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BLOG: Creating Culinary Culture in San Diego

Editor's Letter (8/2/10)

Try labeling Little Italy’s soon-to-open Craft & Commerce bar/restaurant and you’ll ultimately get categorically confused. Describing this place can make you a little dizzy, actually. But it’s worth the head spins.

“It’s a hybrid,” says co-owner Arsalun Tafazoli. “It’s a restaurant and it’s a cocktail bar and it’s a gastropub.”

Prepare to be taken aback. The décor, for starters, is a rhapsody of bohemia, courtesy of local designer Paul Basile. The ceiling is wood—reclaimed snow fencing from Wyoming (untreated, with moss still on it). The glass front doors have Model T steering wheels as handles.

There’s a dark, library-esque room with shelves stacked with books—ones that have special meaning to Tafazoli, including Thoreau’s On Walden Pond.

Opposite from the library a green, wall-length booth has an extensive excerpt from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath painted along its top cushion. The anti-capitalist slogan “DEMAND LESS’’ is carved in brick above the booth.

And stenciled on a floor-to-ceiling wall mirror is this wry gem: “This Mirror Is Supposed To Make The Room Look Bigger Than It Actually Is.”

When I talked with Tafazoli in late July the menu had not been finalized, even though the opening is slated for August 8 (all while the owners feud with Center City Development Corporation about whether the outside wood patio is up to code). But when it’s time to serve lunch and dinner, Tafazoli promises they will grind their own meats, use a smoker and implement other old-world cooking techniques.

Craft & Commerce—the name symbolizes a search for a happy medium between artistry and profit-making—is at the corner of Beech and Kettner (built inside what had been two ground-floor condo units in Allegro Towers, where the Ilume eatery tried and failed to catch on).

The gastro-rest-bar is a partnership between Tafazoli and fellow impresario Nathan Stanton. Their backgrounds:

Tafazoli opened Neighborhood eatery—a burger joint that refuses to offer ketchup—in July 2007.

Stanton and his two brothers (Marshall and Matt) created El Dorado in 2008. It began as a haven for “craft” cocktails, but the place got popular and the drinks took too long to make, so they began to focus on “classic” libations.

This past January, Nate Stanton and Tafazoli teamed up to create Nobel Experiment. It’s a semi-secret speakeasy built behind a fake wall at the back of Neighborhood. The cocktails are craft; the reservation list for Friday and Saturday sometimes backs up for two weeks.

A common vision for creating an impactful culinary culture in San Diego led Stanton and Tafazoli to their latest endeavor

“We need places where people will say, ‘You got to go check this out,’” says Tafazoli. “San Diego is lacking in this.”

He’s traveled the country looking for tips and ideas. And after all his edification, Tafazoli says he’s willing to share anything he’s discovered with the rest of the San Diego restaurant community.

“We want to be an open source for everything we’ve learned,” he says. We’ve had other restaurant people come by and talk. We’re not going to be like the chef who has a secret recipe for a sauce, and won’t even share it with his own staff.”

One aspect shared between Stanton’s cocktail-centric El Dorado and Craft & Commerce is the slow-melting, perfect ice cube. C&C will have San Diego’s first Kold-Draft ice machine. Also on the cocktail front, New York bartending wizard Phil Ward has been tapped to create a drink menu.

One fun tippling idea that’ll be put in place: punch-bowl service. Imagine sitting on the patio (pending CCDC approval) with a 38-ounce China bowl of champagne cocktail (think mimosas on steroids). You’ve got a ladle, four cups…and weekend brunch service is your only care du jour.

Unless, of course, your mind is fixated on creating San Diego’s next “go-check-this-out” culinary sensation.

Posted by Ron Donoho on Mon, Aug 2nd, 2010
Last updated Thu, Aug 5th, 2010

Keywords

Craft & Commerce Nathan Stanton Arsalun Tafazoli San Diego Restaurants Culinary Culture

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