Everyone’s favorite pork joint, Carnitas Snack Shack, is finally looking ready to open at the Embarcadero this spring. This space (1004 N. Harbor Dr.) will have cocktails from San Diego’s RMD Group (Fluxx, Sidebar, Rusted Root) and tons of outdoor waterside seating….

Hey, Del Mar. New chef in town for you guys this spring. Steven Lona is relocating from the L.A. area, the former exec chef of Bistro 45 (Pasadena) and worked under James Boyce and Craig Strong at Montage in Laguna Beach. He’s part of the team opening Tasting Room Del Mar (next to the Starbucks at 15^th Street and Camino Del Mar) with a talented wine connoisseur in Rusti Gilbert, formerly of Addison at Grand Del Mar, which is like the Coachella of sommeliers…

I love Carlsbad. But its food and drink scene has needed to wake up and smell the decade for a while. It’s got some standouts, like Land & Water Co. (one of the best sustainable seafood chefs in San Diego in Rob Ruiz). But the most exciting opening-to-be is Campfire—creator John Resnick was one of the main faces and brains that helped Consortium Holdings (Craft & Commerce, Ironside) develop into a top-notch food and drink company. He’s hired Bells and Whistles to design his new 6,000 square-foot space, which will include a Quonset hut, for that post-WWII barracks drinking vibe. Carlsbad will be better off for this one, slated for sometime mid-2016…

I was mixed on my review of The Hake on Prospect Street a couple years ago, but have since returned and had some seriously good dishes (their ahi taco with jicama tortilla is pretty fantastic). And not a week goes by if someone asks proudly if I’ve tried the place. Well, now they’re adding 2,000 square feet to their subterranean semi-ocean perch, which means they’ll have a new outdoor dining space and an ocean view. Trying to do business on Prospect without an ocean view is like trying to do business on Morena Boulevard without a stripper pole…

Pizzeria Mozza’s sad and not terribly surprising demise at The Headquarters was big news. Now its replacement is nearly ready for business (early March). Flour & Barley is a concept from our bedazzled brethren in Vegas that does brick oven pizzas, plus Italian apps and over 150 draft, bottle and canned beers….

Westgate Hotel is one of my favorite hotels in Downtown San Diego. Looks like a fossilized doily, in a good way. They just announced their second annual Spirit of Baja Dinner, which’ll take place on April 15—inviting chef Javier Plascencia (Bracero, and new James Beard nominee) to collaborate with Westgate’s talented chef, Fabrice Hardel on a meal. Mezcal reception, Baja wines. You can buy tickets here. …

Now that the craft beer movement is into its 30s, its expanding its horizons. No longer is it “just a lot of hops plus fermentation and a beard.” We’re seeing lighter beers, sour beers, and now, especially, citrus beers like Grapefruit Sculpin. Now one of my favorite breweries in San Diego, Green Flash, just announced its new lineup under new brewer Erik Jensen, and he’s got a Passionfruit Kicker (American Wheat Ale with passion fruit), a “Soul Style” (tangerine India pale ale). They’re also releasing “Cosmic Ristretto” this Friday, a Baltic Porter with espresso and Candico, a caramelized Belgian candy sugar. For more on the new lineup, click here…

The other release of note is from the ever-awesome Lost Abbey. They’ve partnered with North Carolina’s Wicked Weed Brewing and tomorrow (Feb. 24) will release the finished product—Ad Idem, a French oak-aged golden sour ale with peaches and brett. It’s a blend, between a brettanomyces blond ale and a sour blond ale, aged in neutral wine barrels with whole, local peaches…

Everyone likes a free meal. And Leap Year babies (those of you born on Feb. 29, feeling like you don’t exist every three out of four years) get a free one from the Hard Rock Café on Feb. 29….

