Join Me on the Next Irvine Food Tour: Phans 55 Vietnamese Bistro and Bar

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Please join me as we continue our Irvine Food Tour, showcasing and sharing our wonderful cultural diversity in Irvine as expressed in scores of amazing local restaurants and markets featuring cuisines as diverse as Irvine’s population.

Irvine is home to scores of remarkable locally-owned restaurants featuring cuisine as diverse as Irvine’s population. But many people who live in Irvine are not aware of the great restaurants we have, or perhaps they’re a little uncertain about trying food they perhaps have not eaten before. That is why I created the Irvine Food Tour, where we visit a local restaurant and the owner or chef selects the menu and explains the food as it is brought to us.

The Irvine Food Tour is also a great way to support local businesses and to connect local business owners with the community.

Our next Irvine Food Tour Destination is Phans 55, a Vietnamese Bistro and Bar.

As the home of more than 200,000 people of Vietnamese heritage, Orange County has hundreds of restaurants specializing in Vietnamese cuisine.  You can find restaurants featuring traditional dishes from every region and city in Vietnam. Irvine’s Phans 55, a family owned and operated restaurant, takes a slightly different approach: Vietnamese cuisine with a modern flare.

The menu is built around the healthy, fresh, distinctive cuisine of Vietnam, as beautiful as it is delicious.

OC Metro Magazine has raved about Phan 55’s “quality of the locally sourced food and the outstanding diversity of inspiring flavors.” OC Coast Magazine promised its readers that they “will love Phans 55, a sexy Vietnamese bistro and bar that serves healthy Vietnamese and focuses on the green movement.”

Our hosts and guides will be owners Tom and Susie Phan, who bring to Phans 55’s wonderful cuisine many years of technique and training passed on from generation to generation.

As always they’ll be great food and great conversation!

There are vegetarian and kid-friendly options.  Each diner will purchase their own items from the menu.

As Tom and Susie Phan have said, “it is through eating that we can take a moment and listen to each other’s lives. Food always has this magical element that can bond different people from different backgrounds together. ”

We could not agree more!

What: Irvine Food Tour with Commissioner Melissa Fox

When: Monday, April 4, 2016, at 6:00 p.m.

Where: Phans 55, a Vietnamese Bistro and Bar. 6000 Scholarship, Irvine CA 92612

If you have any questions, please contact me at 949-683-8855 or melissa@melissafoxlaw.com.

Seating is limited, so please reserve your spot as soon as possible by calling me at 949-683-8855 or emailing me at melissa@melissafoxlaw.com.

See you there!

Please note:  Commissioner Melissa Fox’s Irvine Food Tour is the creation of Melissa Fox and Dr. Catherine Liu, based on their love of Irvine’s many cultures and cuisines and their desire to share Irvine’s many wonderful cultures and cuisines with you, and is not an official activity or event of the City of Irvine

The Irvine Food Tour with Commissioner Melissa Fox Returns! Join Us for a Spectacular Persian Dinner at House of Kabob!

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“I don’t know anyone who has had Persian food and didn’t like it. Seriously.” ― Rick Steves, Guidebook Author and TV host.

Food is an expression of culture and a central focus of family life.  Here in Irvine, our cultural diversity is expressed in many forms, including restaurants.  I would like to share my love of Irvine’s many cultures and cuisines with you. That’s why I’ve launched the Irvine Food Tour with Commissioner Melissa Fox.

Food Tour HOK 2-8-16 (2) (1) (1)-page-0Please join us as we continue our Irvine Food Tour, showcasing and sharing our wonderful cultural diversity in Irvine as expressed in scores of amazing local restaurants and markets featuring cuisines as diverse as Irvine’s population!

As always, there’s going to be great food and great conversation!

Our next Irvine Food Tour destination is House of Kabob on Monday, February 8 at 6:00 p.m., for a spectacular dinner of Persian food.

House of Kabob is an award-winning restaurant that offers a casual yet refined dining experience through a meticulous fusion of flavorful food, pleasant ambience, and congenial hospitality.  The restaurant’s goal is to provide authentic Persian/Mediterranean cuisine coupled with impeccable service. Every dish is prepared fresh daily with only the finest ingredients.

The Los Angeles Times has raved that “House of Kabob cooks with self-assurance, its name a declaration of the restaurant’s dominion over all things skewered. Kabobs do indeed fare well, gobbets of beef, lamb or chicken charred in a primal, pleasing way. The koobideh kebab — ground beef formed into a torpedo — is the juicy ideal of what a kebab can be, the meat made almost silken amid the flames.  Combination kebabs offer a complete experience. The zafarani kebab trio provides a taste of everything: a boneless chicken kebab, a koobideh kebab and two lamb chops. Each kebab plate is served with a heap of basmati rice and orbs of charbroiled tomato, their skins blistered and scarred like the craggy surface of some comet-battered planet.”

Our expert host will be owner Jozef Besharati, who has more than 30 years of experience in culinary creations, event planning, and hotel management.  Mr. Besharati’s experience first began when he attended Le Vieux Bois in Geneva, Switzerland, which is known to be one of the top culinary schools in Europe.  After six rigorous years of training, he proceeded to work at Geneva’s acclaimed AAA Five Star Hotel du Rhone. After nearly 10 years of advancing his knowledge of management and culinary expertise where he worked under some of the most well-known chefs in Europe, Mr. Besharati moved to Irvine, California, where he spent the next 15 years working as the Catering and Banquet Manager at the AAA Five Star Le Meridian Hotel and later the AAA Five Star Sutton Place Hotel.

Seating is limited, so please reserve your spot as soon as possible by calling me at 949-683-8855 or emailing me at melissa@melissafoxlaw.com.

There are vegetarian and kid-friendly options.  Each diner will purchase their own items from the menu.

See you there!

What: Irvine Food Tour with Commissioner Melissa Fox

When: Monday, February 8, 2016, at 6:00 p.m.

Where: House of Kabob, 92 Corporate Park, Irvine, CA 92606

If you have any questions, please contact me at 949-683-8855 or melissa@melissafoxlaw.com.

See you there!

Please note:  Commissioner Melissa Fox’s Irvine Food Tour is the creation of Melissa Fox and Dr. Catherine Liu, based on their love of Irvine’s many cultures and cuisines and their desire to share Irvine’s many wonderful cultures and cuisines with you, and is not an official activity or event of the City of Irvine