By Donald H. Harrison
EL CAJON–Early Thursday evenings, the Griffin Center on the Grossmont College campus is transformed from a bustling student center to a venue far more mellow. Linen cloths are whisked onto the tables of a small dining room facing Parking Lot 7. Plates and cutlery are carefully arranged. A stand up desk is placed outside with a list of the lucky five dozen who have made reservations.
Students, donning freshly pressed aprons, transform themselves into waiters and waitresses. By 5 p.m., the place begins to fill with patrons, some dressed casually, others wearing finery befitting a splendid evening out. The Thursday night restaurant, operated by Grossmont College’s culinary arts department, needs only a name. May I suggest “Chez Griffin”?
On Thursday, Sept. 19, Griffin Gate, the high-tech conference room in Griffin Center, also was transformed. It became a jazz club where a quartet of three music instructors and a very cool drummer friend brought back the improvisational opportunities, melodies, and lyrics of such composers as George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Miles Davis. In this incarnation Griffin Gate also needed a new name. I’d like to suggest “The G Spot.”
With two visiting relatives from Bethesda, Maryland — Marc and Cynthia Yaffe — I had the opportunity to experience Griffin Center by night. They and I were utterly charmed. “You’ve got to tell your readers what’s there!” enthused Cynthia after we got back home. (Okay, here’s a list of dinner opportunities that will precede upcoming concerts or plays at Grossmont College.)
In describing their reaction to the dinner, I should say that neither Cynthia nor Marc is easily impressed. She grew up in a well-to-do, politically active family in Manila, and Marc–son of the late, United Nations correspondent Richard Yaffe of The Jewish Chronicle (of London) and Jewish Week (of New York) fame — used to shuttle around Latin American capitals as a staff member of the Organization of American States. Independently, from personal acquaintance, the two can name the master chefs in restaurants in various parts of the world. And, as self-described “foodies,” they like to keep up. Besides eating out often, they subscribe to dining magazines, and, watch selected shows on the Food Channel.
The moment we were seated at a table for eight, I knew the evening was going to go well. Already seated was a party of five, who we learned were Michael and Sandy Molina, and their daughters Michelle, Alyssa and Meilani. Cynthia knew right away that they were fellow Filipinos and soon they were comparing notes on some of the best Filipino restaurants in town. Cynthia loves Goldilocks in National City, which the Molinas agreed is one of the very good ones. A waitress brought to us mango-flavored iced tea, and I thought it was a perfect accompaniment to the conversation.
Next, a waiter asked if any of us had food allergies. Upon learning that one of our number was allergic to peanuts, he went back into the kitchen, conferred with the chef, and arranged for our table mate to be served some alternative selections.
While I am not strictly kosher, to honor the religious tradition I do refrain from eating any pork products or shellfish, which meant I had to pass on the corn, tomato and bacon soup which included a puff known as a pate a choux. Had I mentioned my food restrictions when I made my reservations for the dinner (at 619-644-7267), a substitute soup would have been prepared for me. But no matter, this was a gourmet, six-course meal. Believe me, there was very little chance I could go hungry.
We learned that Michelle is a student in the culinary arts program, which offers numerous courses dealing with both the front and the back of the restaurant. Hoping to own a restaurant of her own some day, Michelle is taking such courses as menu management, food purchasing and sanitary management. Her sister, Alyssa, goes to a middle school in the Eastlake portion of Chula Vista. She showed me a digital photo of the inside of one of the school books she had checked out. It showed that some years before, according to the signature on the inside plate, Jessica Sanchez had checked out the very same book. That’s the young singer who was runner-up on the nationally televised America’s Got Talent show, and now has launched a successful career. And OMG, talk about celebrity, some of the boys in her middle school are on the Chula Vista Little League team that won the American championship and lost to Japan a nationally televised heartbreaker of a World Series just a few weeks ago! As for Meilani, 8, she has grin that lit up the whole dining room. She will be dancing the hula this weekend at the Pacific Islander Festival at Mission Bay.
Our waiter brought the salad, a “romaine medley of greens with lemon herb dressing.” A tomato had been hollowed out to make a ring through which the lettuce leaf had been pushed, making for an interesting presentation. After the soup came an intermezzo for cleaning the palate, in this case a pear champagne sorbet. The entree, prepared by the students under the watchful eye of Chef Joe Orate, was a sauteed breast of chicken with mushroom sauce, accompanied by garlic smashed red potatoes, buttered broccoli and broiled tomato. The bread served with the entree was a ciabatta with garlic chive butter.
I should tell you that the 6- course dinner costs $20, and at the table, we speculated how much we would pay for such a dinner at a commercial restaurant. Michael Molina ventured that it would cost a minimum of $50, while Marc Yaffe, who is used to East Coast prices, suggested that depending on the level of the restaurant it might be even more. Clearly we all felt we had purchased a bargain.
And there was more to come. Another well-known chef on the faculty is James Foran, and he had taught his students about desserts very well. Imagine, on our plates were sampler portions of chocolate pistachio mousse cake, raspberry sorbet, pistachio brittle and fudge sauce. This was followed by coffee service with petit fours that included green tea passion fruit macaroons (oh, how I’d love the recipe for Passover); pecan polverones, dark chocolate almond rochers, and snicker doodles.
Wow! Delicious! What else can I say?
Thereafter, we made our way to the jazz concert where Derek Cannon, a co-chair of the music department, narrated the program. The $10 ticket cost supports music scholarships. Cannon played both trumpet and flugelhorn during the hour-long performance, starting the session off with the repeating two notes of Miles Davis’s “So What,” a composition that permitted us to hear solos, in order, from Melonie Grinnell on the keyboard, her husband Justin Grinnell on the bass, and Richard Sellers on the drum. Both Grinnells along with Cannon are members of Grossmont College’s diverse music faculty who lead performance groups not only in jazz, but also in classical and choral music. Drummer Sellers is a friend of Cannon’s with whom he has performed elsewhere.
The jazz session moved on to “All of You” by Cole Porter; “Love is Here to Stay” by George and Ira Gershwin, which Melonie Grinnell sung in the style of the late 1930s; and “Bye Bye Blackbird” by P. Henderson and M. Dixon, which Cannon said he was taught by his father.
The singing of Melonie Grinnell once again was featured in “Cheek to Cheek” by Irving Berlin, and as a finale, we were treated to a variety of solos in “There is no Greater Love” by I. Jones and M. Symes.
Music students took notes throughout the performance, their notebooks sometimes transformed into ersatz sounding boards for tapping out the rhythms. There was great chemistry within the band, with husband and wife seemingly transported together to some far off, wonderful, place by their collaboration. Cannon and Sellers, in a sequence I liken to call and response between trumpet and drums, had me captured within the groove.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com