FIRST LOOK: Don Chido

Where to Eat in San Diego: New Restaurant Openings

White-Hot Tanner’s Burgers Readying First San Diego Location

Tanner’s Burgers is going to be very, very big. Possibly Crack Shack big. And they’re about to open their first brick and mortar in San Diego—in South Oceanside at the Freeman Collective. Chef/partner Brandon Rogers worked at French Laundry, then was chef de cuisine at Benu when it earned its three-star Michelin. But he cut his teeth in San Diego, and came back to partner with family-run good-meat company Brandt Beef for this project.

The burger was the runaway hit of last year’s Del Mar Wine + Food Festival, winning the culinary competition. The debut spot is set to open March-ish. Listen to the podcast where Rogers and Brandt co-owner Eric Brandt explain the whole project to food critic Troy Johnson.  

Hotel Indigo in Gaslamp Getting a Redesigned Rooftop Restaurant 

Hotel Indigo San Diego – Gaslamp Quarter’s Borrego Kitchen and Cocktails Rooftop Restaurant is in the middle of a revamp and is expected to open in May, just before the summer rooftop season kicks off. The ninth floor rooftop restaurant will focus on American Southwest flavors like yucca, prickly pear, and candied desert flowers. As for the cocktails and mocktails on the menu, the bar will carry the same desert theme and blend ingredients like aloe, sage, cacti, and even frybread. 

Next Big UTC Thing: Live-Fire Restaurant with Patagonia & Mediterranean Bend

The Amalfi Llama is debuting its first San Diego location at The Collection at UTC (second location after Miami) in March and adds to the live-fire scene (using wood instead of gas, a la Fort Oak, Sandpiper, Herb & Wood, etc.). Menu and ingredients are inspired by coastal cuisine from Patagonia to the Mediterranean. The large 7,000-square-foot space, with an outdoor patio, will let guests see their food cooked in real-time as the chefs use a live-fire grill and a wood-burning oven.

Choose your meat to cook over the wood fire, like a Wagyu tomahawk or a Patagonian roasted chicken. Or, try one of their wood-fired pizzas like the Positano using soppressata, finocchiona and hot honey. They’ll also have some woodsy cocktails (along with lighter options)—like  Woodland Place using a Buffalo Trace palo santo-infused bourbon, amaro nonino, cacao, bitters and smoke. 

Where to Eat in San Diego: Restaurant News & Food Events

Cardiff Farmer’s Market is celebrating its one year anniversary on Saturday, March 2 with a special birthday celebration between 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. The first 150 people will get a free sweet from Chaupain Bakery and each purchase you make will give you a chance to win $100 in “Market Bucks” to use at the farmer’s market. 

Rise and Shine Hospitality Group’s (Breakfast Company, Breakfast Republic) handle added a coffee roaster to their roster—Ox Coffee opened in Mission Valley. The idea behind the name is the coffee’s as strong as an ox.

The spicy chicken katsu at Ichiban Sando

Madeline Yang

The second-largest city in San Diego County was long considered drive-by territory on the way to and from Tijuana, though always good for a water park visit. Now, longtime locals who grew up through the food revolution are opening creative spots, and Baja cuisine has become San Diego’s lingua franca.

Bayfront improvements (a $250 million redevelopment project just got greenlit), a thriving beer scene, legal weed, and a strong sense of local pride have kicked this predominantly Mexican-American suburban border city into high gear.

The action concentrates on Third Avenue, home to beloved spots like Grindhouse (Cuban sandwiches, cold brews, craft beer) and the area’s biggest block party, Amps & Ales—which brings bands like B-Side Players and brass and cumbia musicians, plus samples of beers and wines from San Diego and Baja.

Main Street is lined with tacos and Mexican-style seafood trucks like Mariscos Y Birria El Prieto, serving both hankerings in one truck. Even far-out suburb Eastlake is turning up with decent places to eat, like Chef Budda Blasian Soul Food, which might just serve the best chicken strip in the San Diego metro. Here are five things to eat in Chula Vista right now:

Adobada at Mr. Adobada

Tacos el Gordo is still king in Chula Vista, but the lines can be punishing. Enter Mr. Adobada, a truck around the corner with a spinning trompo of—wait for it—adobada and grilled taco meats. While the namesake steals the show, the asada is worth a try, too.

Sando at Ichiban Sando

Nashville hot chicken sandwich fatigue is real. Ichiban’s spicy chicken katsu sando is a welcome twist that stacks a panko-crusted breast slathered with a house chili sauce, slaw, and jalapeños between thick, house-baked Japanese milk toast. There’s also pretty good milk tea boba to sip on.

