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Dollface points the way
Never mind Battle of the Dead — there are $5 tacos to be had!
Five-dollar taco deals? At Comic-Con? Really? I’m still thinking of the second day, the Saturday. We were among thousands of cosplay originals. The two of us felt like visitors from Planet Boring. Around us, everyone was lining up to get in on the “Clown in a Cornfield” maze to spook themselves out.
But Diane and I wanted one thing: food. This was breakfast. This was lunch. “We should have eaten before we got here,” says Diane. “Here, they’ll fleece us like sheep to the slaughter.”
Then, suddenly, we’re standing in front of…aargh! Dollface.
Dollface scrutinizes me. “We are recruiting people for Battle of the Dead,” she says. “Tell your friends: ‘This is where your story ends.’”
“Uh, Ho-Kay,” I say. “But first, do you know any food joints nearby? Somewhere, anywhere where we can get some food, nosh, and not pay Comic-Con prices for it?”
“I’m starving!” says Diane to me like she’s about to faint. Yes, we’ve been walking, shuffling, meeting every alien and monster you can think of, plus running with the crowds all trying to catch the free hats they’re tossing down from a balcony of the Hard Rock Hotel. Guy next to me catches one. “EAT PEACE, MOTHERF##KERS!” it says. Turns out to be from the “Peacemaker” series. Now we’re back in the Main Shuffle facing Dollface.
“One minute,” she says. “Gotta do this photo shoot.” And she leaps into a crouching tiger pose with three other Dollfaces. “Eats? Just up past the MLK sculpture,” she finally says. “Don’t know who it is, but they do five-buck tacos. Scuse me. Another Battle of the Dead.”
As farewell, she pulls her thumb clear across her throat. Nail-down.
Diane and I slip back into the shuffling crowd. “Is that the place?” Diane says, a minute later. She’s looking at a patio of tables and chairs and a bar in front of this sign-free frontage. Walls lining the inside have displays of wine bottles. Diane climbs the low steps. “Hmm,” she says. “Cool wine selection.”
She knows this stuff.
“We’re a little unusual,” says the guy behind the counter. “You won’t find Two Buck Chuck here. We have our own sommelier.”
Brandon. He’s addressing Diane. Maybe he figures she’ll know what a sommelier is. (Wine expert, right?) He can see: she knows her Malbec from her Merlot. Turns out you pay $14 for most glasses, and $10 for a bottle of beer. But hey, they have set up a food stall on the patio. A line of people stands waiting to be served. They have like basic tacos, burritos, quesadillas, looks like. Mostly $14 plates. But the thing I notice is just what Dollface promised: $5 tacos.
Get talking to Brandon. “Our prices? What we didn’t want to do was what everybody else is doing, driving up pricing just for Comic-Con weekend. I learned a couple of years ago: if you go for a value play, you’ll sell way more units, and that’s ultimately what we’re all about. We keep the prices down. We’re a big family here, and there’s not a lot of places around here right now where you can take care of the whole family for $25. So we want to keep that vibe in here, it’s fun for everybody. It’s a great model for us, and it has paid off very well.”
He says the most popular food is the taco combo plate. “People like to mix it up with one beef, one chicken taco, plus rice and beans. All that for fourteen dollars? You can’t beat it.”
Diane and I decide to share that combo deal, with one chicken and one carne asada taco and a plate of rice and beans. Turns out it’s plenty for the two of us, and plenty tasty. Specially the carne asada. They say it’s made from flank steak and/or skirt steak. (Both cuts are known for their tenderness, and their ability to absorb marinades well. I dunno, but I’d go for skirt steak if I had the choice. Little more fat, bit more flavor.) And hey, did they torch it at the end? You get a nice touch of crunch when you bite in.
And let’s not forget the rice and bean dish. “Rice is the carbs, beans are the protein,” says Diane. “They’re the perfect food combination. Cheap and healthy.”
