I am not really going to dedicate a whole entry to being cold and wet lately, but this is really not what I signed up for.  I know we live in a desert with more grass than beachgoers and we "borrow" all our water from other places, so the rainfall should be a good thing.  But it's really not.  Rain just stands in the way of walking the neighborhood and the San Diego crowd isn't really built for "weather."

Enough about that, I really wanted to post about my experience at West Coast Tavern recently.  For those that don't know, it's the restaurant formerly known as Hawthorn's underneath the North Park Theatre.  Okay, maybe not underneath, more like adjacent to.  Exact location aside, here's a photo I took

 

The photo is a little blurry because my phone isn't that great, but you get the idea.  I haven't tried the brunch yet, so I can't comment one way or the other.  I actually liked Hawthorn's, even if it was a little overpriced for the food, so I wasn't sure what we would end up with out of this new place.

I can admit some bias, here, as I want them to succeed, but even if I didn't, I could still be fair.  The first thing that struck me is that there were people older than I enjoying the atmosphere.  It should never be surprising to see a 25-year old on a night out on a Saturday evening, but a 75-year old!?!  Way to bring the generations together, Mr. Cohen.  The friends I was with were pretty savvy about the restaurant industry, so they gave us some inside tips, but I had one too many of the Coltranes to really remember.  The Coltrane is a tasty little concoction that has a bourbon base, unfortunately because of the holidays I haven't been back recently so I could not say what else is in it.

West Coast has something resembling tapas on the menu, so don't go expecting to have a full plate of food to yourself.  But that's okay because we already eat too much anyway, don't we?  They used to have beef cheeks, which I have to admit I liked, but there were several items on the menu that I'd recommend.  The lamb burgers were good.  And, for the veggie crowd, the eggplant burgers are even better.

Even if you just drop by for a drink or two, the new design elements are worth checking out and the new feel of the place suggests to me that it could stick around.  I'm not entirely sure what type of promotion they do, but it does seem to be getting busier, so someone is clearly on the job.  All in all, I'd put West Coast in the normal rotation for a once a month stop off.  Maybe I can find out what others have tried and liked or didn't?  Any takers?