Our 5 Year Anniversary is coming up!!  This is what we’ll be doing to celebrate, and we really hope you can join us!

Friday, May 31st – Sunday, June 2nd
5 for $55 5-Course Pairing Menu with your choice of beer or wine pairings (price is inclusive of food & beverages!)  Plus $5 Glasses of Champagne all weekend, any time!

On Saturday, June 1st, our official anniversary date, we’ll be throwing a party in the form of a Clam Bake.  From 12-5pm we’ll be outside grilling it up, and the restaurant will be open for casual seating and beverage service.  Our regular menu will then resume at 5pm so if you want to enjoy the clam bake, you need to come down during the day!

 5 for $55 PAIRING MENU
(choose from beer or wine pairings listed)

1
Oyster Shooter
with Rough Draft Brewing Weekday IPA & Grapefruit Jam
no additional alcohol is paired with this course

2
Spinach and Arugula Salad
orange segments, grilled sardine, and citrus vinaigrette
paired with Port Brewing Anniversary Ale (Strong Pale Ale/IPA) or Brander Wines Natalie Cuvee

3
Yellowtail
mole, raisins, banana puree, and greens
paired with Cismontane 3rd Anniversary Strong Belgian Ale or Ghost Pines Cabernet Sauvignon

4
Pork Belly
beets, beet greens, frisee, and apple chutney
paired with Stone Brewing 16th Anniversary Ale or Chacewater Winery Malbec

5
Peach Creamsicle
peaches, cream, and Chronic Cellars Spritz & Giggles sparkling wine
no additional alcohol is paired with this course

Also available all weekend long will be our Anniversary Beer Flight for just $10 any time, which will include the four beers listed above!  And, we had some super cool T-Shirts made by local printer Andy Loy of Extra Graphic, with graphic design courtesy of neighbor Clay Summers of Propoganda Creative.  They’ll be for sale for $15 if you’d like to own one!

Well, this is a very exciting time of the year for us here at the Rocket!  Our 5 Year Anniversary is coming up and we have some fun things planned for the weekend of 5/31-6/2 (June 1st being our official anniversary date.)  A few other events will be happening before then, and those are outlined below.  Just click on the active links for more detailed information about any events you are interested in, and please mark your calendars now so you don’t forget to stop by on June 1st for our special Anniversary Clam Bake!

Saturday, May 11th: Vegan Cooking Class with Chef Jenn

Sunday, May 12th: Mother’s Day Prix Fixe Menu

Thursday, May 16th: Grant & Roger Guest Bartending Night
Our good friends and neighbors Grant Ferrier and Roger Lewis of South Park will be guest bartending for us from 6-10pm, and each of them will be creating a special mixed drink featuring some of their favorite local ingredients.  Grant runs this farm in Fallbrook that we got our beautiful blood oranges from this spring, and Roger is a former restauranteur and current advocate for sustainable city planning and development. Grant and Roger will be mixing up several blood orange inspired drinks such as “martinis,” spritzers, a randy, and sangria.  Blood oranges are at the end of their season, so this will probably be your last chance to sample beverages made with these amazing little fruits!

Saturday, May 18th: North Park Festival of the Arts, 11am-6pm
Just a friendly reminder about this long-standing arts & music street fair!  Go, have fun, it’s your neighborhood!

Monday, May 27th: We will be CLOSED in observance of Memorial Day this year.

Thursday, May 30th: 30th on 30th will kick off our anniversary weekend with a cask-tapping of Rough Draft’s Weekday IPA with Grapefruit (brewed just for our special weekend!)  Guest Chef Rob Rubalcaba will prepare our food pairings for the night: Raw Ahi or Vegan Tostadas made with beans, sushi rice, wasabi-avocado, serrano, and sriracha topped with shredded cabbage and pico de gallo.

