No crazy kiosks competing for attention, no figuring out 13 different ways to order, no overflowing garbage cans. Chef Brian Malarkey and the Puffer Malarkey Collective have opened Herb & Ranch at the UCI Research Park Campus and it’s a new-fangled mini food hall that looks clean as a hospital and all of a piece.
Malarkey is helping set the trend of single chef food halls and he’s in good company with grand spaces like José Andrés’ Hudson Yards in New York, Tom Colicchio’s Kansas City, Mo. project and Amar Santana’s The Hall Global Eatery just a few miles away at South Coast Plaza.
Bright white space with blond wood and farmhouse lamps create a clean and serene environment. It’s the vision of Malarkey, a Season 3 finalist on Bravo’s “Top Chef” series, and his longtime business partner and restaurant designer, Christopher Puffer. Malarkey has eight other restaurant concepts in San Diego and this is his first outside that county.
The recent opening of Herb & Ranch is also great timing for Malarkey who returns to “Top Chef” in the All Stars program which begins airing March 19. Sure he’s got a lot on his plate, but Malarkey is known for being multitalented and multitasking. He’s been thinking about this project for a while and told the Register how he dreamed it up, giving a tour of the new property while talking a mile a minute.
“I thought, what if I could build a food hall but I was all the vendors and it all came out of the same kitchen, so I’d save all the labor. I’d have the cleanest place ever, because I look at some of those places, like, I don’t like to see all your dishware. I don’t want to see the guy turn around start cooking.
“And so I wanted to do something that was shiny and clean and nice and offered so much variety to the guest that every day you could have a different experience in the same place. So, thus, I had this brainchild and started working with the designers on the bells and whistles.”
So that’s the MO at Herb & Ranch. One enclosed kitchen does it all and that’s clean as a whistle too.
As for the “bells and whistles,” the decor has a ranch theme because Malarkey is an avid horseman who grew up on a ranch in Oregon and became a high school rodeo champion. “The ranch means a lot to me. But also we did research on Irvine and this was founded as a ranch. Irvine is a giant ranch. And so we wanted to play to that.”
Photos of Malarkey riding horses and other images of ranch scenes hang on the walls. But this is no lazy chuck wagon grub. Order at any of the stations and you’ll receive your food right away. Choose from coffee and pastry, poke, paninis, salads and more from five stations and all the food is made fresh.
There are California or veggie burritos; Ricotta Toast with honey, blackberries, tarragon and smoked almonds and more options at The Grill Breakfast and Coffee Bar. For lunch try The Farmhouse station which offers grilled meats, seafood and roasted vegetables ($11-$15); or The Press, with Italian-style cold sandwiches and paninis ($7-$14) such as Ham & Jam with prosciutto, fig jam and gruyere cheese. Mahalo serves poke bowls ($9-$14) including one with miso, edamame, sunflower sprouts and seeds, ginger, cherry tomatoes and shiso. For the salad lovers, the Greens and Grains station dishes up salad bowls ($10-$12) like a vegan feast called Roasted and Raw with carrot, fennel, pickled golden raisins, cashew, sesame seeds and tahini sherry vinaigrette.
Coffee drinks and teas range from $3-$5. Soft drinks include Kombucha ($6).
What you won’t see are burgers. “Everything is done to be super healthy and super fast,” Malarkey said. “We don’t have a hamburger station here because I didn’t see how I could execute hamburgers instantaneously and make them fresh. I wanted it to be healthy and affordable.”
There are indulgent items though too. “There’s cookies, croissants, all kinds of kind of CBD chocolate.and CBD drinks.”
Draft beer is $7, wines are $10 and a happy hour schedule will be coming soon.
Unlike other food halls this one will be a feast for the eyes. Malarkey, a stylish dresser, really cares about the appearance of his restaurants. It’s something he learned working at Michel Richard’s Citrus.
He had just finished culinary school and walked into one of the most beautiful dining rooms in Los Angeles. “I was just a dumb country kid coming from Portland, Oregon, and I came down to do my internship. They just threw me in the back room for six weeks and told me to turn (prep) artichokes and peel asparagus.”
When they discovered he was still there after nearly two months they invited him into the fold. “It was a big glass kitchen and you could look out and see all the celebrities and the celebrities were all looking in watching Michel. Julia Child would walk through the kitchen and hang out with us. Which was crazy.”
But it forever set the standard for how a restaurant should look in Malarkey’s mind and his new food hall fits right in. “We build beautiful restaurants,” he said.
Find it: 5301 California Ave., Irvine, 949-316-4491, herbandranch.com.
Open: 6:30 a.m. -4 p.m. Monday-Friday.
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Why Herb & Ranch, Chef Brian Malarkey’s new mini food hall, looks sleek, clean and stylish - OCRegister
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