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 post Where to Eat in San Diego: Restaurant Openings & News (Feb. 26–Mar. 1) appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

My oversight was Regents Pizzeria. And, well, I finally made it. It is, as heralded, damn good pie. Food Network once hired me to search America for the best pizza. You can temper your jealousy because they canceled my show. But that trip was fantastic, and I got to learn a lot of the secrets to the best pizza. The ovens. The flours with just the right gluten content. The flor di latte mozzarella. The olive oil and the cured meats.

Most pizza joints specialize in either the New York, Neapolitan or Chicago style. Regents does both New York and Chicago. It’s like that kid who played the flute and the sax in band. And they do both very, very well. You should go try it for yourself to decide if I’m full of it or not. I’m sure a transplant from the Bronx is reading this right now saying “this guy don’t know expletive about pizza.”

They’ve got a huge selection of craft beers (30-plus). UCSD students are the main décor. They have a new, bigger space now, on account of people saying yes after they ate at their original location (50 feet away). Here’s what we tried, and what we loved (plus one that we didn’t).

TOASTED GOAT CHEESE SALAD

TASTE IT: Regents Pizzeria

Toasted? Seems more fried to me. And the only way you can go wrong with fried goat cheese is to not eat fried goat cheese. They do a lemon-lime vinaigrette that cuts through the milkfat, along with onion strings, apple slices, kaiware sprouts (sprouted micro-versions of daikon radishes) and red bell. If keeping to NYE resolutions or warding off dorm butt, this is a very nice option.

POLENTA FRIES

TASTE IT: Regents Pizzeria

Jenga fries. It looks impressive on a table. There’s a great polenta crunch. But we weren’t floored with ‘em. A tad too much rosemary. Rosemary is the Gilbert Godfrey of herbs. You can use it, but you also need to hush it.

THE CHICAGO DEEP DISH

TASTE IT: Regents Pizzeria

The problem with many deep dishes is that they get too wet. There’s so much sauce, so much sausage, so much cheese—all of which give off moisture when baked. Regents manages to pre-cook and dehydrate some of the ingredients so that it’s not a soupy mess, yet still juicy enough. Many places, like the famous Gino’s East in Chicago, use cornmeal. Regents does not, which is a preference (even if it wouldn’t be mine). Yet it’s still very good. Like a meat Napolean with pepperoni, sausage, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and their tangy sauce. Very good.

THE WHITE NEW YORK PIZZA

TASTE IT: Regents Pizzeria

It’s absolutely phenomenal. Fresh spinach, both ricotta and mozzarella cheeses with a rosemary-garlic olive oil sauce. It’s that cheese and the addictively good olive oil sauce (using quality olive oil is an absolute necessity for a good pie, worth all the cost, and they do). This one made me do the whole inappropriate food moaning thing.

THIS PESTO DISH

TASTE IT: Regents Pizzeria

It’s just creamy pesto. But it’s delicious pesto, with herb flecks giving the occasional bolt of fresh flavor through the creamy mixture. Adding cream to pesto is like adding butter to butter (since pesto already has the fat of olive oil and nuts), but it’s tasty with tang from both artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes. Sometimes taste trumps creativity, and the need for yes trumps the need for less. Well done.

THE PIZZA PAZZA

TASTE IT: Regents Pizzeria

Aged mozzarella blend, goat cheese, marinated portabello mushrooms, onions, pancetta, white truffle oil and parmesan. Truffle oil is a scary proposition. It’s the Drakkar Noir of the food world, and some chefs apply too much like a 13-year-old boy. This is perfectly done, with just enough of a hint to give it that truffle intoxication. But it all comes down to the crust of a pizza, and that’s where Regents goes very, very right.

