Marina District San Diego

DECEMBER 16, 2009 -- The downtown Morton’s the Steakhouse revamped its bar a few years ago. The bar is called Bar 12/21 because the original Morton’s in Chicago opened 31 years ago on December 21 (12/21—get it?). Well, mark your calendars for that date. On Monday, from 5-6 p.m. Morton’s is giving away mini-cheeseburgers for free.

This is the third year the San Diego Morton’s is celebrating its corporate anniversary with a giveaway. Morton’s sales and marketing manager Alicia Pazelt hopes downtown residents and workers will stop in that day for Happy Hour. From 5-6:30 p.m. beers are $4, wine and all “bar bites” are $5 and martinis are $7.

The cheeseburgers are served on dollar rolls with lettuce, tomato and purple onion. Other bar bites include: miniature crab cakes, iceberg wedge bites (with tomato, egg bacon and blue cheese dressing), oysters on the half shell and a “colossal” shrimp salad.

Morton’s is on the ground floor of the Harbor Club condominium. Happy Hour prices go away at 6:30 p.m., but return again at 9 p.m. until closing, seven days a week.

OCTOBER 15, 2009 –I’m geared up. A harness jingling with metal carabiners is pinching my buttocks. There’s a Flip camera Velcro-ed to the back of my helmet. The descender device is in my left hand. Blue rope snakes through it, and hangs down the length of 33 floors.

I’m about to rappel down an outside wall of the Manchester Grand Hyatt.

Welcome to Media Day. Tomorrow (Saturday, October 16), folks who’ve collected more than $1,000 in donations to charity group Kids Included Together will get to do this rappel. But I think the organizers decided it might be safer if the ropes were tested out on the media. Only the bravest local journalists were chosen...Oh, wait. Riviera’s Troy Johnson is here. Sweet Jesus. Must have been a lottery.

Here I am now with both feet planted on the side of the 33^rd floor balcony—Yes, outside the rail. I’m getting last-second instruction from a team of experts from the Over The Edge special events company.

[TO SEE A VIDEO OF RON'S DESCENT, GO TO: RAPPEL ON SANDIEGO.COM. SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.]

The descender makes rappelling happen when you squeeze its red handle. With your right hand, you keep hold if the slack rope. Both feet go on the side of the wall (but so as to not leave footprints, we were issued surgical booties). And unlike any decent S.W.A.T. action on TV, we’re not to supposed to make big, swooping jumps.

Baby steps it is. I lean backward and put my left foot on the wall. Then the right. Then, I look over at an Over The Edge instructor and say: “You’re sure the elevator is out, and this is the only way down?”

Nobody laughs.

Then, there is nowhere else to go but down.

I enjoy the 5-6 minute descent. There is a view of the bay, and the back-from-the-fire Kansas City Barbecue eatery. I can see CityFront Terrace, an all-brick condominium where I lived when I first moved to San Diego. I also look in as many Hyatt windows as I could. Alas, no sight of Megan Fox just stepping out of the shower.

Rapelling is a bit more work than I’d anticipated. Your hands get a little tired. And there’s a tendency to want to squeeze the descender like a brake when you speed up too much. That’s the opposite of what you’re supposed to do. A small dramatic moment occurs over this. Luckily, no undies are soiled due to this minor mishap.

If I look like a cool cuke on the way down, that is all lost when I get to terra firma, and the adrenaline surge kicks in. I start babbling like a bad date. It feel as if I just drank back-to-back-to-back cans of Red Bulls.

But yes, if I had $1,000, I’d go do it again.

(Kids Included Together is a San Diego nonprofit that strives to create youth programs that help include children with and without disabilities. For more information, go to kitonline.org.)

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009 -- The fourth annual ArtWalk on the Bay is expected to attract up to 40,000 to downtown’s Embarcadero Marine Park North for the free outdoor arts festival. More than 100 artists and performers will show of their talents September 12-13.

“We get a great mix of locals, as well as visitors who are in the downtown hotels,” says event organizer Sandi Cottrell. She notes that serious art buyers can preview pieces that will be on sale at artwalkonthebay.org.

ArtWalk on the Bay (not to be confused with the 25-year-old ArtWalk held in Little Italy) offers something for both young and old. Youngsters can grab a brush at KidsWalk, a hands-on area where families can sit down and paint elbow-to-elbow.

“We’re going to paint kites, and we’re going to paint cows—and whatever else somebody wants to paint,” says KidsWalk organizer Judy Berman Silbert, who is also program director of nonprofit youth initiative ArtReach. She says Jerome’s Furniture is sponsoring a contest where kids draw their dream room and the winner gets…you guessed it, some furniture.

