Plywood and Construction Updates ~ North Oceanside Coastal.

So, walked around today and figure I would update on new restaurant construction.

The old Jennie’s spot is repainted and clean on the inside. No realtor info or Licenses up in the window so, I do not know whats going in, but it looks ready to go.

The boarded up spot between Joe’s Furniture and Coastal Liquor is going to be a place called “Fat Joe’s”. They have a liquor license up for beer and wine. I am guessing burgers, pizza, and beer.

Lastly, the old Bessie’s Cafe spot as reported earlier will be a Malaysian style restaurant. They were removing the old front windows when I was there.

So, just a quick heads up.

#oceanside #news

4th of July parking lot Pop Up for the homeless ~ Oceanside

So, North County Food (me) teamed up with Chef Beau Bonham to stage a free pop up event on the 4th of July holiday. We used Beau’s catering van and grill and set up in the parking lot of the closed Ralph’s parking lot on Oceanside Blvd.

Chef Beau and our fancy set up.

Our goal was to feed the homeless and disenfranchised, as well as anyone who came along.  The menu consisted of bacon wrapped hot dogs, home-made coleslaw, and ranch style beans.

Our guests enjoying some lunch.

Beau did all the prep and cooked the hot dogs. My job was funding the event, plating, and doing recon runs to find people and let them know what we were doing. unfortunately, we did not feed as many people as we had hoped. We had learned with talking to our guests that the Sheriff department started doing “sweeps” of the homeless starting Wednesday in prep for the holiday weekend. I went downtown and the normal train stops I meet homeless all the time and it was pretty dead. Still it was fun and if we did not get the crowds we wanted it was still worth it.

#Oceanside #food

 

Caffeine Crawl ~ Oceanside / Carlsbad

This last Friday, January 20^th marked the 4^th annual San Diego Caffeine Crawl, the 57^th crawl overall, and most importantly, the 1^st featuring North County craft coffee and tea purveyors from Oceanside and Carlsbad.

One of my favorite things about North County’s culinary scene is the camaraderie and support the Chefs and Owners show to one another. This is also true for the craft beverage scene up here as well. Everyone involved was excited to be a part of the event and happy to see the Coffee and Tea Scene getting its just deserves.  Trust me this is not true everywhere, even San Diego has its fair share of cut throat competition (though events like the one I just attended at Biga and the chefs involved show that there are exceptions). With the momentum of this years success, hopefully next year will expand to include more participants and probably a 3rd route.

Our guide Pia talking about Caffeine Crawl.

The North County crawl consisted of two routes, starting in Oceanside and Carlsbad and crossing over. Each route had 5 stops and was about 3 miles in length. North County Food covered the Oceanside to Carlsbad route and I enlisted BeersNBytes  (a Carlsbad based food website) to cover the Carlsbad route.

*I will include another link at the bottom of the post to check out their coverage and their great website.

The crawl started at Banana Dang! In Oceanside. In addition to being a sponsor and catalyst for bringing the Caffeine crawl to North County, it was Banana Dang’s! 2 year anniversary.

Owners Mario and Thanh-Thanh with Chef Beau Bonham goofing off while I tried to get a serious picture 🙂

Prior to the Crawl Banana Dang! thanked their loyal customers for 2 years of support with free bananas, frozen bananas, Vietnamese Coffee Jell-O Shots, and $2 cappuccino.

Vietnamese Jell-O Shots

Banana art by Maitu and yours truly.

Banana Dang! gave a presentation on their origin and experience in Puerto Rico as an “at origin” coffee shop

Thanh-Thanh talking with the Crawl attendees.

They served 2 different coffees. One from Puerto Rico (Sandra Farms) and another from Nicaragua (Don Isidro) to contrast the mild nature of an “island coffee” versus a high elevation more robust bean. They were both roasted by Manzanita Roasting Company out of Rancho Bernardo.

To complete the Puerto Rican experience, local Chef Beau Bonham made a classic accompaniment of freshly baked Pan De Agua served with Queso Blanco, and Dulce De Lechosa (Papaya cooked in its own syrup with cinnamon and vanilla)

The Second stop was around the corner at Loose Leaf Tea Bar.

Shane explaining what he would be featuring …

Loose Leaf Tea’s Mango Ceylon Tea on nitro.

The group enjoying the offerings and the great mural artwork at Loose Leaf Tea.

Next up was South Oceanside’s Revolution Roasters.

