Little Italy

After Fabrison's, we walked up India Street, the main drag in Little Italy. These were some tiles by a fountain just up the street...



These signs were everywhere...

I love taking photos of stickers/street art...

The Little Italy sign. There were also banners that had Italian and Italian American icons on them.

Landmark sign info. Look at the house behind the sign. It's a two story yellowish orange home with elaborate white painted iron work with a gate flanked with two (kinda gaudy) cherub statues. Whoever lives there has a prime spot in Little Italy. When we passed by it earlier, there as an elderly man wearing MC Hammer looking shades sitting out on the porch just watching the street life.

A painted utility box featuring a sport most Americans don't care about. World Cup? World what? Hey now, there's my shadow again.

Here's another painted box, this time featuring an homage to the tuna fishermen of the days of yore. This was back when tuna fishing was the main source of income for the immigrant Italian and Portuguese families in San Diego, most of them living in Little Italy and in Loma Portal respectively.

As we headed up, we saw a sign for an art exhibit so we went upstairs to check it out.. This is the same building that houses Landini's Pizza and across the street from Blick Art Store.

We met the artist , Grant Pecoff, who was super cool. Bert was attracted by his vibrant paintings.

He and his wife have traveled to many different countries. I love how his paintings tell stories of these places...In other part of the gallery, TC recognized NYC's Flatiron building although Grant's version was an electric orange.

Recognize the larger painting? It's the Museum of Man dome and the California Bell Tower. You can see it when driving across the Prado Bridge to get into Balboa Park. It is also featured briefly in the opening sequence of Orson Welle's classic, "Citizen Kane" as part of "Xanadu", the fictional estate of Charles Foster Kane, not that godawful disco movie staring Olivia Neutered John and the music of ELO!

"I'm funny how? Like a clown? I'm here to amuse you?" - Joe Pesci from "Goodfellas".  Now that was one fucking good movie! Check out the other quotes from IMDB's Goodfella's quotes. Not for the easily offended.

Shot of Landini's and the Pecoff Gallery taken from across the street. I was waiting for Bert and TC at Blick.

As we headed back, I noticed that the Mexican Consulate was down here. Never knew that.

Here's a lone Mexican Place on the outer edge of Little Italy, Mexican Fiesta. Check out Kirk's post here from way back in 2007!

Closed that Sunday afternoon...

"You wanna fuck with me? Okay. You wanna play rough? Okay. Say hello to my little friend!" (cue a large volley of gunshots!) -  Al Pacino as Tony Montana in the classic gangster epic, "Scarface". If you thought "Goodfellas" had a lot of profanity, I think "Scarface" beats it. This is one of my sibiling's fave flicks. My sister's favorite actor is Al Pacino. Al Pacino and Robert deNiro were badasses back then. Now DeNiro is doing crap like "Little Fockers". C'mon Bob, you have more than enough $$$ to pay the bills than to take crappy roles like that!

On a whim and also to take advantagee of yet another beautiful and sunny weekend (we're so damn spoiled), we headed uptown to take the scenic route up Balboa Park. I had another yet coupon. This time for for the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

Here's the historic landmark El Cortez hotel which used to be the tallest building in San Diego in the 1960's. A few years ago (pre-blogging days), my cousin had her wedding reception there at the opulent Don Room with the cocktail reception on the outside patio. The views of downtown were so rad from up there!

We went up 5th to hang a right at Laurel to go on the Prado Bridge. Next stop, Balboa Park.

Fabrison's French Creperie & Cafe

Late last year, there was a "Restaurant" issue of the SD Reader. In it were tons of coupons for local places which I dutifully clipped for future use. One caught my eye and after having had crepes at La Creperie on 30th, I wanted to make a comparison. That coupon I'd been saving was for Fabrison's in Little Italy.

Very cute inside...

I know I always harp on parking but man, we were so lucky  to get a parking spot on Ash right around the corner from India Street. The crepes place was only a few steps away. It pays to get there early because when we left, there were no more spots! Parking really sucks downtown.

Here's that coupon...

Bert's mocha which was very good and chocolatey.

I got the Baja...

Harissa sauce isn't really "Mexican" but it did add a big kick to this crepe which was excellent!

The marinated flank was slicedso  thinly, it practically melted in my mouth. I ended up eating most of the filling and not the crepe itself. I liked the crepe batter here a tiny bit better than the one I had at La Creperie the other day, as well as the one's I've had at Melt at the Otay Ranch mall.

Bert got the "Hungry Bear" breakfast crepe. This haddiced sausage, ham, eggs, cheddar cheese, and it was set off by a very flavorful and spicy aioli which featured fresh garlic.  Both my crepe and his came with spring salad mix with cheese slivers and tomatoes. Unfortunately for this salad dressing hater, it came with balsamic on top so TC was the happy recipient of my green salad.

Although I really liked my crepe, I liked Bert's almost as much!

TC got the Fruit Crepe - the fruit of the day happened to be green apples.

Oooh, very pretty...

The sourness of the green apples was not even present. These were cooked down and quite sweet and almost pear like in texture.

