Not gonna lie.  The Tilted Kilt is not your run of the mill Gringo-like joint.  The Gringos tend to roll indie style.  We like places we feel have great ambiance, a deep sense of substance, a true measure of individuality.  And The Kilt — well, it’s got a clearly corporate feel to it.  No question about that.  You walk in and know what they’re about: a commercial Celtic-American themed sports pub, where the food and drink are served by hot chicks.  Cuuuuue … military dudes, frat dudes and sports geeks.

For all that — as long as we’re keeping it real — I suppose there’s nothing wrong with having your cold beers (and they have plenty) served by beautiful girls in knee high stockings and plaid kilts.  We hung for an hour with our crew, and we had a great time.  And although there are like 30 or 40 Tilted Kilts in the U.S., here is what you can count on from each and every one:

• A large, full service bar
• Lots of young, pretty servers
• Everyday, commercial pub fare
• Tons of TVs tuned to sports channels
• Pool tables galore
• A shuffleboard or two

Look, the Kilt doesn’t put on any airs.  Their straight forward slogan is “A cold beer never looked so good” – it’s kind of like Hooters for sports geeks and grown-ups.  But you know what?  They know what they do, they do it really well, so mad props to them.

Count on them a safe bet, a sports joint not necessarily looking to establish any new boundaries, but simply promising to deliver a solid chain-like pub experience.

The Tilted Kilt
310 10th Ave.
San Diego, CA 92101
tiltedkilt.com
[googleMap width="560" height="300" directions_to="false"]310 10th Ave., San Diego, CA 92101 [/googleMap]

The Field

In stark contrast to the Kilt’s corporate feel, The Field is genuine slice of Ireland dropped into the heart of San Diego’s Gaslamp.  Owned by husband and wife team Daniel & Enda Drayne, it oozes sheer, raw Irish pubiness like few others do.  No doubt that’s because it is an actual Irish pub, imported to the U.S. piece by individual piece.  Pretty amazing.

You find yourself walking in, breathing in its pure Celtic air, and falling in love with the joint.   We were instantly mesmerized by the dark, pleasantly claustrophobic, old world charm.  Low lying ceilings, dim yellow lighting, old Irish wall hangings, dark wood furnishings all conspire to lend a sense of authenticity that is … well … authentic.  And therefore Gringolicious.

Better yet, our servers all had Irish accents, knew about their many imported draught beers, and were equally well-informed on The Field’s incredible whiskey offerings — 50 odd labels of  single malt and blended whiskeys!  Impressive stats.   Our Man Nipples is on a whiskey kick these days — he was over in a dark corner sipping on something magnificent, in a clear state of Gringo delirium.

Finally, if the sheer ambiance, beer and whiskey selection aren’t enough, The Field proudly serves up authentic Irish cuisine — breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night grub for all you Gaslampers.  Items like Shepherd’s pie, Bangers & Champs, and a full selection of boxtys fill the menu.  Prices are way reasonable at range of say $6-$15 for each item.  We didn’t eat, due to our ambitious schedule that night, but these guys clearly mean business (which probably explains their seemingly endless array of Best Pub awards).  So we can’t wait to get back and give their menu a good working over.  I’ve never had a boxty before, but you can bet I will on our next visit.

By way of recap — The Field is real, true, honest, inspired.  We love it.  And we highly recommend it.

The Field
544 Fifth Avenue
San Diego, CA 92101
thefield.com

[googleMap width="560" height="300" directions_to="false"]544 Fifth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101[/googleMap]

East Village has that slick metropolitan feel you often find in the down town areas of America’s great cities.  The Corner takes that metro vibe and adds an industrial angle to create a fabulous urban interpretation of the classic American burger joint.  For all that styling, though, it’s utterly chill and totally inviting.  They themselves describe it as built “for the neighbors, by the neighbors” – a great founding philosophy.

We wouldn’t say their food and drink offerings are particularly inventive, per se, so much as gently original reinterpretations of American classics.  But they’re flawlessly executed, with fresh and flavorful ingredients, and they deliver great value.  Burgers and cocktails tend to run $10 to $12, beers are $4 to $6, wines are about $8 a glass.  Pretty fair.  Also, we love that they source their produce and meats from small, responsible, family owned growers.  That’s just good karma.

