Education of the Modern Doctor: Marcus Welby vs. House 
This year's Zombie Walk ends at Quality Social.
- Illustration by Adam Vieyra
If you’re visiting from out of town, welcome. And, if you eat something good in San Diego, please go back home and tell your friends. If you’re a local and tend to avoid the Gaslamp, don’t be scared. Come on down, find a sidewalk patio seat and watch the weird and wonderful world go by.
In addition to my perennial favorites Neighborhood (777 G St.), for local craft beer and burgers, and Café Chloe (721 Ninth Ave.) for modern bistro food, there’s a new option this year. MIHO Gastrotruck, a farmto-table restaurant on wheels, will be parked at the Blends sneaker store (726 Market St.) on Thursday, July 22, from 6 to 8 p.m. Try the pulled-pork sandwich or the grass-fed beef burger.
The food at Nordstrom’s Café, on the third floor of the Horton Plaza department store, gets you a respite from the crowds in a comfortable, air-conditioned space with friendly table service; there’s even an outdoor patio with a primo view. The lunch deal includes soup, half a sandwich and a side salad. The albacore tuna melt and tomatobasil soup are quite delicious, the latter boosted by a touch of cream and served with a cheese-topped crostini.
Kearny Mesa’s popular Crab Hut has a new Downtown location (1007 Fifth Ave., Suite 101) just in time to welcome hungry Congoers. This is the place to gather your crew for a serious chow-down. The restaurant expertly cooks up seafood by the pound, from crawfish to king-crab legs, and flavors it with everything from Cajun seasoning to garlic butter. I like the firm, head-on shrimp and the sweet, succulent blue crab. The fresh shellfish is delivered to your butcher-paper-covered table with a roll of paper towels and a few condiments. The best way to tackle the feast is by using your hands; just remember to ask for a bib. Crab Hut will celebrate its grand opening—and Comic-Con—with half-off draft beers from July 23 through 25; the 10 taps include Karl Straus, Stone and Ballast Point.
The late-night club beats emanating from Quality Social (789 Sixth Ave.) may deter scene-shy foodies, but they’d be missing out on the quality food coming from the kitchen. Jared Van Camp, a Chicagotrained chef, makes all the meats in-house, from satin-textured mortadella to an applewood-smoked hot dog that would make Chi- Town proud. The daily happy hour, from 5 to 8 p.m., is a good time to check the place out, when bottles of wine and the entire charcuterie menu are half-price. On Saturday, July 24, Quality Social will be the final destination of this year’s Zombie Walk. From 7 to 9 p.m., the bar will host drink specials and a costume contest for the undead crowd. It might be worth a stop just to get an answer the question, Do zombies do bottle service?
If you’re visiting from out of town and have our famed fish tacos on your to-try list, one of the best comes out of Mariscos El Pescador, a food truck parked in a corner of a Toys “R” Us parking lot (1008A Industrial Blvd., Chula Vista). It’s a 10-minute drive from the convention center, but the tacos are only $1 plus change, so what you’re not saving on gas, you’ll save on food. Every order comes with a cup of piping-hot seafood broth to sip as you wait for your taco, a griddle-warmed corn tortilla cradling crisply fried filets of fish. A spoonful of white sauce and shredded cabbage provide coolness and crunch; add on hot sauce or chipotle cream to bring heat. The truck is open through dinner, but if you hit the area by 3 p.m., make it a surf-and-turf lunch by walking over to the nearby El Gallito truck for a torta ahogada, a sauce-drenched, porkfilled Mexican sandwich.
Write to candicew@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
