Stag Pizza Party

Stag Bar + Kitchen

121 Mc Fadden Place

Newport Beach, CA 92663

This is a review a long time in the making. I have been wanting to try the pizzas and other items at the Stag Bar for a long while now. It just seemed that every time we came down to the Newport Beach Pier, they were packed. There was always a big game going on, or a bar crawl was passing through and there was nowhere to sit in the rather small dining section of one of the oldest continuing operating bars in Southern California.

The building that houses the Stag Bar was built in 1908 and became a bar six years later. That puts them at serving the people of Newport Beach beer and cocktails for the last 105 years, minus of course those dark times when prohibition was the law of the land from 1920 to 1933. During that time the Stag Bar survived by serving sarsaparilla and the popularity of billiards. Of course, there were rumors of beer being served upstairs, but that's none of my business.

The Stag Bar became an upscale martini bar after prohibition ended, and it was at around that time they installed a 100-foot long bar, which is still the longest in the city. In 2006, Stag Bar was bought by Mario Marovic, of the Lounge Group, and renamed The District Lounge. It stayed the District for eight or so years, and then Mario, who has had a good string of adding impressive restaurant and bars to his portfolio (Malarky's, Blackie's, Playa Mesa, Country Club, and Matador Cantina to name a few), decided to go back to this building's roots and bring The Stag back with a huge makeover to its early 20th-century look and feel.

Back are the antlers, pool tables, and taxidermy above the bar. They darkened things up a bit and decided to specialize in whiskey, of which they feature 75 different kinds, including some specialty small batches. The menu here also got a complete overhaul. They are known for their meatballs and pizzas at The Stag Bar, but there's also hamburgers, salads, and even tacos offered on Tuesdays.

We were lucky enough to find a table near the back door of the long and narrow Stag Bar, right near the kitchen, and a little removed from all the craziness that is the bar area. We still had a good view of the Sunday Funday crowd winding it down before they had to get back home to get ready for work or school. We were here on the last day of Newport Beach Restaurant, Week and The Stag Bar was offering a three-course dinner menu, plus a beer or cocktail for $20. Such a deal, it got us out of the house on a Sunday evening. Let's see if it ended up being worth it.

The first course for us was this Half Antipasto Salad ($5). This was a very generous serving size for it being a half and it included a whole cavalcade of stuff in it; feta, provolone, olives, prosciutto, capicola, pepperoni, pepperoncini, tomato, artichoke hearts, and greens dressed in a red wine shallot vinaigrette. The produce in this was very fresh and I really liked the variety here. I do wish they would have dressed this with a heavier hand, as a lot of the items had little to no dressing included.

Personal pizzas were the option for course number two. At The Stag Bar, they have 18 kinds of pizza for you to choose from, and I did not see that they had a build your own pizza, but I can not see why they wouldn't do that for you. I definitely always veer towards the pizza that has the most meat on it, which was the appropriately named Meat Coma ($10). This one included prosciutto, pepperoni, sausage, and capicola, along with red sauce and mozzarella cheese. I liked the slightly sweet crust here, which was thicker than I usually enjoy, but it was not too obtrusive. The thick crust held all the contents of the pizza well. The meats were nicely spaced out and delicious, but I could have done without the big slices of prosciutto, which came off all in one bite. Katie and I are definitely opposites when it comes to pizza. She never veers towards pizzas with meat, as was evident with her choice, the White Knight ($8). This pizza uses white sauce and mozzarella as its base and then adds artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and ricotta to it. Katie also liked the crust and felt it had a homemade kind of feel to it.

Not part of the restaurant week menu, but we could not resist trying a Skillet of Meatballs ($8). We had tried their meatballs at various food events we had the privilege of covering and they were good then, but even better on this evening. At Stag Bar it's a three-step process ordering your perfect meatball. First, you pick what kind of meatball you'd like to have, the sauce you desire is next, and lastly, you select the cheese you desire. Our fantastic server Stephanie suggested that we trust her to doctor up the four meatballs the way she likes them. We got the house grind, which is a blend of beef, pork, prosciutto, and mortadella, and then had marinara and provolone cheese blanket each of the four meatballs. This meatball masterpiece was finished off with a good amount of habanero pesto, which definitely gave this a kick. Good call on letting Stephanie pick how we wanted our meatballs. The meatballs were very flavorful and fork-tender. The cheese and sauces kind of took over here, but no complaints from me about that. Both the marinara and the pesto were excellent and made these some of the best meatballs we've had in a really long time. Made me wish that they had a meatball sandwich on their menu, instead of just sliders. Maybe I'll just sneak in my own bread next time.

A sweet ending to our restaurant week adventure was this Beignet and the Jets ($6). These come six to an order, even though the menu states eight, and are more like fried dough than a beignet. They were fine but got a little boring near the end of the three that I had. They needed a little more powdered sugar and the caramel sauce was okay but needed to be a tad thicker. Fine, but not earth-shattering.

I was pretty pleased with our visit to Stag Bar for Newport Beach Restaurant Week. A salad, personal pizza, dessert, and a cocktail for $20 was a pretty solid deal in my opinion. The best item we had was the meatballs, which were fantastic. If you are lucky enough to have Stephanie as your server, definitely trust her suggestion to have the meatballs her favorite way. The pizzas here were better than most, and I look forward to trying others on future visits. I have my eye on the sausage, Mexican, and the breakfast pizzas. Service was pretty solid, especially considering how busy they were. Not only was Stephanie great, but the manager on duty, (sorry I forgot your name) checked on us numerous times, and we had a great conversation about the restaurant business. Glad to see that The Stag Bar has made a return to its glory days, and hopefully it will not be so long before a return visit is warranted.

Out of five antlers, (because large male deers are called stags, and they grow antlers each year), five being best to zero being worst, The Stag Bar gets 3 antlers.

For more information about The Stag Bar + Kitchen, head to their website here: https://stagbar.com/