EDIBLE: Scales Seafood, Lalla Oceanside, Melville Tavern all open.

There are all kinds of crazy. Good crazy. Bad crazy. Crazy crazy. Crazy fun. Crazy coincidence. Crazy tasty. Crazy ambitious. Crazy weird. Crazy but true.

For anyone unfamiliar with crazy’s cousins, culinarily speaking, they came in bunches last week, despite it being Thanksgiving, making for one of the more insane sequences in local restaurant history. Three major Monterey spots debuted, plus a grand opening celebration on Cannery Row (at The Wine Experience tasting/blending/food hybrid across from Monterey Plaza).

There was crazy like the new $25 Bloody Mary at Scales Seafood & Steaks (375-1331). Scales is a huge, shimmering and strangely named new installment from the Chris Shake-Sabu Shake Jr. restaurant group (Old Fisherman’s Grotto and The Fish Hopper) in the former Gilbert’s space, with no fewer than four businesses within a business. (There’s a fish market, cafe-deli and gift shop too.)

The Ultimate Seafood Bloody includes a fresh oyster, a bacon-wrapped prawn, a crab cake slider, Dungeness crab meat in a lemon cup, crab-stuffed olives, pickled green beans and pepperoncini. Ask for a plate. Pair it with a sample of their clam chowder, the same Grotto recipe that wins contests and our readers’ vote for best in the area, and you have an 11-course meal without ordering an entree. It is the stunner from a colorful and annoyingly unpriced cocktail list that also includes a 54-ounce fisherman’s punch ($25) with vodka, rum, gin and cherry brandy, mixed with “exotic” juices, topped with 151 and served on fire.

Other menu highlights: crab mac and cheese ($16), ahi carpaccio ($14), that delicious chowder in a bread bowl with crab meat on top ($21), the crab Louie stack ($23), salmon BLT ($16), Papa Shake’s 1950 BBQ cheeseburger ($15), the seafood paella ($26) and the linguini Isabella with shrimp, chopped clams and scallops ($20), named after Mama Shake. (More on the blog, including cafe items.)

Then there’s crazy like the matrix of crystal chandeliers in the bar at brand new Lalla Oceanside Grill (324-0891), a highlight of striking and clean contemporary decor, complete with views over McAbee Beach. (It sits in the old Paradiso inside Spindrift Inn on Cannery Row.) Two additional assets for the setting: the downstairs cocktail lounge Angel’s Share – with its own bottled cocktails – and a sidewalk patio, a first for modern Cannery Row.

But nothing comes crazier than the surreal diversity of the menu, other than the fact the Ottone Restaurant Group of Lalla Grill, Lallapalooza and Ellie’s fame pulls it off. I count some 90 items, not including desserts or all the ways to customize the fresh fish or salads or pizzas. They range wildly, from Italian-style grilled octopus to chicken picatta to broccoli rabe pizza to jambalaya. The calamari-chorizo-shrimp “street” tacos ($14.99) and Kobe slider ($5.99) I tried were superb. Somehow they manage to appeal to many without sacrificing execution or overall identity.

The identity is retained by creative touches and execution, on dishes like the slow-cooked Cuban mojo sandwich ($13.99) or 8-ounce Kobe flap steak with prawns ($32), and the memorable setting with the long bar and big mirrored backing behind it. Fancy Applebee’s this isn’t. It’s its own thing. (More on the blog.)

The sheer volume of ambition at Scales and menu options at Lalla O make for a crazy contrast with the list at Melville Tavern, which remade the Santa Lucia Cafe next to East Village Coffee.

Opening week the 14 options were four starters, five sandwiches, three salads and two mains. Simple, rustic, earnest stuff with smart twists, priced for locals, with most items between $7.95 and $12.95. Think cremini mushroom quesadillas ($7.95), tavern burgers with caramelized onions, cheddar cheese and herb mayonnaise ($10.95 with fries or salad) and pulled pork sandwiches ($10.95). Or warm spinach salad with potatoes, tomato, olives, green beans and egg and ($12.95) and salmon with fingerling potatoes and broccolini ($18.95).

I loved the green chili cheeseburger with different types of roasted and sauteed peppers between thin patties with Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese ($12.95), and the pork and polenta with a standout jalapeño vinaigrette ($7.95). A sneak taste of the lamb burger with feta (TBD) also impressed. The duck sandwich with roasted pears ($14.95), while good, will improve with more sauce.

The redone interior enjoys an open kitchen, real tavern feel and very solid deals on well-curated drinks. They keep one wine and one beer at $6 and $3 at all times and rotate six taps through things like Firestone Velvet Merlin and Golden Road Get Up Offa That Brown ($6 each). Wine mark-up is minimal. Owner-operator Colin Lind, who grew up in restaurants with his parents (his dad still owns Sand Bar and Grill, and they share a number of cooks), has made good on his desire to do quality without cost overkill.

“We’ve got lots of nice places where you can spend $120 and lots of taquerias,” he told me recently, “but I wanted to do something burger-and-a-beer-like, elevated, with good food and great value.”

So Melville will lean much more toward locals than the others, but they’ll all do well. That would be the best thing about the crazy week: All three restaurants are from local families experienced in the business, with much to recommend them, in different ways. Defying restaurant odds, they’re each here to stay. Crazy but true.

QUICKBITES

• New chef Joey Rogers of incognito Bistro Abrego (372-7551), inside Hotel Abrego, has a revamped menu rolling out things like fried green tomatoes ($11), bacon-leek tarts ($13), cherry-chipotle baby back ribs ($15) and his signature family recipe Joey’s spaghetti and meatballs ($13). Strong breakfast lineup too.
• Johnny DeVivo’s much-awaited appearance on Cutthroat Kitchen happens 10pm Sunday, Dec. 6, with a viewing party at his Poppy Hills-adjacentPorter’s in the Forest (622-8237).
• The former Vineyard Garden Bistro on Pilot Road in Carmel Valley will become a wine lounge/casual restaurant hybrid called Roux (659-5020).
• Bar Cart Cocktails does a free “Rye and Wreath” holiday pop-up shop at Burst + Bloom in the Crossroads noon-5pm Saturday, Dec. 5, with cocktail tastes, recipes, syrups, bitters and tea blends, plus wreaths and Arrowheart Jewelry’s nature-inspired designs.
• Vertical Syrah tasting party 4-7pm Friday, Dec. 4 – 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 – for a modest $10 (free members) at Coastview on the east side of the Carmel Valley Wine Trail, plus holiday shopping and snacks.
• Monterey County Vintners & Growers Association got the nod from Carmel City Council to expand the Winemakers’ Celebration. Tickets on sale in the new year at montereywines.org.
• Scheid’s annual wreath-making party noon-3pm Saturday, Dec. 5, at the vineyard tasting room patio in Greenfield, with Chopper Shop snacks, wines and wreaths (free, 970-8703, rain cancels).
• Nonprofit California Artisan Foods (461-5272) does a one-month pop up featuring craft foods by NorCal small-scale and cottage food makers likeBig Paw Olive Oils, Pacific Cookie Company, Mutari Hot Chocolate and Copper Pan Jams at American Tin Cannery 10am-5pm through Christmas.
• Annual Sparkle Party 5:30-8pm in Caraccioli Cellars tasting room ($10) Friday, Dec. 4, after the tree lighting in downtown Carmel: bites by AlvaradoStreet Brewery, raffles and a flight with two sparkling wines and two ASB beers.
• Author-physician A.J. Cronin: “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, but only saps today of its strength.”