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San Diego Restaurant Week 2009 |
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Along with Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve, San Diego Restaurant Week is one of the busiest events for the city’s restaurants, a time when regulars and new diners crowd the city’s top tables to experience a great meal for a song.
Executive chef Jason Knibb of La Jolla’s Nine-Ten says he’s actually looking forward to being slammed with diners eager to taste his creative and seasonal $40 menu, which includes short ribs with a horseradish puree and hazelnut tortellini with butternut squash and Brussels sprout leaves.
“It brings a lot of buzz to the atmosphere, and being busy for five straight nights is a good thing,” says Knibb, who cooked with Wolfgang Puck and at Sundance resort before settling in San Diego. “It’s cool because you get different people to come in.”
Restaurant weeks started as a way to entice diners to come into New York City restaurants during the long, slow summer. The city’s best restaurants opened their doors and served three-course lunches for a price that coincided with the year. The event was so successful it’s been adopted in cities across the nation.
San Diego restaurateurs initiated their first Restaurant Week four years ago. It too was such a success that San Diego hosted two Restaurant Weeks in 2008. It’s being done twice again in 2009: January 11-16 and September 13-18. And for the first time, it’s possible to dine on a Restaurant Week three-course menu at three price levels: $20, $30 and $40, plus tax, beverages and gratuities.
Reservations are key as diners plan a full week of dining out among the 130 restaurants that have created three-course menus for Restaurant Week. And especially during tough economic times, Restaurant Week offers a valuable opportunity to experience some of San Diego’s best cuisine for a fraction of a typical meal.
Sally’s Seafood on the Water at the Manchester Grand Hyatt downtown can be challenging for new guests to find, executive chef Sarah Linkenheil admits. It’s a right turn down a long hallway off the Manchester Grand Hyatt’s main bar and then a quick walk out a door to the freestanding restaurant. But those who make the journey are rewarded with a modern, airy restaurant overlooking the boardwalk and bay. While guests come to Sally’s for fine sushi and seafood dishes paired with seasonal produce, Linkenheil won’t be featuring any of the favorites from the regular menu for Restaurant Week. Instead, she’s devising entirely new dishes for her $30 menu.
“For Restaurant Week, I like to display the variety of what we can do; we’re not just seafood,” says Linkenheil. “We have a pork chop on the menu right now and we serve lamb as the menu changes seasonally.”
A cream of celery root soup garnished with blue crab meat and a corn spring roll is one of the starters. She’s also planning to feature seared sea bass with a spicy Asian pear and cucumber relish napped in tamarind butter sauce.
“I definitely like to use everything,” says Linkenheil of her eclectic menu that shows French and Asian influences. “There’s no borders really. We have so many products available here.”
In his second year of participating in Restaurant Week, chef Pascal Vignau of Savory in Encinitas has decided to make his entire French and Italian-influenced menu available, in addition to the three-course promotional menu. “We want to represent what the restaurant is about,” says Vignau.
Since diners are craving warm, comforting meals even during San Diego’s somewhat balmy winters, Vignau is including two of his slow-cooked dishes as part of a $40 Restaurant Week menu. Diners can choose between a beef bourguignon of tender meat in a hearty gravy with roasted root vegetables and duck confit in a cassoulet-like dish of lentils, sausage and bacon that’s served in a copper pot. A lighter offering is the crab-crusted sea bass served over a bed of spinach and mushrooms.
For each dish, Savory will offer a suggested wine pairing designed to bring out the flavors of Vignau’s cuisine.
“We call them ‘friendly’ wines; I’m not a wine sommelier,” Vignau confesses. “But I try to pair the food with the wine and not the reverse.”
The sea bass is well complemented by the aromatic Anglim Viognier from Paso Robles; the duck confit sings with the B Cellars Blend 24, a lush mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah from Napa Valley; while the beef bourguignon was inspired by the Cambiata Tannat, a bold Spanish varietal grown in Monterrey.
Wine lovers will also want to visit Trattoria Acqua in La Jolla for its $30 menu, where owner Mike McGeath likes pairing his $30 Restaurant Week menu with some of the expensive Piemontese selections on his extensive list of fine Italian wines. These wines are usually only available by the bottle at this upscale Italian restaurant overlooking the ocean, but McGeath likes to surprise his Restaurant Week guests.
“We always do some nice Barolos and Barbarescos that we offer by the glass,” says McGeath. It might be $20 or $25 a glass, but it gives people a chance to try something new.”
