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

Chinatown Bar & Grill: “We don’t do Chinese”

Chinatown Burger anyone?

Built to be a dive bar, but kinda classy too
Built to be a dive bar, but kinda classy too
Place

Chinatown Bar and Grill

4727 University Avenue, San Diego

I’m up near Euclid, on University. Looking round, choosing the place that’s gonna fill my belly. Ethiopian? Cambodian? Mexican? Chinese? I swear. This underrated neighborhood has just about any food you could ask for.

At the alley after 47th, I come across this black building with a Chinese dragon neon sign I swear I’ve seen before. Oh yes! Outside Jimmy Wong’s Golden Dragon Restaurant in Hillcrest (now Asian Bistro). This one says “Chinatown.” Not only that, but the top of the building has a flourish that looks straight out of Shanghai.

Kind of dive bar-looking. And yet it all feels new. Above, on the second floor, elegant windows open out and look down on you.

Bill Lutzius

So hey, “Chinatown Bar and Grill?” Chinese grill? Sounds like we’ve got to investigate. I haul one door open, blink a lot until I get used to the dark. And hey hey! Lots of booths on the left, long bar on the right, a huge backboard of green and gold-lit bottles. Lot of whiskey, mezcal, I notice, and a nicely sparky barkeep, Maja (“Pronounced ‘Maya.’ I am from the town of Pula, Croatia”) behind the bar.

I mean, it’s a bar, giving off a dive bar vibe, except it’s too classy. I sit up to the counter and ask for a lemonade (working tonight), and then check the happy hour specials. Ooh, $2 tacos, $3 cheese (whatever that is), $5 fried tomatillos, $6 “tachos.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Tachos? Turns out they’re “nacho tots,” tater tots topped with “queso, grilled jalapeño, green onion, tomato and lime cream.”

But hold your horses. Where’s the Chinese nosh?

“We don’t do Chinese,” says Maja.

TF Chinatown burger. Umami, all the way through

“The name’s more like a tribute to the area,” says this gent nursing a beer two stools down, “to places like Chinatown Plaza across the road. I just wanted to make this a bar of the neighborhood. There’s been one here for most of the last 100 years.”

He’s Bill Lutzius. The owner. He used to own the still-famous Aero Club Bar on India Street.

“You don’t see many new ones like this,” I say.

“That’s because most small neighborhood corner bar owners can’t afford to keep going,” he says. “As soon as a new landlord takes over, the rent jumps, and small bar owners don’t have a chance. Look what happened when they developed downtown. All the neighborhoods’ bars’ licenses were taken and used to create The Gaslamp. At the Aero Club Bar I had been paying $1200. It went up to like $12,000. I got out. Then of course I bought this. Had to rebuild the en-tire building. Just about ruined me. But I’m from Brooklyn. Stubborn. And hey, I like a neighborhood bar. It has eaten up over three years of my life. And I’m still not making profit. But for some crazy reason, I feel happy.”

I look at his backboard. It has fresh-carved period woodwork. The lights are new but forties style, and the metal ceiling tiles are beautiful. You can see an Egyptian theme running through.

He says go look upstairs. Wow. A beautiful lounge room that makes you feel like you’re in Saigon. Also up there, double-wow! An outdoor garden patio. People eating, chatting, smoking. “You can, up here,” says Bill. Also, expensively-mounted artwork. Pictures of forties stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall. You can see: The guy has really poured his heart and fortune into this project.

So, tachos or fried tomatillos for app? ”Tomatillos are kind of sour,” says Maja, “but the crunchy batter they’re in makes them really delicious.”

Or tachos? Next time. They’re $6 in happy hour. Dollar more than fried tomatillos.

“Tomatillos,” I say.

Maja runs happy hour

And for mains? They have a bunch of regular-priced food items. Like Philly cheesesteak or French Dip au jus for $9, a toasted brioche of grilled cheddar, Swiss, or pepper jack for $4. Hmm. Brioche. As the menu says: Good way to soak up your beer. Half-pound burger’s $8, and so is the veggie burger, even though it’s only got a 1/4lb “Beyond Beef” patty. The house pork sandwich is $9, with spicy coleslaw and fried onions. Or BBQ pork fries looks good too: Fries with pulled pork on top plus cheddar, BBQ sauce, sour cream. Costs $8.50.

Hmm. decisions, decisions. Then I look at the menu, and there is Cleopatra herself, holding out a big fat hamburger. History is destiny, they say. What da heck, may as well have a burger.

“Have the Chinatown Burger,” says Maja. “It has the pepper jack cheese, fried onions, and aioli.”

So it’s $9, a dollar more. That’s okay.

Reward Number One: Arturo the cook brings out this plate really loaded with about a dozen tomatillos covered in crunchy batter. And Maja was right. The twang of the tomatillos finds refuge in the nice grunge of their batter.

The burger? It’s big. The great thing about it is the umami flavor goes right through the fat patty. No pink naked taste in the middle. Bun’s toasted, almost burnt, so its edges add carbon to the twang. It’s really good.

Bill may be complaining about business, but now, about 7:30 on a Monday, the place is nicely filling up. Arturo races back and forth from the kitchen.

Outside, the sun has set and the sky paints gentle colors. The hard edge of midday is gone.

