Dinner - Monday, March 5, 2012
Javier Plascencia is a man in the spotlight - the chef from Tijuana (who actually attended culinary school right here in San Diego) has garnered numerous accolades in the past year - from a feature on "Mexico, One Plate at a Time", to being the subject of an article in the New York Times and a profile by one of my favourite magazines, the New Yorker. I'd only heard about Plascencia last February, when a post by Street Gourmet LA put him on my radar. His food looked fantastic, and since then, I've been actively looking for an opportunity to try it without crossing the border (visa issues ad nauseum).
Leave it to Jay Porter, outspoken owner of The Linkery and El Take It Easy, to bring Plascencia here for a pop-up dinner at the latter establishment. While I've never found the food at Jay's restaurants particularly compelling, I deeply respect his love of our region's product, and his efforts to promote true farm-to-table cuisine in San Diego. So, perhaps it is unsurprising that we would see this union of the two men, given their common goal of highlighting the local bounty.
Addison - Del Mar, CA
Dinner - Friday, February 17, 2012
Addison, the Grand Del Mar's fine-dining restaurant, claims more awards than you can shake a stick at - among others, it bills itself as Southern California's only Forbes five-star, AAA five-diamond restaurant. These are certainly not accolades to be sneezed at, but somehow we'd never felt compelled to visit in the past 20 months living in San Diego. One can tell from reading our blog that classical French cuisine rarely makes it onto our radar these days, in no small part because we were completely spoilt by our last trip to France a few years ago.
It was only when searching for a restaurant to celebrate our anniversary that we began to consider Addison. Sadly, our friend Elizabeth Harcourt, formerly one of their sommeliers, relocated before we could make good on a promise to visit her there. However, she did put us in the care of Addison's head sommelier, Angelo Ingrati, who made sure we were well-watered and who came up with some inspired wine pairings for the evening.
Addison, the Grand Del Mar's fine-dining restaurant, claims more awards than you can shake a stick at - among others, it bills itself as Southern California's only Forbes five-star, AAA five-diamond restaurant. These are certainly not accolades to be sneezed at, but somehow we'd never felt compelled to visit in the past 20 months living in San Diego. One can tell from reading our blog that classical French cuisine rarely makes it onto our radar these days, in no small part because we were completely spoilt by our last trip to France a few years ago.
It was only when searching for a restaurant to celebrate our anniversary that we began to consider Addison. Sadly, our friend Elizabeth Harcourt, formerly one of their sommeliers, relocated before we could make good on a promise to visit her there. However, she did put us in the care of Addison's head sommelier, Angelo Ingrati, who made sure we were well-watered and who came up with some inspired wine pairings for the evening.
Tags:
Degustation,
Dinner,
USA - Cali (South)
A Simple Supper with Gavin Schmidt - San Diego, CA
Dinner - Friday, February 10, 2012
A Simple Supper is an underground dinner club run by Jorie Kopycinski, who has been working with Gavin Schmidt (ex-Blanca) of late. As is the norm for these pseudo-clandestine affairs, correspondence is carried out with Jorie via email, and the location of the dinners changes frequently.
When we found out that Gavin was leaving our sunny climate to return to the Bay Area at the end of February, we immediately made reservations for this final dinner - a last hurrah, if you will. And so, we found ourselves (and ten or so like-minded strangers) at a curious house with a gorgeous kitchen in downtown San Diego on Friday night.
A Simple Supper is an underground dinner club run by Jorie Kopycinski, who has been working with Gavin Schmidt (ex-Blanca) of late. As is the norm for these pseudo-clandestine affairs, correspondence is carried out with Jorie via email, and the location of the dinners changes frequently.
When we found out that Gavin was leaving our sunny climate to return to the Bay Area at the end of February, we immediately made reservations for this final dinner - a last hurrah, if you will. And so, we found ourselves (and ten or so like-minded strangers) at a curious house with a gorgeous kitchen in downtown San Diego on Friday night.
Tags:
Degustation,
Dinner,
USA - Cali (South)
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