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Photograph by Emily J. Davis
Mayfield stands out in a batch of newborn restaurants that will never know life pre-pandemic. It’s hard to imagine this serene, split-level venue full. Transplanted Londoner George Barker can picture it, though. He has nursed that vision for five years.
Mayfield’s is a singular concept local California cuisine with the timeless flavors of the Mediterranean, Middle East, and North Africa. Chef Jayro Martinez, well-traveled but most recently of Social and Ahba, is a gifted interpreter of Barker’s vision. Enchanting flavors meander through dishes such as Hasselback celery root, beet burrata salad with honey walnut pesto, and osso buco unlike any other. A compelling cocktail program is a strength, too. Mayfield’s worldly aura and category-busting cuisine is already a high point of 2021.
Prawn toast; Photograph by Emily J. Davis
It’s a perfect winter-like day in San Juan Capistrano. Warm in the sun, chilly in the shade. Chatty shoppers and local dogs walking their owners bustle along the narrow sidewalks, making for great people-watching from my seat at Mayfield’s colossal window, wide open to the brisk air. Cocktails arrive and they’re magnificent. Only the ubiquitous face masks reveal this is not a typical late November day.
Mayfield is one of 2020’s restaurants that never knew life before the pandemic. Its existence has always included masks, curfews, distancing, and outright closures. Imagining this split-level space at its capacity is unsettling after months of dining inside 6-foot bubbles. George Barker can picture it, though. He has nursed that vision for five years.