We lean back. I’m thinking cerveza? Or wine? But not the loverly Diane. “Middle of the day? I don’t think so.” She says it like, try this on and death will be a sweet release. Besides, Brandon tells us wine costs $14 a glass. He doesn’t apologize for it. “It’s all really good wine. Hey, we have to have good wine at the Wine and Culinary Center!”
And beer? “Beer is $8 a bottle here. You can get shots, for $10 a shot. cocktails are $14. We think that is still under industry standard prices, especially for this part of downtown.”
Whatever, Diane’s happy. “The food exceeded my expectations,” she says.
Only fly in the ointment? Most of the time, turns out, they’re not open to John Q. Public, except during Comic-Con. “I’m a barman here,” Brandon says. “We are an event space, we do weddings, we do a lot of corporate stuff. We do cooking classes. But the food you’re tasting is from Continental Catering, a sister company of ours that does in-house stuff.”
But but… This terrace is just built for cafe life. Why don’t they go public beyond Comic-Con? “I’d be back,” says Diane. “The food exceeded my expectations, and your wines are definitely interesting.”
Hmm. Rice, beans, wine? Well, why not? They sure have the business today. May we if we keep pushing they’ll relent. The glam gal at the check-out counter seems to agree. “We sold 217 tacos yesterday,” she says. “And that was just Friday.”
The Place: San Diego Wine and Culinary Center, 200 Harbor Drive, Suite 120, tel. 619-660-5338
Hours: Mostly by arrangement
Prices (as at Comic-Con): Tacos, carne asada, chicken, $5; 2-taco plate with rice and beans, $14; most Mexican food plates, e.g. quesadilla plate, burrito plate, $14; wine, $14; beer, $10
Trolleys: Blue Line, Green Line, Orange Line
Nearest Trolley Stop: Convention Center
Buses: 12, 901, 929
Nearest Bus Stop: 3rd and J
Here's something you might be interested in.
Dollface points the way
Never mind Battle of the Dead — there are $5 tacos to be had!
Dollface points the way
Never mind Battle of the Dead — there are $5 tacos to be had!
Five-dollar taco deals? At Comic-Con? Really? I’m still thinking of the second day, the Saturday. We were among thousands of cosplay originals. The two of us felt like visitors from Planet Boring. Around us, everyone was lining up to get in on the “Clown in a Cornfield” maze to spook themselves out.
But Diane and I wanted one thing: food. This was breakfast. This was lunch. “We should have eaten before we got here,” says Diane. “Here, they’ll fleece us like sheep to the slaughter.”
Then, suddenly, we’re standing in front of…aargh! Dollface.
Dollface scrutinizes me. “We are recruiting people for Battle of the Dead,” she says. “Tell your friends: ‘This is where your story ends.’”
“Uh, Ho-Kay,” I say. “But first, do you know any food joints nearby? Somewhere, anywhere where we can get some food, nosh, and not pay Comic-Con prices for it?”
“I’m starving!” says Diane to me like she’s about to faint. Yes, we’ve been walking, shuffling, meeting every alien and monster you can think of, plus running with the crowds all trying to catch the free hats they’re tossing down from a balcony of the Hard Rock Hotel. Guy next to me catches one. “EAT PEACE, MOTHERF##KERS!” it says. Turns out to be from the “Peacemaker” series. Now we’re back in the Main Shuffle facing Dollface.
“One minute,” she says. “Gotta do this photo shoot.” And she leaps into a crouching tiger pose with three other Dollfaces. “Eats? Just up past the MLK sculpture,” she finally says. “Don’t know who it is, but they do five-buck tacos. Scuse me. Another Battle of the Dead.”
As farewell, she pulls her thumb clear across her throat. Nail-down.
Diane and I slip back into the shuffling crowd. “Is that the place?” Diane says, a minute later. She’s looking at a patio of tables and chairs and a bar in front of this sign-free frontage. Walls lining the inside have displays of wine bottles. Diane climbs the low steps. “Hmm,” she says. “Cool wine selection.”