Parched adults can take advantage of a new feature at ArtWalk on the Bay: The Bayside Lounge. Festival-goers can take a break from canvassing the park and refresh with beer and wine. The lounge is run by Fast Forward Events (they do the annual San Diego Wine & Food Festival on this very site) and partial proceeds will benefit ArtReach.  

Two driving notes: Parking and shuttle service will be available at the County Administration Building. And, there will be a Subaru Outback designated for guest painting, as well as Subarus available for test drives. Hmmm, perhaps a “test drive” to your own car parked at the County Administration Building…

SEPTEMBER 1, 2009 -- Dowtowners took a day off--Ferris Bueller-style--and spent the last Friday afternoon in August away from the office, and in the pool at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. The hotel's sun-splashed Kin Lounge was enlivened by a DJ and a local band. Cabanas housed TVs that showed "Ferris Bueller's Day Off. And Marani Vodka was poured complimentary for early birds. Who was there? Take a look at the sizzling photos shot by Ivan S. Harris.

AUGUST 17, 2009 -- There’s the classic scene in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” when the enigmatic lead character takes over a downtown Chicago parade. Before he channels Wayne Newton singing “Danke Shoen” from atop a float, Ferris announces: “I'd like to dedicate it to a young man who doesn't think he's seen anything good today—Cameron Frye, this one's for you.”

San Diegans who don’t think they’ve seen anything good lately are invited to Downtown’s Day Off. It’s a party that runs from noon to 6 p.m. on August 28. Play hooky on the last Friday of the month on the Kin Lounge pool deck at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.

The Cubs-Mets baseball game will be televised, as will “Ferris Bueller.” There’ll be free Chicago dogs, DJ Ryan Kelver will spin and The Wagon will play “Twist and Shout,” and other songs that will make you glad you took the day off. Bathing suits are encouraged. $10 cover; downtown residents or workers get in free. For more information go to DAY OFF.

Beer Week…Plus 3: The first San Diego Beer Week will take place on November 6-15. Yes, that’s actually 10 days, but after a week of celebrating beer, nobody’ll be calendar counting.

The event will showcase the region’s 33 brew houses, and give recognition to the fact that San Diego has become one of the country’s premier craft beer destinations.

Beer Week will kick off with the San Diego Brewer’s Guild Beer Festival, where more than 80 brewskis will be poured. There will be parties, cooking classes, special beer tastings and even a Disc Golf with the Brewers event. For more information go to sdbw.org.

More Deals & Events: East Village Tavern & Bowl has been wildly popular in East Village, so its owners are opening a new location in East Lake. The new spot will have 10 bowling lanes and 50 50-inch high-definition flat-screen TVs…Market 32 is also expanding. In addition to its still-new Tenth Avenue location, another produce market will open in Barrio Logan at Imperial and 21^st Avenue…Thee Bunglow in Ocean Beach has a Summer of 7s promotion that lasts through August 27. Seven days a week, the eatery is serving wines by the glass and Absolute tableside martinis for $7.

JULY 9, 2009 -- Want to ride on a rope down the side of the West Coast’s tallest waterfront building? It’ll cost you $1,000—in the form of in a charitable donation to Kids Included Together.

On October 17, participants who raise the money will descend from a deck on the 33^rd floor of the Manchester Grand Hyatt’s (original) Harbor Tower. The trip winds down to the hotel’s new pool deck.

“We wanted to do something different than a gala or a silent auction,” says Kids Included Together spokesperson Alicia Cook. “We looked at all kinds of condo buildings and hotels, but we thought the Hyatt was the most dynamic building where we could do this.”

Kids Included Together is a San Diego-based nonprofit that provides best practices training for local organizations committed to including children with disabilities into existing programs. Since KIT’s founding in 1997, program efforts have resulted in the inclusion of over 8,000 children with disabilities, and the training of 15,000 youth providers.  

The rappelling will be supervised by Over the Edge, a special-event company that provides signature events for nonprofits. Participants are invited to raise pledges in exchange for the once-in-a-lifetime experiences. This is the first West Coast event for Over the Edge.

To create your personal donation page to raise at least $1,000 to rappel the Hyatt, go to overtheedgeforkit.com.

JULY 7, 2009 -- Here’s a bad first-date idea: Go to a movie about how corporations treat cattle poorly, slaughter them and wash the meat off with ammonia before selling it. Then, go grab a burger.

I did this—luckily it wasn’t a first date. Thumbs up for both the film (“Food Inc.”) and the restaurant (O’Brothers). Just, check them out on different nights.

“Food Inc.” is playing at the Landmark Theater in Hillcrest. Filmmaker Richard Kenner’s documentary is about the industrial food system in the United States. Kenner contends our food supply is controlled by just a handful of corporations that are toothlessly regulated by the government and often put profit ahead of public health and employee safety.