Lastly, we ordered a dessert crepe for all of us to share, the  Dark Chocolate (with chocolate imported from France)...If I could have licked the plate clean, I would have. But I have some sense of decorum when other people are present, heh heh, so I just scraped what I could get with my fork! Hello! The dark chocolate was really quite velvety and smooth and not bitter at all. This was excellent! I'd go again just for this1

The dude who helped us was super nice too. We didn't see the owners there, Fabrice and his wife Alison (hence the name "Fabrison's"). Everyone there was pretty cool and the vibe was very relaxed. In addition to crepes, they also sell sandwiches and salads as well as various pastries. There is also a small section of the cafe featuring photographic prints by a local artist (greeting cards and matted photos).

Who else ate at Fabrison's?

Darwin and Ange of Eat, Darwin Eat! went here back in August 2010

And that's all I could find for SD foodbloggers. Otherwise, here are the reviews from
Yelp
SD Reader ,"Not a Tourist Place"
and City Beat "French Favorites"

We hadn't been here in awhile. I think the last time was back in '06 for the Little Italy Fest. We ended up walking up India Street to check out the local flavor....

La Creperie

Before heading back, we saw this sign on 30th not even a block away from Urban Solace...well, well well! La Creperie here we come!

Hmmm, we've never been here before so there's always a first time, right? 

This place is super tiny. There's only 4 bar height tables with four barstools each. The mirrors in the place make it larger than it really is. 

The menu (same as the big sign outside):

We ordered the Summer Blush (#10 on the menu)...If you want, you can even watch your crepe being made. Next time we want to try the #11 and/or the #12!

I took this shot through the mirror. That was someone else's Summer Blush.

Here's our crepe which we thoroughly enjoyed. There were a lot of sliced strawberries within and a few on top. There was only a faint hint of the Grand Marnier. We weren't sure how heavy or strong the liqueur would taste but now that we know it's not that strong, we won't feel bad about ordering alcohol spiked desserts with our kid with us.

After our quick dessert at La Creperie, we headed over to the Mission Valley mall because I needed to do some returns.

Check out this, uh, "Fitness" place on the corner of Utah St. and University Ave....

All righty then. I wonder what the clientele is like over here...

Return to Urban Solace

Wow, it's a miracle. I'm posting this on the same day we went!

Last December I bought several "DiscoverSD" coupons. The deal was $12 for $30 worth of food at Urban Solace. Some were given as Xmas gifts. I kept at least one for us...so that is where we went on this beautiful sunny Saturday. We scored great (and FREE and UNTIMED) parking a few blocks away.

Bert and I first went here several years ago for Valentine's Day. I've also gone here in the past with the Educator GF's and my SIL. This time, we had TC with us.

We had no reservations but there was still room inside at 11:45'ish. Right around noon, it was completely packed so we came at a good time.

The "Blunch" menu:

Bert got the Pineapple Delight - it was non alcoholic. It was either that or his new favorite, the local made Airdale Imperial Stout "Dark and Stormy". This fruity drink won out. The pineapple delight consisted of soda water, pineapple-yuzu syrup, fresh key lime, fresh cilantro with a salted rim. It was delicious and I wished there was more.

We also ordered a side of their "Famous Warm Cheese Biscuits with Orange-Honey Butterbiscuits" (that is the description from their menu). This was TC's favorite. The orange-honey butter melted fantastically on the crisp square crust as well as the light as air interior. Loved these. I could have just eaten these. Bert and I were saying that this meal kind of negated our morning "boot camp" work out (he went with me to the gym that morning)! But man, was it worth it!

TC's entree (description taken straight from their menu):  Niman Ranch Chuck, Aged White Cheddar, Smoked Tomato Jam, House Sauce, Bibb Lettuce, Egg Bun. She had it medium. She was only able to finish half. I would have done the same. The fries were the "Kennebec" fries - with skin on and with a nice crisp exterior. Quite delicious...

This was Bert's Monte Diego: Smoked Ham, Fontina Cheese, Grilled Pears, Marinated Onions, Custard Dipped Egg Bread. There was a little ramekin of raspberry jam as well. While he enjoyed it, he thought it was just "okay" and still likes the Monte Cristo version at the former Elario's in La Jolla the best.  The pear in the sandwich was sliced very thinly and was practically discernable.

This is my entree, which I originally wanted to split with Bert, except I couldn't eat another bite after finishing 1/2 of this, the Roasted Pork-Loin Sandwich, Caramelized Fennel, Arugula, Fontina Cheese, Whole Grain Mustard, Egg Bun.  The arugula was wilted. I liked the fennel but it didn't taste caramelized. The cheese was melted quite nicely over the pork which, thank goodness, wasn't a solid chunk, but shaved pieces of pork. Made it easier to eat. Not being a mustard fan, I wasn't sure if I'd like this, but the mustard flavor wasn't so strong and it went really well with the fennel and the pork.

Cool painted utility box right in from of True North, a restaurant right next to Urban Solace. Love the retro boom box and cassette tape design!

Stickers I saw on a street lamp on a side street a block away from Urban Solace...

A few stores down from the Linkery was this Appliance store that had new and vintage washing machines, dryers, and stoves. One of the workers saw me snapping this shot and invited me to come in and take more photos!

Mural on the side of the Linkery's wall. I haven't eaten at this new location - they used to be farther down on 30th but that old location is now Sea Rocket Bistro.

Another cool utility box on the street corner near the North Park parking structure...

Next up...dessert down the street.

Oh, you can also see my shadow there!