Revolution demonstrated the same coffee made with 3 different water sources. The first was made using distilled water, the second Oceanside tap water, and the third using Revolution’s reverse osmosis water.

The coffee using the tap and distilled were really close in character but you could definitely tell the one made using the reverse osmosis method.

Afterward we headed down to Carlsbad to Steady State Roasting. Steady State Roasting has been around for about 8 months (I believe). This was my first time there and I loved the small space tucked away off State St. in Carlsbad, which it shares with other artist’s workshops.

The funky space that is State Street Roasting.

State Street is entering a roasting competition in Austin later this year and served the Kenyan provided to the roasters. They served the coffee using a 15 min roast and a shorter roast more like the one they would be doing for the competition. The shorter roast definitely had more balance and interesting notes.

The Crawl showed, through the various demos, that so much from what water is used, roasting times, and of course the origin of the bean each have a huge impact on the finished product. That was without even touching on temperature, machines, execution, storage, and on and on.

Final stop on the crawl was Carlsbad’s Baba Coffee.

My pics did not come out so I used one from my previous visit.

While Baba Coffee does not roast, they make a conceded effort to source from the best local purveyors. Their coffee is roasted by Pannikin who also provides them with scratch made baked goods. They served a delicious mint tea with honey from Tea Gallery out of San Diego.

So, happy to be a part of the event, helping out, and experiencing North County’s first Caffeine Crawl. I cannot wait to see what next year brings. We should be able to expand the number of stops and offerings. If you did not get to attend conduct one of your own. You do not have to do it in one day. Introduce yourself to one of the local craft coffee purveyors and ask questions, trust me they love to talk about this stuff.

Banana Dang!

115 S Coast Highway, Oceanside

The Loose Leaf Tea Bar

408 Mission Ave, Oceanside

Revolution Roasters

1863 S Coast Highway, Oceanside

Steady State Roasting

2680 State Street, Carlsbad

Baba Coffee

2727 State Street, Carlsbad

Caffeine Crawl

BeersNBytes

The Miller’s Table Wine Dinner 12.14.16 ~ Oceanside

The Miller’s Table will be hosting their first Wine Dinner, this Wednesday December 14th at 7pm.

The dinner will feature 3 courses paired with wines from Oregon and Burgundy.

$45 pp + tax/tip Call to reserve…442.615.7200 Seating is limited.

Staci is an expert in pairing and delivers great Wine Country inspired cuisine. I highly recommend checking it out.

The Miller’s Table

415 South Coast Highway, Oceanside

 

DOH! Gourmet Cookie Dough ~ North County (soon to be everywere)

So, DOH! Gourmet Cookie Dough is made by Chef Annalise Brolaski and Nick Hart, right here in North County. They have created an amazing vegan and gluten-free cookie dough.

Annalise and Nick

Unlike the vast majority of gluten-free cookie products it has an incredible taste and texture. Unless you were told it was vegan and gluten free you would not know.

Prepared DOH! cookies. It is also great straight out of the tub raw,baked, or baked and then chilled in the fridge. You can also get baked, bake, and then chill, it’s a fourth option. I have had it three of those four ways and raw and baked then chilled are my favorites.

A little about Chef Annalise. I met her while looking for a third chef for an all dessert dinner I was putting together. At that time she was a pastry cook at Cucina Enoteca. She was extremely talented and impressive. At the age of 20 this is what she produced for the dessert dinner.

Annalise’s Dish for the dessert dinner~ Citrus Shortbread, Strawberry Grand Marnier Sauce, Honey Comb, Basil (red local basil which is incredible), Meyer Lemon Curd, Strawberry Honey Sorbet, Local Bee Pollen.

See what I mean?

Shortly after that she dropped out of the cooking scene for a while (which sucked because she had a lot to add to the culinary world and in my opinion was far from done.) She reemerged briefly doing some incredible deserts for Wrench and Rodent Seabasstropub and starting her own company Deep Sea Desserts. Then as my friend Chef Beau put it when DOH! appeared “Yeah, those guys disappeared for a bit, went and had some kind of retreat / brainstorming in Hawaii and came back killing it.”. I do not know how accurate that is but it makes for a great story, and I like it so I’m sticking with that as to what caused the catalyst, because killing it is exactly what they have been doing.

