He is the best host ever, serving various meats and cheese, peach salsa, chips and homemade guacamole along with blood orange mimosas before our trek to this neighborhood...
Our first choice, Burnside in Normal Heights is CLOSED on Mondays, $#%@ so Mr. TJ suggested Plan B...
which was one of his favorite restaurants, Parkhouse Eatery in University Heights. It was so nice and warm out that we decided to stay out on the patio. Plus, the lighting was great which made for better food photos, heh heh.
All small plates were 30% of during Happy Hour, so yay for that. We ordered the calamari, beef tips, crab cakes, and the pate for the shared appetizers. Mr. TJ also ordered the crispy panko fried chicken salad and the bacon and shrimp farfalle with garlic cream sauce for us to share as well. It was quite a bit of food!
Their house bread, foccacia with balsamic, olive oil, sun dried tomatoes, and capers.
Mr. TJ ordered a bottle of the Verys wine, which was a very light, crisp and refreshing Chardonnay.
Calamari (the two dipping sauces were a creamy and slightly spicy aioli and what was probably Sriracha):
Crabcakes (same dipping sauces), which lay atop a bed of roasted corn and peppers.
Pate on French bread with sliced beets and spinach/tomato salad.
Beef tips with bourbon maple sauce:
The beef tips were so flavorful and juicy!
Our server was super nice as well. She portioned the last two dishes for us, the fried chicken salad and the farfalle. So far, my favorite dish was the beef tips followed by the crab cakes.
I wasn't quite wowed by this because the lettuce was iceberg. If it had been anything but that, it might have been better. It just reminded me of school food. The dressing had a tiny bit of a kick, serrano ranch.
There were two large shrimp in here along with bacon bits swimming in the garlic cream sauce. As great as this looked, I only ate a couple of the bowties and took the rest to go where it was enjoyed as breakfast the next day. I wanted to pace myself for dessert later.
While on the back to the car, we took a looksee at the Old Trolly Barn Park. I'd been here before and Mr. TJ had always driven by but never stopped to take a closer look
On the northern edge of the park, you can see Mission Valley.
Here's a closer look...
Dessert would be at Mr. TJ's later but before that, we went to my favorite coffee shop (guess where) in North Park. As we passed by the theatre, we saw the 91X van. Something was going on but we weren't sure what.
The cactus was a bit upended. Oops. MFH's The Woods (which was in a to-go cup; it should have been in a glass mug) and La Ley's Lavender Mocha, which she requested as ICED! Wow, if I had known I could get the other drinks iced, I would have done so. But...all the more reason to return!
Mr. TJ also got the Lavender mocha iced. I had the Nutella iced coffee (far left). I noticed there were no crushed hazelnuts on the rim or on top as they do when it is served in a tall glass. Hmmm. Me no like.
Everyone enjoyed their drinks; La Ley was planning to come back since she had a function near here in a few days. I ended up saving my drink for Bert later.
No chopped hazelnuts...sad sloth.
Before we left Holsem, I noticed these pastries on the counter and asked the owner if it was from Bake Sale, their pastry supplier. The owner (Muna) said they were from a friend who was starting a bakery business on the side. The tart was made with rice flour (and thus was gluten free) and filled with a citrus almond paste. The other tray had chocolate chip brioche. Muna asked I wanted a tart and when I hesitated, she said, we won't be selling these the next day, so take one. Then she offered Mr. TJ a brioche when he expressed interest in it. Then....she also gave us two of the egg tart pastries and one tomato galette.
Scoring free pastries was quite unexpected but a very nice gesture. Later at Mr. TJ's place in Talmadge, the brioche. I felt it was on the dry side and brioche is supposed to be moist.
As for this gluten free tart, I liked the looks of it, but didn't really like the taste of the rice flour crust. The filling was good though, almond paste and sliced almonds with citrus. By the way, we took of the orange slices to eat this.
He had an assortment of mochi ice creams in his freezer. We ended up having the mango one. I just recently found out that they sell two-packs of these! I wonder where they sell 'em. Anyhow, I barely ate mine.
I would have preferred the chocolate but I was too stuffed at this point to ask. We'd been out since the late afternoon and had a lovely evening together.
Who else ate at Parkhouse Eatery?
Kirbie went back in September 2009
Parkhouse Eatery
4574 Park Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92116
(619) 295-7275
parkhouseeatery.com
Previous visit to the Old Trolley Barn Park:
February 2013
Previous visits to Holsem:
June 2015, my EPIC post!
Last year's bday lunch & dessert for Mr. TJ:
The Haven Pizzeria, followed by dessert at Moosie's June 2014
Although Parkhouse was our Plan B, it turned out to be a great choice!
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