I love pairing dinners, mostly because I like food and drink. But I also like poking fun of pairing dinners. And that’s what San Diego band Splavender will do on March 18 at Mike Hess Brewing. Instead of pairing the beers with food, the beers will be paired with original Splavender songs written for the beer. For example, the Honeysuckle & Sho’Nuff Beer, a rye imperial stout, will be paired with a deep, contemplative groovy synth song. Sounds absolutely ridiculous. I like ridiculous…

San Diego Magazine’s cocktail feature is coming out in the March issue. In there, I express extreme admiration for Grant Grill and mad-scientist cocktail guy Jeff Josenhans, who has ushered a slew of “firsts” into San Diego’s cocktail scene. However, more needs to be said about the Grill’s “chef de bar,” Cory Alberto. Well, now’s the chance to see his work. He just released a menu of cocktails inspired by his favorite musicians, including Howlin’ Wolf (Johnny Walker Red, cane sugar, chocolate, bitters and cigar foam), Ella Fitzgerald (Remy Martin 1738, Crème Yvette, rose water, tangerine, prosecco), Dick Dale (Mt. Gay Black Barrel US Grant Blend Rum, El Silencio mezcal, La Gitana sherry, tarragon orgeat, lime, pineapple, tiki bitters and a splash of absinthe), plus boozy odes to B.B. King, Ali Farka and Preservation Hall (the legendary venue in N’Awlins)…

Info Tapas

The Howlin’ Wolf cocktail, part of Grant Grill’s new menu dedicated to music legends.

The post Info Tapas appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

The Hake

The Hake

Go past the predictable nature art and the overpriced jewelry and the good steakhouse. Don’t gawk at the Euro trophy spouses or you’re gonna miss it. If you hit George’s, you’ve gone too far. Look down. There, like a short man squeezing his head between the hips of two taller people to ensure he’s in the photo, is The Hake, La Jolla’s newest brasserie.

“Prospect Street” is Spanish for “cozy bosom of the sun.” Or something. Maybe that’s why this subterranean space has turned over more times than a hotel bed the last few years. Unlike neighbors George’s on the Cove and The Steakhouse at Azul, it has no ocean view. People don’t come to Prospect for gritty sub-street urbanity. They come to eat colorful food under the flamboyant sun, with views of Prozac-colored sandstone, seagull-painted rocks, cute seals, and shimmering topaz.

White-linen Italian joint Pasquale on Prospect made this dugout work for nine years during the good American economy, finally succumbing to the downturn in 2010. Then came short-lived Mexican seafood spot Tikul. After that, one of La Jolla’s most tied-in locals tried the Southern-gourmet concept Aquamoree. No go.

None looked as cool as The Hake. Both Tikul and Aquamoree tried to go Black Amex-modern. The Hake has subway white tiles on pillars, wooden bistro chairs, rusted ornate grates on AC ducts, exposed plumbing, salvage-store pendants, crafty purse hooks, wooden window shutters hung on walls (It makes no sense! And it’s awesome!), weird wallpaper—you name it. It’s nailed the relaxed-upscale bistro sexiness, like downtown’s Café Chloe.

Smoked mahi tacos

Subtle Flavor: Smoked mahi tacos

The Hake’s concept of gourmet Mexican seafood seems a good fit for the area, too, even if Tikul failed doing the same. A ton of Mexico City money first came to La Jolla in the ’80s, helped stimulate growth, then stayed to enjoy it. The restaurant group behind The Hake is Operadora Bajo de la Tintorera, one of Mexico City’s most successful. With well-respected chef Federico Rigoletti, they know a thing or two.

Then again, Tikul was a project from one of Puerto Vallarta’s biggest restaurant groups. So, who knows. Restaurants are fickle. Rent on Prospect is grotesque (Pasquale cited $15K/month when he closed).

Boasting top-notch seafood in a seafood city—let alone in the same neighborhood as Nine-Ten, Whisknladle, and George’s—you’d best spend money with the right merchants. And The Hake does, claiming elite local vendors (Catalina Offshore, Pacific Shellfish, Chesapeake). You can taste the quality in the local, sushi-grade tuna tartare. With Dijon, lemon olive oil, capers, jalapeño, onion, and chive, it sure doesn’t sound like a subtle dish. But it is. No ingredient is hammered, and the tuna’s luscious sea-fat comes through. Served on housemade sea-salt chips, it’s excellent.

