Sea Rocket Bistro......

(quick fyi this blog was from July 2009, yeah I'm that lame and slow)


A couple months ago I was driving down 30th street and noticed a surf movie being played on a wall inside of a restaurant. It sparked an interest so I decided to stop in some time, and stop in I did.

Sea Rocket is located in the North Park community of San Diego, I grew up in this area and have really seen it go from run down, to the cool hip place to be. I asked Brandon, a friend of mine that I work with at the hotel if he had been before since he frequents all these fun places. Lucky me he had been there and told me about the $2 tapas that they have, deal I was in.

A little about Sea Rocket...

Sea Rocket is a farm to table restaurant that uses sustainable foods and supports the local growers. This means you great really fresh food and to me at least you are really helping out our local economy. Being so close to the ocean the menu does focus on seafood of course and I had something that was very interesting.


I started the evening with a drink of course, and that night it was a Pomegranate Blood orange red wine sangria. It was on the sweet side, nothing incredible, would be a lot better on hot day.

Sea Rocket has a full wine list as well as beer list and even has some cask beers. The draft beers do rotate and they usually have 4 to 6 on tap. As I enjoyed my sangria I awaited my tapas, and sea urchin bisque.




Ahhh yes sea urchin bisque. Hey I have to say I wanted to try something different, something I would never order, and that's what I did. The sea urchin came from a local fisherman I believe in Point Loma area. The presentation was amazing, they hollowed out the shell and boiled it then put the now bisque sea urchin back inside with a little garnish. It looked at like squash soup but tasted like the ocean. I like to think that I have a great sense of taste but in this case the sea urchin won. Don't get me wrong it was bad it just wasn't for me. I finished up with a trio of tapas that where on a happy hour special, gotta love that.

On to the TAPAS!!!!!
So I had this three tapas deal looked tasty that was it. Ha , J/k but really it was just ok to me. The winchester gouda with honey on ciabatta was just boring. The American tuna with capers on bread looked like ants on a log and tasted like bumble bee tuna in a can. The capers didn't add to much to it and the bread was a bit dry. Now the one I did like was the Lompoc Lima bean salad. Nice flavor, beans were cooked perfectly, and served cold with some cracked pepper, yummmmm.

Sea Rocket has a nice vibe, its a definite locals place. I sat at a belly bar in the bar area and service was kinda slow, the staff was very nice though. I would like to try them again and have dinner this time.

Until next time .................eat drink and be Rudy!

Sea Rocket

My Bad

Ok so I am way behind on some blogs. As I said my bad, so I have like 4 places to post about I promise I will do it asap. Time for the excuse, I've been really busy. I know my 5 loyal readers will understand. Ok night

Nice Hang out.......

Yesterday afternoon I visited one place that I like to hang out at, Hoffers cigar bar in La Mesa. I don't always get to come here but when I do I have a great time. Hoffers has a nice selection of premium cigars as well as an outstanding selection of beers on tap. If beer isn't your thing there is also nice wines as well as some ports. Hoffers is a great place to start your evening or finish it up.

Now of course you are not allowed to smoke inside but there is a nice heated patio to enjoy your smoke. The inside has a bar with about 8 stools and 7 or 8 tables, two plasma TVs inside always have something good on. On my visit I spent my time outside under the umbrella enjoying some of my vices.

A few weeks ago my friend Jake (also one of my managers at the hotel) gave me some of his Perdomo's that he had received at an event. I finally had some time to enjoy one of them. On this day I was enjoying a Perdomo Habano with a Connecticut wrapper. This smoke was nice, nice big smoke, not really spicy, a little sweet but also bitter. It was a nice mild smoke, lasted me about 2 hours, nice even burn and it only went out once on me.

Now how can you smoke and not drink, you cant I just haven't told you what I had yet. As I mentioned Hoffers has a great selection of beers on tap and are always looking for something good to try. With 24 beers on tap anyone can find something they like. That afternoon I started with a Chimay Triple, brewed by Cistercian Trappist monks. This was an excellent beer as are all of Chimays three brews. This beer comes out a golden hazy color and has some fruity notes, and a bitterness that melts in your mouth. At 8%abv you should watch out how much you are drinking because it goes down so smooth.