I enjoyed their Jalapeno burger with a Firehouse Pale.  It was exactly what a burger should be: a little too big, a little too juicy, and ‘not for the faint of heart’ according to their menu.  But I’m a Gringo, yo.  ‘Faint” is not in my vocabulary; I annihilated that burger with mad flourish.  Joel tore up their delicious Corner Sliders with a Yellowtail Pale — he didn’t talk much, but he cleared his plate and drained his glass in like 30 seconds.  Pretty much self explanatory.  He was clearly in a state of Gringo bliss.

All-in-all, we give them 44 million Gringo Points because this place represents the Essence of Gringo.  First time a score like that has ever happened.  God bless Gringo, and God bless The Corner.  We can’t wait to get back.

(Quick note: Firehouse Brewing Company is a San Diego brewery, and Yellowtail is produced by Ballast Point Brewing Company, also in San Diego.  We’ll be featuring them in upcoming segments.  Stay tuned.)

For more details, see below:

The Corner
369 10TH Avenue, San Diego, CA
Phone: (619) 531-8804
www.thecornersd.com
Twitter: @cornerlounge 
facebook.com/TheCornerSanDiego

[googleMap name="The Corner" width="560" height="300" directions_to="false"]369 10TH Avenue, San Diego, CA[/googleMap]

No two ways about it, Pacific Beach’s Tap Room is simply a gloriously gringo place.

For starters, they feature two of our favorite things, pizza and beer.  The pizza’s are hand tossed and delicious, the beers are many and varied.   Secondly, its got good ol’ down home, unpretentious charm.  And third, there are three Gringo Rules we pretty much live by in our travels:  1) go where the locals go  2) eat where the locals eat  3) drink where the locals drink.  The Tap Room most definitely meets all three of those requirements.

For our purposes on this trip, we focused on their beer selection.  We had just enjoyed a late breakfast at PB’s World Famous (highly recommended; incredible Bloody Marys; they get their own segment someday), and we were in a mood for new San Diego beer discoveries.  The Tap Room is known not only for their incredible total beer selection, but for their strong offering of San Diego’s local breweries, in particular.  Since we were looking for a solid sense of local flavor, it was pretty much a mandatory stop.

We walked in and knew in an instant this place was for us.  The Tap Room is located on Garnet — the main drag that runs through PB — and  most of the action takes place in one big, casual room filled with tables, booths and an equally large bar.  The servers are great, the locals pack the joint, the room is filled with energized conversation, and a seemingly endless array of stacked kegs sit in plain view.  Our kind of beer house.

Joel and I each went thru our own tasting of 6 beers each, then spent some time connecting with warmhearted locals, chatting about beers and brewing before stepping outside for a quick trip recap.  We hope you enjoy the post as much as we enjoyed the people and beers of this Pacific Beach gem.

Quick note:  at the time of our visit, The Tap Room was celebrating their 3rd anniversary.  We can’t think of anyone that deserves success more.  Congrats and cheers!  We can’t wait to get back.

1269 Garnet Avenue San Diego, CA 92109
Phone: (858) 274-1010
www.pbtaproom.com
Twitter: @TapRoom
facebook.com/SdTapRoom

[googleMap name="Tap Room" width="560" height="300" directions_to="false"]1269 Garnet Avenue San Diego, CA 92109 [/googleMap]

Welcome to the first of four fun segments from our recent San Diego trip.

Look — what’s not to love about San Diego?  Its a glorious place, a city pretty much made for Gringos like us.   There’s just  so much to see and do, it was tough to even know where to start our adventures.  But based on strong local recommendation, we decided to start in Pacific Beach, at the Pacific Beach AleHouse.

As you probably know, “PB” is a super laid back  beach community well-known for its relaxed attitude and virtually endless entertainment possibilities.   And the AleHouse proved to be a perfect launch for our grand journey.