In past years, McGeath has uncorked bottles by Pio Cesare, Fratelli Alessandria and Moccagatta, all of which are made from Nebbiolo, a food-loving grape known for its curious combination of floral nose, gripping tannins and acidity.
The Girl Scouts’ popular Thin Mints cookie is the not-so-secret ingredient in one of the desserts being served as part of the $30 menu at The French Gourmet in Bird Rock. Owner Michel Malecot was a young chef working at an exclusive club in Florida when he first created his signature dessert, a luxurious sundae of meringue, ice cream, seasonal berries and a cold sabayon he spikes with sherry.
“I replace the meringue with the Thin Mints cookies, with the fresh strawberries, blackberries and cold sabayon,” Malecot says. “The sherry gives it a beautiful, nutty flavor, and then I sprinkle some of the ganache on top.”
With choices like these, the hardest part of Restaurant Week will be having enough evenings to enjoy it all. For more information, visit sandiegorestaurantweek.com.
$20 | ||
Albie’s Beef Inn | Apollonia | Athens Market |
Boathouse Restaurant | Café Coyote | Casa de Pico |
Casa Guadalajara | Corvette Diner | Mister Tiki |
Phil’s BBQ | Sage Café | |
$30 | ||
Americana Restaurant | The Atoll | Bali Hai |
Bella Luna | Blue Point Coastal Cuisine | The Boathouse |
Brigantine Seafood Restaurant | Brigantine Seafood Restaurant | Brigantine Seafood Restaurant |
Brigantine Seafood Restaurant | Brigantine Seafood Restaurant | Brigantine Seafood Restaurant |
Brigantine Seafood Restaurant | Bully’s East Restaurant | The Butcher Shop |
California Cuisine | The Chart House | Cin Cin Simply Italian |
Crescent Heights Kitchen & Lounge | Currant American Brasserie | Dakota Grill & Spirits |
Fat City Steakhouse | Firefly Grill & Winebar | Firehouse American Eatery & Lounge |
Fish Market Restaurant | The French Gourmet | Gaslamp Strip Club—A Steak Place |
The Grill at | Hornblower Cruises & Events | Humphrey’s by the Bay |
Humphrey’s Grill at | Indigo Grill | Iris Food & Spirits |
Jake’s Del Mar | Kemo Sabe | Kous Kous Moroccan Bistro |
La Bastide Bistro | Lael’s Restaurant | Marble Room |
94th Aero Squadron Restaurant | Olivetto | Opera Café |
Pacific Coast Grill | Pampas Argentine Grill | Paradise Grille |
The Prado at Balboa Park | Rainwater’s on Kettner | Roppongi Restaurant |
Sally’s Seafood on the Water | Sbicca | The Shores Restaurant |
Tango Restaurant & Wine Bar | Terra | 333 Pacific |
Thee Bungalow | Tom Ham’s Lighthouse | Trattoria Acqua |
Wild Note Café | Wine Vault & Bistro | Zocalo Old Town |
Zocalo Rancho Bernardo | ||
$40 | ||
A.R. Valentien at | Amaya at The Grand Del Mar | Azul La Jolla |
Bentley’s Steak & Chophouse | Bernardo’s Restaurant | Blanca Restaurant |
Blue Fire Grill | Cavaillon Restaurant | Crab Catcher Restaurant |
Croce’s Restaurant & Jazz Bar | Delicias | Dussini |
1500 Ocean at Hotel Del Coronado | Firenze Trattoria | The Fleetwood |
Georges at the Cove | The Grant Grill | Hexagone |
Island Prime | Jai @ La Jolla Playhouse | JRDN |
Kitchen 1540 | Le Grand Café at the Westgate Hotel | The Marine Room |
Market Restaurant & Bar | Mistral at Loews Coronado Bay Resort | Nine-Ten |
Nobu San Diego | Oasis Bar & Grill | Oceanaire |
Pacifica Del Mar | Palm Restaurant | Pamplemousse Grille |
Peohe’s Coronado | The Restaurant at Rancho Valencia | Roy’s La Jolla Restaurant |
Savory Casual Fare | Stingaree | Tapenade Restaurant |
Top of the Market Restaurant | Vigilucci’s Cucina | Vigilucci’s Osteria |
Vigilucci’s Ristorante & Pizzeria | Vigilucci’s Seafood & Steakhouse | Vigilucci’s Seafood, Steak & Chop House |
Vigilucci’s Trattoria Italiana |
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