San Diego downtown eats + paging ESRI dorks

**bagtagley** · 07-23-2012, 04:09 PM

I know there are other San Diego food threads, but the trapped in downtown one is a bit dated. I'm carless in gaslamp. Ate at Seersucker last night. It was good. Any other suggestions within walking distance? I've taken to starving myself through the day so that I can spend all of my per diem on decent dinner and beer.

Also, any fellow ESRI Kool-aid drinkers in town? I brought my cape and Jack Dangermond trading cards to trade.

**Game Over** · 07-23-2012, 04:23 PM

not much help as ive only been here a couple months and thats not really my hood... but there is a cool irish pub on 5th. cant recall the name. a good brazilian place on 5th or 6th. also dont know the name. how long you gonna be down here?

**DJSapp** · 07-23-2012, 04:27 PM

Not up on the food scene, but I know Telenater is down there for a chunk of the week.

**El Chupacabra** · 07-23-2012, 05:01 PM

I'm going to be in San Diego all week too, from tonight onwards. Not related to ESRI (though that explains why my hotel room is $300+), and I may be occupied with client-related matters in the evenings.

If any maggots are in the gaslamp area and free to get dinner on Wed or Thurs night, those are probably the best nights for me. I'm at the Residence Inn near 6th and J.

**guermo** · 07-23-2012, 05:16 PM

I'm here at ESRI UC - North Lake Tahoe representing!
It'd be fun to hook up for dinner / beers.

**Game Over** · 07-24-2012, 03:25 AM

shit. beers are in order folks

**Ksyrium** · 07-24-2012, 07:46 AM

i was there about a month ago and ate at http://www.craft-commerce.com/ in little italy. Its kind of a hipster joint with really good food and beer.

The fish market was pretty good as well.

**Obstruction** · 07-24-2012, 08:29 AM

I was in SD for a convention at the end of June and at a number of pretty good restaurants. Listed in descending order:

Buon Appettito in Little Italy about a mile from the convention center. Given the fact that we have pretty good Italian food selection here in Boston I feel like I'm knd of discerning when it comes to this cuisine and I was very impressed. I've had Osso Bucco and Rabbit there and come away very pleased. Not to hard on the wallet either.

Roy's at the Marriott next to the convention center. A chain and kind of pricey but the Hawaii themed menu was great and the three fish plate tehy served (snapper, butter fish and mahi) was terriffic.

Miguel's Coronado (across the street from the Del). Not SD but a 5 minute ferry ride and a 1 mile stroll will put you there and it makes for very pleasant afternoon/evening. Had some outstanding swordfish tacos there.

Basic, a Pizza joint/club next to Petco field. Cool place good beer and terrific pizza. Wait was a little long but we arrived an hour before game time and still managed to quaff a few, get fed and only missed the top of the first.

Cafe 222 edge of the gaslamp. Bobby Flay said the stuffed french toast (Elvis styly with PB and bananas) was the best breakfast he ever had. Cool place but the stuffed french toast was sort of meh portion was huge for not a lot of $$ but smaller and tastier would have worked for me. My wife ate half of the three hubcap sized orange pancakes she was served and they were quite tasty.

Service was good to very good at all of the above named spots.

**frorider** · 07-24-2012, 09:38 AM

http://www.ratebeer.com/place/monkey...brewery/24767/

since some of my SD friends live in south park, we sometimes eat/drink at monkey paw...great beer selection, good vibe, and it offers a relatively easy escape from gaslamp. the food is very beer-appropriate.

**GiBo** · 07-24-2012, 10:45 AM

Back in the day when I was a young, dirtbag GISer, we would go to the Embassy Suites and join our friends for the free happy hour. Now that was cheap eats.

There was a good sushi joint on 5th. I think it was Taka. Stay away from Dick's. Lame.

And I'll trade you a vintage Jack '95 card for this years. Mine has him holding a box of ArcView 1.0.

Ok, quick Jack story. My buddy was standing in line at the conference. All of the sudden, somebody does the come-from-behind-and-cover-the-eyes move. He turns around and it's Jack! So my buddy just says, "Oh, hi Jack." Jack kind of smiles and walks off.

Man those were the days...

**liv2ski** · 07-24-2012, 06:53 PM

Guys, just walk down 5th ave. Between Market and Island is the Irish bar called The Field which is a must visit. Around the block on 4th at about the same spot as The Field is a Spanish place with great tapas and red wine. Down 5th towards the convention center from The Field are a few great steak places for the meat eaters. In the other direction are about 6 great Italian places and a great seafood place called Blue Point. Donavon's is really good too. If you can't find good eats downtown your wacked. Pretty sure the sushi bar is on 4th ave close to Island st. If you want to take the ferry over to Coronado I will meet you at Coronado Brewing Co for some great IPA's and pub grub. Have fun.

**gatorboy** · 07-24-2012, 09:12 PM

I saw on FB recently (maybe today?) that Stone Brewing has some awesome beers on tap right now in their taproom.

**Game Over** · 07-25-2012, 01:48 AM

Originally Posted by liv2ski

e Irish bar called The Field

this is the place i was talking about. u guys wanna try to meet up here?

**El Chupacabra** · 07-25-2012, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by liv2ski

Guys, just walk down 5th ave. Between Market and Island is the Irish bar called The Field which is a must visit.

Originally Posted by steepconcrete

this is the place i was talking about. u guys wanna try to meet up here?

Sounds good to me -- Thursday night, 7 PM? <-- tomorrow night is my best chance at having some free time; tonight probably isn't going to work.

**hev** · 07-25-2012, 11:25 AM

Small world. My brother is at the conference Bags.

**Shredhead** · 07-25-2012, 02:10 PM

I was entertaining some clients at the Marriot CC. I hired 6 pedal cabs to take us to the Ruth Chris. We had a race and offered the fastest one $100 extra!
They loved it and so did the clients!

**GiBo** · 07-25-2012, 02:22 PM

You guys are making me miss the conference. I was sick of it after 15 years, but now I kind of miss it.

**bagtagley** · 07-25-2012, 02:26 PM

Definitely not hard to find good food, but local recs help to narrow things down. Had Nobu last night. Pricey, but damn it was good.

I'm meeting some old hs friends Thursday night, so I'm out. If anybody is meeting up tonight, I may be able to get away.

**bagtagley** · 07-26-2012, 05:33 PM

Red Light District last night. Very good. Half priced whisky on wednesdays + Pappy 12 = happy me.

Anybody getting together tonight?

**El Chupacabra** · 07-26-2012, 09:50 PM

Couldn't make it tonight -- client dinner again.

Top of the Market (seafood) and the Cowboy Star (steak) were fantastic.

Highly recommend the Top of the Market (upstairs at the Fish Market restaurant, next door to the aircraft carrier museum); sit at the bar and chat with the chefs while they're cooking. Great food + atmosphere. Expensive though.

**Game Over** · 07-26-2012, 10:59 PM

Originally Posted by El Chupacabra

Couldn't make it tonight -- client dinner again.

me either. we got busy today and i totally spaced it.

SIDE NOTE-> a white f-150 with WY plates and a TGR sticker just a couple houses down from me. northern end of 35th overlooking qualcomm. any of you kooks? been meaning to ask for change but i have yet to see the guy.

**Telenater** · 08-01-2012, 12:01 AM

I should have checked in here.... I was there up through Thursday afternoon. Bumped into Gebster. I'll probably be there again next year. My bosses want me to keep my hand in the ESRI world, though almost all of my work has done all the heavy lifting in open source GIS for the past couple years.

BTW, if any of you happen to be involved in the UDOT UPlan, contact me...