Saturday and Sunday. Take-out and online ordering is available as well as off-site catering. There is ample parking.
For media relations, contact Alexia Haidos at Double A Public Relations and Marketing, 310.450.6890 or alexia@doublea-pr.com.
