North Park Festival of the Arts
Squash at the San Diego Public Market While the San Diego Public Market moves ahead with plans to turn its Barrio Logan warehouse and surrounding spaces into something rivaling Vancouver's Granville Market, Barcelona's Boqueria and Seattle's Pike Place, you can stop by Wednesdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for a farmers market. While it's small compared to, say Hillcrest's or Little Italy's farmers markets, there's a solid selection of veggies, fresh-made foods, flowers, artisan cheeses and honey and some cool handmade jewelry and other crafty stuff. If you can find him, chat up Tom, the market's ambassador (he's usually standing near renderings of what the market will look like when it's finished), who'll give you an overview of everything they've got planned.
The 10th annual Celebrate the Craft—a showcase for local chefs, local ingredients and local wines—takes place Sunday, Sept. 30, at the Lodge at Torrey Pines. Participating chefs include A.R. Valentien's Jeff Jackson, Farmhouse's Oliver Bioteau, Katie Grebow from Cafe Chloe, Matt Gordon from Urban Solace, George's Trey Foshee and Nine-Ten's Jason Knibb. Tickets are $75 and available at celebratethecraft.com.
Monday, Oct. 1, is International Sake Day. Which gives us a chance to pimp this feature on sake from our 2012 Drink Issue.
One of our fave local restaurants, Starlite, turned five last week. Apologies for not alerting y'all to the festivities (and for not wishing you a happy b-day, Starlite), but there are always good deals to be had there, like $15 off a bottle of wine with the purchase of an entree on Sundays, $6 Kentucky Colonels on Wednesdays and $6 Mules, also on Sundays. For "Tapas Tuesdays," Chef Kathleen Wise dreams up new small plates. This week's included grilled jerk-chicken wings; flatbread with roasted tomato chutney, ricotta and basil pesto and a chilled cucumber soup with mint and pistachios. Keep up with specials on Starlite's Facebook page.
Also celebrating five years is Eclipse Chocolate. To celebrate, they're hosting a prix-fixe, small-plate dinner on Saturday, Sept. 29. Dishes include a roasted-tomato bisque with a garlic vanilla-bean buttermilk croute and parmesan crisp; your choice of herb-crusted roasted lamb chop or mushroom / asparagus risotto fritter, both served with quinoa-stuffed red bell pepper with cocoa-balsamic sauce; and, for dessert, a bread-pudding trio. Seatings are at 4, 6 and 8 p.m.
Got food news? Write to kellyd@sdcitybeat.com.
