patron secret dining society in san diego

Last week it was Comic Con! And Patron decided it was high to come back to San Diego for another special event: the Patron Secret Dining Society! In my email I got a little hint that Patron was heading back here and I promptly answered their question and gained myself an invitation to the dinner and the dessert party. “DESSERT PARTY!” Goodness, can you imagine? You won’t have to – just see the bottom of this post!

The invitation for the invitation told us to meet Downtown near the Santa Fe Train Station. Due to horrid traffic conditions that day, Stacey and I were fashionably late and skipped the reception at the Contemporary Art museum but we still got to follow the very first clue (though someone told us where to go). It was sent as a text message:

“A Super Man in plain clothes with a briefcase has just pulled in at the station.”

Then once we found this Clark Kent looking fellow (in a suit and glasses with a briefcase), we had to whisper the secret words and he gave us a ticket:

Patron Tequila Express Ticket | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

A ticket to ride the PATRON TEQUILA EXPRESS. Fancy train time, what what!


Cat and the Hat | Pam from Archer

Oh, also, our invitation said to arrive in “costume or creative cocktail attire”. I dressed up as Cat in the Hat and Stacey dressed up as Pam from Archer. 

Let me also note here that NO other guests arrived dressed in costume. Which made me feel slightly ridiculous but whatever. You just have to OWN it when that happens! 

Sea Urchin on Toast | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

As soon as stepped up to board the Patron Tequila Express we were immediately presented with food.

Specifically sea urchin on toast. I’m sure this had a fancier Patron-y name but I don’t know what it was. This was my very first time ever trying sea urchin. I was quite unsure about it since it looks like a gloopy pile of orange tongue meat or something but I managed a few bites and it wasn’t as horrendous as I thought it would be. It tasted rich and creamy it was quite soft on top of the bread. 

pork-belly-bao-buns

Before I could catch my breath, there was another tray of food! These were little banh mi bao sandwiches with generous slices of roasted pork belly. My first bite tasted like a pickled mess and after removing all the pickled stuff, it was much more enjoyable. The pork belly was so tender!

Woodwork on the Patron Tequila Express

Here’s a small peek of the intricate woodwork from inside of the train, which is owned by the Patron co-founder John Paul DeJoria (who also co-founded Paul Mitchell hair products). Incredible detail!  

Bedroom on the Patron Tequila Express

There were two sleeping cabins in the Patron car. One had this set of bunk beds and the other was more like a “master suite”. There were two beautiful, old school style bathrooms connected to each room with stained glass as the windows inside the bathrooms.

Patron Tequila Express

At the end of the Patron Tequila Express train car, there was this beautiful sitting room with these high-backed couches and grand looking chairs. 

Patron Cocktail Menu | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

They were serving the “Super Marg” drinks here. 

Patron Black Fig Margaritas | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Stacey and I just called them the “Fig Margaritas” since we couldn’t remember the fancy super hero name for them. They had a nice fruit-ish flavor but weren’t too sweet – a good balance of flavors.

Dining Car | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Eventually we all headed down to the next train car which served as our dining room for the Patron Secret Dining Society event. The train remained parked at the station though we did see at least one train amble by during dinner. 

Place Setting | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

I loved the beautiful flowers and every place setting had a tin of cocktail salt which served as our name cards. They had special labels that said “Arc Reactor” on them. Sitting next to me was a “Patron Secret Agent”.

Culinary Fortress of Solitude | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Outside of the Patron Secret Dining Society menu.

Food Menu | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

The food menu! Gosh, I loved the design of this menu. 

Drink Menu | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

And the drink pairings for each course. Bam! 

Mary + Stacey

Stacey and I again, pre-buzz. 

Stacey/Pam

The dolphin says “hi”. 

Frozen Freedom Fighter | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Also the dolphin liked the drinks. 

