San Diego Reader

• Restaurant | American | La Jolla

Girard Gourmet

• 7837 Girard Street, San Diego, CA 92037 | Directions
• 858-454-3321 | Website

This is the time of year for Girard Gourmet. “We have a one-acre garden up in Julian that my husband François tends each week,” Diana Goedhuys told me. She looks and sounds just like Julia Child. “We have been composting it for eight years, and now it’s really starting to pay off, everything from eggplant to eggs to pears to peaches. We have 40 fruit and nut trees. And it will all come down to enter our little food chain here.”

The beans I have with my roast chicken, the squash, the parsnips, chopped and sautéed beautifully with potatoes, all have come down the mountain and all have vibrant flavors. And we’re paying eight, ten bucks for these full, mostly homegrown meals.

Stephanie, the gal in the Hobbit-like seating on the sidewalk, is spooning up a soup of tomatillos and zucchini that were also plucked from François’s garden, you can bet.

“It’s a meal,” she says. With a chunk of eight-grain bread, it cost her $3.77. In La Jolla? Go figure.

— Ed Bedford