THIS BRASS MONKEY

TASTE IT: Regents Pizzeria

Yes, the picture is sideways. Sue me. This is a blog, and I’m not 16 enough to figure out the tech. And, yes, the drink from the Beastie Boys song. Brass Monkey is a legendary not-so-great-neighborhood drink made of malt liquor and orange juice. Noble Aleworks in L.A. makes a malt liquor (yes, like Olde English or Colt 45), and right now Regents serves it with a side of orange juice. Mix the two together, and it tastes vaguely like your drunk uncle has just taken a sip of your Orange Julius. Decently righteous.

Regents Pizzeria, 4150 Regents Park Row, 858-550-0406.

TASTE IT: Regents Pizzeria

The post TASTE IT: Regents Pizzeria appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

“Donovan’s did not come to terms with the Irvine Company, our landlord,” says spokesperson Alberto Mancero. “For this reason, we will be moving the store to another location. We cannot provide further details about the new location at the moment. We expect the move to happen early in 2015.”

People close to Donovan’s speculate that the San Diego-based concept will relocate into the Prospect area of La Jolla.

The UTC location couldn’t have been easy in the last few years. It wasn’t long ago that mall food was so mediocre and overpriced that top-quality restaurants like Donovan’s could do well setting up shop nearby. But then online retail started draining customers away from brick-and-mortar retail. To counteract that, malls like Fashion Valley, Del Mar Highlands, Flower Hill Promenade and UTC joined the national trend of upgrading their food programs to attract customers.

Over the last few years, UTC has added multiple anchor restaurants like Tender Greens, Seasons 52, Eureka! and Veggie Grill. As malls continue to pull the dining action back to the food court, adjacent restaurants like Donovan’s (and nearby PF Chang’s) will no doubt feel the pinch.

Steak houses, especially, are having a hell of a time. First the economy leapt out the window, grabbing steakhouses on its way out. Then Americans continued to eat less meat. Couple those two with the fact that beef prices are on a vertical climb, and it’s no breeze to sell slabs of elite protein.

Donovan’s still has their locations in Downtown San Diego and Phoenix.

“We thank Donovan’s for their time at The Plaza and wish them continued success in a new location and at their downtown restaurant,” says Michael Lyster, VP of Communications at Irvine Company. “We are working to bring in a fresh, new restaurant that we think will create a buzz with office customers and the community and look forward to sharing details as they come available.”

OUTGOING: Donovan’s UTC

The post OUTGOING: Donovan’s UTC appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

“Donovan’s did not come to terms with the Irvine Company, our landlord,” says spokesperson Alberto Mancero. “For this reason, we will be moving the store to another location. We cannot provide further details about the new location at the moment. We expect the move to happen early in 2015.”

People close to Donovan’s speculate that the San Diego-based concept will relocate into the Prospect area of La Jolla.

The UTC location couldn’t have been easy in the last few years. It wasn’t long ago that mall food was so mediocre and overpriced that top-quality restaurants like Donovan’s could do well setting up shop nearby. But then online retail started draining customers away from brick-and-mortar retail. To counteract that, malls like Fashion Valley, Del Mar Highlands, Flower Hill Promenade and UTC joined the national trend of upgrading their food programs to attract customers.

Over the last few years, UTC has added multiple anchor restaurants like Tender Greens, Seasons 52, Eureka! and Veggie Grill. As malls continue to pull the dining action back to the food court, adjacent restaurants like Donovan’s (and nearby PF Chang’s) will no doubt feel the pinch.

Steak houses, especially, are having a hell of a time. First the economy leapt out the window, grabbing steakhouses on its way out. Then Americans continued to eat less meat. Couple those two with the fact that beef prices are on a vertical climb, and it’s no breeze to sell slabs of elite protein.

Donovan’s still has their locations in Downtown San Diego and Phoenix.

“We thank Donovan’s for their time at The Plaza and wish them continued success in a new location and at their downtown restaurant,” says Michael Lyster, VP of Communications at Irvine Company. “We are working to bring in a fresh, new restaurant that we think will create a buzz with office customers and the community and look forward to sharing details as they come available.”

OUTGOING: Donovan’s UTC

The post OUTGOING: Donovan’s UTC appeared first on San Diego Magazine.