My visit to Alchemy

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from this little adventure. The central section of San Diego which I feel is south of the 8, north of the 94 and between the 15 and 5 freeways has become a great place to eat drink and hang out. So as a belated mothers day present I took my grandmother to Alchemy in South Park. This is a little restaurant and bar in the quiet neighborhood of South Park (south of North Park, hence South Park), which has some great restaurants and bars.

My friend Scott told me about this place so I thought that I should check it out. The inside is a cool and hip environment, art work for sale hanging on the walls, a great wine list with everything from Napa and Sonoma to French and Italian wines. They also have a few specialty cocktails and a few beers on tap to offer. So my journey began as most of them do.... with a cocktail. I had the Red Derby made with Michters rye whisky, grapefruit, honey. Very drinkable, I could have put away a couple of these. The sweetness of the honey cut into the whisky just enough to mellow it..

To start we had the snacks, all of them to be exact. It is a good deal to do all for $18,

“cabernet” marinated local olives

berkshire pork piquillo relleno

grilled asparagus & romesco

“pintxos del dia” (plate of the day)

melitzana salata / lavash bread

roasted california almonds

Each item was really good, the olives of course where delicious, my favorite was the berkshire pork piquillo relleno. Really nice flavor, smokey tender and not to much spice, although would have been nice if it was still hot when it got to the table. The plate of the day was interesting, it looked like a jalapeno popper. What it was though was tuna shredded and rolled up then breaded and fried, it was dry and cold, again might have benefited if it where served hot.

With my main course I we drank a bottle of Fox Glove 2007 Chardonnay from San Luis Obispo, this was a nice crisp Chard not oaky or buttery at all, this wine was crisp and had a lot of nice citrus, not to acidic or sweet though. Now I didn't pair my wine and food, although I probably should have in this case. For my main course I had the burger, grass fed beef, Manchego cheese, house cured pickle parmesan frites, lettuce, onion, and tomato of course and I added berkshire bacon for good measure.

This burger was great, I had it cooked medium rare and it was delicious. The bun was a little bit much they could have hollowed it out a little and then you could have ate it like a regular burger. The Manchego was nice but you couldnt really taste it on the burger, I think it was just to thin of a slice. The frites or fries were good as well, a lot of places are going to the shoe string type of fries and dressing them up with different herbs. Very happy with this choice.

Dessert really wasn't memorable and not worth typing about so I'll skip it.

Final verdict, great place to go and hang out. The food is good, the drinks are good, and the people are nice. Only real complaint the knife style sucks, no easy way to rest it on your plate but if all your gonna complain about its a knife then your a douche and shouldnt bother eating out anyway.

Until next time, Eat Drink and be Rudy.