It’s No Trick, Parlor Is Open in San Clemente

 Parlor Woodfire Kitchen and Cocktails

216 North El Camino Real

San Clemente, CA 92672

San Clemente has suddenly become not only a seaside paradise, but also a pizza paradise. In a city that already is home to Gibroni's Pizza, Pizza Port, Sonny's Pizza and Pasta, Station Craft Pizza and Taproom, and the recently departed TJ's Woodfire Pizza, it has been an embarrassment of riches for the pizza-loving people of San Clemente. Eleven months ago, another pizza spot burst onto the scene in SC, and we had high hopes for our visit to Parlor Woodfire Kitchen and Cocktails. 

The optimism that we had for our trip to Parlor was based on two things. It's the latest restaurant opening from one of our favorite restaurant groups, RJB Restaurants. They run Vine Restaurant, which is located across the street from Parlor, Ironwood, Olea, Sapphire Kitchen, and Bloom Restaurant in nearby San Juan Capistrano, which I heralded as the best restaurant I ate at last year. Russ Bendel and the people he surrounds himself with are hospitality veterans, and they know how to run a successful restaurant for long periods. 

The second reason we were excited to try Parlor was that they have received some significant accolades in the local press for their pizzas, pastas, and meatballs. They also possess a 4.5-star rating on Yelp. Pretty good for a restaurant group that has not previously operated an Italian-American restaurant. I'm thrilled to see that they are willing to take risks and open new concepts. 

The building where Parlor is housed used to be Brick Restaurant, until David Pratt decided to sell the space because he was opening Finca, a spot a little to the north at the River Street Marketplace in San Juan Capistrano. That restaurant is definitely on my growing list of restaurants to try soon. 

Back to Parlor. Their one-page menu predictably features wood-fired pizzas, but they also offer pasta dishes, larger entrée options, starters, salads, and four dessert options, including the Grand Ice Cream Sundae, which we will have to come back for when we're not headed out to a party right after this. The price point for pizzas is around $25, the same as the pasta dishes, and entrées cost close to $30. They also offer a Sunday prime rib dinner special for $35, perfect for any of you carnivores out there. We were here on a Friday, so no prime rib was going to be consumed, but let's see what we did have on our first visit to Parlor. 

I had really wanted to try the meatballs when we came to Parlor, but Katie has an arancini obsession, so she vetoed me and selected the Seasonal Arancini ($15) to start off with. When we were here, these fried rice balls were served with a whipped goat cheese and pumpkin, crispy sage leaves, and pepitas. I thought the arancini were good on their own, but the sweetness of the pumpkin did not jive with me. This combo worked out a lot better for Katie, as she was a big fan. Maybe I was still bitter about not getting the meatballs. 

Pizza time, and whenever I see a meat lover's listed on the menu, there's a 99 percent chance I'm going to order it. This held true at Parlor when the Meat Lover's Pizza ($26) was placed before me. It might not look like it from the picture, but there was a whole cavalcade of meats on this one: pepperoni, fennel sausage, sopressata salami, and pistachio mortadella. This pizza was also topped with tomato sauce and sharp provolone. It was lighter than most meat lovers' pizzas I've had, likely due to the high quality of the meats and the restraint in adding cheese. It was not as greasy as others, and I enjoyed the uniqueness of the sharp provolone, which had a great flavor. The crust was crisp in the middle and had minimal flop. A tad more sauce would have been appreciated, but overall, this was a delicious pizza. I finished all but one slice, but if you're not as ravenous an eater as I am, you can maybe get by with splitting this with someone. 

When I glanced at the menu before leaving for Parlor, I already knew that Katie would be having the Herb Tagliatelle Bolognese ($25) for her dinner. The slightly spicy tomato ragu was accompanied by shards of short rib and pork, and a sprinkling of pecorino Romano. The tagliatelle was cooked perfectly al dente, and the mingling of the ingredients in the bowl was very comforting. Katie felt that this version could be held up against some of her favorite Italian restaurants in Orange County. She practically licked her plate clean. 

Another hit for the RJB Restaurant Group. I'm thrilled that they've branched out and added an Italian-American restaurant to their portfolio. Their pizza is good enough to rival the others available in the pizza-rich city of San Clemente. I'm also looking forward to trying their non-pizza offerings, such as their carbonara, chicken parmesan, and crispy porchetta, on future visits. As is the case in all their restaurants, RJB Restaurant Group has assembled a first-rate team to staff Parlor. Everyone we encountered here was cheerful and genuinely proud of their work. It was especially great to meet Joe Guillena, the operating partner of Parlor. His passion for the restaurant industry was infectious, and we could have chatted for hours, but he was busy making sure things were running smoothly and checking on every occupied table in the restaurant. We can't wait to see what this restaurant group comes up with next. 

Out of five glasses of milk (because not only is a parlor a fancy room in a house, but the area where the cows are milked on a dairy farm is called the milking parlor), five being best to zero being worst, Parlor gets 3.5 glasses of milk. 

For more information about Parlor Kitchen and cocktails, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.parlorsanclemente.com/