To spotlight the arts in San Diego County, 150 Grand Café and the Escondido Center for the Arts are offering a prix fixe "Lunch with the Arts" program. Beginning the first Saturday in June, patrons are invited to choose from three delicious entrées designed by Riko Bartolome, executive chef. The entrée is paired with a complimentary glass of wine, a dessert, and a ticket to the center museum. Cost for the package is $20 per person excluding tax and gratuity. The restaurant will be open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday. For more information or reservations, call (760) 738-6868.

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Mark your calendars for June 7 and 8. The Westgate Hotel will present "Noche Latina, Two Festive Nights of Latin Song and Cuisine." Classical guitarist Julio De Lahuerta and friends will perform a variety of popular Latin and American songs while the Westgate culinary team prepares a special menu of savory Latin dishes. The four-course menu will feature items such as ceviche, empanadas de camaron, vichyssoisse, jícama and orange salad, grilled pork loin in a chimi churri marinade and pasilla roasted red snapper with a Mexican papaya and mango sauce. Seating is limited; the cost is $49 per person and includes a complimentary sangria toast, tax and gratuity. Call (619) 557-3622 for reservations and information.

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Congratulations to three San Diego hotel restaurants: The Prince of Wales Grill at the Hotel del Coronado, The Skyroom at La Valencia Hotel and Le Fontainebleau at The Westgate Hotel. All have received the Continental Gold Award by the Southern California Restaurant Writers. Restaurants from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border are judged on food, service, ambience and beverage service. Gold Awards are given to establishments that scored an average of 90 or more points on the accumulated evaluations of the members.

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Kudos to Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar for being named by Nation's Restaurant News, as one of the "Hottest New Concepts" in the United States. Paul Fleming (the P.F in P.F. Chang's) and William Allen, former CEO of Koo Koo Roo, were feted along with eight other "2000 Hot Concepts" honorees at an awards ceremony held on May 21 in Chicago. Alan Gould, publisher of Nation's Restaurant News, notes that honorees were chosen for developing "innovative, cutting-edge operations with strong consumer appeal." Fleming's is located in the Aventine at UTC.

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Paradise Point Resort has named Bill Gross its new director of food and beverage. He most recently worked at the Westin La Cantera in San Antonio, but spent the previous four years as F&B director at the Sheraton Torrey Pines (now the Hilton Torrey Pines) in La Jolla.

Under construction at Paradise Point is a new high-end restaurant, Baleen. This seafood restaurant is being created by notable chef and restaurateur, Robbin Haas, who is originally from Buffalo, N.Y. Haas received several medals in the culinary Olympics in the early 1980s before opening his own restaurant, American Rotisserie, at the Omni Hotel in Cincinnati. Food and Wine Magazine named him one of America's top 10 chefs and Esquire's John Mariani named his restaurant one of the top 25 in America. The 150-seat restaurant will feature stone floors, an open kitchen and a warm wood fireplace. The menu will offer seafood items simply grilled, wood-roasted, or sautéed with a hummus crust, honey wasabi glaze or ginger barbecue sauce. This will be the second Baleen to open at a Noble House Hotel. Baleen Grove Isle in Miami has received much praise by food critics nationally. Construction is expected to take three to four months, with a grand opening slated for summer.

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Sexy "Big Easy" star Dennis Quaid was spotted twice last month at Gulf Coast Grill in Hillcrest. Texas-native Quaid was in town shooting the upcoming feature film "Traffic" with Michael Douglas. Quaid and his driver Beau, a Louisianan, were taken to Gulf Coast by Randy Folk, La Costa Golf membership director and longtime friend of Grill owners K.C. and Gail Jones. So smitten with the cuisine was Quaid (who, by the way, was Meg-less in San Diego) that he extended an invitation to K.C. for golf at Bel Air Country Club.

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Former Patagonia chef Gustan Medrano and partners Celeste Bran and Lucho Bustos have opened Pampas Argentine Bar and Grill. The restaurant, at 8690 Aero Drive, Montgomery Field, features quick lunches, romantic dinners and Latin music in the bar.

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Side Dish
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that one in five American households use their ovens less than once a week. (Before you quote me on this, please note this does not take into account the Kenner Easy-Bake Oven.) The organization said that take-out business grew by 7 percent in 1998, recording roughly $110 billion in sales, and is expected to exceed $150 billion by 2003. And according to a survey conducted by American Demographics, 62 percent of Americans said they take home leftovers when dining out. What’s more, 89 percent said they eat the food themselves Ð sorry, Rover.

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Alice Baumstark is the new director of sales for Loews Coronado Bay Resort. Baumstark, a veteran of the hotel industry, joins Loews from the Hotel del Coronado, where she worked for 14 years, rising in the ranks from reservations to national sales manager. Impressive. She replaces Nance Trevethick. Dan Larson will serve as national sales manager. Larson has 14 years in the hotel/airline sales industry and most recently was with The Rancho Bernardo Inn.

Terryl Gavre spends her entire day thinking about what she is going to eat for dinner. She believes the world would be a better place if everyone worked once as a foodserver. She is owner of Café 222, Downtown and Del Mar.