This is the first drink pairing, “The Frozen Freedom Fighter”. The drink looked a bit like an orange frozen slushee. It was made with liquid nitrogen (fancy), Patron Roca Anejo, Citronage Lime, White Gold and a bit of fennel. To me that just all means spiked frozen slushee! 

Dressed Cucumbers | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

The first food course was Seabass Crudo but I somehow got the vegetarian version. I didn’t really mind that much. Instead of seabass, Stacey and I had cucumbers covered in herbs, lime and salt. Very simple but the lime and salt gave a good bit of flavor to the cold, crunchy cucumbers. 

Poison Ivy | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

The second course’s drink was called “Poison Ivy” and it was made with Patron Silver, Hoja Santa, crushed lime and Yucatan raw honey. This was a refreshing, slightly sweet drink. 

round-two-chilled-pea-soup

Okay, don’t tell… but I wasn’t supposed to take a photo of the second course. 

I’m a rebel. Sorry, Brian Malarkey. 

They were preparing all of the dishes somewhere else and then walking them over to the train car, so they had to go quite a distance, across train tracks and up the stairs… so this dish isn’t as pretty as it should have been. But holy goodness, it was DELICIOUS. It is a chilled pea soup with creme fraiche. That thing floating on top is a really crispy crunchy yummy piece of pork crackling. The flavor in the soup was super intense and just blew me away with how good it was. Even if it wasn’t pretty! 

Third Course | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Here’s the vegetarian version of the third course for my non-seafood eating friend Stacey.

Halibut Cheek Bourguinon | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

And here’s my version. It is Halibut Cheek Bourguignon with potatoes, carrots, and confit onion. The halibut cheek was incredibly tender and tasted very light. An excellent course. 

The Inspector | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

The third course was paired with a drink called “The Inspector”. The Inspector is made with Patron XO (a coffee-like version of Patron) with vacuum infused Krispy Kreme donut Patron, lemon and egg white.

That probably all sounds super weird. The mixologist, Lucien Conner from Puesto, showed us how they soaked the donuts in the Patron to get the “donut” essence into the drink. He had a large glass filled with donuts covered in a layer of Patron. Crazy! 

The drink was creamy, a bit sweet, and tasted a bit like a dessert coffee drink. Really good! 

Brian Malarkey | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Here’s Malarkey talking to us about one of the dishes. He was a bit disappointed that almost no one dressed up but came up behind me and told me he loved me! Cat in the Hat pays off!

Batmobile | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

The dolphin is an alky, I think. Here he is enjoying our last drink called the “Batmobile” – a twist on the Cadillac Margarita. It was made with Patron Anejo, citrus zest, black truffle and agave foam. 

I didn’t realize until right now that it was also made with black truffle! It had a very smooth finish and Stacey remarked how it reminded her of an Old Fashioned. 

Filet Mignon | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

The fourth and final course of the Patron Secret Dining Society dinner was this incredibly tender filet mignon with trumpet mushrooms and mashed potatoes. 

Malarkey Shaving Truffles | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

But wait! Then Malarkey went by to each person and shaved some black truffle on top.

Filet Mignon with truffles | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

And elevated the dish juuuuuuuust a bit more. I ate every. single. bite. It was so flavorful! Too bad I can’t have a little truffle shaved on top of every meal… 

After dinner, we headed over to the Contemporary Art museum for the Patron Dessert Party. 

I maybe got a bit excited at this point. Here’s a look at the desserts! 

Cream Puffs | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Cream Puffs. Covered in rose petals. Because WHY NOT. 

Peach Cake Bites | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

These were very soft and a little gooey. 

Evil German Chocolate Pudding | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Salted Lime Tarts | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Salted Lime Tarts | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Sea Salted Chocolate and Peanut Butter Crunch Pops | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Sea Salted Chocolate and Peanut Butter Crunch Pops. I would marry these if I could, I loved them so much!

Ice Cream Sandwich Menu | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

ice-cream-cookie-sandwich-station

There was also an ice cream sammywich station. I only got the cookies and took them home to eat later.

musician-at-dessert-party

Musical entertainment. 

Dessert Party Ticket | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

More people were invited to the dessert party and these were the tickets for this event. Cute! 

Mango Shot Dessert | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

Gold Nuggets | Patron Secret Dining Society - San Diego, CA

The curry flavor on the nuts made these really unique. 

pile-o-brownies

Dude. A giant bowl of brownies and chocolate! Om nom nom nom. 

dessert-table

fresh-marshmallows

They also had freshly made marshmallows. One was spiked with tequila, of course. 

chocolate-fountain

Chocolate fountain! 

roasting-marshmallows

They even had a little box with hot coals so you could make your own s’mores.

roasting-closeup

And I did.

And then my marshmallow promptly fell INTO the coals.

And then it started to smoke. 

And then I got nervous and tried to poke at it and retrieve it.

And Stacey told me to just “let it go”. And then we quickly walked away… 

san-diego-buildings

Apparently when I’m buzzed I like to make up songs. Like songs about how buildings are really tall. 

And I guess also take photos of the buildings. Hmm.

dolphin-says-hi

My songs at least make Stacey/Pam laugh. 

The Patron Secret Dining Society is a very, very fun event! Even if you have to sit in traffic for over an hour to go Downtown during the start of Comic Con (grr), it was definitely worth it.

You can go check out last year’s Patron Secret Dining Society event right over here, too!

Thanks very much to Patron for the invitation to this awesome and incredible event! 


12 thoughts on “patron secret dining society in san diego

  1. oh man, i am still so bummed that I saw the ‘how to get an invite’ email a few days too late! i would have wanted some alcohol and yummy food too! doh!

    how many people came to the food portion and how many to the dessert only? where was dolphin during the last Patron Secret Dining Society?! props to your costume mary!

    1. That suckkkkks, bummer you didn’t see it in time! Maybe next time! The dinner party was probably 30-40 people and the dessert party was a lot bigger, not sure how many were at that one, that one had more though.

  2. URghhhhhh I am so sad that I couldn’t go. When I got the invite this year I was so happy and then realized I had to catch a flight 30 min after the event started. Booooo. But was looking forward to this post to see what I missed out on. If I had gone I would have at the very least sported some cat ears or something. My mama taught me to never ignore dress codes 😉

    1. I’m sad you couldn’t make it! But at least you had a good reason to miss it! I’m sure they’ll be back next year 🙂 🙂

  3. Was Stacy a better date than me last year 🙁 Just kidding! This event looks amazing! What’s up with Malarkey not wanting you to take pics of the food. And how odd that they gave you the first course with no seabass.

    1. Haha, you’re both really excellent dates. 😀 Malarkey just didn’t want that one dish photographed because it got messed up. But I’m a rebel and I don’t listen to nobody! And stuff! Yeahhhhh!

      I think they just mixed me up with a vegetarian request. But that’s okay, I didn’t mind too much. At least I got the halibut! Mmmmm, halibut!

  4. That is great that you dressed up, although hardly anyone else did. What’s up with that lack of spirit, haha. That happened to me, Bert and TC before. We went a bday party that was also “supposed” to be a costume party (it was March, not October too) and we were one of the few people that dressed up. No one recognized or understood my costume either which sucked (I was Death from The Sandman DC Vertigo series). The funny thing was, it wasn’t an actual costume but more like clothes I already had that I put together for it.

    Anyhow, what a fun and interesting event! Everything had Patron in it. I know Bert would lie that, haha. Lots of delicious tidbits and desserts too!

    1. I know, I guess everyone was afraid of being the only one that dressed up! All the servers and staff wore capes and masks so at least we weren’t completely alone. The food was even more delicious this year than last year (though I liked the ambiance of last year’s a bit more). The dessert party was extremely exciting for me! I just wished I had like a little to go bag so I could try some of the desserts later.

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