Five Crowns, Corona del Mar. Chris Barrus’ wedding reception.
We went to Five Crowns for Chris Barrus’ wedding reception. My grandparents used to love this place — it was their idea of top-of-the-line dining. Dark-paneled British inn feel, table-side Caesar salad with real anchovies, prime rib with creamy horseradish that has far more cream than horseradish.
The prime rib from the buffet carver at the wedding wasn’t quite as impressive as I remembered it from dinner service, but I talked the carver into slicing me the end piece.
The wedding was held in the little yard out back, which is very nice for a small occasion. About fifty people, tables on the patio, dancing under the awning.
Brush with fame: one time we were at Five Crowns and my sister Amy heard someone behind her speaking Portuguese, which she happens to know from time spent in South America. She turned around and started chatting with the woman, who turned out to be John Wayne’s widow.
I was not present for this. I got the story second-hand. But it’s exactly the sort of thing that happens at Five Crowns — a restaurant that has been around long enough for the famous to have been coming for decades and the famous’s spouses to be coming still.