Pulling the Cork

Dish

BOWING TO EITHER the economy or to guests with well-stocked cellars, the Marine Room has repealed its $25-per-bottle corkage fee that made BYOB a pricy proposition. The freebie policy applies to one or two bottles; the fee returns with bottle three. Note that sommeliers disdain diners who tote wines on the restaurant’s list, and that sidling through the door with a bottle of Two Buck Chuck tucked under the arm won’t win any friends . . . The corkage savings could pay cab fare for injudicious imbibers, but the Marine Room has a new policy in this regard as well: Designated drivers can belly up for complimentary nonalcoholic tipples . . . Restaurants increasingly view discounted wine as a marketing tool, especially to attract guests on traditionally slow nights. At Avenue 5, Wednesdays feature selected wines at half-price, and to keep things simple, the restaurant usually designates the selection as either all whites or all reds on this list (offering discounted pinks would work only in regions that recognize white Zinfandel as wine) . . . Also on Wednesdays, Mille Fleurs encourages diners to shed their best duds and come as they are (well, no, they must be dressed, just not dressed up) to enjoy Martin Woesle’s casual bistro menus. Replete with French home-cooking specialties like boeuf bourguignon and coq au vin, the menus are sweetened by low-for-Mille Fleurs prices.

ORCHIDS, ONIONS AND GREEN SUSHI: That The Guild took the 2007 Orchid for interior design in the latest Orchids & Onions competition is no big surprise, since artist and co-owner Paul Basile built an eye-opening space. Nor do the Barrio Logan wine bistro’s novel definitions of Happy Hour and Saturday brunch raise eyebrows, since The Guild routinely travels untrammeled paths. Happy Hour, giddily titled Interlude Social, occurs twice daily Tuesday through Friday, from 3 to 6 p.m. and again at 10. Attractions range from $5 glasses of wine to “small bites”——like the day’s taco or the Kobe beef “sliders” —— priced at $3 to $7. Described as a “prescription for Saturday morning detox,” the brunch pairs hot tunes spun by guest deejays with Melissa Mayer’s inarguably unique chow, such as “deconstructed” bouillabaisse topped with Siam foam (whatever this may be), and a pesto tuna tartare terrine. From 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., these and other novelties potentially will revivify recovering revelers . . . For its venture into the nifty new downtown district of Oceanside, Old Town’s Harney Sushi ordered its architect to incorporate numerous “green” elements in the design. Guests won’t be packed in like anchovies, since this sushi house will occupy 3,500 square feet . . . Sushi Ota, so popular that Tokyo executives call for reservations before flying over, topped runners-up WineSellar & Brasserie, El Bizcocho and Pamplemousse Grille in the new Zagat guide to San Diego restaurants by earning a food rating of 28 out of 30 possible points.

BURGER-FLIPPING MAY SEEM a dead-end job, but flipping restaurants attracts heavy hitters like Chad Harris, a principal in Gaslamp’s Pininfarina-designed The Keating hotel. His current project: transforming the adjacent space that once housed Croce’s Top Hat into The Merk, so named because it occupies the old Mercantile Building (the “k” is for Keating). It will serve Italian fare, a rarity in this part of town . . . Alex Thao never tires of opening new showplaces and will remake the former Galileo 101 in downtown’s Harbor Club towers as a high-end, French-Vietnamese eatery . . . Does EXY rhyme with “sexy”? It does, and this stylish new restaurant-bar situated across F Street from the Ivy Hotel boasts a Greek-Mediterranean orientation . . . The same evening Nobu co-owner Robert de Niro attended his restaurant’s extravagant grand opening, noncelebs checked out the plush new Donovan’s steakhouse around the corner and, a bit farther north at Seventh and C, the three-story Jade Theater restaurant, bar and club, which has signed James Montejano (he’s worked at Café Japengo and Pamplemousse) as executive chef . . . Among the delights of dining in our corner of the world are the hideaways tucked in special corners of the county (in this sase Encinitas), of which Trattoria Firenze——which offers an exceptional terrace for dining in fine weather——is a prime example.

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Side Dish

Lucky Sevens
AS A BOY FRESH FROM SICILY, Joe Busalacchi sold newspapers outside General Dynamics and, lacking English, made change by consulting a cardboard strip marked with nickel, dime and quarter-size circles. With fewer than 20 years as a restaurateur under his belt, Busalacchi recently brought his count of eateries to seven by adding Via Lago, a good-looking trattoria in Chula Vista’s EastLake district (866 EastLake Parkway; 619-216-8660). The spacious eatery boasts a sizable wine room for private parties, a florid painting of Joe with cigar in hand, and the kind of Sicilian menu only he seems interested in serving. Sea bass della Nonna (Grandmother’s style) is finished with olives, artichokes and a distinctive sweet-sour sauce; fennel and a citrus sauce brighten the scampi de la casa; and the sweet-savory filling in the rullato di pollo transmogrifies a stuffed chicken breast into a thing of beauty.

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