It has been a big year for La Valencia. Celebrating its 90th birthday recently as a destination hotel and local landmark, its historic atmosphere, and breathtaking views, will keep visitors coming back for years to come. In keeping with the times – both past and present – La Valencia is kicking off a “Summer Series” in their signature restaurant, The MED.
Executive chef Alex Emery, 32, is a native San Diegan with a passion for creative, natural dishes. Now infamous for their Saturday and Sunday brunches, which includes one of the finest views in San Diego, Emery is looking to bring something special to any given day of the week. With an innovative, young kitchen crew, The MED’s menu under Emery brings fresh, affordable, upscale fare.
Hosted from 5:30 to 9 p.m., the summer series runs nightly, excluding Friday.
The MED ‘Summer Series’
On Monday evenings, The MED follows its Iberian focus by serving up paella ($19) and sangria ($10), with a Flamenco guitarist at hand on the patio. The paella is not to be trifled with. Replete with scallops, mussels, octopus, fish, clams, chorizo, a head-on tiger prawn and a squid ink aioli (curiously delicious), Emery and crew present the dish so “it looks like it’s coming right out of the dish.” “I grew up in San Diego, and we’re really spoiled to have access to such quality seafood,” Emery said. “We truly aim to reflect that in our full menu, but as you can see with the paella, we want the dish to be as esthetically appealing as possible while getting people to try new things.”
Keeping with a long-honored San Diego tradition, they will offer a Baja night on Tuesday nights. Since The MED prides themselves on purveying sustainable seafood (with a similar mindset in regard to protein and produce), one can expect phenomenal seasonally caught fish taco ($3) and margaritas ($10). They have also partnered up with neighbor Lululemon to host sunset yoga on Tuesday afternoons as well. Sunset yoga will last from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., followed by a happy hour at Cafe la Rue.
The middle/end of the week places an emphasis on some of the finer things. “Shucks + Champs Wednesdays” will be backed by live jazz on the patio, with oysters priced $1-3, as well as select champagne specials.
In playing off the Gatsby Gala held in December, The MED also has a play on throwback Thursday. Their “Supper Club Thursdays,” from 6 to 9 p.m. includes a $39 per-person intimate dining with $10 Ketel One or Nolet Gin martinis. Think beef Wellington carving stations and classy buffet-style dining, reflecting on the hotel’s rich cultural past. It also goes without saying, but must be mentioned, that Saturday and Sunday brunch, served from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. still runs every weekend without fail. Emery says they do “about 300” people typically on most weekends, which is quite impressive for any restaurant. But with a keen attention to detail without sacrificing wait timeliness, the chefs at The MED have dialed in their menu.
Anything-but-standard fare
In a recent sampling of The MED’s full menu, the octopus a la plancha was presented first, and by far was a highlight. The octopus is blanched, then grilled to perfection, and compliments the white bean, chorizo, lobster butter and chimichurri stew rather well. Although the octopus finds use throughout the menu, it is by no means overdone.
Staying with seafood, the pan seared diver scallops with a tarragon spaetzle, corn espuma, baby fennel and salad is a lighter dish portion-wise but packs a nice balance of salty/briny and sweet. During this particular visit, the chefs were running a ribeye special with roasted aubergine. The beef was a great grass-fed cut with just the right amount of fat, grilled to a perfect warm mid-rare. “We try to keep our specials in line with whatever is freshest at the market,” says Emery. “Santa Monica Seafoods is our seafood distributor, but they happened to have this fantastic ribeye, so we came up with this special because this is what was the best available.”
If that on-the-spot creativity provides an inclination to how Emery and his crew approach their dishes, visitors and La Jollans are in for quite a summer.