Things to Do: June 10-16

CAFÉ CHLOE POP-UP



WHERE: Oliver & Rose, 721 9th Ave., Downtown, 619.232.3242, oliverandrosesd.com


WHEN: Aug. 28, 6PM



COST: $120


MORE INFO: oliverandrosesd.com




If East Village has a spiritual food center, it’s Café Chloe and its tucked-away, magical little event space, Oliver & Rose. Just being in either place makes you feel drastically more capable of successful romance. To introduce Cafe Chloe’s new chef Jay Roberts, they’re throwing this five-course wine-paring dinner using Chino Farms produce and pairings by San Diego’s Vesper Winery. Filling out the experience will be artist Deborah Brenner, Venissimo Cheese, Dallman Fine Chocolates, Snake Oil Cocktail and coffee roaster West Bean.

TREASURE CHEST

WHERE: Green Flash Brewing, 6500 Mira Mesa Blvd., 858.622.0085, greenflashbrew.com

WHEN: Sept. 6, 12PM-6PM

COST:  $40

MORE INFO: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/treasure-chest-fest-san-diego-tickets-12377590707

One of the best rare beer events in San Diego, the fourth annual “Treasure Chest” is a specialty suds party designed to raise money for breast cancer (Susan G. Komen Foundation).  The star beer will be a barrel-aged saison with plum, but there will be many, many others. Like a white IPA with Szechuan peppercornds, an Imperial with Thai chiles and basil, a cinnamon stout, plus some barley wine. Each attendee will get 10 rare beer tastings and 10 food pairings from local restuarants like Carnitas Snack Shack, Waypoint Public, The Bellows, Urge Gastropub, The Grill at The Lodge at Torrey Pines, Viva Pops, etc. Venissimo Cheese and The Meat Men will also give demos on artisanal cheese and charcuterie. You’ll be stimulated to the core.

TASTE OF THE NATION

WHERE: Hilton San Diego Bayfront, 1 Park Blvd., Downtown,  619.564.3333, hiltonsandiegobayfront.com

WHEN: Sept. 14, 3PM-6PM


COST: $75-$100


MORE INFORMATION: http://ce.strength.org/events/taste-nation-san-diego



Share Our Strength is one of the better organizations in the country raising money for America’s hungry kids. Their “No Kid Hungry” campaign. To date, they’ve supplied over 107 million meals to kids who need it. The San Diego event is hosted by Food Network star and Coronado resident Melissa D’Arabian, who’s about to release her new cookbook Supermarket Healthy. brings together some of the better local chefs and restaurants, including Café Chloe, Buona Forcheta, Ironside Fish & Oyster, Jayne’s Gastropub, Pizzeria Mozza, Pacifica Del Mar, Puesto and Searsucker. It’s an impressively varied beverage list with the usual top-notch SD breweries (Stone, Culture, etc.), but also wineries (Bonterra, Cordiano), plus Julian Hard Cider, Madria Sangria, Kill Devil Spirit Company and Snake Oil Cocktail Co. In short, it’s a great grazing dinner-and-drinks at a nice resort property—all for our kids.

The Best Food & Drink Events for August-September

Melissa D’Arabian, Taste of the Nation

CAFÉ CHLOE POP-UP



WHERE: Oliver & Rose, 721 9th Ave., Downtown, 619.232.3242, oliverandrosesd.com


WHEN: Aug. 28, 6PM



COST: $120


MORE INFO: oliverandrosesd.com




If East Village has a spiritual food center, it’s Café Chloe and its tucked-away, magical little event space, Oliver & Rose. Just being in either place makes you feel drastically more capable of successful romance. To introduce Cafe Chloe’s new chef Jay Roberts, they’re throwing this five-course wine-paring dinner using Chino Farms produce and pairings by San Diego’s Vesper Winery. Filling out the experience will be artist Deborah Brenner, Venissimo Cheese, Dallman Fine Chocolates, Snake Oil Cocktail and coffee roaster West Bean.

