Art for Fun’s Sake in Laguna Beach

Cruising down Coast Highway in Laguna Beach, it’s easy to overlook the stretch of shops just north of the Laguna Art Museum.

Locals call it Gallery Row.

The two blocks of North Coast Highway between Myrtle Street on the north and Aster Street/Cliff Drive on the south has long been known for its collection of art galleries. But a number of new fine-art galleries--and a popular new restaurant--have revitalized the area in recent years.

A visit to Gallery Row would not be complete without a stop at the Laguna Art Museum and a short walk down Cliff Drive to Heisler Park, which offers spectacular views of Laguna’s rugged coastline and the tide pools below the steep cliffs. (A stairway at mid-park takes you down to the beach.)

Galleries Galore

This stretch of North Coast Highway has had a gallery presence dating at least to 1929, when the Laguna Art Museum moved to the corner of Cliff Drive and the highway, according to Peter Blake, owner of the Peter Blake Gallery (326 N. Coast Highway, [949] 376-9994. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily).

Blake, who specializes in contemporary art, moved into his current location from the southern part of town nearly five years ago. Since then, he has been instrumental in the current revival by helping lure a handful of high-quality art galleries to the area, which boasts more than a dozen galleries.

But more important than numbers, Blake said, “is the quality of work being shown. The people doing business here now are less commercially minded and more about just showing great work. We recently got one of the top galleries in the country, out of San Francisco, to open a satellite here.”

That’s Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, which showcases contemporary figurative art, with an emphasis on artists from the San Francisco Bay Area. (353 N. Coast Highway, [949] 494-4600. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday)

There is, said Blake, “a lot of vitality here.

“Before, if you came to North Laguna, you came especially to see a specific gallery. Now people are parking on North Coast Highway, having breakfast or lunch, and then spending the afternoon enjoying art. There are some great galleries owned by the artists that show less expensive works. And Nicholson’s has great antiques.”

Nicholson’s of Laguna Beach, which specializes in antiques and fine furniture, is just a few doors up the highway from Blake’s gallery (362 N. Coast Highway, [949] 494-4820. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday).

Outdoor Dining

For more than 80 years, the one-story Craftsman bungalow next to the venerable Cottage Restaurant, was just that: a house.

Now it’s home to Madison Square & Garden Cafe, which in 15 months has become one of Laguna’s most popular breakfast and lunch destinations (320 N. Coast Highway, (949) 494-0137. Cafe hours: 7 a.m.-4 p.m.; closed Tuesdays during the winter; gift shop hours, 7 a.m.-5 p.m.).

Head up the front steps to the wooden front porch and step through the always-open front door into the gift shop. It features an array of unusual domestic and imported items, from home accessories to bath products, which are displayed in the house’s original ball-and-claw bathtub.

Order your food at the counter to the right. Breakfast specialties include Madison Rancheros ($8) and German-apple pancakes ($7); the Shanghai chicken salad ($7.50) and the turkey club sandwich ($8.25) are popular luncheon items.

Madison Square & Garden Cafe is an outdoor restaurant, so take your assigned number and grab a table in the backyard; a staffer will bring the food to you. There’s a heated tented area, but outdoor heaters are scattered throughout the yard, which boasts three 100-year-old pepper trees.

While waiting for your order to arrive, you may want to take your coffee and look over the array of objets d’ backyard.

There are handblown sun catchers, Chinese urns and whimsical water fountains made by local artists--one is made of porcelain flamingos with a mosaic-tiled water catcher. Another, the Alice in Wonderland fountain, is made of stacked tea cups.

Even the cafe’s tables and chairs, which are made of various materials, are gaze-worthy (one glass-topped table has plants growing through it).

“Nothing’s traditional,” said owner Jon Madison, whose idea was to create “sort of an urban nursery. And lots of my tables and chairs are for sale.”

Madison, a lawyer and landscape architect who has a doctoral degree in plant physiology--”I’m an overachiever”--said going into the restaurant business had been “a passion of mine for many years.”

