Imagine it: Sunday afternoon. Downtown. Bright, sunny, few clouds here and there. Hot. Humid. Nice day to sit outside on the patio at a new-to-you restaurant. You’ve got your dog, your boys, and an afternoon of food ahead of you! Just ignore those deep dark clouds that keep rolling in for a moment. It won’t rain, right?
Yeah, we’ll get to that.
Last weekend I was invited to try out Double Standard Kitchenetta – a relative new joint down in Gaslamp. Previously this spot was The Counter, a burger chain that used to have a few locations in town but now only has one spot located in the San Diego Airport (looks like they’re still popular up in LA and in other parts of the country).
We parked at Horton Plaza and then walked over. I missed it the first time since the main signage is only facing 6th Avenue and we were walking up G Street. Immediately you see these cool chairs and couches on a little astroturf lawn.
Great spot for lounging!
And here’s a view of the inside. Jake commented that it was cool that the books were in disarray. I’m sure this would bother anyone with OCD.
Here’s another peek through their large, open windows.
Here are the menu’s! Foodie menu.
And Drinky menu.
The manager came out to greet us and say hello and asked if we wanted to order items or just have the chef bring out whatever he wanted. I opted to let the chef decide for us and see if anything in particular caught our eye on the menu.
[puck’s hand compounded birch beer soda / $2.95]
I was excited to see Birch Beer on the menu and immediately ordered that. How many times have you seen Birch Beer on a menu? T didn’t get a drink at first because he though Jake and I were ordering actual beer, not soda (though apparently there is also alcoholic birch beer, but this wasn’t it). Birch Beer tastes similar to root beer and it is made from birch bark. It has a mellower taste than root beer. I got a kick out of getting the soda in a mini milk bottle!
[crispy brussels sprouts / $7]
The very first dish to come out…. Brussels Sprouts. I tried not to make a face as they were placed in front of me. To this point I hadn’t met a brussels sprout that I liked. These particular ones are made with apple cider glaze, bacon, grana padano, and sultana (which are grapes so they looked like raisins to me in this dish).
I ate a whole brussels sprout first. And it was extremely bitter when I got to the inner parts and I felt like a little kid being forced to eat stuff she didn’t wanna eat again. But then I tried it again and only ate the little outer leaves which were crispy and had a slight sweetness to them. No bitterness – hooray! I stuck to just eating a few more outer leaves but I still don’t think I’m a covert to lovin’ brussels sprouts.
On the other hand, turns out that Maya LOVES brussels sprouts.
Geez, who knew?
Another thing my dog likes that I don’t: hot cheetos. Just the regular non-burning kind for me, thanks.
[truffle parmesan fries with black garlic aioli + house secret sauce / $6]
The chef also hit us up with from twice fried, hand cut french fries. I love skin-on fries! Though my description above states “truffle parm”, I’m pretty certain we just got regular fries since I don’t remember any hint of truffle or Parmesan. No matter though because they were wonderful. Nice and crispy, seasoned very well, and the two dipping sauces were lovely. The house secret sauce is the pale orange one which had a hint of ketchup in it. I preferred the black garlic aioli for that kick of garlic.
[berkshire pork belly / $13]
The one dish we requested was this one: The Berkshire Pork Belly. The sous chef actually came out to say hi to us and drop it off and to see what else we wanted to try that day. I told him to just pick for us! On the flip side, I’m really extremely glad we picked this one because OH MAN it was GOOOOOOD.
Like stupid good.
The pork belly is served with nectarines, stone fruit puree (those little globs of color all over the plate), nastiurum (leafy green stuff), and almond granola. The pork belly was perfection! It had a nice, meaty, juicy bottom and a fair amount of fat at the top. The outer skin was deliciously crispy and kind of crackly like a perfect piece of crispy bacon. God I loved this dish. If I had a Top Five Pork Bellies list, this sucker would be ON IT.
[seared u-10 scallops / $15]
I got excited seeing this next dish because of the TINY POPCORN all over it! What on earth?! We were told that it’s popped sorghum. I don’t know much about sorghum but it pretty much just tasted like the tiniest popcorn ever. Along with those beautifully seared scallops are fresh corn grits, chanterelle mushrooms, okra, and maple bacon glaze which is just running amok all over the plate.
The okra was fresh and I was really, really unsure about eating it but I surprisingly found it to be quite nice. In the past okra has always been super slimy to me but this wasn’t the case! It just tasted like another veggie to me. I loved the mix of various textures of corn. They all paired nicely with the sweet seared scallops. Jake and T both thought the scallops were really “fishy tasting” but they just tasted like heaven to me!
[mushroom toast / $12]
Next dish that came out was mushroom toast. I didn’t have to share this plate at all since the boys wouldn’t touch it. The sauce on top was made with sherry, creme fraiche, and I believe chanterelles mushrooms. Chanterelles aren’t my favorite kind of mushroom but I did like the overall flavor of the sauce itself. The issue I had was that the sauce really soaked into the bread. This made the bread incredibly soggy. The bread was also a bit hard to chew through on the ends.