Tuna tartare

Fresh Catch: Tuna tartare

Part of the menu is dedicated to tiraditos, a South American tradition like a cross between sashimi and ceviche. It usually consists of thinly sliced fish in light, fancified citrus sauce. Yet there’s nothing dainty about The Hake’s hamachi tiradito. Under a delicious pickled shiso dressing is a hugely generous portion, almost an entire Japanese yellowtail. Only problem is that it needs a snorkel. It’s like the child at the salad bar who covers a few bits of iceberg lettuce with a cup of ranch dressing. A little restraint, and the dish would be an unqualified winner.

Nothing wrong with the smoked mahi tacos. Local catch is rubbed with guajilo adobo (chile sauce) and charbroiled. Served street-sized in a corn tortilla, it’s topped with a fresh slaw, chipotle aioli, and a thick slice of atomic-green, fresh avocado. Whereas badly smoked fish can taste like a damp campfire, The Hake’s has a subtle fuming. Subtlety is not a selling point of their petite Carlsbad Aquafarm mussels in saffron-chorizo broth, though. With big chunks of chorizo, it’s hard to taste much beyond the cumin. We’re promised a touch of Asian on the menu, and get it with chopped rib eye in a Korean sweet-soy marinade, wrapped with housemade pickles in butter lettuce. Good stuff.

This is about when a female jazz singer starts in, accompanied by a keyboardist. Very few restaurants attempt this sort of in-meal entertainment anymore, let alone in a small, crowded space. It works nicely, adding romance to a room already ripe for couples charting ovulation.

Entrees keep to The Hake’s m.o.—top-quality raw materials, simply prepared. But sometimes simplicity can be its own problem. A cayenne shrimp is just that—pretty much all pepper dust, including paprika. Served butterflied in shell, it’s hard to know how to eat it. Like cucarachas, a Latin specialty that you eat shell and all? No, says our server. Peel it off. Okay, fine. But it’s impossible without ripping the shrimp to shreds because the shell hasn’t been successfully loosened from the meat. My wife just gives up, ditches the fork, gets cayenne under her fingernails and turns her napkin into a murder scene. Gal’s hungry.

“Oh, that was meant to be served with a finger bath,” offers a different staff member.

Dark chocolate-hazelnut cake

Big Finish: Dark chocolate-hazelnut cake

A few minutes later, the dish all but cooled and the murder scene complete, a server arrives with a finger bath. “Careful, it’s too hot to touch,” he warns. He’s right. It’s scalding.

The Hake serves two generous octopus tentacles as a main course. It’s not common on menus, mostly because it’s a stubborn protein. Octopi make up for their bonelessness by having brawny arms that aren’t easy to tenderize. Some chefs add a touch of vinegar (acetic acid breaks down connective tissue), soak with wine corks (cork tannins help), marinade in olive oil, beat the crap out of it, etc. But all methods are moot if it’s overcooked. Ours is bland and a little fibrous, both suggesting a little too much time in the slow-cook. Taken as a bite with the arugula salad in Dijon vinaigrette, it gets the flavor and moisture it needs. But when you order two hunky tentacles of Mexican octopus, you want the protein to stand on its own.

The catch of the day (striped bass) is perfectly cooked. Problem is, that’s about all that’s done to it. It represents the potential problem at the extreme end of the “simply prepared” movement. It’s mostly just caper butter, with a medley of Kalamata olives, heirloom tomatoes, and watercress. It’s less an elevated dish than a top-notch protein with maitre d’ butter and some chopped veggies.

So it seems The Hake’s entrees are two extremes, either hammered with one dominant spice or not really spiced at all. Some more nuance would do wonders.

Still, I’d come here for the ambiance and dessert alone. The coconut sabayon is almost insulting in its simplicity—a bowl of cream spiked with broken meringue, toasted coconut shavings, berry compôte, and micro-mint. But it’s excellent. Even better is the dark chocolate cake with hazelnut crust and Nutella ganache under cacao nibs, goji berries, and sea salt.

I love this room. I love the quality ingredients. But I could love it more.

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