When Davin and Jessica Waite were looking for the ideal spot to bring their popular North San Diego plant-based dining concepts to Orange County, the restaurateurs found a kindred spirit at The Camp.
The Costa Mesa retail center prides itself on being a green, eco-friendly hub of shopping and restaurants that are dedicated to an active, healthy lifestyle mindful of environmentalism and supportive of the local community.
What’s more, the center—developed by Shaheen Sadeghi, the creator of The Lab “anti-mall” across the street from The Camp—had a rare opening: a ready-made restaurant building that formerly housed Native Foods.
The Waite duo, whose restaurant collection includes The Plot, which they launched in Oceanside in January 2020, took over the former Native Foods space, made changes to the kitchen and décor, and opened their first OC-based Plot in January.
The duo also counts a third Plot location in Carlsbad, alongside other restaurant concepts in Oceanside.
“We’ve always wanted to expand our reach and bring our plant-based cuisine to more people, and The Camp’s commitment to sustainability and community aligns perfectly with our values,” said Jessica Waite, the Plot’s co-founder and chief executive.
“We’re excited to be a part of such a vibrant and innovative space that champions sustainability as not just a trend, but a way of life.”
“This is a good fit for us, and we are a good fit for the location,” added Davin Waite, co-founder and executive chef. “We love it here.”
Providing Options
The restaurant’s name is an homage to the small gardens Jessica and her siblings had when growing up, and the allotments of land Davin’s family had in England when he was a child.
It also references the master plan the duo have in order to create a healthier, more respectful, and in their words, a more delicious future.
“We are trying to create an incredibly delicious dining experience with badass food that gets people excited,” Jessica said.
“We don’t want to turn the world vegan, we just want to give people an option,” Davin said.
The Costa Mesa menu is similar to the Oceanside location with regional differences, Davin noted.
“We kept the base menu and then we see what our chefs are excited about,” Davin said.
“We want to minimize waste and maximize creativity. Our mission is to be as regenerative as possible and give back more than we take. In the food world that is fun, because it leads to a lot of innovation and creativity in the kitchen.”
The Oceanside location was hailed as the first zero-waste, plant-based restaurant in San Diego County when it opened.
Recognizable Dishes
Creativity is apparent in dishes such as carrotfish tacos (The Plot’s version of Baja fish tacos), beet Reuben, and a gyro bowl with lentil gyro meat.
As Jessica explained, “on ‘Saturday Night Live’ when an actor does a spoof of someone, they have to be recognizable as whoever they are spoofing otherwise no one would get it but they still have to be themselves.”
“That’s how we treat our veggies. We don’t want to completely turn it. For the tacos we want to be reminiscent of fish, but you still have a little hint that you are eating a carrot,” she said.
SJC Utopia
Their Oceanside restaurant sources ingredients from various producers including the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano, where Davin has applied his chef skills at private dinners.
“We go there for inspiration, it’s a perfect little utopia,” Jessica said. “If you join us for a special Plot dinner, we use Ecology Center produce.”
The Plot menu is notable for not using Beyond Meat or Impossible Meat. Instead, lentils and wild rice, mushrooms, beets and organic tofu masquerade as chicken, pastrami and chorizo.
“We stick to our ideals, but we have to make it taste good,” Davin said. “We want to appeal to everyone. You have to give people what they want, and if you are lucky give them what they want your way.
It’s not my menu, it’s their menu. It’s got to have appeal; we want people to be stoked on it. And the specials board—it’s like open mic night, that’s where new ideas audition for their spot on the menu.”
The Waites
The couple met in 2011 when Jessica was working for Davin at a San Diego restaurant called the Fish Joint. They hit it off and went on to open a pop-up restaurant and branched out from there.
“I have always been vegan and an environmentalist, he had the most respect for plants and life—everything he found in front of him he used the entire thing,” said Jessica, who scrapped her plans to pursue a career in healthcare and instead went to business school, which helped them draw up a business plan for The Plot.
“Quick casual restaurants have fewer moving parts, but this one is really big, it’s a lot to bite off. It’s a reminder of what it’s like to be back in a restaurant every day working with a team,” Jessica said.
“It’s full adrenaline,” Davin said. “The chemistry the team has is insane. It’s been smooth and enjoyable.”
The OCBJ Review: by christopher trela
I went to lunch at The Plot just two weeks after it opened in January at The Camp in Costa Mesa, but everything was humming along perfectly.
The interior is comfortable and reflects stylish simplicity. The menu does the same. There are half a dozen starters, three salads and a handful of entrées on the lunch menu, with more on the dinner menu.
One dish that caught my eye was cheesy truffle fries—three of my favorite words. Also, the carrotfish tacos and the beet Reuben.
The tacos came out looking exactly like Baja fish tacos, crispy and adorned with lime pepper sauce and pickled onions. Biting into them my palate was momentarily confused—are these fish tacos or plant tacos? They were definitely delicious, and I devoured them in earnest—until the cheesy truffle fries showed up.
The fries are hand cut, thick and textural. The cheesy sauce is made with cashews, but all I cared about was the wonderful combination of flavors. These are addicting fries, and the sauce is not overtly vegan, meaning I found this dish like the last one—a great imitation without tasting like imitation ingredients.
The beet Reuben is made with pastrami beet, cabbage kraut, yum yum sauce, and toasted bread with a side of tarragon crème potato salad. Again, the ingredients mimicked pastrami.
It was juicy and tender, and the crusty bread engulfed the ingredients like a cozy blanket.
Rabbit Hole
I also got to try a special dish auditioning for the dinner menu: eggless egg pasta accompanied by mushrooms, tomatoes, and other edibles not normally in a traditional pasta dish. Not only is it beautifully composed, it’s also hearty yet light and bursting with flavors and textures.
“We are having fun going down that rabbit hole and figuring out how to convert things to vegan, and how to mimic and imitate the tastes and textures,” Davin Waite said.
If they ever need a non-vegan taste tester, I’m available. I may not convert to vegan, but I’m enthusiastic about what’s being created at The Plot.
The Plot: 2937 Bristol St., Ste. E100, Costa Mesa, (714) 852-3181, theplotrestaurant.com
