About

What is Dinner With Dave?

“Dinner with Dave” is a free 21-and-over event happening every second and fourth Wednesday of the month, featuring a different type of meal and live entertainment each time. Local artists like Billy Kernkamp, the New Limb, Honeypie, Yellow Red Sparks and Justin Grennan have all performed short sets as part of the ongoing gathering.

Serving up anywhere from 50-60 plates on a regular night and 100-125 when larger acts perform, Mau says he dishes out a lot of pasta, soups and BBQ: “They’re really light, inexpensive-to-make meals. I’m not serving up filet mignon and lobster for free here.”

Now it has grown to become an online community to house the scoop on all the best: food, drinks, music and some of the craziest food-beverage tales.

Who is DAVE MAU?

Forged in the trenches of the local music scene and over the campfires of the High Sierra, the culinary talents of chef David Christian Mau need no introduction to those “in the know” in the OC.  As ”The culture of cool, personified (per Riviera Magazine) and “… an arbiter of all things cool in Orange County” (per Dan Bradley of the Memphis Group,) Dave has earned a rock solid reputation through fine food, unbounded hospitality and a tight connection to the OC music and social scenes.

Dave’s culinary talents have been honed by a lifetime of learning. His first lessons were by his father’s side as a young boy; these were followed by years of restaurant industry work while earning his film degree. But it is at the Calvin Room in Huntington Beach where his reputation for indisputable talent exploded; the local music elite and their entourages, from Big Sandy to No Doubt, all seemed to end up at the house eating Dave’s BBQ by the pool, night after night. He was also fortunate to travel with and photograph many bands from the OC, and worked at Linda’s Doll hut, the seminal punk rock venue in Anaheim.

When he wasn’t providing 3 a.m. feedings to hungry musicians, Dave was cutting his teeth working summers at the High Sierra Pack Station and Vermillion Valley Resort, slinging good ol’ fashioned grub above 8000 feet for cowboys, hikers and anyone who crossed his path. The summer of 2012 will be his 17th season in a row as a high country cook.

In 2002 Dave formed his own catering company, Two Brothers BBQ, with his  brother Chris.
One of  the original  partners of  the  District  Lounge in Old  Town Orange  when it opened in  2004, Dave  received  accolades from the press for his creations.  Most notably, the OC Weekly declared he had “stellar kitchen chops” and that his creations were not only “the best BBQ east of the 57 freeway” but that it “could win a gold medal at a Kansas City cookoff.”

Dave’s love  of  Mexican food and culture also earned him the title of “Honorary Mexican” by Gustavo Arrellano of the OC Weekly’s “Ask A Mexican Column”.

In 2008 Dave came on board in a most refreshing but unlikely combination with a very dear friend,  Cody Requejo, to open The {re]TREAT. Dave’s long standing love and knowledge of rustic American and Mexican fare has merged with his new-found fascination with the traditional foods of the Mediterranean.

2009 he signed on with Disney to provide food photography  for all the West Coast properties, shooting cookbooks and food demos for Napa Rose ad all the restaurants inside the various parks.

Dave’s cuisine is a fusion all its own; there is absolutely no pretense to his culinary style.  He cooks for the best of reasons: a love for people, friendship and the magic that happens over a few bottles of wine with just the right folks.