They launched around October with the product and 2 months later can be found at Both Frazier Farms locations (Oceanside and Vista), Cream of The Crop in Oceanside, Carlsbad Ranch Market, Seaside Market (Cardiff), and soon, Specialty Produce. That is an insane amount of distribution for a start up. If they do not achieve national distribution in a year, I would be surprised. Their main hurdle is going to be production, the product and packaging are already there.

The DOH! stand at the Leucadia Farmers Market. (You can also find then at the Encinitas farmers Market.) They tend to sell out so get there early. I believe you can email them in advance to have an order ready for you.

Product ready for sale.

So, there you have it a local success story that is nowhere near done. Go, buy, support, eat, enjoy. Great gifts or for Holiday entertaining.

If you are a cafe or restaurant and want to add a great Vegan / Gluten free, easy to prepare option, trust me it is better than what you are currently buying and serving and it works out to about $.20 some odd cents per cookie at the wholesale price.

DOH!

Available at Frazier Farms, Seaside Market, Cream Of The Crop, Carlsbad Ranch Market, Leucadia and Encinitas Farmers Market, and coming soon to Specialty Produce.

#vegan #glutenfree #food #northcounty #cookies

 

 

 

 

The Miller’s Table ~ Open 6 Days A Week Starting Thursday.

The Miller’s Table will be open 11am till 9pm 6 days a week (closed Tuesdays) starting September 29th.  Come on by.

The Millers’s Table ~ 514 South Coast Highway, Oceanside.

Taste from a changing selection of wine and beer at Our Table in Oceanside, CA.  The Miller’s Table offers an array of fine wines and craft beers. We also serve sandwiches, fresh salads and small plates with cheese & charcuterie to pair. Whether you are having some me-time or spending the day with friends or neighbors, you can count on us to provide you with an unforgettable experience.

At The Table we have an ever changing selection of Wine and Beer Flights.  Each Wine is available to enjoy By the Glass or Bottle as well…plus if you fall in love, take a bottle home.  Six hand-picked drafts to choose from…rotating selection, plus bottles, all by taste or glass.  Please see our Facebook Page for this week’s selections….or better yet, come on by!

The Miller’s Table

514 South Coast Highway, Oceanside

 

Living Tea End Of Summer Party ~ Oceanside

I had the opportunity to attend Living Tea’s end of summer party this past Friday. It was an RSVP event through their mailing list for about 60 people. The festivities included music, food, and Kombucha cocktails.

 Living Tea ~ 302 Wisconson Ave., Oceanside

Sake infused pineapple kombucha.

Wrench and Rodent / Whet Noodle were there slinging some food ~ Living Tea Roll ~ Rainbow sushi roll with a kombucha sauce.

There were a number of bands that played. This is Barnwell Shift (Members of Living Tea and guests.) This was my first time hearing them, they were really good.

The party in full swing.

If you were not able to attend, I highly suggest checking out Living Tea for their excellent Kombucha.

Also every second Sunday of the month they hold a community breakfast 9am-11pm. Organic, gluten-free pancakes, coffee, and kombucha! Open mic and live art!

Living Tea

302 Wisconson Ave. Oceanside

Campfire Dinner / Full Report ~ Carlsbad

While it was not my intention to write back to back articles on a single restaurant, the combination of a busy schedule, back pain, and the fact I loved my first trip, lead me to do just that.

Campfire is the first solo project of John Resnick (Ironside Fish and Oysters and Craft and Commerce). It brings an open kitchen and open flame cooking to the north side of State Street in downtown Carlsbad. The building, formerly an auto body shop, is transformed into what a camping lodge would look like if all the campers were hipsters. That is not a bad thing, the build out itself is beautiful utilizing natural woods and coppers to give it a homey yet modern feel. The design firm “Bells + Whistles” did an outstanding job. Blue Ocean Sushi would be another example of their fine work in Carlsbad.

Nothing like smelling burning wood half a block away. Campfire 2725 State Street, Carlsbad.

Campfire interior.

Someone sucks at archery.

Campfire bar and open kitchen. That kitchen had to be hot as hell with how muggy and hot yesterday was.

Chef Andrew Bachelier has created a menu that capitalizes on the restaurant’s main theme, which is open fire cooking. You will see a lot of words like chargrilled and smoked throughout. This also carries over to the cocktail menu created by Leigh Lacap.

I started my meal off same as last time with the house made lemonade.

Char Grilled Oysters ~   cucumber. Meyer lemon. chili butter.

Mentioned in my previous post this was going to be a go-to dish for me and being true, it is. Beautiful dish.

