Sea Rocket Bistro
We saw a feature about this place on "Hook, Line & Dinner", the Cooking Channel program. In this series, the host travels around and catches his own fish before having it prepared at a local restaurant.
See that clip here: http://vimeo.com/27467647
Sea Rocket Bistro features locally produced, sustainable ingredients and is in the former Linkery building in North Park.
I had been meaning to take the wife there for quite some time and we finally got around to it late Saturday afternoon. The wife had the Sardines a la Italiano (3 grilled sardines on a bed of Broccoli Rabe with a small cube of lardo and blistered peppers). I wasn't feeling too well and had an iced tea.
Our total was $15 and coin; make it an even $20 with tip.
She loved the sardines as well as the side of veggies and we'll definitely be back soon.
Their web site: http://www.searocketbistro.com/
No. 188
Brazen BBQ
This place has an excellent location, at the very end of 5th Avenue at Washington in Hillcrest.
And it's a beautiful building, at least on the outside, but the barn like interior could best be described as Early Chevys, with a high, open ceiling, polished concrete floors, rough wood paneling, exposed beams, brick wall and metal table tops. There are at least 100 seats, some at 2-tops, others at booths, a couple of very long picnic tables and a number of stools at the bar. There's also a lot of outdoor seating as well as a giant pass through window to the bar. Unlike a lot of modern eating places, there are only 3 large screen TVs and they are all in the bar area...
Brazen BBQ has been open for a couple of months now and we were unable to find a parking space close by until today, early Sunday morning, when we grabbed one of the disabled parking spaces in the 10 space parking lot on Washington, right around the corner.
After looking over the menu board, the Darla stepped up to the counter and ordered Bolt's Build-Your-Own-Platter which came with 2 types of meat, a couple of side orders and a square of jalapeno corn bread. She also ordered a third meat for another $3.99. If you look at their online menu, for a penny more, we could have had a third side dish...
They deliver the food on cafeteria style trays covered with a sheet of paper and set out a couple of square plastic plates for you. Each table top has a couple of types of sauce, catsup, hot sauce and a roll of paper towels. Besides Handi-Wipes at the condiment counter, there's also a sink to wash up in the middle of the dining room.
The pork ribs literally fell right off of the bone, we liked their brisket better than Phil's (we like Phil's sauce better), neither of us are chicken wing fans, the slaw was good, the smoked kernel corn medley (with red bell pepper and jalapeno, our best guess) was a fun change and the corn bread was a little too sweet. We both agreed that the meat was great and the sauce is totally unnecessary and I would like to see them add Frings (Onion rings & fries) to the menu. The soda machine still had a taste of the stuff they use to clean the lines with so I ended up with iced tea, despite the cold, rainy weather today...
Finally, the portions were pretty large and after we both ate, there was enough brisket (and 3 chicken wings) left over to have another meal at home.
Our total was $23 and coin; an even $25 after we tossed the change and a buck into the tip jar.
We didn't get to the BBQ tacos, hot link, pulled pork, catfish, stuffed pork loin, their bacon wrapped meatloaf sandwich, chili, gumbo, fries & onion rings so we have to go back again soon...
Their web site: http://www.brazenbbq.com/
UPDATE (25 Nov 2011):
For our second visit, the wife had the brisket ends sandwich, an in-house specialty order which came with a side order (their fries this time), and I had half a pound of the hot links ($6) which turned out to be 2 nicely smoked links (as compared to the full one pound order, 4 links for $11.95) and an iced tea. Our total was $17.74.
We tried to strike up some sort of deal to at least taste an onion ring but they weren't budging and at $8 a pop, neither are we...
The fries were generic, the wife loved the brisket sandwich, the hot links were very good (but not as spicy as ours) and similar to our first visit, I still smell like smoke several hours later...
This place has an excellent location, at the very end of 5th Avenue at Washington in Hillcrest.
And it's a beautiful building, at least on the outside, but the barn like interior could best be described as Early Chevys, with a high, open ceiling, polished concrete floors, rough wood paneling, exposed beams, brick wall and metal table tops. There are at least 100 seats, some at 2-tops, others at booths, a couple of very long picnic tables and a number of stools at the bar. There's also a lot of outdoor seating as well as a giant pass through window to the bar. Unlike a lot of modern eating places, there are only 3 large screen TVs and they are all in the bar area...
Brazen BBQ has been open for a couple of months now and we were unable to find a parking space close by until today, early Sunday morning, when we grabbed one of the disabled parking spaces in the 10 space parking lot on Washington, right around the corner.
After looking over the menu board, the Darla stepped up to the counter and ordered Bolt's Build-Your-Own-Platter which came with 2 types of meat, a couple of side orders and a square of jalapeno corn bread. She also ordered a third meat for another $3.99. If you look at their online menu, for a penny more, we could have had a third side dish...
