One of the supreme (and often elusive) accomplishments a restaurant can realize is to create something that’s familiar and accessible but new and different, drawing upon history – personal or shared – to create something of the moment.
That combination is not easy to find in well-funded destination restaurants, so I didn’t expect to find it in the new Poke Bar (717-4570), the latest fast-casual eatery to open in The Dunes shopping center in Marina (near REI, Target and the other big-box stores).
I don’t typically write about chains or franchises because there are so many worthy locally owned and independent restaurants to cover, but this isn’t your average franchise (and while affiliated with the popular international chain, it is locally owned and customized to its own specs).
The most immediate indicator this place is different covers its long eastern wall: A good 40-plus feet of murals transport visitors back to the heyday of Fort Ord, starting with an oversized recruitment flier that reads “Our Program Is Correlated With War Work,” “We Will Meet You at the Train” and “Located Near Monterey, California, We Are Isolated From Life’s Temptations.”
The black-and-white images run the length of the space from there – including glimpses of World War II amphibious training on Monterey Bay, General Joseph “Uncle Joe” Stilwell enjoying a laugh and a cigarette, and Company E assembled for a group photo in between the barracks.
Armed with white gloves, Poke Bar owner-operator Jasmine Nguyen spent three days at the Command History Office of the Defense Language Institute’s Foreign Language Center, sifting through thousands and thousands of images.
For her, the connection to place runs deep: She’s a native of Marina, an alumni of Seaside High and a member of CSU Monterey Bay’s original graduating class.
“I want to honor vets and educate newcomers,” she says. “I think the history gets lost and we don’t have that opportunity to share it. I wanted to do that here.”
Her parents were not so enthusiastic. They had no idea what she was up to last spring when she asked to borrow her dad’s truck and invited them to go for a little drive, saying, “Mom, Dad: I have something to show you.”
She took them to 130 General Stilwell Drive’s Suite 106, pointed and said, “This is my new job.”
At the time they were unaware she had started interviewing potential staffers in the Starbucks across the parking lot and was in the process of resigning from her lucrative position as a hospital administrator.
“They think I’m crazy,” she says.
She’s one of three Marina locals with businesses next door to one another (the others are Polished nail salon and uBreak iPhix phone repair), riding the undercurrent of change in Monterey County’s youngest and fastest-growing city.
“I want to be part of the new future here in Marina,” Nguyen says. “I want to be part of Marina’s new journey.”
On my lunch run I asked her to throw together her favorite poke combination and she immediately got cracking on what she called the “Jazzy Special”: On a bed of greens and quinoa she piled edamame, cucumber, kale, tiny fish roe, crispy onion, raw onion, cilantro, jalapeño, corn, seaweed salad, pineapple, sesame seeds, ground almonds and cashews, salmon, delicious seared albacore tuna and her own spicy mayo and ponzu sauce. I never would’ve combined things like corn, kale, jalapeño and pineapple, but it totally worked thanks to the wealth of textures, sheer freshness and harmonious saucing. I ate the whole serving, which came in at $9.95 ($1.50 per additional scoop), and didn’t feel weighed down back on my bike.
The crisp and colorful flavors matched the clean setting of blond wood and bright orchids, and the buoyant mood of the service was echoed by the upbeat reggae on the speakers.
“I told all my applicants I want a good vibe,” Nguyen says. “It’s mandatory.”
Good vibes are the prevailing weather pattern as The Dunes fills out its final storefronts. This week Anytime Fitness opens for business with a reported record for early gym memberships (which is saying something, as there are hundreds of locations in more than 30 countries); Dunes developer Scott Negri says he’s in talks with another food vendor to fill the downstairs slot in that building. (He declines to state who, citing the fact negotiations are in early stages.)
Meanwhile, between Smashburger and Blaze Pizza, restaurant-sports bar Dametra Fresh has its bones and exterior in place and work has begun on the buildout of the interior, including the kitchen and bathrooms. A realistic open date awaits about four months off.
Faisal Nimri is partnering on the project with Bashar Sneeh, as they did on the original Dametra crowdpleaser in Carmel and its fast-casual sibling at the Del Monte Center in Monterey. (They also own Portobello and Mediterranean on Ocean Avenue in Carmel.)
For this project, Negri helped secure the original bar from Army-era bar Stilwell Hall in all its historic glory, providing nostalgic fodder for those visiting the new Veterans Affairs-Department of Defense outpatient clinic just down the road.
“It’s an exciting project for the community,” Nimri says. “To be part of the town, its new area and its growth is nice. And it’s good to bring the history back.”