Olga Trehub
La Quinta Cliffhouse was literally built into the cliff at Point Happy.
It was none other than our 38th president, Gerald Ford, who dedicated the building on Highway 111 in La Quinta that houses one of the East Valley’s most beloved bastions of fine dining. Literally perched on the side of historic Point Happy, the La Quinta Cliffhouse affords diners a 180-degree view of the Valley and mountains accompanied by the soothing (if not incongruous) sound of a waterfall gushing down from atop the cliff. Since the doors opened, the La Quinta Cliffhouse has commanded a loyal following (especially during Happy Hour), even as the community has grown and the demographic has trended toward younger families. The restaurant’s patrons even stayed loyal when the longhorns came off the walls.
Owner Jacquee Renna-Downing – who bought the Cliffhouse from the original owners with her husband, the late Kipp Downing – remembers being decidedly underwhelmed when she surveyed her new purchase in 2011. “It sort of had a really old Western theme,” she says with a chuckle. “There was the skull of a steer on the wall … saddles and wagon wheels and pictures of celebrities like Bob Hope. It needed a change.”
The Downings already had great success with their Pacifica Seafood Restaurant and Pacifica Del Mar and wanted to imbue the Cliffhouse with the same casual elegance. So, out went the cowboy bunkhouse swag and in came a complete reconfiguration of the space. The bathrooms were moved from the front entrance to the back of the restaurant and separate dining rooms were created to give each a more intimate feeling. Renna-Downing kept the beautiful, massive beams above the bar area (easily the most popular space on the property, next to the immediately adjacent patio) but painted the walls white and kept them clean and unadorned (though on one wall, she cleverly had a carpenter arrange colorful wood strips from the hull of a Thai fishing boat … it looks like a great piece of modern art).
Though the restaurant’s kitchen regularly churns out 700 plates an evening during high season in March (the restaurant seats around 200 and stays open through the summer) with crowd favorites such as scallops baked in cream on the half shell; prime ribeye; and pan-fried, bone-in veal chop, Renna-Downing felt the creativity in her kitchen staff was waning. “You don’t want people to just come in and do the exact same thing every single day,” she says. “It has to be exciting. There has to be professional growth. And that was not happening.”
Traditionally, chefs find employment through recommendations and word-of-mouth, but Renna-Downing decided to go new-school and searched for a new executive chef through LinkedIn. She narrowed her search regionally and came up with several intriguing candidates. The chef she hired, Seth Vider, had just the right balance of culinary creativity, experience, and managerial competence.
Vider – a bearded, affable 41-year-old who was born and raised in Colorado – got his culinary education through the school of hard knocks. After getting kicked out of high school, he got a job washing dishes at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. After the cooks walked out one day, the manager gave him a chance at the grill and he never looked back. “I’ve always had a job,” he says. “I’ve never gone hungry.” He eventually got his GED and was accepted at the Art Institute of Phoenix, where the culinary program educated him in classic cuisines and international culture. Over the last 20 years, Vider has amassed an impressive resumé; he worked for several years for Mastro’s and eventually opened one of their restaurants in Las Vegas. A stint at a Brazilian steakhouse got him interested in Latin cuisine, which he furthered by working at RED O, an upscale Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica whose menu was created by Mexican cuisine expert Rick Bayless. Vider earned his seafood chops working at the Water Grill in San Diego and was working at King’s Seafood when Renna-Downing saw his profile.
Even though Vider was happy where he was, he found himself drawn to Renna-Downing’s vision for the future of the Cliffhouse. “She wants to grow,” he says. “She’s ambitious. She wants to do different concepts and she doesn’t want to repeat old concepts. She told me there’s a couple dishes on the menu she wants to remain, but otherwise it’s up to me what I want to do. She’s given me something I haven’t had in a very long time – freedom.”
Still, Vider is taking baby steps. Having stepped into the role mid-season, he doesn’t want to rock the boat too much, so he’s offering some ever-changing specials to gauge the reception of new dishes by the restaurant’s regulars. A Chilean sea bass crudo didn’t do so well, but a plate of scallops in cream sauce was a huge hit … even making a believer out of Renna-Downing. (“I don’t even like scallops … and I ate every one on my plate,” she says.)
Renna-Downing admits that the timing isn’t right “for Seth to go all creative on me. But, once we get through [the] season, he’ll be able to create a menu that is all Seth.”