They deliver the food on cafeteria style trays covered with a sheet of paper and set out a couple of square plastic plates for you. Each table top has a couple of types of sauce, catsup, hot sauce and a roll of paper towels. Besides Handi-Wipes at the condiment counter, there's also a sink to wash up in the middle of the dining room.
The pork ribs literally fell right off of the bone, we liked their brisket better than Phil's (we like Phil's sauce better), neither of us are chicken wing fans, the slaw was good, the smoked kernel corn medley (with red bell pepper and jalapeno, our best guess) was a fun change and the corn bread was a little too sweet. We both agreed that the meat was great and the sauce is totally unnecessary and I would like to see them add Frings (Onion rings & fries) to the menu. The soda machine still had a taste of the stuff they use to clean the lines with so I ended up with iced tea, despite the cold, rainy weather today...
Finally, the portions were pretty large and after we both ate, there was enough brisket (and 3 chicken wings) left over to have another meal at home.
Our total was $23 and coin; an even $25 after we tossed the change and a buck into the tip jar.
We didn't get to the BBQ tacos, hot link, pulled pork, catfish, stuffed pork loin, their bacon wrapped meatloaf sandwich, chili, gumbo, fries & onion rings so we have to go back again soon...
Their web site: http://www.brazenbbq.com/
UPDATE (25 Nov 2011):
For our second visit, the wife had the brisket ends sandwich, an in-house specialty order which came with a side order (their fries this time), and I had half a pound of the hot links ($6) which turned out to be 2 nicely smoked links (as compared to the full one pound order, 4 links for $11.95) and an iced tea. Our total was $17.74.
We tried to strike up some sort of deal to at least taste an onion ring but they weren't budging and at $8 a pop, neither are we...
The fries were generic, the wife loved the brisket sandwich, the hot links were very good (but not as spicy as ours) and similar to our first visit, I still smell like smoke several hours later...
No. 187
El Cajon Brewing Company
This place has been open for slightly over a week.
It's not finished yet (workers were using a nail gun next to our table) and it's a cavernous, loud building with glass on all 4 sides (that'll be fun next summer) and plenty of hard surfaces to exacerbate the noise problem. There's ample seating inside (maybe 200 people), with room for overflow outdoor seating.
They don't have a web site and the menu isn't online anywhere...
It's a small menu (good for them) with several different pizzas, hot dogs (Tijuana tubesteak, Chili dog & The Ultimate, a deep fried bacon wrapped dog), a number of burgers, sandwiches (meatloaf, Philadelphia Cheesesteak, Tri-Tip, pulled pork, maybe a couple more), 3 salads, fish & chips, fish tacos, zucchini sticks, O-rings, fries and maybe a dozen of their beers.
Incidentally, our waitress said the chef usually boils the hot dogs.
There may be a few more items on the menu but I apparently lost my notes from yesterday.
Incidentally, the waitress told us that they usually boil the hot dogs there...
And as I can no longer have beer (or beef, shellfish, alcohol in general, garlic, dark green leafy veggies, grapefruit, nuts, chips & sweets), we were there strictly for the food.
The wife had the fish tacos (cold fries, good slaw, excellent chipotle sauce) and I had a small pepperoni pizza (overcooked crust, undercooked cheese & sauce) and an iced tea. They could tear a page out of Pat & Oscar's playbook and switch to the Luzanne brand of iced tea and save themselves a buck or two (besides pouring a better glass of iced tea).
Our bill was $22 & coin, an even $27 with tip.
This place has been open for slightly over a week.
It's not finished yet (workers were using a nail gun next to our table) and it's a cavernous, loud building with glass on all 4 sides (that'll be fun next summer) and plenty of hard surfaces to exacerbate the noise problem. There's ample seating inside (maybe 200 people), with room for overflow outdoor seating.
They don't have a web site and the menu isn't online anywhere...
It's a small menu (good for them) with several different pizzas, hot dogs (Tijuana tubesteak, Chili dog & The Ultimate, a deep fried bacon wrapped dog), a number of burgers, sandwiches (meatloaf, Philadelphia Cheesesteak, Tri-Tip, pulled pork, maybe a couple more), 3 salads, fish & chips, fish tacos, zucchini sticks, O-rings, fries and maybe a dozen of their beers.
Incidentally, our waitress said the chef usually boils the hot dogs.
There may be a few more items on the menu but I apparently lost my notes from yesterday.
Incidentally, the waitress told us that they usually boil the hot dogs there...
And as I can no longer have beer (or beef, shellfish, alcohol in general, garlic, dark green leafy veggies, grapefruit, nuts, chips & sweets), we were there strictly for the food.
The wife had the fish tacos (cold fries, good slaw, excellent chipotle sauce) and I had a small pepperoni pizza (overcooked crust, undercooked cheese & sauce) and an iced tea. They could tear a page out of Pat & Oscar's playbook and switch to the Luzanne brand of iced tea and save themselves a buck or two (besides pouring a better glass of iced tea).
Our bill was $22 & coin, an even $27 with tip.
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