Before we left on our trip, the Missus wanted a nice dinner in the North Park area, "something new". We'd recently had a not so satisfying dinner in the area and with prices these days, well, we'd rather not spend $19 for a single scallop appetizer. While doing a bit of searching, I found that the wine bar Little Thief had closed and was replaced by a restaurant and wine bar called Long Story Short. I enjoyed the backstory of the chefs a husband and wife team. You can read about that here. The restaurant was only open from 4pm to 10pm Tuesdays to Saturdays and the menu was ever changing, based on what could be sourced locally, something that is amazing when it works out, but can be disappointing when it doesn't.
I made reservations for Tuesday at the 5pm slot and we headed on over.
The place was pretty quiet when we arrived.
Our Server was a very friendly woman and we decided to have seat outside since it was such a nice day.
We weren't too hungry and ordered two "hot" dishes and a pasta.
First to arrive was the Uni "French Toast" ($30).
Well, this is San Diego Uni, so while I was worried we'd be getting one little piece of Uni on a slice of micro toast, we still had to try it. Luckily, it was not that. The uni melted in your mouth with that delicate lightly briny-savory-sweetness; the brioche had a nice butteriness but wasn't overly sweet. There was just a touch of avocado which really made no difference. The shoyu added some saltiness to things. As for the koji-maitake miso; well, the best thing I can say is that it didn't interfere with the clean, yet decadent textures and flavors of the uni and brioche. This was by far our favorite dish of the meal.
Based on the other dishes in the meal; I ordered some bread ($9) and butter. Yes, they charge you nine bucks for bread here.
Especially since it was "Hoja Santa" Sourdough. You know the Missus and Her love for Hoya Santa, right? Unfortunately, the hoya santa was placed on the crust of the bread and we really couldn't make out the wonderful anise-minty-grassy tones of hoya santa we love. Also, it just seems that the flavor of Hoya Santa here is not as assertive as what we'd had in Oaxaca. We also didn't care much for the "street-corn" butter. The bread itself proved to be an adequate vehicle for dipping though.
Next to arrive was the Roasted Winter Squash ($22).
The Missus loves Kabocha which was in this dish; She loves mushrooms and this featured Maitake and Oyster mushrooms. Unfortunately, the sum of the parts just didn't go together well. The sweetness of the kabocha was overly heightened which nullified the earthy tones of the mushrooms. A bit too much sour and sweet for us. The brown butter was also a bit much. Our least favorite dish of the evening.
The last item up was the Chino Farms Corn and Ricotta Agnolotti ($29).
I would usually hesitate in ordering a pasta dish with corn in the fear it would be too sweet. But this dish included Huitlacoche another one of our favorite ingredients. The actual dough for the pasta was a bit on thick side and chewy, but the balance of sweet and salty was nicely balanced. The sauces weren't too heavy. The aleppo pepper was barely detectible in the dish. Still, the sauce was quite nice with the bread.
The Missus enjoyed the two glasses of wine She had with Her meal. The timing was kind of uneven as it was almost a 30 minute wait between the Kabocha dish and the pasta, though the folks working were quite friendly. We did enjoy the uni, so perhaps we'll return. It's totally up to the Missus if we will. I'm hoping they do well; heck two of the places we visited less than a year-and-half ago; Verbena Kitchen and Hoxton Manor have already closed.
Whoa, I just noticed that I'm over 700 words for a single visit post with 3 dishes! I guess I made what should have been a "short story long" in the case of "Long Story Short"!
Long Story Short
3017 University Ave.
San Diego, CA 92104
Current Hours:
Tues - Sat 4pm - 10pm
Closed Sunday and Monday
bummer
Posted by: kat | Tuesday, 14 November 2023 at 09:08 PM
At least that uni on brioche wwas good Kat!
Posted by: Kirk | Wednesday, 15 November 2023 at 06:50 AM
Ha! Short story long.
Posted by: Junichi | Wednesday, 15 November 2023 at 10:13 AM
I took a look at the word count when I was almost done with the post and couldn't believe I had written so much Junichi! ;o)
Posted by: Kirk | Wednesday, 15 November 2023 at 10:57 AM
The uni looks good.
Posted by: Som Tommy | Thursday, 16 November 2023 at 08:18 AM
That was our favorite item ST!
Posted by: Kirk | Thursday, 16 November 2023 at 02:13 PM
They just announced they are closing and moving back to popups, so maybe the food will continue changing as they get back to their original incarnation of long story short.
Posted by: Dereck | Wednesday, 06 December 2023 at 02:29 PM
Yes, I heard about that yesterday Dereck! Hope to hear another update soon!
Posted by: Kirk | Wednesday, 06 December 2023 at 05:02 PM