Hot News: What's New in San Diego Dining
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HOT NEWS: WHAT’S NEW IN SAN DIEGO DINING
RESTAURANT OPENINGS
Claire’s on Cedros, an eco-friendly bakery and café, opened in Solana Beach in Aug. 2009 as the first freestanding restaurant in the U.S. to receive Platinum LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The award is the highest designation available to buildings that demonstrate energy efficiency and sustainability. The family- and dog-friendly restaurant offers baked goods, organic coffee and a menu of freshly prepared, healthy food like their frittata with tomatoes, ricotta, mozzarella and pesto, and grilled Moroccan-spiced chicken kabob on flatbread with grilled red peppers, onions and tzatziki. Claire’s is open daily for breakfast and lunch. www.clairesoncedros.com
In Aug. 2009, the team behind Hillcrest’s popular Café Blue opened The Red Door in neighboring Mission Hills with veteran San Diego chef Brian Johnson at the helm. Having worked in kitchens at downtown’s Star of the Sea and Rancho Santa Fe’s iconic Mille Fleurs, Johnson is tackling New American comfort food at The Red Door. All priced below $20, dinner entrees include sautéed asparagus with cilantro pesto and white corn relish on three-cheese polenta, cornmeal-crusted Cajun catfish with sweet potato-crab hash, grilled Meyer Natural flat iron steak with cracked black pepper sauce and a surf & “cheeky” turf with sea scallops, braised pork cheek, roasted garlic jus and crispy polenta. The restaurant is open daily for dinner and serves lunch on weekdays and brunch on weekends. www.thereddoorsd.com
Barona Resort & Casino in San Diego’s East County opened two new restaurants in July 2009. Overlooking a beautiful garden with decorative labyrinth and water fountain, Italian Cucina boasts an authentic ceramic wood stove hearth oven that produces pizzas, calzone and pasta dishes all priced under $20. Menu items include Italian classics like spaghetti with homemade sausage, ricotta gnocchi ragu, hand-cut pasta Bolognese, Mediterranean sea bass with basil-parsley butter and Chianti-braised beef short ribs. The new Seafood Plaza is casual, value-oriented and offers seafood dishes like New England clam chowder, chilled Alaskan King Crab leg in cucumber-mint salsa and Mediterranean shrimp ceviche with tomato, onion, cucumber, lime and feta, all priced from $6.95. The restaurant boasts a selection of grilled items, priced from $6.95 to $12.95, like halibut, shrimp and pineapple skewer with chipotle glaze and classic Clams Casino; also oysters from the raw bar and selections of Barona signature rolls from the sushi bar are available. www.barona.com
In June 2009, Cucina Urbana opened in Banker’s Hill adjacent to Balboa Park. Set in the former Laurel restaurant location, this new California-inspired Italian kitchen offers affordable cuisine (no menu item tops $20) in a rustic space designed with raw, reclaimed building materials. The menu by chef Joe Magnanelli, who previously directed Laurel’s kitchen, interprets Italian regional cuisine with a local farm-to-table ethos. Starters include seasonal pickled vegetables, pate and other spreads served in mini mason jars and antipasti like fried squash blossoms with ricotta, purple basil pesto and lemon aioli. Pastas include goat cheese and lemon ravioli with corn puree, spring onions and pistachios, and short rib pappardelle with cremini mushroom and herb ricotta. Modern spins on classic Italian entrees include veal picatta with oyster mushroom conserva, white corn and speck, and braised black cod with pistachio-caper crust, peperonata, smashed potato and lemoncello butter. The restaurant is open daily for dinner. www.sdurbankitchen.com
In June 2009, a long-time San Diego favorite returned to the culinary scene with the opening of Casa de Bandini in the North County coastal community of Carlsbad. For more than 25 years, the restaurant was a fixture in San Diego’s Old Town State Historic Park; now, once again, diners can enjoy Casa de Bandini’s ambiance of Old Mexico with strolling mariachis, brightly colored umbrellas on a sunny outdoor patio and cozy dining rooms alive with Mexican folk art. The menu showcases fresh ingredients in authentic regional cuisine, popular seafood dishes and giant, frosty margaritas. The restaurant is open daily for lunch and dinner. www.casadebandini.com
Renown for years as one of the quintessential Mexican dining experiences in San Diego, Casa de Reyes in Old Town State Historic Park reopened in May 2009 with a new chef, menu and bright cheerful design. The restaurant has always been a popular al fresco dining experience, and a complete landscape overhaul doubled the size of the dining patio and added a new shade arbor and dramatic fire pits. In addition, a central bar, hand-made wood and leather seating, rustic tin lighting fixtures, ceramic plates and decorative vases set the stage for a festive, authentic Mexican dining experience. In the kitchen, California Culinary Academy-trained chef Fernando MacKenzie has created a completely new menu filled with dishes that marry Southern California Mexican cuisine and authentic northern Mexican home cooking. Salsas are made fresh daily; each burrito is served with a specially prepared sauce, and chili rellenos are made the old fashioned way with a creamy, homemade cheese sauce. The restaurant is open daily for breakfast, lunch, dinner and frosty margaritas. www.fiestadereyes.com