TREASURE CHEST

WHERE: Green Flash Brewing, 6500 Mira Mesa Blvd., 858.622.0085, greenflashbrew.com

WHEN: Sept. 6, 12PM-6PM

COST:  $40

MORE INFO: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/treasure-chest-fest-san-diego-tickets-12377590707

One of the best rare beer events in San Diego, the fourth annual “Treasure Chest” is a specialty suds party designed to raise money for breast cancer (Susan G. Komen Foundation).  The star beer will be a barrel-aged saison with plum, but there will be many, many others. Like a white IPA with Szechuan peppercornds, an Imperial with Thai chiles and basil, a cinnamon stout, plus some barley wine. Each attendee will get 10 rare beer tastings and 10 food pairings from local restuarants like Carnitas Snack Shack, Waypoint Public, The Bellows, Urge Gastropub, The Grill at The Lodge at Torrey Pines, Viva Pops, etc. Venissimo Cheese and The Meat Men will also give demos on artisanal cheese and charcuterie. You’ll be stimulated to the core.

TASTE OF THE NATION

WHERE: Hilton San Diego Bayfront, 1 Park Blvd., Downtown,  619.564.3333, hiltonsandiegobayfront.com

WHEN: Sept. 14, 3PM-6PM


COST: $75-$100


MORE INFORMATION: http://ce.strength.org/events/taste-nation-san-diego



Share Our Strength is one of the better organizations in the country raising money for America’s hungry kids. Their “No Kid Hungry” campaign. To date, they’ve supplied over 107 million meals to kids who need it. The San Diego event is hosted by Food Network star and Coronado resident Melissa D’Arabian, who’s about to release her new cookbook Supermarket Healthy. brings together some of the better local chefs and restaurants, including Café Chloe, Buona Forcheta, Ironside Fish & Oyster, Jayne’s Gastropub, Pizzeria Mozza, Pacifica Del Mar, Puesto and Searsucker. It’s an impressively varied beverage list with the usual top-notch SD breweries (Stone, Culture, etc.), but also wineries (Bonterra, Cordiano), plus Julian Hard Cider, Madria Sangria, Kill Devil Spirit Company and Snake Oil Cocktail Co. In short, it’s a great grazing dinner-and-drinks at a nice resort property—all for our kids.

The Best Food & Drink Events for August-September

Melissa D’Arabian, Taste of the Nation

“Fish Taco”

“Fish Taco” @ Beaumont’s

There are two camps when it comes to deconstructed sci-fi food utilizing neat kitchen tricks. The first views such food as needless puffery getting in the way of “real” food. “Just braise me somefin,” says that set. The other camp truly loves this mind-bending exploratory food realm and still cries softly in the night over the closing of El Bulli. I’m somewhere in between. I like creativity in food as long as you don’t send me a “yuzu gelee” that looks and tastes like a jaundiced pencil eraser. And Beamont’s chef George Morris nails the balance with his “fish taco.”  It’s seared albacore, grilled corn tortilla foam (which tastes more like a cream), dehydrated chorizo, and hatch chile puree with heirloom tomatoes, avo, cilantro and jalapeno. All together, it really does taste like a super-clean, top-notch fish taco. For inspired food in sleepy little Bird Rock, Morris and Beaumont’s are definitely the place. Note: Order from his specials menu. Beaumont’s Eatery, 5662 La Jolla Blvd., 858.459.0474. 

Strawberry-rhubarb tart

Strawberry-Rhubarb Tart  @ Tidal

I’m not a big dessert guy. I spend too much of my time and table space with the savory menu. By the time dessert comes around I’d often just rather order a soft couch to wink out on for a while. I also am not a fan of warm, macerated fruit fillings. Pies and tarts pale in my eyes to, say, a doughnut (or plain old unadulterated berries with cream).  And yet somehow this tart—with its perfectly dense pastry, not overly cloying berry filling and confetti of mint with vanilla gelato—overcame all that. Eat this on the Tidal patio as the sun goes down and all that stressful life crap you worry about will turn to dust. Tidal @ Paradise Point, 1404 Vacation Rd., Mission Bay, 858.274.4630.

