Welcome to our new favorite brewery in San Diego. Well, to be honest, it's only one of our new favorites being that there are always soooo many to choose from.
Nestled in fairly central North Park on a larger than normal site is the second location of Rip Current Brewing, and more of a tap room than the original San Marcos location. They have a decent selection of their own brews and a half dozen or so guest taps. Now for those of you that know me you know that I'm not an IPA guy. I love saisons or ales (the non-IPA type) of all types. However, with that said, and with the advice of our new best friend Andy, photo not included, Andy gently steers us towards their flagship beer, the Lupulin Lust San Diego Style IPA. A beautiful melange of fruit and hops, sweet and bitter, but just the right amount of both. If a saison and an IPA had a baby we'd have to name it Lupulin Lust (no frick'n idea what a Lupulin is...but I bet Google does...).
The back wall is adorned with a small portion of the owner's beer can collection, the balance of which is at their San Marcos location.
Hi HG!
Occupying the rear of the property is Sublime North Park.
Sublime is also a brewery in San Marcos and they are pal's with Rip Current. Rip Current hasn't evolved into offering they own tasty niblets yet, and they may never will, so they have contracted with their good ol' buds Sublime to bring the meal to your mouth.
Sublime North Park, Gourmet Comfort Food.... OK, I really hope so.... :-O
Sublime has a fairly extensive menu, from salads and starters to burgers, sandwiches, and pizzas.
As I approach the ordering window a large mound of bacon stares back.
And here's the deal, we are super starving and have been planning this visit for a while. We've been here before for the beers and loved them, and this time we're totally looking forward to checking out the eats. One of their "specials" is the Sizzling Sisig. It reads great on the menu, so what the heck, let's start with that. Braised pork and onions and jalepeńo, cast iron pan, Hawaiian rolls, yeah, gonna crush it.
And then this arrives.
Gourmet?
Maybe in San Marcos this passes as gourmet, but not here, not many places for that matter. It looks absolutely terrible, not appetizing, pretty gross in fact. Did they totally burn the shit out of it and say "serve it anyway, maybe they won't notice!"????? Well, sorry to break this to you Sublime, we noticed. Anyone one would notice.
And then the smell hits us. Deliciously porky and greasy. We're 3 beers into it at this point, so we split some rolls, load them up, run them through the grease, and in the mouth they go....
And wowzer, does this taste good? It tastes really really good. Although I see no sight nor smell of any onion or jalepeńo, I taste them, all of them. It's as though the pork, during it's annihilation over excessive heat, has become one with the veg. Napalm has fused all of the ingredients into oneness. A delicious singularity. Toasty, sweet, greasy and crispy.
Let's review:
1) Rip Current Brewery kicks ass. I love them and can't wait to return. I love their beers so much that I bought TWO growlers so I can have this stuff at home as well. Thanks for coming to the hood Rip Current! See you soon.
2) Sublime North Park, your presentation needs help, a LOT of help. We will return and we will eat again, but we'd love for it to look half as good as it tastes, which amazing. All you had to do with the Sisig was through some fresh onion and jalepeńos on top to finish it. I want to see the ingredients, even just a little, fake it if you have to, but do it, please, it needs it.
3) There is no #3. Thanks for reading or at least looking at the photos.
Peace
Love
Good Food
Good Drinks
DVA
Thanks for the review! Looking forward to checking these out!
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