{"id":245150,"date":"2012-06-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/labor-of-love-in-the-heart-of-mission-hills\/"},"modified":"2012-06-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-22T07:00:00","slug":"labor-of-love-in-the-heart-of-mission-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/labor-of-love-in-the-heart-of-mission-hills\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor of love in the heart of Mission Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brooklyn Girl Eatery opens to much anticipation; owners gather inspiration from New York roots<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Labor
The new Brooklyn Girl Eatery in Mission Hills occupies the ground-level corner of Gildfinch and Fort Stockton streets. (Courtesy Brooklyn Girl Eatery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Sara Gilman | SDUN Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brooklyn Girl, the highly anticipated new restaurant venture of Michael and Victoria McGeath is now open for business, and all of San Diego seems to be in love. Located at 4033 Goldfinch St., this 100-seat establishment currently serves dinner seven nights a week and will soon open an adjacent to-go pantry, featuring healthy, fresh breakfast and lunch items.<\/p>\n

The restaurant opened early May, and they have already received positive feedback. \u201cWe can\u2019t even get our investors in for a seat,\u201d Michael McGeath said. \u201cWe are averaging 200 people per night, and customers need to book reservations for the weekend at least a week in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Married for 21 years, the McGeath\u2019s said they have the restaurant business to thank for bringing them together. They first met as employees at a local chain restaurant, and in 1989 Michael McGeath and several investors opened Fio\u2019s Cucina Italiana in the Gaslamp Quarter, Downtown.<\/p>\n

The couple got married a year later, marking the start of their journey in restaurant ownership. \u201cIf we didn\u2019t work together, we would never be able to see each other,\u201d Victoria McGeath said.<\/p>\n

Michael McGeath\u2019s passion for cooking started at a young age when he pushed his mother out of the kitchen in order to experiment with recipes, he said. \u201cShe didn\u2019t mind. She wasn\u2019t the greatest cook in the world and she appreciated my talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

His resume also dates back to his fraternity days at San Diego State University, where he was dubbed the house cook. Initially, Michael McGeath thought he wanted to study to be a District Attorney, he said, but with only one semester left at California Western School of Law, he dropped out to concentrate on the restaurant business. \u201cI am a proud law school drop-out,\u201d Michael said. \u201cI decided it would be more fulfilling to work with happy customers, as opposed to dealing with criminals every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did his mother feel about his change of heart? \u201cShe said, \u2018I will never use a lawyer, but will always want go to restaurants and eat for free,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Together, the couple opened Trattoria Acqua in La Jolla, where it thrived as an Italian cuisine staple for 17 years. After the closing at the end of January, they decided to continue with their passion and open their dream restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know what it would be or where it would be located,\u201d Michael McGeath said. \u201cPeople thought we were nuts.\u201d It took them six months and over 63 site visits in San Diego County to find the perfect spot, located in Mission Hills.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we were building, the whole neighborhood was watching,\u201d Victoria McGeath said. It took a year and three months to complete Brooklyn Girl; several months longer than they expected to finish the project, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMission Hills has truly embraced us, and we have become the \u2018Cheers\u2019 of the neighborhood,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The vision for the restaurant was a blend of the pair\u2019s ideas, synchronized. Victoria McGeath is a third-generation New Yorker, from Brooklyn. She designed the look and feel of the restaurant. \u201cThe intention was a city loft-like feel, with feminine and warm touches,\u201d she said. The high walls feature paintings of celebrities with a connection to the New York City borough, and the lighting above the bar resembles antique trolley tracks.<\/p>\n

For the menu, Michael McGeath imagined that it feature only the best quality and most wholesome food, at a reasonable price. They source mostly local and organic food. \u201cWe use 16 different farms in San Diego County alone,\u201d Michael McGeath said. \u201cDaily, we pick only the best of the best.\u201d With this approach, the menu changes with the seasons and what the local farms offer.<\/p>\n

Executive Chef Tyler Thrasher \u2013 formerly of Downtown\u2019s Oceanaire Seafood Room \u2013 was hired to lead the kitchen. The three went on a 30-restaurant tasting tour of Brooklyn to help with the development of the menu. \u201cWe got a real sense of the energy of the city,\u201d Thrasher said. \u201cIt was a vibe we wanted to duplicate at the restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon-to-be menu mainstays with direct ties to Brooklyn include the matzo ball soup, potato latkes and Brooklyn Girl Eatery\u2019s own version of the Ebinger Baking Company\u2019s famous all-chocolate blackout cake. Thrasher said he is also looking forward to the pantry opening, where the company will include many items, highlighting vegetarian and vegan lunch options with vibrant salads.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brooklyn Girl Eatery opens to much anticipation; owners gather inspiration from New York roots By Sara Gilman | SDUN Reporter Brooklyn Girl, the highly anticipated new restaurant venture of Michael and Victoria McGeath is now open for business, and all of San Diego seems to be in love. Located at 4033 Goldfinch St., this 100-seat […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Labor of love in the heart of Mission Hills","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}