[spicy papparedelle bolognese / $16]
At Double Standard they made their own in house, housemade papparedelle pasta that they roll out every day! Props to them! The papparedelle pasta is then pairs with braised short rib and housemade sausage in a spicy bolognese sauce and then topped with a cheese that I forgot the name of. The cheese was kind of like a softer Parmesan cheese. I really liked the fresh pasta and the cheese in this one! I let the boys mostly eat this one since I had those scallops to finish off on my own. They both really loved this dish and finished every bite.
[meatball al forno / $12]
Gosh I loved the presentation for this next dish! The garlic bread is looking so diva and dramatic, standing up against the meatballs. The meatballs are made out of veal and are paired with a san marzano tomato sauce, house made ricotta, and a lovely bright green pesto. This is the dish that made T say, “I want to come here for my birthday” just so he could have these tender meatballs again. I loved the mix of the sweet ricotta with the fresh, bright pesto. It tasted even better when you smeared a little bit on the garlic bread. YUM!
[corn risotto with confit chicken]
Our final dish was a corn risotto with juicy pieces of confit chicken. The risotto kind of tasted like a bowl of creamy grits to me – and naturally I adored it. I liked the creamy risotto with the sweet corn pieces of top – you get the smooth texture paired with the crunchy bits of corn. The chicken was incredibly tender and the pop of the tomatoes made for a yummy dish. I believe that’s okra again though for some reason it kind of tasted a little bit like bell pepper.
Once we were finished with our last dish, we started to pack up to leave… and noticed some big, fat rain drops had started to fall.
Uh oh.
Naturally I wanted to stop and get some Ghirardelli chocolate bars and while we were stopped in there the rain just started to come down harder and harder. It was like a monsoon or something! Everyone was hiding out in restaurants and under awnings and not willing to risk getting drenched. Jake, T, Maya and I just went for it though and walked the few blocks back to Horton Plaza in the downpour. My flip flops got soaked and I ended up just going barefoot through the streets of Downtown.
Little Maya was a trooper though and didn’t whine (surprisingly) even though she (and all of us) got completely soaked.
It was an adventure to say the least!
Double Standard Kitchenetta
695 6th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 269-9676
HOURS
Mon – Fri: 11:30am – 12am
Saturday: 11:30am – 12am
Sunday: 11:30am – 12am
Disclaimer: As noted, I was invited to come in on behalf of the restaurant. Our meal and drinks were complimentary. I was not further compensated for this post and all opinions stated here are my own.
The picture of the books gave me heartburn. Literally. Were those real books? Why would they organize/stage them like that.
Oh man those brussel sprouts look AWESOME!!! I’m so proud of you that you tried them. I would visit this place just to try that dish. Pork belly looks kinda pricey for $13. How come you don’t like Chanterelles ? I can’t believe T’s comment on the meatballs – they must be super good.
One word on rain soaked Maya pic – BAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAA!!
Cat dog got soaked 🙂
I’m sorry but yes. Yes they are real books. I think they are going for the “hip, cool” look. They didn’t take OCD into consideration.
The little outer single leaves of the brussels sprouts were better than popping a whole one into my mouth, so I’ll give you that at least. Maybe they were just weird chanterelles? Or maybe I didn’t like it in the sauce? The mushrooms were kind of weird and stringy so I wasn’t into it. Maybe I just didn’t like the dish.
The meatballs were honestly really good – I think the ricotta made them even better though! His birthday is next month so maybe we will be super cool and take him haha.
Yes, my cat-dog who hates water was 100% drenched. If she whined about it though I didn’t hear it, probably due to the sound of the torrential rains coming down on us.
Aaaaaaaagh! Those books! When I glanced at it, I thought, WTF man! I want to FIX those, haha!!!!
Your entrees looked awesome, especially the meatball and the tiny popcorn. I have heard of sorghum but as a syrup. Never had it though. Interesting. That pork belly – wow!
You are brave to have even walked barefoot through downtown. In the rain no less.
Hi CC – I know the books were a little killer. Luckily I didn’t have to stare at them since we were outside. I didn’t know you could tiny popcorn with sorghum, either. I read it is a grain and can also be turned into ethanol! I figured the hard rain was cleaning a lot of the crap of the sidewalk, and I was already drenched, so might as well make it easier to walk!
that food looks yum yum! i don’t like okra usually so i wonder what that one dish tastes like! then i saw pork belly, meatball and corn relish and omg, too much good looking stuff… i wanna go toooo! disarrayed books though! nooo!
that weekend was wacky. saturday we were rained on between 11-3 (during the lemon zest fest) and sunday i stayed dry inside during your adventure. and now SD is all sunny without a cloud in the sky… *sigh(?)*
Hi Lynn – The okra was tons better than other okra I’ve had. The fresh okra was tons better to eat. Haha, the books bugged me a little, too, so I just tried not to look at them 🙂
I hear more rain and storms are in store for San Diego very soon! This is the weirdest summer for weather!