And then Bill’s dragon lights up. Ultra cool! I can see how this part of town could become the next neighborhood to pop. “

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

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

Tijuana sewage infects air in South Bay

By September, Imperial Beach’s beach closure broke 1000 consecutive days
Next Article

Extended family dynamics

Many of our neighbors live in the house they grew up in
Built to be a dive bar, but kinda classy too
Built to be a dive bar, but kinda classy too
Place

Chinatown Bar and Grill

4727 University Avenue, San Diego

I’m up near Euclid, on University. Looking round, choosing the place that’s gonna fill my belly. Ethiopian? Cambodian? Mexican? Chinese? I swear. This underrated neighborhood has just about any food you could ask for.

At the alley after 47th, I come across this black building with a Chinese dragon neon sign I swear I’ve seen before. Oh yes! Outside Jimmy Wong’s Golden Dragon Restaurant in Hillcrest (now Asian Bistro). This one says “Chinatown.” Not only that, but the top of the building has a flourish that looks straight out of Shanghai.

Kind of dive bar-looking. And yet it all feels new. Above, on the second floor, elegant windows open out and look down on you.

Bill Lutzius

So hey, “Chinatown Bar and Grill?” Chinese grill? Sounds like we’ve got to investigate. I haul one door open, blink a lot until I get used to the dark. And hey hey! Lots of booths on the left, long bar on the right, a huge backboard of green and gold-lit bottles. Lot of whiskey, mezcal, I notice, and a nicely sparky barkeep, Maja (“Pronounced ‘Maya.’ I am from the town of Pula, Croatia”) behind the bar.

I mean, it’s a bar, giving off a dive bar vibe, except it’s too classy. I sit up to the counter and ask for a lemonade (working tonight), and then check the happy hour specials. Ooh, $2 tacos, $3 cheese (whatever that is), $5 fried tomatillos, $6 “tachos.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Tachos? Turns out they’re “nacho tots,” tater tots topped with “queso, grilled jalapeño, green onion, tomato and lime cream.”

But hold your horses. Where’s the Chinese nosh?

“We don’t do Chinese,” says Maja.

TF Chinatown burger. Umami, all the way through

“The name’s more like a tribute to the area,” says this gent nursing a beer two stools down, “to places like Chinatown Plaza across the road. I just wanted to make this a bar of the neighborhood. There’s been one here for most of the last 100 years.”

He’s Bill Lutzius. The owner. He used to own the still-famous Aero Club Bar on India Street.

“You don’t see many new ones like this,” I say.

“That’s because most small neighborhood corner bar owners can’t afford to keep going,” he says. “As soon as a new landlord takes over, the rent jumps, and small bar owners don’t have a chance. Look what happened when they developed downtown. All the neighborhoods’ bars’ licenses were taken and used to create The Gaslamp. At the Aero Club Bar I had been paying $1200. It went up to like $12,000. I got out. Then of course I bought this. Had to rebuild the en-tire building. Just about ruined me. But I’m from Brooklyn. Stubborn. And hey, I like a neighborhood bar. It has eaten up over three years of my life. And I’m still not making profit. But for some crazy reason, I feel happy.”

I look at his backboard. It has fresh-carved period woodwork. The lights are new but forties style, and the metal ceiling tiles are beautiful. You can see an Egyptian theme running through.

He says go look upstairs. Wow. A beautiful lounge room that makes you feel like you’re in Saigon. Also up there, double-wow! An outdoor garden patio. People eating, chatting, smoking. “You can, up here,” says Bill. Also, expensively-mounted artwork. Pictures of forties stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall. You can see: The guy has really poured his heart and fortune into this project.

So, tachos or fried tomatillos for app? ”Tomatillos are kind of sour,” says Maja, “but the crunchy batter they’re in makes them really delicious.”

Or tachos? Next time. They’re $6 in happy hour. Dollar more than fried tomatillos.

“Tomatillos,” I say.

Maja runs happy hour

And for mains? They have a bunch of regular-priced food items. Like Philly cheesesteak or French Dip au jus for $9, a toasted brioche of grilled cheddar, Swiss, or pepper jack for $4. Hmm. Brioche. As the menu says: Good way to soak up your beer. Half-pound burger’s $8, and so is the veggie burger, even though it’s only got a 1/4lb “Beyond Beef” patty. The house pork sandwich is $9, with spicy coleslaw and fried onions. Or BBQ pork fries looks good too: Fries with pulled pork on top plus cheddar, BBQ sauce, sour cream. Costs $8.50.

Hmm. decisions, decisions. Then I look at the menu, and there is Cleopatra herself, holding out a big fat hamburger. History is destiny, they say. What da heck, may as well have a burger.

“Have the Chinatown Burger,” says Maja. “It has the pepper jack cheese, fried onions, and aioli.”

So it’s $9, a dollar more. That’s okay.

Reward Number One: Arturo the cook brings out this plate really loaded with about a dozen tomatillos covered in crunchy batter. And Maja was right. The twang of the tomatillos finds refuge in the nice grunge of their batter.

The burger? It’s big. The great thing about it is the umami flavor goes right through the fat patty. No pink naked taste in the middle. Bun’s toasted, almost burnt, so its edges add carbon to the twang. It’s really good.

Bill may be complaining about business, but now, about 7:30 on a Monday, the place is nicely filling up. Arturo races back and forth from the kitchen.

Outside, the sun has set and the sky paints gentle colors. The hard edge of midday is gone.

And then Bill’s dragon lights up. Ultra cool! I can see how this part of town could become the next neighborhood to pop. “

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

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

The danger of San Diego's hoarders

The $1 million Flash Comics #1
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Goose may have indie vibes, but they’re still a jam band

Fans turn out in force for show at SDSU
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.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader