Whenever I want to try out a new place with a vast selection of wines, I make sure to invite my friend, Heather, along since she’s the “wine girl” in my mind. She likes wine more than anyone else I know which is the only reason she gets this dubious term assigned to her. She doesn’t mind though. She enjoys coming along on a wine adventure. My friend, Laura, also joined us this evening as we sampled the offering the from The Wine Pub in Point Loma.
The Wine Pub is tucked into the corner a little shopping center in Point Loma, just a stone’s throw from the marina. When looking for it, it seemed like it was in a weird spot as a part of a little shopping center. We sat outside on the patio amongst some lovely trees and outdoor lighting and the ambiance felt relaxed and soothing as we sat outdoors. There’s not much of a view beyond the patio, but the trees and outdoor area make it a relaxing and inviting place to hang out and chill for awhile.
The restaurant is also dog-friendly and your canine companion can join you for dinner as your relax outside. Wednesday is “Woofer Wednesday”, if you dine with your dog, they will donate 10% of your bill to Loving Arms Pet Adoption. I love that! I’d love to bring my little critter out sometime.
We started our evening with one of my favorite things, a Cheese Board ($11) – This has Derby Sage, bleu cheese and… I already forgot what else (oops). Served with nuts, dried cranberries, local artisan bread and strawberries. The Derby Sage cheese was my favorite of the bunch with its subtle sage flavor in the semi-soft cheese. The other two cheese were also very good and I was happy to munch of them with the fresh strawberries and tasty bread. I love cheese and a good cheese board just makes me super happy! It’s an excellent way to start any meal in my opinion.
For my dinner, I opted to get the Kobe Beef Meatloaf ($14). With apple and sage in a port wine mushroom reduction, served with cornbread and a small house salad. The meatloaf had great flavor and was tender and juicy. I was sad there was only one lonely mushroom from the sauce on my meatloaf, but otherwise quite happy with my choice. The cornbread was sweet (but not too sweet) and I ate it with a fork. It wasn’t crumbly and kept its integrity while eaten. There weren’t any bits in it either, just plain old cornbread, but I liked its flavor and texture. The house salad was also very good with a nice amount of leafy greens and a sprinkling of cheese (I believe it was a blue cheese).
Laura got this Open Faced Meatball Sandwich ($10) – Served on local baguette with our homemade marinara sauce, fresh melted mozzarella cheese and homemade hot sauce. Laura didn’t use or care for the hot sauce but Heather ended up using it to dip her potato chips in it.
And Heather got the Grilled Chicken & Fresh Mozzarella ($11) with arugula, pickled red onions, roasted bell pepper aioli.
All three of us took advantage of the “Create your own flight” on the menu. You pick three wines and get a 2 oz. pour of each for the price of the most expensive glass. We had all of these wines filling up our little table and I loved how the wine glasses looked.
I’ve discovered that I’m more into white wines and than reds and I ended up trying: Sauvignon Blanc (Rock Hollow), Big Guy White (Bell), Riesling Spatlese (Heinz Eifel). My favorite of the three was the Riesling – it was a bit sweeter than the others and that’s why I liked it. I can’t tell you much more than that since I know very little about wine tasting. Perhaps I should take a class…
We ended the night by getting the Dessert Trio. You get to pick from 4 different desserts to make up your trio and we got the following (left to right):
Black Beast – Flourless dark chocolate cake served with Bailey’s ganache
Banana Caramel Bread Pudding – Served with Vanilla Ice Cream
The Black and White – Gourmet truffle from The Elegant Truffle
The desserts were just okay in my opinion. If I had to choose, I’d say the Black Beast was the best of the bunch. I found the bread pudding to be too sweet and the truffle was just okay. I wasn’t wowed by any of them. Ah well.
Some of the daily specials available at the Wine Pub are Mix it up Monday Wine Tasting for $5 – 5 tastes from 5-7 pm and Saturday has half price bottle night as well as live music on Thursday and Friday nights. The Wine Pub is a cute little restaurant with a good vibe and a great outdoor patio for some relaxing dining and drinks.
The Wine Pub
2907 Shelter Island Dr. #108
San Diego, 92106
619-758-9325
Happy Hour Mon-Sun: 4pm – 6pm
Sunday – Thursday: 4pm – 9pm
Friday – Saturday: 4pm – 11pm
I love Derby Sage! I don’t often see it on cheese plates, though. That cheese plate looked pretty good.
We hardly ever get down to Point Loma, which is a shame since there are a lot of good restaurants in and around that area. Maybe we just need to plan better.
It was the first time I had Derby Sage and it was really excellent! There are quite a few places popping up around Point Loma – I noticed a few other places just walking around down there and I’d like to go to a few more of them. Maybe we’ll have a blogger dinner at one of the places down there sometime!