Madison is also an animal lover, so his restaurant is pet-friendly.

“I have had everything from a Chihuahua to a Bernese mountain dog here,” he said. “Someone’s even brought in a potbellied pig--very clean, I might add. This weekend, I had my first parrot come in.”

Madison, who travels worldwide in search of unusual items to carry in his gift shop, describes the flavor of his restaurant as a blend of New Orleans and France.

“What I find is the place has become a destination for people,” he said. “They say, ‘Let’s meet in Madison Square’ and then they go off and do things. That’s what I was hoping to see happen.”

More Eateries

Gallery Row is also home to several landmark Laguna eateries:

* The Cottage Restaurant opened in 1964 (308 N. Coast Highway [949] 494-3023. Hours: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Monday through Friday; 7 a.m.-4 p.m. and 4:30-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday).

* The Royal Hawaiian was established in 1947 (331 N. Coast Highway, [949] 494-8001. Hours: 5-11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 4-10 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday).

* Las Brisas opened in 1979 on the site of the former Victor Hugo Inn (361 Cliff Drive [949] 497-5434. Breakfast hours: 8-10:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday. Lunch hours: 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Dinner hours: 5-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 4:30-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 4-10 p.m. Sunday. Sunday brunch is 9 a.m.-3 p.m.).

Step Back in Time

Len Wood’s fascination with Native American artifacts began in Banning when he was a young boy accompanying his physician father on house calls to the nearby Morongo Indian Reservation in the early ‘40s.

In 1969, the long-time Laguna Beach resident and insurance broker turned his obsession into a business, opening Len Wood’s Indian Territory, a gallery and museum at North Coast Highway and Cliff Drive (305 N. Coast Highway, (949) 497-5747. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday).

“We’re mainly a gallery of 19th century and early 20th century traditional Native American material,” said Wood, whose 3,000 square-foot shop is a must-see stop.

The shop carries Navajo weavings, beaded leather items, a cross-section of early to contemporary Indian jewelry, and prehistoric to contemporary Pueblo pottery.

It also boasts what may be the largest single collection of early Navajo blankets and rugs and West Coast basketry in the nation.

The baskets were made between 1850 and 1930 and represent about 100 West Coast tribes. Unless you’re a serious collector, you just may want to look at the baskets housed in glass display cases. As Wood says, “The average basket nowadays is going to be between $500 and $2,000.” Some baskets sell for half a million dollars or more.

One of the shop’s most expensive baskets is an 1890s bottle-neck basket made by the Yokuts, a San Joaquin Valley tribe, and decorated with quail plumes.

“That’s worth $25,000,” Wood said.

Behind a blue door is the shop’s museum, which includes a colorful array of some 300 Navajo rugs woven between the early 1860s to just before World War II.

“Every artifact that comes in our hands is a stimulus for research,” said Wood, a walking encyclopedia of Native American culture. His sons Matt and Jeff serve as gallery managers.

IF YOU GO

* Getting There

From the San Diego Freeway (405), take Laguna Canyon Road (133) to Laguna Beach. Turn right on Coast Highway. Gallery Row is on North Coast Highway, just north of Main Beach between Aster Street/Cliff Drive and Myrtle Street. There are lots of metered parking (25 cents for 15 minutes) and a parking lot ($6 for all day) between Cliff Drive and Jasmine Street.

* Look Up

The Pottery Barn, a Gallery Row fixture since 1955 (392 N. Coast Highway, [949] 494-3238. Hours: 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily). The Pottery Barn, a ‘20s-era house with a large front and side yard, carries items such as glazed flower pots, garden ware, statuary, wrought-iron wall decorations and shells.

* Aside

The Laguna Art Museum, founded in 1918, is Orange County’s oldest cultural institution (307 Cliff Drive, [949] 494-6531. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; closed Monday. Cost: $5 for adults, $4 for students and seniors, and free for children younger than 12 and for museum members). This weekend is the last chance to see “California Craft,” a survey exhibition representing the best of contemporary craft in California.