Green Acre Part 2 - The Food

Now where was I?

Oh yes, last time we were admiring the fantabulous gardens belonging to Green Acre, located in the Nautilus Three building in an office park in La Jolla...

This "farm and garden focused eatery" is actually linked to Brian Malarkey (top Chef - forgot what season, Oceanaire, owner of those fabric restaurants, blah blah blah). Never went to any of his restaurants to be honest with you. This place, despite being in Brainiac-ville (I joked that I felt like a mental midget here with these science/Mensa types), was quite casual and very chill.

Dennis showed up after Cathy and I ogled the courtyard garden more than sufficiently and without much debate, decided we should all eat outside to enjoy the views and weather.

Let's go inside first to order, eh.

Very spacious. A bit rustic and very minimalistic decor.

Lots of seating. Regular tables or bar height, sofas plus pillows! You name it, they had it.

and here is the other side...


There was also another wall with plasma screens not so subtly hawking Brian Malarkey stuff and Food Network shows starring him...

There are premade salads and sandwiches plus drinks to go, or you can order at the counter if you want to eat here.

They asked us if we worked in the building. I was tempted to say "Yes".to see if that meant any special perks like an employee discount or something, haha. After ordering, you are given a number and they will bring your food to you.

At the counter...hmmm.

Dennis's lemonade with a retro striped paper straw. Cathy called them "Happy Straws". Buy some online here!

After we sat down, I realized that what I ordered had bleu cheese in it, so I flagged down a server and asked him if the cheese could be omitted which he was able to do for me. Thank goodness for that. I would have hurled if I had any part of that touching my greens. I guess I was too excited when ordering and didn't realize it had that dreaded cheese inside. The server also said they could make my dressing with anchovy, so I said, "Sure, why not.".

Our entrees along with Cathy's Acre Iced Tea and Dennis Fresh-Pressed Lemonade (as described in the mneu). Mine is the one with TWO PLATES because I had big eyes and didn't realize my extra salad would be that huge. So yeah, I look like a Ziggy Piggy (hangs head in shame).

This was the Corn Cobb (avocado, bacon, bleu, chicken, egg, corn vinaigrette) which also had at least 5 or 6 different greens, a small pretzel roll, and roasted tomatoes. OMG, this had EVERYTHING and it was well worth $9! Those soft boiled eggs were so good and that thick bacon...made better with the exclusion of the bleu cheese and the addition of a very light anchovy dressing. Savory!

And because my eyes were big (and perhaps I was thinking that Bert would like it), I also got the Drunken Mary (Chicken Salad, Smoked Almond, Brandy Cherry), which was $7. That ALSO came with a side salad that was excellent. Since there were two entrees, I intended to only eat half of each and save the rest for Bert (which he later enjoyed that evening).

If I had to choose between the two, I would stick with the sandwich simply because the chicken salad filling was so fresh. None of that canned stuff.  The flavor of the fresh herbs was amazing and bright.

Below, Cathy's Nice! Salad (Olive, Farm Egg, Albacore, Beans, Tomato, Taters) which was $10. The "taters" were in the form of potato chips which was a bit of a surprise to me. Her salad also came with a small pretzel roll. The tuna is underneath the chips and was lightly seared.

and lastly, Dennis's Grass-Fed Beef Burger (Marin County Brie, Slow-roasted tomatoe, leek) which was $12. The roll was also pretzel...

and was topped with housemade pickles...

He also had a side order of Russett Fries with Tomato Jam ($3) which he said tasted kind of like marinara sauce rather than "jam" (it did). We were saying, "Where's the Heinz" when you need it? Ha ha. Sometimes you just want the normal stuff.

I'm sure he will write more about it when his post goes up...

The two Japanese comic books that Dennis gave us; the series is called Oishinbo (which can be translated as "The Gourmet"). Started in 1983, it is the first manga series to focus on food,  and is stretched out to over 100 volumes. It was recently released in English and can be found on Amazon (I'm tempted but with each compilation at $10 a pop and with 10+ volumes, it's a bit much).

I got the one with the older man and noodles. He is the father and rival to the younger man (Cathy's book). Although I don't understand the dialogue, it's fun "making up" the story as I'm reading it, from back to front, which is also a paradigm shift for me.

Loved the 80's outfits on the women and the neatly rendered food drawings in the book. Makes me wish I could read and understand Japanese so I could enjoy the book more.

Here's the Nautilus Three building on my way out...

About the title "Green Acre", it was awfully close to "Green Acres", an old TV show from the 60's. That show was way before my time, but I was aware of it since N and I owned these LP's that had Television theme songs on them. I vaguely remember seeing reruns of this on tv but never bothered watching it...

And for those who remember this hilarious scene from "Pulp Fiction", there is a tiny Green Acres reference to Arnold the pig here...

"Bacon tastes good...pork chops taste good...."

I wish the place wasn't so out of the way, or I'd be eating myway through their menu. It definitely deserves a revisit and I'm glad that Dennis recommended this for us.

*Update on blogger visits as of August 2013:
Dennis - which is actually an "anthology" of his many visits, not just the time we met for lunch
Cathy - where she went twice in the same week
and Jinxi - where she recently visited

Green Acre
3535 General Atomics Ct. (in the Nautilus Three building)
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 587-6601

www.greenacresd.com

Articles on Green Acre:
"Incoming - Green Acre" - by Troy Johnson, San Diego Magazine, Nov 1 2012
"A New Malarkey Restaurant?" - Thrillist (Nov 29, 2012)

More on Oishinbo:
The Joys of Oishinbo (The New Yorker, Aug 2010)

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