Lukes on Front St. provides fresh food with a view

By Alex Groves on September 6, 2014No Comment

Luke’s on Front St. in Temecula is striving to be different than other restaurants in the area in more ways than one. Not only do they have an unparalleled view of Old Town’s main street drag, they also have a menu which bucks the trend of frozen and easily prepared meals.

The restaurant, which opened only a few months ago, was brought to life by owner Kelly Cusack. Cusack and her family have been living in the Temecula area since 1979 and have seen it change and grow in terms of development.

Cusack said owning a top floor bar and restaurant has been a dream of hers for a while now. She wanted to provide people in Temecula with an atmosphere and view similar to what they might find in Los Angeles or Downtown San Diego. So when Front Street Plaza started development of their four story apartment complex and retail center, Cusack saw an opportunity worth taking. So did her brother, Ryan Klein.

Today the restaurant is owned and operated by Cusack and her husband as well as Klein. They have a multi-item menu that specializes in both traditional and contemporary American fare like burgers, salads, seafood dishes and more. Many of their items only utilize fresh ingredients and all of the menu items are made to order.

A quick peek into the back room reveals that nearly everything is made from scratch. Batches of sauces, garnishes and dressings are only made in quantities large enough to last for the day so that new batches can be made for the next day.

“We wanted to bring something fresh and flavorful into Old Town,” Cusack said. “A lot of restaurants do a great job and we just wanted to do a little twist on that.”

The restaurant owner said her vision for the restaurant and her ideas on how to make guests happy came from her experience.

“We’ve been in the business,” she said. “My husband has been doing it for 25 years; I’ve been doing it for 20 and my brother has been in sales for about 12 years. So we kind of had a background on how to do it and we thought we’d take everyone’s ideas we always hear, especially when bartending and serving, and try to offer that here in Temecula.”

Cusack said good quality ingredients are definitely a part of that model. The restaurant’s fries are all natural and made to order and the ahi tuna used in multiple dishes is sushi-grade ahi.

Cusack said one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes is the ahi tartare fish taco, which comes with micro greens and wasabi cream cheese. The ahi is served on a crunchy rice wrapper rather than a tortilla, giving the dish a little more texture than it might otherwise have.

Cusack noted that another favorite among customers at the restaurant is the filet Oscar. It is a filet mignon topped with grilled asparagus, lump crab and béarnaise sauce. It is served with fingerling potatoes that are roasted in rosemary.

The restaurant’s food may be a draw for customers but Kelly said her bar and top floor patio areas are the most popular places in the restaurant.

“I wish we had made a bigger bar and less tables because everyone loves that bar,” Cusack said. “It gives you a view of the entire city hall and at night the whole thing glows.”

Lights in the bar and patio area shine an iridescent blue in the evening, as does the backlighting on restaurant’s large sign. Kelly said she did this as a remembrance of her son, Luke, who passed away six years ago this December. His birthstone was topaz.

On the corner of the patio area sits a fireplace filled with blue crystalline glass that shoots out warmth in the evening. Beyond that is a view of nearly all of Old Town’s Front Street and its various shops and lamp-lit sidewalks. Cusack said many of her customers enjoy the unique view.

Cusack said she is grateful her that her restaurant appears to be receiving positive reception from diners and that she is grateful for her staff, many of whom she knew before she started the restaurant. She said they’ve been there for her along her journey of opening a restaurant.

“They’re a pretty good group of people,” she said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better staff.

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