Luckily I was able to leave work early, along with three other colleagues...
The occasion? To attend a complimentary lunch at Seasons 52 in UTC sponsored by the Jesuit Excellence Tour (JET), a recruitment event consisting of a consortium of Jesuit universities from all over the U.S. The luncheon was geared towards high school counselors and each school present (there were about 20-25 schools there) gave a short spiel on their particular university's programs.
While on the way to the private room in the back, we passed by the kitchen...
The private room was called the Napa Room which aptly had bottles of wine which seemed to serve as decor.
La Ley asked if they had beer and surprisingly, they did, along with wine. It was surprising because it was an educators event but since it was free, they figured, "Why not!". I was the designated driver so I just had sweet iced tea and cucumber water. Mr. TJ had a glass of chardonnay while La Ley had a lager (I forgot which brewery) and another colleage had the Ballast Point IPA. The conference folks said, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere in the world..." which pretty much made it "okay" to imbibe.
There were college representatives interspersed among the tables so that they could converse with us over appetizers such as this duo of flatbreads. The first had caramelized onions, red pepers and artichoke hearts. Sadly, it also had little bits of some sort of cheese that I did NOT like (either goat or feta; both gross me out). But luckily there wasn't too much of it on there. The other flatbread had sun dried tomatoes and cheese. Both flatbreads were thin, crisp and delicious andd held up well with the toppings.
A pre-dressed salad was also served. The seeds are roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds). I liked that the cucumbers were cut into chunks. The dressing wasn't as bad as I thought. It was a very very very light balsamic so I was able to eat it without gagging.
The mains were served already halved - mini beef burgers (they called them sliders but they really weren't if you want to get anal about it and I do, see this Serious Eats article about what real sliders are) and chicken caprese sandwiches. Of the two, I liked the beef burgers more. In fact, I had two halves since I wasn't too keen on the chicken. The beef was rarer than I normally eat it but man, it was so tender.
The bread for the caprese was some sort of wheat ciabatta. It was to heavy for me. As good as this probably was, I preferred the beef option more. Perhaps it's because I hardly ever buy, cook, or prepare beef anymore.
During lunch and also dessert, we listed to the different presenters, many of whom traveled from afar (the Midwest, the South and the East Coast). One gal at our table left Boston a few weeks ago and will be back in late October. The folks at our table were so knowledgeable, easy to talk to and even solicited our advice about where to go for dinner tonight. One gal really wanted tacos so I suggested that she do a taco crawl in North Park with Lucha Libre, City Tacos and Tostadas (not tacos I know, but they do have seafood offerings there) and combine it with coffee at Holsem and dessert at Hammonds. Yes, hipsterville but everything is so close together and convenient.
Here was their impressive dessert stand...everything looked so good.
La Ley ended up with a Meyer Lemon dessert while the admissions rep next to me had the "reverse cannoli". Mine had peanut butter and chocolate and was topped with peanuts. I liked the mini servings. It was the perfect ending to our lunch.
Although I knew about Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, Marquette, Xavier and USF, I also learned more about other universities (all of which offer excellent educations and pricey tuition tags) such as Canisius, Fordham, Creighton, and Boston College (one of our good high school friends went there). I was surprised to find out that Georgetown was a Jesuit school and that Pope Francis (the current pope) is a Jesuit.
The event was only two hours but it was packed with good information that we could pass along to our students and parents. Oh yeah, and the free lunch was also pretty damn good!
Who else went to Seasons 52 in UTC?
Kirbie went in late 2012 when they first opened and also tried their Happy Hour in early 2014. Faye also went twice "Seasons 52 - $15 flights and flatbreads" May 2013
"Seasons 52 Autumn Menu", October 2013 and even though this post was about the Headquarters location, Jinxi has a great pictorial on their mini desserts along with Darlene's rundown on Zagat SD.
From the vaults:
"A 475 calories or less restaurant review of Seasons 52" SD Eater, November 2012
Seasons 52, UTC
4505 La Jolla Village Dr., Ste C-1
San Diego, CA 92122
(858) 450-1252
www.seasons52.com (San Diego/UTC location) + reviews from that four lettered site
Even though I'm hardly up in this area, I would try this place again especially if they still have that $15 Wine flight and Flatbread Happy Hour special.
2 comments:
This was a great way to get a taste but not have to obligate yourself to full servings of anything! I keep reading about, but never have wanted to stop in here...until now. There were teensy droplets of whatever cheese on there... (The University of Detroit is Jesuit also...I like the idea of a JET tour. Those schools give great educations)
Yes indeed. Just go after the crazy lunch rush. That place was mega packed when we arrived and it was 12:45. The cheese was parmesan I believe. Those college do offer great education. The folks from Philadelphia were quite excited since the Pope was going to swing by (after his tour of Cuba).
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