Restaurant Reviews and Experiences
Dining out can be a treat and a chore all at the same time. Whether it’s a visit to the hot new spot in town or a long awaited, much deserved date night, knowing where to go and what to expect can make all the difference. Here is where I’ll post my restaurant experiences so that you can plan that special meal with that special someone with utmost confidence.
Grand Ole BBQ, Flinn Springs
You can ignore the sign at the street for now. It’s about the only thing Grand Ole BBQ, Flinn Springs hasn’t breathed fresh life into at their new location while waiting for the ever so sense-of-urgency challenged minions of bureaucracy to give their royal assent to open. Meanwhile, on some recent weekends, those in…
Lola 55, Tacos & Cocktails in San Diego’s East Village
Calling Lola 55 a taco shop is akin to calling a hurricane an autumn shower. You may be technically correct and even able to fool yourself for a hot minute until the full force and fury of the spices, acids and myriad textures you’ll encounter here permanently change your reality…from the inside out. Now feeding…
Tribute Pizza – In Its Own Zip Code
My two trips, thus far, to Tribute Pizza in North Park are bracketed by two distinct points in time that, taken in the context of the visits, document a journey, perhaps a revelation, verging on a conversion. The first moment, speaking of journeys, was about 46 minutes into what turned into a traffic laden hour…
Patrick Ponsaty Commands 1500 Ocean
A few hours after French Master Chef Patrick Ponsaty first stepped into the 1500 Ocean kitchen at Hotel Del Coronado on a late August Saturday afternoon, he sent me a text saying, “Lots to do. Still working on new concept. I will let u know.” That was in response to my badgering, errrm, asking him…
Flying Pig Pub & Kitchen, Destination: Vista
The more life I live, the more things I forget that I thought I used to know. Then, after an extended, mostly subconscious, journey of searching for that thing I lost, I sometimes find myself almost where I started. Almost. Older and wiser, hopefully, with a different outlook, so, not quite the same, but, well,…
Chef Tae Dickey, Bridging continents through Biga
The only reason I hadn’t gotten to Biga in downtown San Diego sooner is that I thought it was about the pizza. And, pizza, as a sole purpose, is not enough reason for me to head downtown. Then, I met Chef Tae Dickey, owner and executive chef at Biga. Chatting a couple of minutes with…
Ponsaty’s French Dinner Series…Breaking the Wintry Chill
Call it a lull, a pause, a plateau…hopefully not a rut…that the San Diego restaurant scene has been mired in for most of the last chilly, rainy quarter of a year. When one major food writer in town resorts to an entire series on salt and pepper and another does a take down of a…
Tidal – A Walk on the Lighter Side
It’s no secret by now that I love flavor. And, by flavor, most of the time I mean salt. I was that kid in the school lunchroom who’d fill his palm with the table salt shaker and lick it as an accompaniment to my PB & J or ham & cheese sandwich, with equal measures…