CHEF AND MENU CHANGES
Since June 2009, Loews Hotels’ corporate chef Marc Ehrler has been lending his expertise to Loews Coronado Bay Resort. The most decorated chef in the Loews family, Ehrler is a Master Chef of France and the first chef to earn a AAA Five Diamond ranking for two restaurants in the same hotel, while working at Ritz Carlton Cancun. In addition to overseeing Loews Coronado’s culinary operation, Ehrler has been paying particular attention to the resort’s signature restaurant, Mistral, and working to de-formalize the setting while creating a new rustic Northern Italian and Southern French menu. Mistral is now offering a lower price point that reflects this conceptual shift, and the menu still showcases produce from local farmers and the property’s own 4,000-sq. ft. herb garden. Ehrler will remain at the property through Dec. 2009. www.loewshotels.com
CULINARY EVENTS
San Diego Restaurant Week celebrates its fifth anniversary Sept. 13-18, 2009 by adding a $20 price point to its offerings. Now, it’s even more affordable for visitors to sample the signature dishes, service and style that make San Diego’s dining scene one of the region’s top attractions. During the event, participating restaurants offer diners an amazing deal — three-course prix fixe menus at many of the region’s top restaurants for just $20, $30 or $40 per person. More than 180 restaurants throughout the county are expected to participate, providing diners the chance to experience everything from classic crowd-pleasers, to landmark restaurants, to the newest bastions of haute cuisine. www.sandiegorestaurantweek.com
Loews Coronado Bay Resort continues their seasonal Farmers, Foragers and Fishermen dinner series in Sept. and Dec. 2009. Similar in concept to a winemaker’s dinner, the event pairs Loews Hotels’ corporate chef Marc Ehrler with the folks who produce, harvest and catch the meal’s ingredients for an informative four-course dining experience. On Sept. 16, 2009, Ehrler will welcome Dr. Donald Disraeli of Kanaloa Seafood, a premium provider renowned for stringent sustainability standards. Guests will enjoy a four-course dinner crafted by Ehrler including Santa Barbara spotted prawns, abalone and other surprises from the sea. Disraeli will delve into the history of Kanaloa’s approach to fishing, which combines traditional Japanese processing techniques with current scientific knowledge. Organic wine pairings will also be available. Dinner reservations are available 5:30-8:30 p.m., and the cost is $48 per person, plus tax and gratuity. The next event will take place in Oct. 2009 with renowned food expert Clark Wolf and focus on cheese. www.loewshotels.com
Now through the end of 2009, on the first Friday of each month at 7 p.m., the Westgate Room in downtown San Diego’s Westgate Hotel will showcase a distinctive region of the world by offering guests the opportunity to sample the region’s wines and fine cuisine. The restaurant will offer a three-course dinner and wine pairing for $49 per person, plus tax and gratuity. On Sept. 4 the Westgate will feature the wines and cuisine of nearby Baja California, Mexico; on Oct. 2, California’s Napa Valley; on Nov. 6, the Alsace region of France, and on Dec. 4, Chile in South America. www.westgatehotel.com
The seventh annual Celebrate the Craft, Southern California’s showcase for regionally grown ingredients and innovative cooking and winemaking, takes place Oct. 31 – Nov. 1, 2009 at The Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla. The weekend-long celebration also includes the Torrey Pines Plein Air Invitational, which showcases the region’s natural wonders through the work of gifted artists. Each year, the event brings together the finest plein air (open air) painters to set up their canvases onsite and capture the extraordinary beauty of San Diego. On Oct. 31, guests can bid on their favorite paintings during a cocktail reception and dinner priced at $125 per person. The festival culminates on Nov. 1 with a full day of cooking demonstrations by participating chefs from San Diego’s premier restaurants. Growers, vintners and culinary artisans from some of California’s most renowned farms, bakeries, wineries and confectioners are also on hand to share their skill and enthusiasm. Picnic tickets are priced at $65 per person. www.celebratethecraft.com
San Diego’s bars, restaurants and hotels are teaming up with local breweries Nov. 6 – 15, 2009 for a 10-day celebration of the region’s thriving brewing culture during the inaugural San Diego Beer Week. Visitors are welcome to participate in a wide variety of events, from beer tastings to tours, showcasing the award-winning breweries that make San Diego one of the country’s premier destinations for craft beer. Festivities kick off Nov. 6 – 7 with the San Diego Brewer’s Guild’s Beer Festival at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park where more than 80 locally-brewed beers will be poured and brewers will be on hand to talk about their beer. During Beer Week, a number of San Diego breweries will also be debuting special one-off releases; and several San Diego hotels, inluding the Town & Country Resort in Mission Valley and Hotel Solamar in downtown’s historic Gaslamp Quarter, will be offering special Beer Week room rates. http://sdbw.org