I followed up my Chimay with Palm. Palm is a nice beer, not very hoppy and has a bitter sweet finish to it. It has a fairly common abv of 5.2%. That's all I have to say about that, the link with give some more back ground of course. Well Duhhh.

All right I need to go be productive, or at least pretend to be. So check out Hoffers and let me know what you think. I did forget to mention they do have a happy hour.

Until next time........ Eat Drink and Be Rudy.

Hoffers
Chimay
Palm
Perdomo

Speak easy.............

Your walking down the street and stroll up to a black door. Other people are just walking by, you glance over your shoulder then press a button on a call box on the wall. You whisper a password and then the door opens. The stairs down are dimly lit and you see glowing red light at the base. Your in the speak easy.......
There is a reason that I don't go down town that often, I hate the crowds its expensive, and a lot of people are rude. On the other hand, i can be easily swayed and that's what happened after Modus the other night.

Whats a speak easy? During prohibition ( booooo) people of all sorts would go to these establishments, whisper a secret password and then be let in. Inside is where they would do their drinking and buying of alcohol. These days even though we don't need these secret bars they are still a lot of fun to have. Scott had told me about a few of them in New York, and it really sparked an interest in them.

It just so happens that San Diego has one of these bars called Prohibition. Now I'm not going to tell you where it is, you'll have to find it out on your own. I liked this bar because it wasn't packed and it was really my kind of place. The drinks where great, and the environment was even better. That evening I had a Ward 8, rye whiskey, lemon juice, orange juice, and house made grenadine.This drink had great flavor, not to tart and just the right amount of sweetness.
The drink list had something for everyone, as well is a small beer and wine list. They like to use fresh juices in their drinks so the drink list will change with the season. They do not serve food inside which is nice, makes things easy, do one thing and do it well. Prohibition is a small place which is nice, there is only 4 booths, a couple belly bars and I think like 6 Chairs at the bar it self. Red lights every where really set the mood minus the flat screen tv.

The thing that is going to suck is when this place gets full of douche bags, and its going to happen, its down town what do you expect. Check it out if you can find it, its not that hard to find.

Until next time.... Eat Drink and Be Rudy

Drinks at Modus.....

So last week I went out with Scott and a few of his friends to have some drinks. First stop of the night was to Modus, a hip modern style awaited us inside with some nice cocktails. I didn't get a chance to eat while I was there but I was on the liquid diet of course. Modus has a nice long bar that would be in the shape of a lower case d, plenty of room and line of sight to see your tasty libations being made.My first drink of the night was Cool Love. Cool Love is a gin based drink, with gin you either like it or you don't. Ive heard that if your parents where gin drinkers than there children would be as well. I don't know if that is true or not but if it is mine will come out with their own bottle. Ok back to the drink, so ingredients.

Hendricks Gin, House made Rose water, cucumber, lemon lime, a little sugar served over rocks.

Now for those who don't know Hendricks Gin is infused with cucumber and rose. The traditional way to drink it is with cucumber of course. This is a nice gin, one of my favorites and this drink payed tribute to it. The drink was very refreshing and the cucumber and rose petal garnish totally covered up the gin flavor. Over all it was a nice drink but tasted like chilled cucumber water.
The next drink was the Bitter Bitch, I know a few of these j/k, no but really I do.
So this drink was very tart, this was gin based again, grapefruit, rosemary and a sugar rim. It had really nice flavor, and again the gin was totally masked buy the other ingredients. The rosemary didn't really add anything to the drink, although I think if the oils of the rosemary came out it would have added something to it. You just really smell it when your nose is close as you sip your drink. I did like the sugar rim the way it would melt on your lips when they met the rim.
Last drink at Modus was the Derby Refresher, this was made with Whiskey, home made lemonade, soda water and a lot of mint served on the rocks. This was as well a nice refreshing drink unfortunately the mint took over and put all the other flavors way in the back ground.
Over all I liked Modus a lot, the drinks were good the company was nice and the Bartender/Owner was very easy on the eyes. I would recommend going to check Modus out, it is a nice place to hang out and catch happy hour. I really did like the drinks my only complaint about them is that I do like to taste the alcohol and know what I'm drinking. So go and check it out I'm sure you will have a lot of fun, and let me know what you think.

Until next time.... Eat Drink and Be Rudy

Modus