She knows this stuff.
“We’re a little unusual,” says the guy behind the counter. “You won’t find Two Buck Chuck here. We have our own sommelier.”
Brandon. He’s addressing Diane. Maybe he figures she’ll know what a sommelier is. (Wine expert, right?) He can see: she knows her Malbec from her Merlot. Turns out you pay $14 for most glasses, and $10 for a bottle of beer. But hey, they have set up a food stall on the patio. A line of people stands waiting to be served. They have like basic tacos, burritos, quesadillas, looks like. Mostly $14 plates. But the thing I notice is just what Dollface promised: $5 tacos.
Get talking to Brandon. “Our prices? What we didn’t want to do was what everybody else is doing, driving up pricing just for Comic-Con weekend. I learned a couple of years ago: if you go for a value play, you’ll sell way more units, and that’s ultimately what we’re all about. We keep the prices down. We’re a big family here, and there’s not a lot of places around here right now where you can take care of the whole family for $25. So we want to keep that vibe in here, it’s fun for everybody. It’s a great model for us, and it has paid off very well.”
He says the most popular food is the taco combo plate. “People like to mix it up with one beef, one chicken taco, plus rice and beans. All that for fourteen dollars? You can’t beat it.”
Diane and I decide to share that combo deal, with one chicken and one carne asada taco and a plate of rice and beans. Turns out it’s plenty for the two of us, and plenty tasty. Specially the carne asada. They say it’s made from flank steak and/or skirt steak. (Both cuts are known for their tenderness, and their ability to absorb marinades well. I dunno, but I’d go for skirt steak if I had the choice. Little more fat, bit more flavor.) And hey, did they torch it at the end? You get a nice touch of crunch when you bite in.
And let’s not forget the rice and bean dish. “Rice is the carbs, beans are the protein,” says Diane. “They’re the perfect food combination. Cheap and healthy.”
We lean back. I’m thinking cerveza? Or wine? But not the loverly Diane. “Middle of the day? I don’t think so.” She says it like, try this on and death will be a sweet release. Besides, Brandon tells us wine costs $14 a glass. He doesn’t apologize for it. “It’s all really good wine. Hey, we have to have good wine at the Wine and Culinary Center!”
And beer? “Beer is $8 a bottle here. You can get shots, for $10 a shot. cocktails are $14. We think that is still under industry standard prices, especially for this part of downtown.”
Whatever, Diane’s happy. “The food exceeded my expectations,” she says.
Only fly in the ointment? Most of the time, turns out, they’re not open to John Q. Public, except during Comic-Con. “I’m a barman here,” Brandon says. “We are an event space, we do weddings, we do a lot of corporate stuff. We do cooking classes. But the food you’re tasting is from Continental Catering, a sister company of ours that does in-house stuff.”
But but… This terrace is just built for cafe life. Why don’t they go public beyond Comic-Con? “I’d be back,” says Diane. “The food exceeded my expectations, and your wines are definitely interesting.”
Hmm. Rice, beans, wine? Well, why not? They sure have the business today. May we if we keep pushing they’ll relent. The glam gal at the check-out counter seems to agree. “We sold 217 tacos yesterday,” she says. “And that was just Friday.”
The Place: San Diego Wine and Culinary Center, 200 Harbor Drive, Suite 120, tel. 619-660-5338
Hours: Mostly by arrangement
Prices (as at Comic-Con): Tacos, carne asada, chicken, $5; 2-taco plate with rice and beans, $14; most Mexican food plates, e.g. quesadilla plate, burrito plate, $14; wine, $14; beer, $10
Trolleys: Blue Line, Green Line, Orange Line
Nearest Trolley Stop: Convention Center
Buses: 12, 901, 929
Nearest Bus Stop: 3rd and J
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