Fish Tacos at TJ Oyster Bar

Chula Vista is stacked when it comes to mariscos options, but TJ Oyster Bar’s Baja-style fish tacos taste especially divinated: perfectly battered, perfectly fried, and perfectly paired with a michelada. Tack on a side of the tuna fries and venture into the unreal.

Chilaquiles at Talavera Azul

The Curiel family recipe for chilaquiles keeps locals coming back to this Third Avenue institution. Crispy tortillas get tossed in your choice of two sauces: chipotle, red, green, poblano cream, mole, or divorciados. Protein add-ons include shredded chicken, machaca, avocado, chorizo, chicken breast, or arrachera (skirt steak).

Pho-Men at Izakaya Naruto

Find a very South Bay meeting of Asian and Mexican flavors at this strip mall Japanese kitchen. The “Chula Vista Pho-Men” is a mashup of chicken broth, cha-shu chicken, and rice noodles, all with a nice cross-border accent coming from cilantro, jalapeno, and lime.

Two months ago, we showed you the first half of the ambitious Gaslamp project, Queensborough, an ode to 1920s cocktail culture from the Brethren Collective. Designed by Bluemotif Architecture’s Matthew Ellis (Cowboy Star, Kettner Exchange), it’s a classy throwback to F. Scott Fitzgerald romanticism. But the downstairs, deemed Downtown Queensborough, is even more elaborate, and is now open.

Here we’ve got the first photos of the 6,000 square-foot underground social club designed like an NYC subway with white tiled walls, subway-inspired signs, metro booth seats, a custom DJ booth, private whiskey lockers, full-service bar, roving cocktail cart, live jazz (starting in October, on Wednesdays), and build-your-own barrel-aged cocktail program. It’s a beauty. Take a gander. Queensborough, 777 Fifth Ave., queensboroughsd.com.

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

First Look: Queensborough, Part 2

Many might say the Ra Sushi chain was one of the first to do “social dining,” in which loud music played in a place where reasonably high-end/gourmet food was sold. Some loved it for the party. Some loathed it for the party. And now it’s gone. We’ve been unable to reach Ra, but our sources confirm that, after 10 years in the Gaslamp, Ra has packed up and left its location at 474 Broadway. The Gaslamp isn’t an easy place to make a living for a restaurant, as recent years have seen. Many have just been trying to hold on until the Horton Plaza Park opens. Looks like Ra stopped holding its breath.

Goodnight: Ra Sushi

THE SPOT: Top of the 14^th floor of the new Courtyard by Marriott San Diego Gaslamp/Convention Center Hotel. It has a long name and a nice roof. The Nolen will have its own entrance.

THE CONCEPT: Named for John Nolen, one of San Diego’s earliest city planners. Cocktails will be throwbacks to his time (Old Fashioneds, Boulevardier, Vieux Carre), plus modern riffs like “Dirty Girl,” an near-Old Fashioned with rye, bourbon, coffee liqueur, spice chai syrup and orange bitters. Cocktails will be split into seven categories, including “Barrel-Aged,” “Hoptails” (beer cocktails) and “Draft Cocktails.” They’ll use local distilleries like Ballast Point and Malahat Spirits Company. They’ll barrel-age cocktails in oak for a minimum of two months.

THE REAL CONCEPT: Realize you’re in San Diego and have a rooftop. Realize the weather in San Diego is pretty nice. Realize putting a bar on that rooftop in that famous weather is a pretty good idea.

THE PLAYERS: J Street Hospitality and Azul Hospitality. Their most recent collaboration: SpringHill Suites Hotel and Union & Vine restaurant in Paso Robles. Azul also opened Le Meridien hotel in Indianapolis, while J Street Hospitality has developed San Diego hotels Residence Inn Gaslamp and Hotel Z, and is currently developing Moxy Hotel, Canopy Hotels and Hampton Inn & Suites.

THE FOOD: Upscaled comfort dishes like chili glazed meatballs, jerk chicken quesadilla, a kale Caesar, herbal shrimp flatbread and crispy tots.

THE DESIGN: San Diego’s Matthew Ellis and his Bluemotif Architecture handled it. They build pretty places, as evidenced by their work on Cowboy Star, Kettner Exchange and Juniper & Ivy. The 2,500 square-foot space is open-air. It has two fireplaces, and six-foot glass walls that let people soak in the view. There are “oculi” (fancy word for a circular fixture), lanterns, eight seats at the bar with plush leather and brass barstools. Graffiti-style art pays homage to the key architectural icons in San Diego.

Enough words. Please enjoy the first photos of The Nolen. Then go enjoy a drink. The Nolen opens Thursday night.

FIRST LOOK: The Nolen