Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Golden Hill hangout raises its food game

One-time wine bar now solid all around

Generously topped by bacon onion stout jam – bone marrow. Counterpoint.
Generously topped by bacon onion stout jam – bone marrow. Counterpoint.
Place

Counterpoint

830 25th Street, San Diego

Always a sociable mix of Golden Hillians.

Having lived in or around Golden Hill for several years, I've spent plenty of time drinking in all the same spots everybody else has — there just aren't many to choose from. Here's the typical where-to-drink discussion among my friends:

"Turf Club?"

"Maybe."

Sponsored
Sponsored

"Counterpoint?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"…Turf Club?"

"What was the other choice again?"

When Counterpoint opened as a wine bar five years back, I was thrilled for the new local option, and especially about the quality of its taplist (I admit, I've never ordered a glass of wine there). Initially, I was thrilled about its food as well, but that sort of dissipated as I tried a few things I deemed just okay for the price, and one or two I didn't enjoy that much. Eventually, I was just going for the beer.

A year or so back I did hear they were overhauling their menu in efforts to improve it all around, but I still didn't eat there. I think around the same time I was hearing about how they got a full liquor license and could now served spirits, including home-made mixers and barrel-aged concoctions. This distracted me, and I returned to drink craft cocktails a few times, but still skipped the food.

This finally changed last week, when a burger-obsessed friend of mine told me he'd tried the Counterpoint cheeseburger, and that I had to check it out. He reinforced this two days later by telling me he'd returned already and, once again, had the burger. His recommendation carried weight — not so much because he's a reliable burger advisor, but because he'd violated his self-imposed gluten-free diet, twice, to eat the thing bun and all.

Keeping it simple, and quite tasty. Cheeseburger. Counterpoint.

So I paid Counterpoint another visit on an empty stomach. With the Santa Ana weather in effect, my friends and I grabbed an outdoor table and ordered drinks (with both Alpine and Lost Abbey on tap, my decisions were easy). We ordered a couple appetizers to get things going. First came the cheddar-stuffed fried olives ($5). These were breaded, crunchy and fantastic — all the class of olives but also good to eat while watching basketball on the TV behind the bar.

Next up we tried the bone marrow, served with bacon onion stout jam and sliced baguette ($9). The bacon onion jam had a really nice flavor to it, but then so does the bone marrow. Together they were fine, but I wound up alternating between the two, spreading one at a time so neither had a chance to overshadow the other. Still a pretty decadent lead-in to the burger.

It's not fancy — simple bun, house pickles, spicy aioli and a half-pound of beef. And is that… American cheese? It shouldn't taste as good as it does. Then again, for 12 dollars, including fries, it better.

Three of the four in our group got the burger, and all left happy. The fourth opted for the smoked duck sausage pasta, and maybe even left happier. I nabbed a bite of that sausage, and mentally noted it for my next visit. Also noted were the steak frites, and beef tongue pastrami sandwich. One holdover from the original menu — the fried bologna sandwich — will likely remain in my unsolved mystery files. Still, the place is looking pretty good these days. Granted, there's little competition for the title, but Counterpoint may have become Golden Hill's best restaurant.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Not enough Readers in Mission Beach

Mayor Todd Gloria's skin color
Generously topped by bacon onion stout jam – bone marrow. Counterpoint.
Generously topped by bacon onion stout jam – bone marrow. Counterpoint.
Place

Counterpoint

830 25th Street, San Diego

Always a sociable mix of Golden Hillians.

Having lived in or around Golden Hill for several years, I've spent plenty of time drinking in all the same spots everybody else has — there just aren't many to choose from. Here's the typical where-to-drink discussion among my friends:

"Turf Club?"

"Maybe."

Sponsored
Sponsored

"Counterpoint?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"…Turf Club?"

"What was the other choice again?"

When Counterpoint opened as a wine bar five years back, I was thrilled for the new local option, and especially about the quality of its taplist (I admit, I've never ordered a glass of wine there). Initially, I was thrilled about its food as well, but that sort of dissipated as I tried a few things I deemed just okay for the price, and one or two I didn't enjoy that much. Eventually, I was just going for the beer.

A year or so back I did hear they were overhauling their menu in efforts to improve it all around, but I still didn't eat there. I think around the same time I was hearing about how they got a full liquor license and could now served spirits, including home-made mixers and barrel-aged concoctions. This distracted me, and I returned to drink craft cocktails a few times, but still skipped the food.

This finally changed last week, when a burger-obsessed friend of mine told me he'd tried the Counterpoint cheeseburger, and that I had to check it out. He reinforced this two days later by telling me he'd returned already and, once again, had the burger. His recommendation carried weight — not so much because he's a reliable burger advisor, but because he'd violated his self-imposed gluten-free diet, twice, to eat the thing bun and all.

Keeping it simple, and quite tasty. Cheeseburger. Counterpoint.

So I paid Counterpoint another visit on an empty stomach. With the Santa Ana weather in effect, my friends and I grabbed an outdoor table and ordered drinks (with both Alpine and Lost Abbey on tap, my decisions were easy). We ordered a couple appetizers to get things going. First came the cheddar-stuffed fried olives ($5). These were breaded, crunchy and fantastic — all the class of olives but also good to eat while watching basketball on the TV behind the bar.

Next up we tried the bone marrow, served with bacon onion stout jam and sliced baguette ($9). The bacon onion jam had a really nice flavor to it, but then so does the bone marrow. Together they were fine, but I wound up alternating between the two, spreading one at a time so neither had a chance to overshadow the other. Still a pretty decadent lead-in to the burger.

It's not fancy — simple bun, house pickles, spicy aioli and a half-pound of beef. And is that… American cheese? It shouldn't taste as good as it does. Then again, for 12 dollars, including fries, it better.

Three of the four in our group got the burger, and all left happy. The fourth opted for the smoked duck sausage pasta, and maybe even left happier. I nabbed a bite of that sausage, and mentally noted it for my next visit. Also noted were the steak frites, and beef tongue pastrami sandwich. One holdover from the original menu — the fried bologna sandwich — will likely remain in my unsolved mystery files. Still, the place is looking pretty good these days. Granted, there's little competition for the title, but Counterpoint may have become Golden Hill's best restaurant.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Taco Taco Poway still has 99-cent fish tacos

Tacotopia prizewinner is well known among Powegians
Next Article

Pacific Beach – car thief's paradise

Take photos of your automobile and license plate
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.