By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO —- Once a year in the fall, for the second year now, the restaurants of the College Area open their doors and kitchens for a special tasting event. This is the Taste of College Area. It’s a self-guided food tour where you can stop in and have a bite or two at any of the participating restaurants.
A few weeks before the event I caught up with Jim Schneider, the executive director of the College Area Business District (and was part of the Adams Avenue business district before that.) I asked him about the purpose and origins of the event.
I learned that there are 17 business districts in San Diego at the time of this writing. Twenty-seven restaurants chose to participate this year. The idea is that they are trying to work with developers, with new businesses, and other businesses to attract new development, new businesses and new customers into the area.
You may think that being in the College Area it’s targeted to the students at San Diego State University, but it’s really targeted to people in the neighborhood and surrounding areas. The locals who can give the restaurants business when school is on break and who are permanently and long- term in the area.
Schneider had great success with the Taste of Adams Avenue events when he was there, and he wanted to bring it to the College Area as well.
They tried to do a tasting event in 2017 but there wasn’t enough diversity in the restaurants- it was all pizza and subs at that time. So last year they looked at the mix of restaurants in the area and said it was time.
Around 500 people were expected this year. They aim to grow it to 1200.
Any restaurant in the business district, which goes along El Cajon Boulevard from 54th to 73rd street, can opt in to be part of the tasting experience.
There is no pay to the restaurants, but the ones who participate recognize that it’s a big marketing opportunity to show what they’ve got to local customers
They’re asked to give a bite or two of a signature dish that will make people want to come back. And also they can offer a coupon for a future visit.
The tickets are $40- $50 and go on sale about 2 months before the event. The VIP admission came with some alcohol- either free or discounted, at some of the bars/ pubs.
And now to the food and the experience of it. Listed below are our favorites.
We got there just before 11, found parking and lined up to get our badges. The badge had numbers around the edges, and each participating restaurant was assigned a number. When you go to get your “taste,” they punched their number on your badge.
After picking up our badges, we waited for the trolley to take us to the first stop. (They had four trolleys from Old Town Trolley tours that shuttled people around the 2- mile loop.) Since we were the first group it wasn’t too crowded. We did the first three spots and then decided that we would try to jump the crowds by starting at the end and then working our way back to the beginning. So we took the trolley to the farthest point.
Our strategy was both good and bad. On the one hand, there were only a handful of people hitting the restaurants at the same time as us. On the other hand, some of the restaurants, assuming people would go in order, weren’t quite ready for us. They rallied though and after a short wait we were given our treats.
Some restaurants took the one- to – two bite directive quite literally and served Costco-sized samples. Some gave out entire plates. And some very smart restaurants, realizing that if people were doing a loop of 26 restaurants, they may quickly get full, had their samples ready to go in take-out containers. The smartest of which, like La Moon Thai restaurant had a sticker on the container so you knew where it came from. We really appreciated this when we had leftovers for dinner later that day. (And La Moon was one of the stand-outs for service and flavor as it happens. They had an amazing green tea Thai tea that was different from anything I’ve had before. The fried chicken that was on their sample plate was also really really good. I will be back there.)
Other stand-out restaurants were: Dessert Castle, which had a table out in front of the restaurant, though they won’t actually open until the end of the year. They make Arabic sweets and had one of the best kenafes I’ve had in a long time. Not too sweet, not too sticky, not too fall-aparty, just perfect, and served warm and fresh. They also were making Turkish coffee boiled in hot sand and serving full-size lattes. I’m really looking forward to their opening.
Sci-eats has a really interesting concept. Though the menu has prices, you can pay what you want. And if you want to you can buy a meal for someone less fortunate. And if you need a meal, you can take one of the stickers from the wall that someone else pre-paid. No hassle, no questions. Oddly enough, the system works so well that so many meals were pre-paid, and unclaimed, so they have started making box meals and taking them out into the unhoused community. The menu is a combination of Indian and Russian food, because the owners are a Indian/ Russian husband/ wife team. They had a carmelized lemonade that I’ve never had before and was really yummy. The food was also good. I especially liked the Russian pancake.
Himalayan Yak and Yeti- this one really outdid themselves with a full plate of veggie korma, butter chicken, lamb curry, Chana masala, and garlic naan.
Corbin’s Q- they have a really good mushroom burger- it was very thick and juicy. And they gave the VIPs a shot of dirty dill vodka- that’s vodka with pickle juice! I really liked the vibe there, and the owner Corbin was there himself chatting with people. This is a place I could definitely see coming back to to hang out, enjoy the vibe and get a good burger.
Majorette – this is another bar. They had some interesting draft beers and ciders. They also had the best pretzel I’ve had in a bar. Perfectly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.
Tokyo Sushi Loha – they were smart and had to-go boxes ready for an easy and efficient experience. In the box was gyoza, poke and edamame.
Kichnana – this is an interesting fusion restaurant. We really liked their Korean chicken wings.
Essential Coffee – they had a really interesting iced salted cream ice coffee, and an iced banana cream coffee. The base is the same and the cream toppers are different. The banana one was interesting as it was from real bananas, not syrup so kind of tasted a bit like banana bread. I can’t explain the salted cream flavor well, but I really liked it and would go back for it.
Smashburger- their offering was a quarter burger, tots, and a quarter hot dog. I’m a hot dog girl, and the hot dog was really good. Nice crisp snap on the grilled dog but not burned or rubbery.
Overall it’s a great value for only $40-50. We were full after the third restaurant and were really happy to take things home. It felt like adult trick-or-treating as we went from one restaurant to the next, especially when they had to-go containers ready. We did not manage to hit all of the restaurants. Some we skipped because they only had pork offerings, and others we just ran out of time and didn’t get to.
A couple of suggestions for future: have one of the restaurants or a sponsor supply nice big tote bags or take out bags to collect the to-go containers from.
More restaurants should plan on having to-go containers with their labels on them. The restaurants that gave us to-go boxes commanded our fuller- hungrier attention at home later. The ticket price was more than justified by the multiple meals that we came home with. We had enough leftovers to feed both of my kids for two separate meals!
To learn more and get on the mailing list for next year, click here.
*
Associate Editor Sandi Masori is a food and theater reviewer for San Diego Jewish World