Best New Restaurants

A closer look at the top three eateries new to the scene, as voted by you

WELCOME to the neighborhood, the new home of San Diego’s hottest restaurants. It’s an expansive term, since in 2008 “neighborhood” means any corner of town in which locals line up to chow down at welcoming places where the kitchens shine, the candles glow and gentle prices light the path to good times.

URBAN SOLACE

In North Park, Urban Solace soothes urbane souls. This eatery rode to the top of the Best New Restaurant list with menus that succulently reinterpret the concept of “comfort food” and with innovations like the Sunday Bluegrass Brunch, a surefire midday revivifier for guests who may have spent the previous night dancing to mash - ups and house music.

Co-proprietor Scott Watkins, a one-time Orange County guy who likes life in the big city, cleverly presents a down-home vibe in an uptown setting. Located on 30th Street near the epicenter of North Park commerce— which is to say, the intersection with University Avenue—Urban Solace is laid-back but lively, especially on Sundays, when any of six bluegrass groups may send a full house hurtling down the tracks with a foot-stomping version of “Orange Blossom Special.” (Not that anyone actually stomps; the excellent, $6 mimosas and bloody Marys mellow the mood.) An exposed brick wall behind the bar emphasizes the urban mood, while a sunny side courtyard virtually transports guests on trips out of town.

Chef/co-owner Matt Gordon repeats cer tain favorites on the brunch, lunch and dinner menus, notably a sky-scraping, artfully garnished burger sided with remarkable sweet-potato fries. At brunch, any reason you can find to get your mitts on his warm Cheddar biscuits qualifies, but none surpasses the hangar steak Benedict —those biscuits topped with grilled steak, perfectly poached eggs and a tangy, smoked ancho chile hollandaise. The soothing fare keeps coming with dishes like Blake’s Eggaroni, a casserole (named for a former chef ) of well-cheesed macaroni with egg, topgrade ham and charred tomatoes. As the antidote to a busy week of life in the metropolis, it doesn’t get more comforting than this. 3823 30th Street, North Park, 619- 295-6464; urbansolace.net.

BLEU BOHÈME

In quiet Kensington, the pace quickens noticeably every time Bleu Bohème hangs out the “OPEN” sign. The latest creation of res - taurant-savvy Philippe Beltran, who was born in Paris but has gifted San Diego with his unique hospitality for more than 20 years, Bleu Bohème distills the essence of a casual eatery in France without imitating any actual establishments. No neighborhood café in Paris, for example, would hope to offer tables so large or to space them so far apart, but in a sleepy country town you might well find the rustic wooden furniture and the fawn-colored, roughly plastered walls etched at chair-back height with traceries of blue paint. The candlesticks massed with wax drippings probably are Beltran’s affectation, since the imagination declines to picture a fussy French patronne allowing anything to hide the sparkle of her handpolished silver.

After some months in business, Beltran decided to plop the chef ’s toque on his own head, an act somewhat reminiscent of Napoleon crowning himself emperor. As the Paris-born restaurateur explained, “I’ve been writing my own recipes and menus for the 17 years I’ve been in business in San Diego, and I think I know how best to run my own kitchen. Plus I’ve had the same kitchen crew working for me all this time, and they know what I like.”

Any of the rare days when piled-up clouds tint the Kensington skies a lustrous pearl gray (the glass-fronted dining room nicely views the grounds of the branch library) is the time to re-create lunch in Normandy by ordering one of Bleu Bohème’s versions of moules frites. These marvelous pairings of plump mussels and brittle French fries are available in appetizer and entrée portions, running to moules marinieres (steamed in aromatic white wine broth) for classicists, moules Roquefort for devotees of fine blue cheese and, perhaps best of all, mussels in an irresistibly fragrant and sun-colored saffron sauce sharpened with the taste of fennel.

The seasonal menus always present traditional French fare, currently such soulwarming dishes as mustard-coated rabbit baked with onions, mushrooms and potatoes; halibut fillet with chopped mushrooms, herbs and white wine; and duck confit finished most unusually with a piquant green-peppercorn sauce. 4090 Adams Avenue, Kensington, 619-255- 4167; bleuboheme.com.

DAMON GORDON’S QUARTER KITCHEN

On the edge of one of San Diego’s most historic neighborhoods, Damon Gordon’s Quarter Kitchen revs along at full-party speed behind an early 20th–century fa çade. As the principal restaurant of the Ivy, the little hotel with the big ambition of recreating the hip ambience of Miami’s South Beach, Vegas, New York and Los Angeles in the southwestern corner of California, Quarter Kitchen takes a boldly hip approach to décor and service. It succeeds, and enormously so on weekends, when the see-and-be-seen dining room nearly explodes with a high-energy crowd.

San Diego’s Kelly family, for whom the Ivy is a first-time hotel venture, chose a chef as hip as the vibe to helm Quarter Kitchen. Damon Gordon, a native of the East Anglia district in England, owns a well-starred résumé that includes stints under super chefs like Claude Troisgros, for whom he cooked at the sizzling Delano Hotel in South Beach. Combining the imagination of an artist with a craftsman’s careful techniques, Gordon writes luxurious menus as of-the-moment as the players in the hotel’s Envy nightclub.

The chef ’s stunning open kitchen—a syncopated symphony of polished steel, sizzling skillets and well-orchestrated cooks— ups the cool factor of a room with zebrawood- wrapped pillars, black-clad staffers and lacy glass sculptures that sparkle overhead like shooting stars. The menu matches these with edible fireworks like Kobe beef and shishito pepper brochettes, and a spicy duck, rice noodle and shiitake mushroom soup. Gordon tantalizes his guests’ taste for luxe with a surf ’n’ turf of veal medallions and Pacific shrimp aswim in tomatoed sauce Béarnaise, and a roasted double pork chop with spiced apples and creamy peppercorn glaze.

The unexpectedly humorous dessert menu offers the unlikely (if delicious) “Code 7,” a plate of made-to-order doughnuts, and a brilliantly updated sherry trifle filled with sangría jelly and adorned with marinated cherries and gold leaf, a touch much admired by the gilded clientele. 600 F Street, downtown San Diego, 619-814- 2000; quarterkitchen.com.

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