OK, new stuff…………..

Broccoli ~   chermoula. lime. candied peanut.

This dish was recommended by the staff and was a hit. Perfectly cooked vegetables with a nice char flavor that set off well against the chermoula. Chermoula is a Mediterranean style marinade made of herbs oil, cumin, lemon, and salt or a variation of these ingredients, depending on region and chef.

Leek ~   fungi. creamy taleggio

As with the broccoli, the leek was cooked to a perfect al dente. The addition of the taleggio added a fruity tang to the dish. Again the act of char-grilling the vegetable added yet another flavor and texture component. This is a very rich dish with the cheese, perfect for splitting…I had to buckle down and eat the whole thing myself:)

Pork Middle Char Siu ~   farro. brussels sprout. apple

Chinese style pork set off against micro thin apple slices and farro. The brussels sprouts were fine but not essential to the dish. Solid dish flavor wise and well-executed pork.

Service was on point again. I plan on returning, still a lot of the menu to try.Plus I want to delve into the cocktail menu.

This is the end to a “bad weather day” in North County:)

Campfire

2725 State Street, Carlsbad

 

 

The Roxy Remodels & Re-opens ~ Encinitas

The Roxy, which has been open in downtown Encinitas since 1978, closed at the end of March for a major remodel and concept change. With the neighborhood changing and monthly rent in the 10,000 per month range the owners needed to attract new customers.

The new concept is a 20’s speakeasy vibe, with craft cocktails and updated “New American” menu under Executive Chef Chris Gallo. Long time regulars can still find a few of the old menu’s favorites, like Falafel Burgers and an artichoke sandwich alongside the new dishes.

The remodel is still underway, plans include opening up the front so the restaurant extends to the patio area, probably with roll-up garage-style doors or open window seats. The liquor license allows the establishment to serve alcohol outside as well.

The interior is still in transformation. The walls I doubt will remain white.

The bar and kitchen area give more of a hint as to the finished look.

I tried a few dishes off the new menu…..

Fig Crostini ~ aged Humboldt fog, sherry marinated figs, basil, honey

Great flavors that work great together. Beautiful figs by the way.

Salt Cure Foie Gras Torchon ~ honey roasted fig, cognac gastrique, brioche toast.

This dish is on the dinner menu but Chef wanted to show it off, and rightly so. This is one of the best versions of Foie Gras I have had. The preparation gave the Foie Gras a depth of flavor you normally do not get. There are those figs again.

Though still in a soft open mode the Roxy is putting out good food with attentive service. The weekends feature live music acts, which is nice, we can always use more venues supporting local music.

The Roxy

517 South Coast Highway 101, Encinitas

 

Oceanside Wine Society @ The Privateer Marketplace & Wine Bar ~ Oceanside

This last Monday, September 12th, I attended the monthly event of the Oceanside Wine Society. These events are hosted at The Privateer Marketplace & Wine Bar on a monthly basis and feature rotating wine makers or personalities.

The event was $20 for a light buffet style accompaniments and 5 tastings.

The Privateer Marketplace and Wine Bar

Charcuterie and Cheese to accompany the wine.

More of the Buffet.

The event attracted about 25 to 30 people.

 

This month the winemaker was One Hope winery out of Napa Valley. One Hope is about 8 years old and came about when its eight founders, who were in the wine business in Napa, got together to form the company. The CEO’s friend was fighting cancer at the time, so the idea arose to produce wines where a portion of all sales go to different humanitarian causes, ranging from Medical Research to helping Veterans.

The event was hosted by Caitlin Snyder of One Hope Winery.

I could show you pictures of the wines but there could be anything in that glass and you would never know. I’ll just mention 2 of my favorites of the evening. I think it’s better for everyone that way:)

2011 Santa Barbara Reserve Chardonnay ~ Notes of citrus and peach with a light trace of oak. Really nice I would buy this.  Proceeds from this wine benefit Alzheimer’s research.

2012 Edna Valley Reserve Pinot Noir ~ Really drinkable wine, not too many tannins. Berries and spice spring to mind. This would pair well with a salmon dish.

Members of the Oceanside Wine Society get 15% off bottles of wine featured at these events. You can sign up and find out all the benefits at The Privateer Marketplace. The events are open to walk-ins. You can find out about future ones by following the Privateer marketplace Facebook page.

The great team for the event.

Privateer Marketplace & Wine Bar

1704 South Coast Highway, Oceanside