The movie includes commentary by authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pallan (In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto). It trails food safety advocate Barbara Kowalcyk through the halls of Congress as she tells the story of her two-and-a-half year old son who died after eating a fast food hamburger tainted with E. coli.

“Food Inc.” also shows a farmer throwing dead chickens in a pile, cattle standing in their own feces before being slaughtered, and meat being cleansed with ammonia.

Wait a day before heading to Horton Plaza’s new burger joint called O’Brothers. It serves a 100-percent organic beef burger. Opened earlier this year by brothers Craig and Derek Cowling, O’Brothers aims to have everything on the table—the burgers, buns, condiments, beer, even the napkins—be organic.

In “Food Inc.” a Virginia owner/farmer decries the process of corn-fed farming. Corn is a cheap, but more fattening, feed ingredient. The Cowlings get their grass-fed beef from North Dakota.

To further embrace the “slow-food” or produced locally movement, though, the Cowlings plan to start buying Southern California grass-fed meat. It’s available at Homegrown Meats/La Jolla Butcher Shop. Owner Matt Rimel partners with the Mendenhalls, family ranchers based in Mt. Palomar.

O’Brothers is doing a strong lunch hour and has decent dinner crowds. Derek Cowling says Mayor Jerry Sanders and City Councilmember Dona Frye have stopped by for burgers. The menu includes a tasty Western burger (created by executive chef Matt Whipple), as well as ones made with chicken and veggies.

Craig Cowling has seen “Food Inc.” twice—he’s even gotten up both times to invite movie-goers to his restaurant. Don’t do it back-to-back. But if you do take the time to gain some insight on the American food system, you’ll soon start winding up in conscientious eateries like O’Brothers.  

July 3, 2009 -- In director Cameron Crowe’s 2000 movie “Almost Famous,” the San Diego native shot one scene of dialogue in downtown’s Sun Café. The greasy spoon was located at 421 Market Street. It recently was bought and converted into Funky Garcia’s Mexican Eatery & Bar. If Crowe contemplates a sequel to his movie, don’t expect him to return here—it’s one of the most 180-degree renovations you could imagine.

The new design is an absolute upgrade—even though low-cost food remains a link between Funky Garcia’s and the Sun Café of yore. Owners Moji and Alfredo Sadighian also opted to keep the SUN CAFÉ sign on the exterior wall, as an homage to the old landmark.

Inside it’s all about south-of-the-border ambiance. There are tequila half-barrels on the ceiling serving as light shades. The walls are decorated with maracas, serapes and Mexican landscapes. There’s also a mustachioed, sombrero-wearing cartoon character—the inimitable Funky Garcia—stenciled in various poses around the room. He looks like he’s sampled all 82 of the tequilas served here.

The Sadighians own four restaurants in Tijuana, and have run downtown San Diego’s Tabule eatery for a year. “Funky Garcia’s has sort of a Senor Frog’s theme,” said Moji Sadighian. She says the Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream flavor had nothing to do with their name choice.

Funky Garcia’s—which recently hosted John Campbell’s 92101 Happy Hour mixer—is serving lunch and dinner seven days a week. The kitchen is open until 3 a.m. every night except Sunday (when it shuts down at midnight). Most burritos are $4.99; tacos are $2.99. For now, Happy Hour is 3-7 p.m. every day, with half off all drinks.  

Funky Garcia’s exudes a high-concept lowbrow atmosphere. The quirkiest aspect I found: The men’s room toilet, which offers privacy via a semi-translucent blue shower curtain. Now, that’s funky.

JULY 1, 2009 -- What do you get when you cross hot bodies, a spectacular view, uber-cool music and specialty cocktails with a beautiful sunny day in San Diego? The ultimate poolside party at downtown’s Manchester Grand Hyatt, created by Scott Lutwak, owner of San Diego’s Fit Athletic Club.

“Chill,” an upscale, adult pool party, epitomizes Lutwak’s concept for downtown San Diegans who want to hang out with friends and sip dirty martinis near water. Since alcohol is no longer allowed on beaches, a rooftop lounge is an alternative spot to mix the martini with the bikini.

The first Chill party was June 27. More than 350 guests made their debuts in bikini-clad bodies. The attendees were classy, well-behaved and quite buff.  There was an endless supply of eye candy for everyone.

The Chill concept is capturing a new audience. You won’t find crazy, loud-mouthed party goers. Expect a sophisticated, stylish, friendly crowd and a diversity of music.

Chill poolside parties are Saturdays, from noon til 6 p.m. A Fourth of July party will start at 2 p.m. and end after the fireworks. Entry fee is $20.

(Connie Cook is a freelance writer and fitness director at FIT Athletic Club. When she's not working out she’s stomping grapes in her bath tub or laying the groundwork for an insanity defense.)

