KICK-BUTT SELF-DEFENSE: Lori Hartman Gervasi, author

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taste | dining spring break chicken features a broth served in a beer-bong style tube to be poured over the dish. other dishes are designed to be complemented by aromas from the serving arrangements, such as jasmine in one recent case. Chef James Kelly, with his wife Denise, cooks with humor, in the context of both amusement and in the classical sense, aroma. 30 | inlandlivingmagazine.com | may 09 A plateful of spring at Owen’s Bistro By BETTS GRIFFONE Photos by FRANK PEREZ ON THE MENU, it’s called “the camping trip.” What arrives at the table is a plate with a small pine branch, upon which is a round stone that has been heated to 500 degrees. On top of that is a beautiful piece of sizzling salmon. But that’s not all. Lightly covering the fish are greens with a crisp bacon vinaigrette. The aroma is like breakfast by a lake in the mountains where the morning’s catch sizzles on the plate. It’s one of the innovative items found at James and Denise Kelly’s intimate restaurant — Owen’s Bistro, which is tucked away in a building that started
Denise Kelly pours champagne for guests at a recent spring dinner. The sparkling wine was tinted in pastel colors as part of the evening's motif. its life as a bank in the early 1900s. The restaurant, named after their 8-yearold son, opened in 2003. At that time, they owned a Chino sandwich cafe called Brown Bag It, which had been successful for 14 years. The city was redeveloping the old part of town and approached the Kellys about opening a new place in the area. They immediately were drawn to the location as it reminded them of the buildings in old town Pasadena — red brick walls, Japanese maples and Spanish style iron gates in the courtyard. Besides Owen’s, they also kept the cafe going, but after a couple of months, they decided their real passion was for the new place and sold the cafe. James, who also works as the chef, is self-taught with more than 22 years of experience. He started at a young age in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant run by his grandparents on Chicago’s south side. When he was a teenager his family moved to California, where, after high school, he went to work at the Velvet Turtle, first as a bus boy and then as a waiter — all the time volunteering to do prep work in the kitchen. It was the kind of experience he needed to open the sandwich cafe in Chino. Chef James is into molecular gastronomy, but prefers to call his cuisine progressive American with a sense of humor. He likes the idea of concept meals, much like the camping trip described above. He doesn’t follow recipes and has often created dishes to go with particular wines — instead of pairing the wine to the food. On a recent evening, Owen’s Bistro offered one of its monthly chef’s dinners. The concept was spring and everything on the menu as well as the décor was designed to bring that fresh feeling to all the senses. The Kellys believe that what you see and smell is just as important to the dining experience as the taste, and the evening reflected that. The whimsy began as each arriving month 09 | inlandlivingmagazine.com | xx
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KICK-BUTT SELF-DEFENSE: Lori Hartman Gervasi, author

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