42 San Diego Reader April 20, 2017


RESTAURANT


glaze. Probably just as well: hol- landaise is tough to do right. Werewolf ’s Benedict has the


sweet and savory components of a good Benedict without leaving the lump in the stomach feeling. My only sticking point is that the ingredients tend to slide against each other when you’re trying to spear it with a fork, so some bites had more potato than others. by Patrick Henderson


Service stands out Herb & Wood, 2210 Kettner Boulevard, Little Italy. After one of the hype-iest openings in recent history, Herb & Wood remained for many months a place I was afraid to visit, lest it disappoint me the way a few other big-money, big-hype res- taurants have. But one evening I gave my man sole restaurant- selecting power, and Herb & Wood is what he chose. I’d seen plenty of photos, but


they failed to convey the feel of the airplane-hangar-sized space. It was simultaneously capacious and cozy. We were seated at a small table for two in a room that,


BY IAN ANDERSON


That third place Third-wave shops and coffee roasters have proliferated rap- idly over the past several years in San Diego, but a flurry of recent openings in the first quarter of this year shows the idea of a neighborhood coff ee shop still has appeal to small- business owners.


Brew Coff ee Spot La Mesa resident Joe Paraiso says he and his wife had been kicking around the idea of opening a coff ee shop for some time when they met Ralph Wilkowski at a party. A year later, they opened Brew Cof- fee Spot together (6101 Lake Murray Boulevard, La Mesa). At


at first glance, seemed to be indoors. But a cool breeze from the west and the heatlamps situated throughout the area revealed it was more indoor/ outdoor, with a clear partial ceil- ing. The lanterns hanging above and the greenery on the walls gave the dining space a pleasant, garden-room feel.


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2300 square feet, “We went kind of big,” says Paraiso. “We wanted to accommodate students and people who like to work in a coff ee shop.” Between interior and patio, there’s room for more than 100 customers to work, study, or catch live jazz on T ursday and Friday evenings. T e Spot serves organic coff ee from Bar- rio Logan roaster Café Virtuoso.


The Bean Counter In south Mission Hills, an accoun- tant is behind the March opening of the Bean Counter (2655 Reynard Way). Brian Richter and wife Valentine Viannay opened the small coff ee bar in the vacant store- front next to her art studio. It seemed a natural fi t to Richter, who worked in coff ee shops more than a decade prior to becoming a bookkeeper, including Twiggs coff eehouse on Park Avenue. “I’m a fan of that neighborhood coff ee spot,” he says. “We wanted to sort of capture that… the concept of a third place. You’ve got home, you’ve got work, and then you’ve got a third place to spend your time.” He’s building a deck to add outdoor seat-


Perhaps the most impressive


aspect of Herb & Wood was the service. It was beyond reproach. Our server’s name was Domi- nique. Because it was our first time at this restaurant, David and I had plenty of questions about the menu and with each extensive, informative answer, our comfort level grew. For


las Creek). While they’ve cre- ated an artsy, garden setting with their first location, at City Farmers they won’t have to — guests will fi nd seating scattered throughout the nurs- ery’s many plants. Burly serves organic Mexican and Suma- tran coff ees contract-roasted for them by El Cajon’s Daymar Artisan Coff ee Roasters.


The Bean Counter brings art and coffee to Reynard Way in Mission Hills.


ing and serving North County’s Revolution Roasters daily.


Burly and the Bean It’s been nearly two years since Justin and Vanessa Boone opened for business in their Azalea Park section of City Heights, with a coff ee cart called Burly and the Bean (3014 Columbine Street). In the time since, they’ve built a small outdoor café, and in mid-April they opened a second location nearby, at City Farmers Nursery (3110 Euclid Avenue, Chol-


example, when I was curious about the pork pâté, Dominique let us know that chef Shane McIntyre’s signature preparation of the terrine involves a pork shoulder that is cooked for 12 hours to render the fat, which is removed before the remaining meat is ground. The rendered fat is then whipped back in, result- ing in the lean, spreadable paste. Dominique also helped us


choose a bottle of wine after overhearing us discussing the options and our lack of familiar- ity with the selection. We gave a price point, and after admit- ting to overhearing our curios- ity about a rosé on the menu he brought out two for us to taste — the second was not even on the menu. After asking about the


Roasted Branzino ($39) and receiving an extensive, enthu- siastic answer, I was all set to order it, along with a few other Dominique-recommended dishes, beginning with the


The Coff ee Hub & Café On Shelter Island, couple Andy and Sandy Hanshaw


delved into coff ee in March with the opening of the Coff ee Hub & Café (2907 Shelter Island Drive). He runs the San Diego County Bike Coalition, and she’s operated a restaurant, the Wine Pub. Coff ee Hub is itself a marriage of the couple’s interests, opening next door to the restaurant, assembled with unfi nished wood and cycling-themed decor. “We blended rustic and modern elements to create a bike-friendly hot spot for the community to call its own,” says Sandy. T ey serve coff ee from their Point Loma neighbors, Swell Coff ee.


■


pâté. The pickled vegetables, fruit mostarda (candied fruit), and mustard spread brought a sundry of flavors to the savory meat, and the brioche toast was so good David waxed on about how it might taste as the bun to his ideal lobster roll. I was hesitant about the


Roasted Baby Carrots ($10), but Dominique encouraged us to get them. The caramelized char with a nut mixture (cashews, and I detected hazelnut), Aleppo yogurt, and “carrot top pesto” resulted in a unique, Mediterra- nean-esque combination. Dominique had prepared


me for the kitchen’s variation on the traditional Branzino, which is usually roasted whole and served bone-in. Here, we still got the whole fish, but it was rearranged — the head at one end, the tail at the other, but the body of it had been divided into three sections, each section wrapped in speck that replaced the fish’s skin with the crispy,


wood-fired ham. Atop each lemon herb-stuffed section was the olive-chile tapenade, adding a salty and spicy component to each bite. It was a fun reinven- tion of the classic. The closest thing to a dis-


appointing note was David’s choice of entrée, the coal-roasted pineapple, habanero, red onion, and taleggio pizza ($19). The flavors were great, especially the roasted pineapple. But there was no habanero to be detected (we got significantly more kick from my olive-chile tapenade), and the dough was thin and cracker- like for David’s taste. He prefers a bit of chew to the crust, even if the pizza itself is thin. Over- all, in light of the promise of all those interesting ingredients, the flavor was quite mild. Still, from the moment we


arrived to our last wave goodbye, the entire staff was welcoming and obliging. It’s now a “special occasion” dining spot for us. by Barbarella Fokos


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