Don Chido wild shrimp cockteles

Wild Shrimp Cockteles @ Don Chido

Antonio Friscia is one of my favorite chefs in San Diego—a certified sommelier, student of global cuisine, super gracious, other-oriented host. But if I didn’t love his food, I’d go fishing with him instead of writing about his new Mexican restaurant. Here, the chef has a Santa Maria grill for meats (a griller’s dream, and a rarity to see at restaurants). His queso fundido is a plus-sized dream, and his piping hot churro bites with caramel sauce taste like school lunch dessert from the 1970s (a minor difference being his don’t taste like stale bread sticks). But my favorite bite may have been his simple cockteles with wild Mexican shrimp. He makes his similar to an aqua chile, marinated in lime, yuzu, top-notch olive oil and chiles., Don Chido C527 5^th Ave., Downtown, 619.232.8226. 

“Fish Taco”

“Fish Taco” @ Beaumont’s

There are two camps when it comes to deconstructed sci-fi food utilizing neat kitchen tricks. The first views such food as needless puffery getting in the way of “real” food. “Just braise me somefin,” says that set. The other camp truly loves this mind-bending exploratory food realm and still cries softly in the night over the closing of El Bulli. I’m somewhere in between. I like creativity in food as long as you don’t send me a “yuzu gelee” that looks and tastes like a jaundiced pencil eraser. And Beamont’s chef George Morris nails the balance with his “fish taco.”  It’s seared albacore, grilled corn tortilla foam (which tastes more like a cream), dehydrated chorizo, and hatch chile puree with heirloom tomatoes, avo, cilantro and jalapeno. All together, it really does taste like a super-clean, top-notch fish taco. For inspired food in sleepy little Bird Rock, Morris and Beaumont’s are definitely the place. Note: Order from his specials menu. Beaumont’s Eatery, 5662 La Jolla Blvd., 858.459.0474. 

Strawberry-rhubarb tart

Strawberry-Rhubarb Tart  @ Tidal

I’m not a big dessert guy. I spend too much of my time and table space with the savory menu. By the time dessert comes around I’d often just rather order a soft couch to wink out on for a while. I also am not a fan of warm, macerated fruit fillings. Pies and tarts pale in my eyes to, say, a doughnut (or plain old unadulterated berries with cream).  And yet somehow this tart—with its perfectly dense pastry, not overly cloying berry filling and confetti of mint with vanilla gelato—overcame all that. Eat this on the Tidal patio as the sun goes down and all that stressful life crap you worry about will turn to dust. Tidal @ Paradise Point, 1404 Vacation Rd., Mission Bay, 858.274.4630.

Don Chido wild shrimp cockteles

Wild Shrimp Cockteles @ Don Chido

Antonio Friscia is one of my favorite chefs in San Diego—a certified sommelier, student of global cuisine, super gracious, other-oriented host. But if I didn’t love his food, I’d go fishing with him instead of writing about his new Mexican restaurant. Here, the chef has a Santa Maria grill for meats (a griller’s dream, and a rarity to see at restaurants). His queso fundido is a plus-sized dream, and his piping hot churro bites with caramel sauce taste like school lunch dessert from the 1970s (a minor difference being his don’t taste like stale bread sticks). But my favorite bite may have been his simple cockteles with wild Mexican shrimp. He makes his similar to an aqua chile, marinated in lime, yuzu, top-notch olive oil and chiles., Don Chido C527 5^th Ave., Downtown, 619.232.8226. 

Don Quixote

Don Quixote

April 8:

The loco man of La Mancha and his trusty sidekick, Sancho, are on an operatic adventure in San Diego Opera’s performance of Don Quixote.

April 11:

The San Diego Museum of Art blooms to life with the three-day Art Alive floral exhibition and fundraiser, kicking off with tonight’s Bloom Bash opening celebration.

April 12:

Classic cars coast into the cove at the La Jolla Concours d’Elegance.

The unlikely combo of classical music and heavy metal makes orchestral melodies at Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine’s “Symphony Interrupted“ concert with the San Diego Symphony.

April 13:

Get schooled in culinary arts in the College Area Taste self-guided tour of the foodie side of SDSU.

In Carlsbad, Northeats is a food festival and chef competition featuring only chefs/restaurants north of 56.

Art Alive

Art Alive