Abe Botello (Courtesy Alternative Strategies)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nArmed with plenty of garlic, vanilla beans and chipotle peppers as some of his favorite cooking ingredients, Chef Abe Botello has been hired to elevate the menu at Taberna de la costa oeste<\/b> in North Park. The locally based toque grew up in a restaurant family and attended the Art Institute of San Diego\u2019s culinary program before working at Consuelo urbano<\/b>, Taberna del norte verdadero<\/b> y Station Tavern<\/b>. His menu includes roasted bone marrow with apple-rhubarb chutney; an eight-ounce Duroc pork chop in brandied cherry gastrique; and coriander-crusted halibut with garlic butter sauce. 2895 University Ave., 619-295-1688.<\/i><\/p>\n
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The iconic Faro de Tom Ham<\/b> in Harbor Island, built in 1971, has reopened after a $3.5 million renovation that showcases the early-California design of the restaurant. Its newest features include a bay-facing upstairs bar, a keg room and a bayside wedding site marked with an eye-popping arch containing 2,000 aluminum rings (yes, the restaurant has been catering to same-sex weddings since the days of non-official commitment ceremonies). The menu has also been modernized with dishes like pomegranate-glazed pork belly, lobster bouillabaisse and crab BLTs. As for those piles of lobster claws and crab legs that create frenzies during Sunday brunch, they still remain. 2150 Harbor Island Drive, 619-291-9110<\/i>.<\/p>\n
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El California Restaurant Association\u2019s<\/b> semi-annual Restaurant Week<\/b> returns to San Diego County Sunday, Sept. 15 \u2013 Friday, Sept. 20, with over 180 San Diego establishments participating. \u201cThere are no passes to buy, no coupons to carry and no cards to punch,\u201d organizers said in a press release. Instead, show up to a participating restaurant and purchase a prix-fixe lunch or a three-course prix-fixe dinner. Lunch menus are $10, $15 or $20 per person, depending on location and dinner prices are $20, $30 or $40 per person. There are over 25 restaurants participating in Uptown \u2013 hint: search under \u201cUptown,\u201d \u201cCentral SD Neighborhoods\u201d and \u201cOld Town\u201d on the Restaurant Week website for complete options \u2013 and \u201creservations are strongly suggested,\u201d as organizers said over 140,000 people participated in the January Restaurant Week. As a bonus, the Cohn Restaurant Group\u2019s Uptown establishments, 100 Wines Hillcrest<\/b> y The Prado at<\/b> parque balboa<\/b>, will extend the special for an extra week. The complete list of participating restaurants, organized by course, price, cuisine or the all-important neighborhood, are on the website. sandiegorestaurantweek.com, 619-233-5008<\/i>.<\/p>\n
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Note: San Diego Uptown News Editor Anthony King contributed to this story.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Frank Sabatini Jr. | SDUN Reporter San Diego Author Maria Desiderata Montana spares us the hassle of begging restaurants for the recipes of their signature dishes, the ones that we love of course.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":816,"featured_media":246500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Uptown Food Briefs","_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-246499","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\/246499","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\/816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"web](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/web-The-Prado-at-Balboa-Park.jpg\")
<\/a>In her newly released book, \u201cSan Diego Chef\u2019s Table\u201d (Globe Pequot Press), she snags the precise specs for spiced Szechuan duck from Jonathan Hale of El Prado en el Parque Balboa<\/b>; homemade pretzels with beer mustard from Riccardo Heredia of Alchemy<\/b>; and the famous pork burger with candied bacon by Hanis Cavin at Carnitas Snack Shack<\/b>. Recipes from numerous other restaurants throughout San Diego County are featured. The 207-page book is also loaded with chef-restaurant profiles and luscious photography by John Dole. The cost is $24.95.<\/p>\n