Maison Café + Market Chef Danielle Kuhn has established a new Dana Point landmark in the Jack’s Surfboards center on PCH just south of Del Obispo. The south-OCraised chef and entrepreneur babysat in Niguel Shores in her youngest days, soaked up restaurant experience at a Costa Mesa English pub as a teen, then at Cannon’s Dana Point and other local restaurants and bars.
At Maison Café + Market, she has created a wonderfully homey experience in a large two-storefront space which comfortably seats 56 patrons without rubbing elbows. Her culinary skills are abundantly obvious, and the word has spread since the café’s November 17 opening.
Maison Café + Market is open six days a week, closed Mondays. Exceptional pastries, baked fresh daily on-premises, are available with coffee service from 7:00 a.m. for eat-in or take-out. Table service begins when the kitchen opens at 8:00 a.m. Six menus are available: Morning, Lunch, Dinner, Dessert, Wine & Beer, and a limited L’Apero Happy Hour offered from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Uniquely, the morning menu can be ordered until 5:00 p.m. Danielle draws upon her French, Italian, Irish and Armenian heritage offering a wide variety of choices to please almost any culinary palate.
My first breakfast order was steak and eggs, with the flank steak done medium rare, pan-seared French style, sliced diagonally. The eggs were scrambled fluffy a la Julia Child and came with a colorful variety of small, round potatoes smashed on the plate. The country French bread arrived toasted to perfection. Asking for a bit of jam to finish the last piece, I received a ramekin of fresh-made blueberry compote mixed daily in the kitchen; nothing from a jar. Nancy had the Dutch Baby with organic fresh blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, maple syrup and sweetened mascarpone crème fraiche. Ooh, yum!
A week later I ordered the Dutch Baby for take-out, along with a savory
caramelized onion and mushroom folded-over galette for madame, and two large coffees. All excellent. The coffee is from Wild Goose roasters in Redlands, chosen after dozens of sustainable fair-trade brands were tasted.
Our lunch another day was also perfection. I ordered the linguine with roasted tomatoes, goat cheese, lemon butter and redolent of garlic. The house-made pasta is broad, more like fettucine, buttery and as good as any
Italian ristorante might serve. Nancy had the savory organic vegetable frittata with feta and toast. She added a ramekin of spicy roasted tomato salsa to liven it. Five Niguel Shores neighbors came in while we were eating lunch!
The Dinner menu offers seven Shares, four Salads, eight Entrees and five Sides ranging from $9 to $25. You can view these plus two dozen well-curated Wines, ten Beers, six Desserts and more at maisondanapoint.com along with many rave reviews of Danielle Kuhn’s new Dana Point institution. There are also several of my own photos posted on the niguelshores.org website as adjunct to this article. Try Maison Café + Market. You’ll surely love it!
Maison Café + Market is open six days a week, closed Mondays. Exceptional pastries, baked fresh daily on-premises, are available with coffee service from 7:00 a.m. for eat-in or take-out. Table service begins when the kitchen opens at 8:00 a.m. Six menus are available: Morning, Lunch, Dinner, Dessert, Wine & Beer, and a limited L’Apero Happy Hour offered from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Uniquely, the morning menu can be ordered until 5:00 p.m. Danielle draws upon her French, Italian, Irish and Armenian heritage offering a wide variety of choices to please almost any culinary palate.
My first breakfast order was steak and eggs, with the flank steak done medium rare, pan-seared French style, sliced diagonally. The eggs were scrambled fluffy a la Julia Child and came with a colorful variety of small, round potatoes smashed on the plate. The country French bread arrived toasted to perfection. Asking for a bit of jam to finish the last piece, I received a ramekin of fresh-made blueberry compote mixed daily in the kitchen; nothing from a jar. Nancy had the Dutch Baby with organic fresh blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, maple syrup and sweetened mascarpone crème fraiche. Ooh, yum!
A week later I ordered the Dutch Baby for take-out, along with a savory
caramelized onion and mushroom folded-over galette for madame, and two large coffees. All excellent. The coffee is from Wild Goose roasters in Redlands, chosen after dozens of sustainable fair-trade brands were tasted.
Our lunch another day was also perfection. I ordered the linguine with roasted tomatoes, goat cheese, lemon butter and redolent of garlic. The house-made pasta is broad, more like fettucine, buttery and as good as any
Italian ristorante might serve. Nancy had the savory organic vegetable frittata with feta and toast. She added a ramekin of spicy roasted tomato salsa to liven it. Five Niguel Shores neighbors came in while we were eating lunch!
The Dinner menu offers seven Shares, four Salads, eight Entrees and five Sides ranging from $9 to $25. You can view these plus two dozen well-curated Wines, ten Beers, six Desserts and more at maisondanapoint.com along with many rave reviews of Danielle Kuhn’s new Dana Point institution. There are also several of my own photos posted on the niguelshores.org website as adjunct to this article. Try Maison Café + Market. You’ll surely love it!
—Gary Tinnes
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