Frank Sabatini Jr Restaurant Review

The hungry miners who flocked to this area for rich surface ores more than 150 years ago are long dead, although their legacy is loosely acknowledged through smoky tri-tip and other meaty meals at the Old Town Mining Company.

Located off the taco-crazed tourist trod that is San Diego Avenue, we turn to nearby Congress Street for a peaceful escape that feeds us such American favorites as slow-roasted prime rib, classic meatloaf, mesquite-broiled chickens and year-round turkey dinners served with the usual holiday fixings. Tacos appear only on the appetizer list as an obligatory footnote.

Interspersed throughout the menu are a few quasi-Cajun dishes also carried over from the restaurant’s original proprietor, who started the restaurant 15 years ago in San Marcos. This newer, second location in Old Town features the exact same recipes, all of them adopted verbatim by the latest owner.

Visiting with a hardcore carnivore who couldn’t wait to sink his chops into the house-smoked tri-tip, we began with an order of low-impact “spicy” tequila shrimp. The chilies were missing in action, although the clinging, garlicky butter and a few squirts of lime spared the crustaceans from blandness.

Never a fan of spinach-artichoke dip, we moved on to one of the few versions I’ve ever liked. Party-host recipes typically call for mayonnaise, which turns oily when heated. This sticks purely to cream cheese, or so it seemed, creating a rich, velvety “soup” stocked generously with the chokes, including plenty of the prized hearts. It’s served with decent garlic toast and tortilla chips.

From the soup category we passed on New England clam chowder and more easily skipped over the baked potato cheese soup in lieu of robust tri-tip chili that will have me crawling back for more come winter. We also tried the turkey Creole soup, which sent our palates to the Midwest rather than to Louisiana. Despite a few chunks of faintly smoked turkey floating within, it basically tasted like plain ole vegetable broth.

My companion had no complaints when his tri-tip arrived, which he upgraded to a combo plate served with applewood smoked chicken. The latter didn’t taste smoked and it probably isn’t. But the tri-tip, we confirmed with the manager, is flame-broiled and then put through a smoker for a short period. It’s rather tender and super flavorful. The meats were served with a garden salad of the iceberg lettuce ilk and high-powered garlic mashed potatoes.

I chose the Santa Fe pasta, fettuccini tossed with “Cajun” chicken, luscious roasted red peppers and jalapenos that I wished were fresh rather than brined. Nonetheless, the dish came together in a balanced Alfredo sauce that appears in four other pasta entrees. In the case of mac-n-cheese, the menu states that sauce is made with six cheeses.

The only cocktail we ordered throughout our dinner was the Greenhorn Blizzard, an icy, sea-green margarita that blends Malibu rum with Midori Melon Liqueur and pineapple juice. We weren’t sure where the undertones of coconut were coming from, but we sucked down the drink rather lawlessly.

Conversely, we didn’t dare finish our dessert, a four-layer big-girth slice of chocolate cake that’s made in-house. Most of it went into a doggie bag and we each ended up with two additional servings the next day.

The Mining Company’s patio is large and relaxing compared to those on San Diego Avenue, which often attract cattle lines during peak hours. The atmosphere here is unrushed, allowing you to loll over crafty cocktails or eat as though you’ve been working the mines for 12 hours without any food.