PRESENTED BY

San Diego Food News, Feb. 16 2014

Alchemy turns 5; craft beer garden Downtown; Wine Vault's Mardi Gras Dinner

By Troy Johnson February 16, 2014

NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDES Know the Neighborhood Where to eat, where to drink, and what it's like to live there. EXPLORE THE GUIDES

Chef Matt Gordon of Urban Solace recently returned from eating his way around New York and San Francisco. Call it research. His conclusion: “I had fantastic food. But everything I had, I’ve had as good or better in San Diego.”

Alchemy in South Park is celebrating its fifth anniversary. From Feb. 20 to March 20, they’ll be running $5 menus that include wines, bar snacks, specialty cocktails and beers. On Feb. 26, chef Ricardo Heredia will do his “Vegan Tasting Dinner.”

The Green Dragon Tavern & Museum just opened up in Carlsbad—a behemoth 22,000 square-foot tavern based on Paul Revere’s day and age. Even comes with an exhibit of ye olden American artifacts.

Know that vacant lot at the corner of 11^th and Market Downtown? This summer that’ll become The Quartyard, reports Eater—a marketplace in the 30,000 square-foot lot with craft beer bar in a shipping container, a 10,000-square foot beer garden, food trucks galore, plus a new concept from Scott Slater of Slater’s 50/50.

Wine Vault & Bistro—the most affordable gourmet experience in town—will be doing a 10-course Mardi Gras Tasting Menu. Served over three days (March 2-4), they’re doing fried oysters, crawfish étouffée, pork shoulder, thyme smoked brisket, grits, buttermilk fried chicken, beignets, you name it. The entire shebang—plus five beer, wine and coffee tastings—costs $45 a person.