A year after transforming its Soda & Swine restaurant/bar location in North Park into an Italian restaurant, Consortium Holdings has given the venue a complete makeover this month.
The 8-year-old restaurant space at 2943 Adams Ave., which shares a patio with CH Projects’ Polite Provisions cocktail bar, has been transformed into a Chinese restaurant named Fortunate Son. Under the direction of chef Tony Guan, Fortunate Son offers playful updates on classic Chinese takeout dishes.
A wok-fired noodle dish at newly opened Fortunate Son in North Park.
(Courtesy of James Tran and Olivia Beall)
Guan said he grew up in a local Chinese restaurant where his parents have worked for 25 years, so traditional Chinese-American dishes like shrimp lo mein, orange chicken and kung pao chicken are among the favorites that he has adapted with regional ingredients and house-made chili paste and spice mixes. Specialties include beef and shishito peppers, sweet and sour pork belly, family style duck and lotus leaf sticky rice.
The 38-seat restaurant’s elaborate decor features a 1900s-era hardcarved gilded archway at the entrance, antique Chinese porcelain and panel screens and a custom-sculpted 10-foot fire-breathing dragon sculpture. Co-founder Arsalun Tafazoli said many of the large antique items were shipped from China. The restaurant also has a dumpling rolling room and a takeout window, which is a nod to the realities of opening during a pandemic.
“Making food that travels well has become a matter of survival,” Guan said. “With a portion of the kitchen being designed for takeout we are hoping our menu can be received at home with the same character and warmth that you’d get inside our dining room.”
The restaurant is open from 4 to 10 p.m. weekdays and noon to 10 p.m. weekends. For details, visit fortunatesonchinese.com.
Puesto family leases Whisknladle space
The La Jolla restaurant space vacated in March by Whisknladle will become a new Italian restaurant, Marisi Italiano, operated by the family behind the Puesto Mexican restaurant company. Marisi, located next door to the original Puesto that opened in 2012, will open in 2021.
Executive Chef Patrick Money, formerly of Cesarina and Cucina Enoteca, will lead the kitchen at Marisi, which will serve house-made pastas, bread and pastries and will have a full bar program led by Puesto’s bar and spirits director Beau de Bois.
Puesto is family-owned and operated by first-generation Mexican-American brothers Eric, Alan and Alex Adler, alongside their cousins Isidoro and Moy Lombrozo and founding chef and partner Luisteen Gonzalez. Their company was just inducted into Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 list, with a ranking at 2,212.
“We are proud of everything we’ve created through the Puesto brand and look forward to taking on this new endeavor, while continuing to grow Puesto. Marisi gives us an opportunity to explore a culinary passion we’ve long held and bring it to La Jolla,” said Eric Adler, co-founder of Puesto.
The Loma Club at Liberty Station in San Diego.
(Courtesy photo)
Loma Club offering monthly charity pop-ups
The Loma Club, a restaurant space at Liberty Station, will launch “Community Pop-up Sundays” on Aug. 30, a monthly fundraising dining event to aid local restaurants fighting for their survival in the pandemic. All of the profits from the one-day events will benefit the participating restaurants.
Every month, a different restaurant will be selected to cook and serve a special menu on the outdoor patio of the Club’s Bar & Grill, near its 9-hole walking golf course. The Club will support the events by providing its staff, a full bar menu and assistance with golf reservations.
The first restaurant to participate is Casanova Fish Tacos, a mobile taqueria that specializes in Baja-style cuisine. It will serve three of its specialty tacos from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30.
Loma Club has yet to announce the restaurant partners who will be featured at future Community Pop-Up Sundays on Sept. 25, Oct. 25, Nov. 22 and Dec. 20. CFor more, visit thelomaclub.com.
Korean milk tea with salted cream cheese at Rice Goban at Westfield UTC.
(Courtesy photo)
Openings at Westfield UTC
Despite the challenges with its on-and-off retail store closures, Westfield UTC announced three new culinary tenants that have opened in the past month at the shopping center near La Jolla.
They are: Wushiland Boba, serving Taiwanese tea drinks; Happy Lemon, a bubble tea shop; and Rice Goban, a quick-service Korean restaurant. For details, visit westfield.com/utc.
Chris Gentile, left, and Brandon Sloan of Pandemic Pizza at RoVino The Eatery in East Village.
(Courtesy photo)
Pandemic Pizza finds permanent home
Pandemic Pizza, the gourmet pizza-to-go pop-up created in March by furloughed fine-dining chefs Chris Gentile and Brandon Sloan, has found a permanent home at RoVino The Foodery at 969 Market St. in East Village.
Gentile, executive chef at Avant in Rancho Bernardo, and Sloan, chef de cuisine at Provisional Kitchen in the Gaslamp Quarter, have dreamed of opening their own restaurant together one day. When Avant and Provisional were shuttered in March, the best friends launched a pizza brand in Sloan’s apartment to keep themselves busy and raise money for charity and the concept took off.
Pandemic Pizza serves gourmet pizzas priced from $13 to $17, with $1 from every pie going to a different local charity each week. Although the chefs are now back at their main restaurant jobs, they’re still making the pizza dough and overseeing the product every day. Visit instagram.com/pandemicpizza.
Two more eateries announce closing
Joining the list of pandemic-related permanent restaurant closures this month are Sapporo in Ocean Beach and O’Sullivan’s pub in Carlsbad.
Aug. 29 will be the last day for Sapporo, which is closing after 23 years in business at 5049 Newport Ave. Owner Joe Ueno posted on Facebook in May that the new social distancing orders would have drastically reduced seating so he was only offering takeout. On Aug. 14, he wrote that he was closing for good and he thanked the O.B. community for its support.
Owners of O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub & Restaurant at 640 Grand Ave. in Carlsbad confirmed Aug. 17 on Facebook that the location has closed for good. But the company’s Escondido location remains open and is offering outdoor dining on Grand Avenue.
Pam Kragen writes about restaurants for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Email her at pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com.
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