By David Nelson
SDUN Restaurant Critic

Can you imagine Robert De Niro jaywalking near the intersection of 30th Street and El Cajon Boulevard? It’s not hard to imagine the actor, who also is the financial patron saint of several businesses in New York’s high-profile SoHo neighborhood, feeling quite at home in this ever-livelier Uptown district in the heart of urban San Diego.

Aiming for a vibe that bristles with Big Apple energy, a new restaurant named SOHO offers a hip atmosphere and a distinctively creative menu (Southern cooking with South American influences, anyone?) on the Boulevard just a few yards east of 30th. Overall, the place is a great deal of fun, a description this writer reserves solely for places that really do plant a smile on your face. Some of the kitchen’s most imaginative offerings are surprisingly successful, like the “surf ‘n’ turf” appetizer of a crisply fried bone marrow patty (taste it and become a believer), shrimp, grilled octopus and a tasty, crimson version of Argentina’s famed chimichurri, a sauce of garlic, olive oil and many herbs ($11.50).

Proprietor Carlos De Narvaez, originally from the Bay Area city of Moraga, earned a degree in economics at SDSU, which, when he put it to use, promptly made him conclude that the financial world wasn’t for him. On the other hand, the restaurant biz makes him happy as a clam (an item currently not included on his menu), and he’s worked in establishments large and small. At 80 indoor seats supplemented by 20 on the patio, SOHO can’t be described as small, and it would be hard to find a restaurant this spacious in the Gaslamp. There are wide-open spaces between a couple of rooms of booths, along the open kitchen, and under the arches that separate the dark-wood bar from belly-high dinner tables. What makes it fun? Hard to say, but everybody on a recent, busy Friday evening looked to be having a good time, including patrons at the bar, where a good selection of local draft beers joins an international roster of wines.

Narvaez claims a connection between his establishment and New York’s artsy SoHo, because, he says, North Park has become a magnet for artists, and his walls are hung with a changing gallery of local artworks that jazzes the gray and red interior and adds considerably to the mood. Piquant accents that spike many of the dishes also brighten the proceedings. Had Japanese restaurateurs not brought us tempura, it might never have occurred to anyone to batter-fry French green beans – the French sure wouldn’t do it – but chef Kevin Cedillo presents a heap of these crisp delights with a lively sauce of horseradish and crème fraîche ($6.50). It’s a natural for sharing, as are the wood fire-roasted pequillo peppers stuffed with goat cheese and served with toasted baguette slices and cloves of roasted garlic ($6.50). Spread the garlic like butter over the toasts, which flesh out the small serving of spicy peppers tamed by mellow cheese.

The peppers remind me of a favorite Southern snack of crackers spread with cream cheese and jalapeno jelly. This dish may well be familiar to Cedillo, who Narvaez says grew up on a ranch between Dallas and Fort Worth. Since it appears the chef’s home is in the vicinity of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, a suspicion grows that Cedillo’s creative pairing of Southern and international culinary influences may have been channeled through DFW’s arrival gates. There are Southern roots in the black-eyed pea cake with a jalapeno-basil salsa verde and truffle-flavored crème fraîche (a combo that frankly is hard to imagine, and wasn’t sampled: $6.50), and another appetizer of sautéed shrimp with bacon, gravy and grits ($10.50). The breaded shrimp cake ($7.50) is considerably calmer with its pairings of avocado mousse and cactus, and all that needs to be said about the hushpuppies enriched with aged Cheddar and served with a New Orleans-style remoulade sauce is “More, please!” ($6.50).

Dinner opens with a treat not served at lunch, freshly baked flat bread dressed with olive oil and the Middle Eastern spice called za’atar, which is ground sumac. It’s so good that the challenge is to keep from gobbling it down like a hungry puppy. Cedillo prides himself on the dishes that emerge from his wood-fired oven, including pizzas lavished with Mexican cheeses, chicken and cilantro pesto ($12.95); a garden’s worth of fresh veggies ($10.95); and a blithely inventive pie topped with Berkshire pork belly, caramelized onions, blue cheese and purple potatoes ($11.95). Burgers fit the SOHO scene quite well and are served on buttermilk buns from the high-line Sadie Rose bakery. Nothing about the beef burger is too unusual (the aioli dressing might cause a ruckus in less sophisticated quarters; $10.95), while the lamb burger is a bit of an extravagance at $13.95, but seems worth it, given the feta cheese, pickled red onion, tapenade and Middle Eastern-flavored aioli that lend rich flavors to the chubby patty.

The sizeable salads include a classy plate of blood orange segments with frisee lettuce, aged Cheddar and a chipotle-Sherry vinaigrette ($7.95), and a “comfort food” presentation of ripe pear with tangy greens, blue cheese, candied walnuts and Champagne vinaigrette ($9.95). These can be dinner, or can be shared before main events like bacon-wrapped meatloaf with many, many garnishes ($14.95), braised Meyers Ranch short rib with a goat cheese tamale and a Peruvian-style cherry salsa ($17.95), and wood oven-roasted half-chicken with fried plantains, veggies and chimichurri sauce ($15.95). After Cedillo’s complicated flavors, sweets are welcome, and he both fries beguiling beignets (puffy, New Orleans doughnuts, $4.95) and builds a plush sundae of a Mexican chocolate brownie mixed up with caramel, vanilla ice cream, roasted banana, crushed walnuts and whipped cream ($6.95). It’s memorable – and if you enjoy one all by yourself, it’s likely to stick around for a while.

SOHO
3025 El Cajon Blvd.
Lunch and dinner daily except Monday
764-5475
sohorestaurantandlounge.com