Incredibly GOOD restaurant.

Glendale, Saturday, December 6, 2008—

Treasure Beach and Cafe, 928 East Ojai Ave., Ojai; tel. 805.640.0611

EVERY NOW AND THEN we're lucky enough to be introduced to an incredibly good restaurant, new to us, bright and clean and fresh and honest, living up to Carlo Petrini's Slow Food maxim good, clean, and fair. That completely describes Treasure Beach, whose chef, Jeri Oshima, brings wit and skill and taste to her limited but perfectly satisfactory menu. I'll never drive through Ojai again without stopping in. Today at lunch I had French onion soup, perfectly correct with fine stock, onions, bread, and gruyère in an appropriate bowl but completely free of ostentation. On then to this fine pork loin sandwich with caramelized onions and a few leaves of arugula; and then memorable desserts: fine shortbread, coconut macaroon, and chocolate cookie; persimmon cake with whipped cream and candied orange peel; and apple crisp with burnt caramel ice cream — a delicious echo of the onion soup that had started it all off.

Pinot grigio: Arancia, 2006