Adam Stemmler estimates he’s ingested as many as 5,000 different alcoholic beverages. He’s not some sort of experimental alcoholic—it’s all in the line of work. The 28-year-old Stemmler is beverage director at the new Syrah Wine Parlor in San Diego’s downtown Gaslamp Quarter. Booze is his business.

Syrah is a funky, underground wine bar that also serves a full contingent of spirits. But don’t look for mass-marketed brand names on the wine list, or on the liquor shelves. Upscale boutique bottles abound. That’s how Stemmler planned it. With a lot of research, of course.

“Over the course of about eight months, I spent five hours a day, about twice a week, sampling liquors,” says Stemmler, who bears the same glam appearance of another, more mass-media-managed Adam, American Idol runner-up and San Diego’s own Adam Lambert.

On any given sampling day of recent past, Stemmler may have tried out, say, 25 different tequilas. Did he get drunk doing the research? Hell, yeah! “I would start out doing sip-and-spit, but after getting a good idea of what was what, I would have some drinks, sure,” he says. “Hey, I love my job.”

He holds an encyclopedic bank of knowledge of his chosen profession. Stemmler plans to take the sommelier test later this summer. He left me in the dust talking about viticulture and wine theory. When the subject turned to tequila—one of the two “noble spirits”—he focused on Casa Noble Crystal, an organic brand with no sulfites that presents agave in its natural element. For Syrah’s bar he also picked 15 different Scotches, a Japanese whiskey called Yamazake and actor Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head Vodka, which has no citric acid and is bottled in a clear-glass skull.

Before his ascent to liquor aficionado, Stemmler lived a fairly gritty existence in the hospitality industry. He was washing dishes at a Little Ceasar’s at 13, and bussing tables at a Chevy’s at 17. He then got a taste of “nice food and legitimate alcohol” working at upscale eateries like Mr. A’s and Mille Fleurs.

He lied about his experience to get a job bartending at former downtown nightspot Aubergine. He made an impression on management with how fast and intensely he tended bar. And after just two-and-a-half years working seven days a week at Aubergine and House of Blues, he’d banked $75,000.

He built up that bankroll by living in a “disgusting” apartment (rent was $375 a month), driving the same old ’91 Volkswagen Jetta—while Aubergine cohorts lived the Beemer and Vegas lifestyle—and forcing himself to spend just $10 a day on food.

“I ate a lot from the Wendy’s one-dollar menu,” he says. “I ate a lot of Top Ramen. Brown rice is really cheap and really filling. And there are soups you can make for about four dollars that last three days.”

When the owners of Aubergine were about to open Firehouse bar/restaurant in Pacific Beach, they let Stemmler in on the investment. He wrote a check for his life savings, leaving him with about $8 to his name. At 26, he was “as excited and as stressed as you can get.”

Syrah and Firehouse co-owner Matt Spencer acknowledges that Stemmler is a seemingly idiosyncratic character, with his tattoos and piercings. “But he’s like an artist when he’s behind the bar—he’s just incredibly knowledgeable about liquor,” he says. “That’s what you want in a bartender, somebody who can tell you about the drinks, not just serve you and leave you. We were impressed with how fast he is and what a high-pouring bartender he is, and we thought having somebody as a partner who had their eyes and ears on ground level was a good idea. And, the fact he was able to save money is something not many people can do.”

The Firehouse investment has paid off for Stemmler. “I’m completely paid back from that, and now I get four checks a month, and I have a place where I can eat and drink for free,” he says. “They say you should take a chance and if you’re going to go broke, do it before you’re 30, you know?”

We can all drink to that.

MAY 29, 2009 -- We’ve all wondered if a tree falls where no one can hear it, if it makes a sound. Well, last night at Kin Lounge a Silent Disco was scheduled, and even though the sound was muted on purpose, not many heard it.

The idea was fun. A silent disco is a dance party without a traditional speaker system. Instead, partiers wear wireless headphones and listen to music through an FM transmitter.

MAY 29, 2009 -- The idea reportedly first appeared in a 1969 Swedish science fiction film. During the 1990s, folks found that the best way to gather en mass but not get too loud was to utilize headsets and portable audio devices.

Kin Lounge is a rooftop bar at downtown’s Manchester Grand Hyatt. It’s a pretty setting. Blame a May gray day that led to a chilly (for San Diego) evening, or a Thursday school night or lack of interest, but not many people came to put on the 100 wireless headphones provided by Sennheiser.

Nate Benedetto and Kristi McCauley showed up in the spirit. The couple sported headbands and quickly put on headphones, which housed techno music played by an on-site DJ. “We’re on the silent disco circuit, we come to all of these,” joked Benedetto. He was making the best of an empty venue trying an idea that may just be ahead of its time.