To its new owner and staff, Cass Street Bar & Grill in Pacific Beach is as much a museum as it is an eatery.
\n“We\u2019re trying to preserve and pay homage to a piece of PB history, while updating, adapting it to right now,” said Ben Palmer, longtime general manager of the restaurant. “These bars are kind of the last of a dying breed.”
\nNoting there\u2019s “a little bit of gentrification going on in PB,” Palmer said, “We\u2019re bringing something you\u2019re not going to get down at the beach.”
\nThe popular establishment at 4612 Cass St. was purchased a couple years ago by John Rudolph of La Jolla, who also owns iconic Harry\u2019s Coffee Shop founded by his parents in 1960 on Girard Avenue, as well as Mike\u2019s Taco Club in Ocean Beach.\u00a0
\nCass Street celebrated its second anniversary under Rudolph\u2019s ownership and management March 23. Rudolph took over for Mike Campagna and his wife, who\u2019d owned Cass Street since 1996. Rudolph is the third owner of the pub that opened in 1984 and holds one of PB\u2019s oldest liquor licenses.
\nWhat makes the restaurant-bar good now, is what\u2019s always made it attractive. “A big part of our reputation revolves around our food,” said Palmer.
\nCuisine at Cass Street serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily is definitely not traditional bar fare. For example, very little, other than French fries, is fried.
\n“It\u2019s American with a Mexican twist,” said Palmer, noting head chef Alfredo has been there for years in the kitchen, which opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 11 p.m.
\n“The oriental salad is the one (item) you\u2019ll hear talked about all around,” Palmer said of the menu. “We\u2019re also known for our baguette sandwiches. The cool thing about us is everything\u2019s made to order in-house, including all the sauces and dressings.”
\nAuthentic Mexican breakfasts are served with homemade chilaquiles and tomatillo sauce. “Alfredo\u2019s recipe is to die for,” said Palmer, adding the “oriental salad is probably the most popular dish with the teriyaki-marinated steak baguette with onions a close second.”
\nAll Cass Street bread comes from French Gourmet. “It\u2019s delivered fresh daily every single morning,” Palmer said.
\nPointing to a huge mural of fishing photos adorning the entire back wall, Palmer noted, “It\u2019s definitely a piece of PB history, this place has always been a fishing hang with lots of regulars who still come in.”
\nPalmer praised Rudolph for polishing Cass Street\u2019s image rather than trying to alter it.\u00a0
\n“John could have torn the whole thing down and done something differently, but he didn\u2019t,” Palmer said. This is a passion project for him. He repainted the outside making it look fresher and brighter, put up new hanging signs. We\u2019ve tried to update a little bit, but did not try to make it too fancy.”
\nCass Street has a homier feel then you\u2019ll find most anywhere else. “A lot of places are turn and burn; you\u2019ll hardly get a \u2018thank you\u2019 or a \u2018nice to see you,\u2019 ” Palmer said. “Everyone knows each other\u2019s names here. It\u2019s like Cheers.” Cass Street Bar & Grill
\n4612 Cass St.
\nHours: Mondays-Fridays 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., Saturdays and Sundays 9:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.
\nInfo: cassstbar.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To its new owner and staff, Cass Street Bar & Grill in Pacific Beach is as much a museum as it is an eatery. “We\u2019re trying to preserve and pay homage to a piece of PB history, while updating, adapting it to right now,” said Ben Palmer, longtime general manager of the restaurant. “These bars […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":268303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Cass Street Bar & Grill a neighborhood place with high quality food","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268302","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=268302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}