J & Tony’s, a quirky, dinosaur-filled cocktail bar in East Village offering all-day food service, has been named to Esquire Magazine’s list of “The Best Bars in America for 2021.”
The new survey by Esquire writer Kevin Sintumuang includes 27 bars in L.A., Chicago, Brooklyn, Baltimore, Denver, Nashville and more. J & Tony’s — full name: J & Tony’s Discount Cured Meats and Negroni Warehouse — is owned by the San Diego restaurant/bar collective CH Projects.
Sintumuang praised the bar’s “madcap, idiosyncratic space,” which includes giant dinosaur and dragon models and a huge gold disco ball. He also liked the bar’s house negroni cocktail, espresso martinis, cured meats and breakfast sandwiches. “Cocktail-centric zaniness was never this low-key cool and delicious,” he wrote.
J& Tony’s is at 631 Ninth Ave. in San Diego. Visit prosciuttoboys.com.
Guy Fieri aids two restaurants
Two San Diego small restaurant owners received $25,000 grants last week from chef and TV host Guy Fieri, during Fieri’s online June 12 special “Guy’s Restaurant Reboot by LendingTree.” The livestreamed show was created to help restaurateurs get back on their feet following the pandemic. Fieri raised $300,000 in grants from donors like LendingTree and Twisted Tea.
The two local recipients were Avonte Hartsfield of Rollin Roots vegan food truck and Gustavo Tonella of Doggos Gus Mexican Hotdogs in Imperial Beach. In 2019, Hartsfield started Rollin Roots at one San Diego farmers market. By March 2020, he was at 15. When the farmers markets closed, he rented a food truck in July and has been serving customers on a “pay what you can” basis. Tonella discovered a passion for bacon-wrapped hot dogs in Mexico and spent months developing his own recipes before launching his first stand in 2010. For details on the show, visit guysrestaurantreboot.com.
Caffeine Crawl returns next weekend
San Diego’s 8th annual Caffeine Crawl, a self-guided tour of up to 20 San Diego County coffee, tea and chocolate shops, will return on June 26 and 27.
This year’s businesses are located all over San Diego County. There are eight self-driving routes that ticket-buyers can choose which day they go and which four to five different shops they will visit. Tickets are $34.50 (for four location) to $38.50 (for five).
Participants include: Acento Coffee Roasters; Achilles Coffee Roasters; Cafe Moto; Coava Coffee Roasters; Coffee Hub and Cafe; Copa Vida; Dojo Cafe; Kakawa Coffee; HOB Coffee; Holsem Coffee; Manzanita Roasting; Moe Coffee; Moniker General; Mostra Coffee; Nibble Chocolate; Point Loma Tea; Por Vida Cafe; Public Square Coffee House; Ryan Bros. Coffee; S3 Coffee Bar; Ultreya Coffee and Tea; and Yipao Coffee. For details, visit caffeinecrawl.com.
Dishes at newly oepned Salvatore’s Cucina and Lounge in downtown San Diego.
(Salvatore’s Cucina)
Salvatore’s reimagined
Salvatore’s Cucina and Lounge, an Italian restaurant and late-night lounge, opened on June 11 at 750 B St. in downtown San Diego.
Owners Danny and Marco McGuire took over the space formerly occupied by Salvatore’s Cucina, a traditional Italian restaurant that closed during the pandemic. The McGuires revamped the space and introduced a new menu.
The new Salvatore’s offers Italian food with a Baja/Southern California twist. Specialties include pizzas, pasta dishes, yellowtail crudo, branzino and octopus entrees, steaks and a variety of vegetable dishes. Besides an extensive wine and beer menu, Salvatore’s has 10 cocktails named after San Diego neighborhoods, including the Barrio Logan, East Village and Little Italy.
On Friday, Salvatore’s will open its lounge offering late-night service from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Regular restaurant hours are 3 to 11 p.m. daily. Visit salvatoressandiego.com.
Some of the dishes the Kuma Cafe team will be serving this summer in the lobby bar at the Guild Hotel in Downtown San Diego.
(Courtesy of Guild Hotel)
Kuma pops up at Guild Hotel
Rom Fabreo and Allyson Samfilippo, the husband-and-wife team behind the the 5-year-old downtown San Diego restaurant Kuma Café, have signed a deal for a summerlong menu takeover at The Guild Bar, a lobby bar in the 2-year-old Guild Hotel at 500 W. Broadway in San Diego.
Fabreo and Samfilippo met in Japan in 2012 and after they moved to San Diego, they opened Kuma at 1050 Columbia St. Their goal was to recreate the ambience of the neighborhood restaurants they visited in Japan’s Shibuya City.
Kuma Café specializes in serving coffee drinks, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, acai bowls, rice bowls and salads. The new partnership with Guild Hotel will allow the couple to experiment with social hour and dinner menus.
The Guild Bar dishes include fried oysters with charred Meyer lemon, crispy Brussels sprouts with bacon and serrano peppers, blistered shishito peppers, heirloom tomato flatbread, charcuterie boards and a double-patty smash burger with 90-minute caramelized onions. The items are available beginning at 4 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. Visit theguildhotel.com.
James Montejano is the new executive chef at International Smoke Del Mar restaurant.
(International Smoke)
Montejano moves to International Smoke
James Montejano, who has served for the past year as executive chef at the year-old Huntress steakhouse in downtown San Diego, was appointed executive chef this week at International Smoke Del Mar.
Montejano has a long relationship with chef Michael Mina, whose MINA Group owns International Smoke. In the 1990s, Montejano spent five years as a sous chef at Michael Mina’s Aqua restaurant in San Francisco. He also served as sous chef in 2010 at Mina’s namesake restaurant in San Francisco. Locally, Montejano has cooked at the La Valencia Hotel and at Cardiff Seaside Market. Visit internationalsmoke.com/locations/del-mar/.
Michelin-starred restaurants coming back
A survey released last week by the Michelin Guide found that, as of June 6, 63 percent of the Michelin-starred restaurants in the United States have reopened since COVID surge-related stay-at-home orders ended earlier this year.
Michelin has continuously tracked its starred restaurants’ reopenings over the past 22 weeks. Internationally, the reopening rate is 54 percent. The numbers vary widely by country, based on the severity of the pandemic’s wrath. In Japan, 99 percent have reopened, while in hard-hit Italy, only 1 percent have reopened.
San Diego has only one Michelin-starred restaurant, Addison in Carmel Valley, which reopened last year. It earned one star in 2019, the first year Michelin produced an all-California guide. Michelin didn’t publish a state guide last year but aims to produce an updated guide later this year.
Kragen writes about restaurants for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Email her at pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com.
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June 16, 2021 at 07:00AM
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The Dish: J & Tony's cocktail bar in East Village among Esquire's top bars in America - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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