By Dr. Ink
The concept was long overdue for its location, a business that is equal parts wine bar, bread bakery and gourmet deli. Situated below the University of San Diego, on the fairly busy intersection of Linda Vista Road at Napa Street, students and faculty have already discovered Pacific Time. Many others probably haven’t.
Nearly all of the consumables — the wines, craft beers, artisan meats and cheeses, and specialty-packaged products — are sourced from regions throughout the Pacific Time Zone, from Baja to British Columbia. It’s a mini market for epicures that happens to incorporate a welcoming wine bar and reasonably ample seating in front of it.
Past the deli counter stocked with delectable cheeses and cured salamis from Zoe’s Meats in San Francisco, there’s a windowed bakery in the back from which a variety of breads roll out daily for making sandwiches and bar snacks.
The breads are also available for sale in long and round loaves, and after purchasing a mouthwatering cheddar-red pepper disk on my way out, I was leavened into heaven while eating it over the next few days.
Pacific Time was launched earlier this year by Dave Loretta and his wife, Donna. He previously worked in corporate finance for Nordstrom’s in Seattle. As a wine enthusiast, he completed a wine program at San Diego State University and also became a level one sommelier and certified wine specialist off campus.
She was a former librarian who, along with her husband, has been a longtime fan of fine wine and food and decided to try a new career.
The space doesn’t stand out too well from the street because it’s set within a long row of miscellaneous businesses in a strip-plaza that was recently renamed The Presidio. If a friend hadn’t tipped me off, I would have likely driven by numerous times before ever noticing the sign.
Weekday happy hour centers around wines by the glass and craft beers on tap. From 3 to 4 p.m., they’re all $3 off. In the next hour they’re $2 off, and then $1 off during the final hour, from 5 to 6 p.m. Food isn’t discounted, but noshes available from the bar menu, such as pickle boards, sandwich bites and baguette flights are $10 or less.
We each drank wine. The “Result of the Crush” from Walla Walla, Washington contained dual blends of syrah and cabernet, and sauvignon and viognier. Priced regularly at $11 a glass, it was intense with big, concentrated fruit, but not overly jammy as good wines should never be.
Our other pick, Villa Montefiori from Baja, blended syrah and cabernet. To me, it tasted like a soft full-on cab from Napa. My companion, however, said that in a blind taste test he would know the fruit was from a warm region due to its “slightly ripened flavor.”
Both paired marvelously to our flight of toasted baguette slices smeared with assorted toppings: apple butter with blue cheese; olive tapenade; and mind-blowing bacon spread from Seattle that was accented with the same sharp white cheddar strewn throughout the loaf of bread I purchased. Both the spread and the cheese are available for sale.
Only until now has Linda Vista Road seen such gourmet divinity descend upon it. And much to my delight — and to my frail willpower for bread, wine and cheese — I live only minutes away.
