Town and Country Travel Review of Moonshadows Restaurant

LETTER FROM MALIBU
by Adam Baer

Paparazzi swarming a starlet. Moguls negotiating mergers on the beach. Wildfires raging across the highway from the site of Gidget's first wave. Though it has cooler temperatures than Hollywood, Malibu has always been hot in the public consciousness. But to me, a New York-bred expat who has for years communed with the hallowed birthplace of California surf culture on light-traffic weekdays, Malibu is a quiet respite of dramatic canyons and cliff-side beaches, of dolphin sightings and bohemian wave riders. Discovering the best hidden shore breaks, hikes, restaurants and lodging here, I've learned, is like winning admission to a private club. Until recently, though, Malibu didn't offer many traveler comforts, and most Americans chose to worship, or mythologize, it from afar.

Today the city is receiving a shot in the arm that's rendering it accessible without taking away its exclusivity. DreamWorks' David Geffen, a resident of Carbon "Billionaire" Beach, along the winding Pacific Coast Highway, bought and reimagined the forty-seven-room Malibu Beach Inn, Carbon Beach (double rooms from $375; 22878 Pacific Coast Hwy.; 800-462-5428; malibubeachinn.com), just blocks from his own Cape Cod-style sprawl, reopening it last year. The largest and most luxurious getaway in town, the beachfront hotel has in-room fireplaces, Trina Turk kimono bathrobes, flat-screen TVs, Hockney prints and an intimate veranda restaurant serving top regional wines. Its generically high-end appointments and rather small balconies, however, could lead a visiting producer to look elsewhere for something less formal, a more quintessentially Malibu (read: laid-back) brand of lodging.

To that end, down the road another billionaire has made his mark by keeping Malibu's natural charm intact. Larry Ellison, chief executive officer of Oracle, purchased the lower-lying, more modest Casa Malibu Inn on the Beach (double rooms from $159; 22752 Pacific Coast Hwy.; 800-831-0858), a celebrity hideaway since the 1950s (Lana Turner regularly escaped back-lot tensions in the second-floor Catalina Suite). Richard and Joan Page, the husband-and-wife hosts of the twenty-one white Hamptons-style rooms — be sure to reserve one of the eight with spacious beach-level decks and old-school chaises — will gladly reveal their insider secrets, such as the best beach walk (at nearby El Matador State Beach) and the most inspiring hike (to the top of Point Dume State Preserve).

Adding a measure of high culture to this beloved Angeleno summer-weekend retreat is the reopened Getty Villa (17985 Pacific Coast Hwy.; 310-440-7300; getty.edu); the neo-Roman home of the oil magnate's art collection is mainly devoted to Roman, Etruscan and Greek antiquities. And a drive around the hilly, rocky canyons (some are still charred) will often lead you to a winery, like Malibu Family Wines (31800 Mulholland Hwy.; 888-433-9463; malibufamilywines.com), as well as to out-of-the-way architectural masterpieces, including Frank Lloyd Wright's Arch Oboler residence and houses by Craig Ellwood and Frank Gehry.

While Nobu Matsuhisa's nine-year-old strip-mall-chic sushi haven, Nobu Malibu (3835 Cross Creek Rd., 18A; 310-317-9140; noburestaurants.com), is still a hit, innovative dining is certainly on the increase in Malibu. Richard Neutra's erstwhile Holiday Residence Motel is now the upscale waterfront restaurant Geoffrey's Malibu (27400 Pacific Coast Hwy.; 310-457-1519; geoffreysmalibu.com), a hot spot for leisurely brunches of Asian-fusion shrimp and Kobe beef. Former Patina chef Joachim Weritz recently retooled the menu at the alfresco beachfront Moonshadows (20356 Pacific Coast Hwy.; 310-456-3010; moonshadowsmalibu.com); he proves his impeccable taste with fresh local catches and imported Italian razor clams, Tasmanian trout and Nantucket scallops in risotto.

Of course, some lost or naive travelers will still race up the pch en route to Santa Barbara, noting only the gorgeous coastline, the singed cliffs and the fast-food joints. But those willing to look into the unseen Malibu will concede that this misunderstood celebrity city deserves more than snarky mentions on Page Six.