Excellent, down home fare, a fine arrangement of micro-brews, and an easy going beach-slash-lodge kind of vibe.  Outdoor fire pits, awesome lounge areas, super cool outdoor upper deck … 100% Gringolicious.  We loved every minute of it.  We also tasted thru way too many beers.  But that’s the Gringo way, right?   Far be it from us to stray from the our chosen path.   

For more details, see below:

721 Grand Avenue
San Diego, CA 92109-3905
Corner of Grand & Mission in the heart of Pacific Beach

Phone  ::  581-2337
Web  ::  pbalehouse.com

8 of their own handcrafted beers
Open Daily from 9:00am-1:30am
Happy Hour Mon-Fri 3:00pm-6:00pm

[googleMap name="Pacific Beach AleHouse" width="560" height="300" directions_to="false"]721 Grand Avenue San Diego, CA 92109-3905[/googleMap]

We know its been a while since we last posted, but we had some remaining footage from our Sausalito Road Trip that we never had a chance to edit and post. This is a post from our fourth day back down from San Francisco. We stopped again in Santa Cruz and had to drop in to see our friends at 515 Kitchen & Cocktails.

This amazing place will always have a special place in our gringo hearts. We hung out by the fire, had a couple of drinks, and did a nice little private Gin tasting (compliments of the bartender). We hope you guys enjoy this post and can visit 515 the next time you in Santa cruz. We hope to do more with them in the future with some of their beer & wine pairing dinners!!!! We will keep you posted. A definite Gringo Approval!

Much Love!

View Larger Map

Here is another post from the random happenings of our trip to Frisco, aka the 4:6 (better late than never right?). After the trip we got thrown into the tornado of reality and the Holidays, so it has postponed our video posting schedule. This is only a fraction of the crazy stuff that happened as we journeyed up the coast, and we still have a couple of more posts coming. Stay tuned for more good stuff, future travels, and possibly some awesome gringo products/merch.

After the Wine Institute event, we hit San Francisco (aka The 46).  We were in the mood for some down home grubbin, pub-style.

Twitter follower/friend extraordinaire @emmaleaky made a great recommendation for good eats, so we ended up at Fiddler’s Green the great Irish pub, then we rolled to Berkeley for open mike night at The Starry Plough.  Joel was falling asleep from a long day (-5 Gringo points), so we called it a night.   Three cheers for Cavallo Point, our fine resort — an amazing concept and all around incredible place

Next day, bright and early, Joel’s wife, Eric-with-Short-Hair,  located more great nosh for us.  We did breakfast at the iconic Dottie’s True Blue Cafe, a true SF must visit.  The rest of the day, we totally schooled a meter maid (aka The Interceptor), got rejected at Anchor Steam Brewery, watched breakdancers with all the tourists at Pier 39, and finally rolled to Santa Cruz to end the day at the amazing restaurant and lounge 515.  We have lots of awesome video, it’ll be posted soon.  See some a brief preview below.  Good times.

Also, if you’re not following us yet, what the hell are you waiting for?  You know you want to.

We rolled out of Santa Cruz on November 17th with little time to spare.  We had to get Cane up to Sausalito to co-speak at the Wine Institute’s “California’s New Generation Vintners & Growers” event.  We were so rushed upon arrival, we literally checked in, changed shirts and hit the event.   Here are a few fun snippets — including Cane doing a pared down version the Gringo Boogie, which sent Joel into convulsions of laughter during editing.

Quick note about Cane’s awesome panel mates:

• Courtney Cochran, panel moderator.  Your Personal Sommelier & Wine Consultant, see her at http://www.courtneycochran.com
  
• Cheryl Murphy-Durzy, Clos LaChance.  Check them out at http://www.clos.com
• Nicholas Miller, Bien Nacido Vineyards.  He can be found at http://www.biennacidovineyards.com
• Judd Finkelstein, Judd’s Hill.  Check out his inventive wine show at http://www.juddshill.com
  

We have loads of additional trip video coming any day.  Meanwhile, if you’re not already … be sure to get you some Gringo on Twitter.

It’s been a long, hard road to get this video uploaded, but it is finally here — a mere 2 days late. We have so much more coming, and hope to have it up within the next 24 hours.

Stay posted, and for the most current Gringo awesomeness … for God’s sake, follow us on Twitter!