The San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival returns Nov. 18 – 22, 2009 with an impressive list of culinary personalities for this annual celebration of food and wine. Epicurean enthusiasts can meet celebrity chefs and winemakers at the top of their craft; the roster of food and wine experts includes James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef Alex Stratta of ALEX at the Wynn Las Vegas, Peter Mondavi Jr. of Robert Mondavi Family Wines, James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef Paul Bartolotta of Bartolotta at the Wynn Las Vegas, Emmy Award-winning television star Sam Zien of “Sam the Cooking Guy” and others. Festival offerings include wine tastings, two days of cooking and wine classes, wine dinners, a reserve and new release tasting, grand tasting event and a celebrity luncheon with big bottle auction. www.worldofwineevents.com
TASTY (AND THRIFTY) TIDBITS
In Sept. 2009, San Diego’s favorite cheese shop, Venissimo, will open a third location in downtown San Diego’s East Village neighborhood. Like its locations in Mission Hills and Del Mar, the downtown shop will offer approximately 120 world-champion cheeses at any given time with a friendly, knowledgeable staff who encourage visitors to try before they buy. When purchased, each cheese selection will come with cheese facts and individualized pairing suggestions, printed right on the receipt. In addition, the shop will host innovative, educational cheese events and classes. www.venissimo.com
In Aug. 2009, chef Christian Graves at downtown San Diego’s Jsix restaurant began offering the ultimate hands-on culinary excursion, his Chef’s Kitchen Experience. Occurring one Sunday per month, visitors can join Graves for a trip to the Hillcrest Farmers Market and interact with local purveyors as they hand-select ingredients for a three-course dinner prepared for them in the Jsix kitchen. The Chef’s Kitchen Experience includes transportation to and from the Hillcrest Farmers Market, a three-course meal prepared by Graves, wine or cocktail pairings with each course and complimentary parking at Jsix. The Chef’s Kitchen Experience costs $120 per person, including gratuity, and is offered through the end of the year on September 6, October 4, November 8 and December 13. www.jsixsandiego.com
At Alchemy, located in South Park on the 30th Street restaurant row, chef Ricardo Heredia has debuted a weekly $25 vegetarian tasting menu to the delight of diners – vegetarian and omnivore alike. On Wednesday mornings, when the day’s delivery comes from local purveyor Specialty Produce, Heredia crafts a unique 3-course menu for the evening. Also, on the first Sunday of each month, Alchemy harkens back to a time when “guys were guys and girls were dolls” with Silent Sundays. On these evenings, they transform the restaurant into a 1920’s speakeasy, projecting classic silent films from nearby indie favorite, Citizen Video, and mixing up prohibition-era cocktails and traditional absinthe service against a backdrop of jazz-era tunes. www.alchemysandiego.com
In July 2009, San Diego restaurateur Ingrid Croce launched IngridsList.com. Created for business and leisure travelers and locals who want to enjoy fine dining without spending a lot of money, IngridsList.com sells fine dining certificates for 3-course prix fixe meals at great restaurants for $30, $40 and $50. Currently, diners can choose from 25 San Diego restaurants, purchase certificates online and call their chosen restaurant to confirm availability. The set price on IngridsList.com offers 20-60% savings off regular menu prices. www.ingridslist.com
WINE COUNTRY NOTES
In July 2009, North America’s oldest wine competition, the 2009 California State Fair Wine Competition, awarded South Coast Winery Resort & Spa in the Temecula Valley Wine Country just north of San Diego County the “Golden State Winery of the Year” for a second consecutive year. With just five years of production under its belt, South Coast received international attention with its first Golden State Winery of the Year award, and it continues to win over wine buyers and critics with exceptional quality and value. For visitors, South Coast offers a complete wine country experience with luxury villas, an award-winning restaurant and three-story spa tucked away in its vineyards. www.wineresort.com
Happy happens in San Diego. For more information on San Diego, including exciting vacation packages and valuable coupons for attractions, restaurants and more, visit the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau's Web site at www.sandiego.org or call 619-236-1212. In San Diego, visit the International Visitor Information Center, located along the Embarcadero at the corner of West Broadway and Harbor Drive in downtown San Diego, or the La Jolla Visitor Center, located at the corner of Herschel Avenue and Prospect Street in La Jolla.
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