Friday, May 31st – Sunday, June 2nd: Sea Rocket Bistro 5 Year Anniversary Events!
We’ll be hosting a 5-hour long Clam Bake on Saturday, June 1st, a 5-Course Pairing Menu Friday through Sunday nights, and offering $5 Champagne all weekend long!  Can you see the theme??  ;-)  Our 5 for $55 Pairing Menu details will be announced next week on our blog, so check back here or on facebook for details and updates as this weekend approaches.

For those of you who like to stay in the know, or just love cool new technology…there’s a fun new up-to-the-moment way to be informed of goings on in your neighborhood called Breadcrumbs.  Check it out and download the app (for Android only so far) to follow Sea Rocket and get $2 Off any tapa during your next visit! And that’s not even the cool part- whenever you’re in the area of a place that you follow, you’ll get special offers and event reminders right to your phone so that you don’t miss out on what’s going on at your favorites spots! Click here for a quick video about how it works, or Like them on Facebook here.

Elena says”Love Your Mother!” (T-Shirt courtesy of Mother Earth Brew Co.)  Treat your mother to a special evening out at the Rocket this Mother’s Day!  On Sunday, May 12th, we will be offering a special 4-Course Prix Fixe Menu for $45 and if you like you can add beer or wine pairings to all 4 courses for another $20.  (The specific beer & wine pairings will be posted several days in advance.)  Before you look at the menu below, know that there is intent to make you drool!  We hope you can join us.  Reservations can be made by calling 619-255-7049, but are not necessary if you prefer to play it by ear.

MENU

Pear and Arugula Salad
serrano ham, frisee, cherry tomatoes, truffle vinaigrette

Seared Scallops
porcini, asparagus, leek, quail egg

Quail 2 Ways
serrano ham wrapped breast, confit legs, pineapple jalapeno chutney, creamy brussels

Caramelized Banana Panna Cotta
coconut foam, candied ginger, strawberries

Vegans, Foodies, and Chef Jenn Felmley Fans listen up!  We are opening up a few spots in what was previously a private cooking class at the Rocket on the afternoon of May 11th.  Help us fill the last few seats and make some fast new friends during this fun-filled and culinarily insightful taco-themed cooking class.  The entire menu is vegan (but who cares if you’re not vegan…it’s gonna be delicious either way!)

The class runs from 3-6pm on Saturday the 11th and costs $65 per person all inclusive of instruction, food, a beverage pairing with the meal, and tax.  If you haven’t indulged in one of Chef Jenn’s classes before, it’s a great way to spend an afternoon- all recipes are prepared from scratch by you the students, and then everyone sits down to eat together at the end.  To reserve a place, please contact Elena at 619-997-8043 or elena@searocketbistro.com.

MENU

Spinach and Jicama Salad with Chipotle Orange Dressing

Grilled Fish Tacos with Crema, Salsa Fresca, Cabbage and Avocado Sauce

Drunken Pinto Beans

Natilla Spanish Custard with Strawberries

On Thursday, May 2nd we will be featuring the new batch of Farm House Mead from our friends at Golden Coast Meadery.  A package deal (I mean meal) will include a 4-ounce glass of this beautiful honey wine, a tossed Kale Salad, our Grass Fed Burger, and some Mead-Soaked Bread Pudding, all for $25.  Come meet a couple of the guys who make this tasty local mead and celebrate farm life in all of its forms!  We’ll also be making a couple of mixed drink specials with the mead.  As usual, reservations are available, but not required.  Call us at 619-255-7049 if you like!

Hello from the Rocket!  We hope you are having a wonderful April so far.  We are a bit quiet this month but rest assured we have a few things up our sleeves for the coming months, including a 100 Year Lynhurst Building block party in May, and an all-out 5-Year Sea Rocket Anniversary bash come June 1st!  Details will follow soon but for the meantime you can plan on a blowout birthday party in the style of a Clam Bake, some unique cask beer from one of our favorite local breweries (custom made just for us!) and a special celebratory pairing menu that we’ll run in the theme of our longevity.

But here are our nearer future happenings!  In honor of Earth Day (Sunday, April 21st), we will be showing some of the films from the documentary series Blue Planet and Frozen Planet for our Wednesday Night Movies on April 17th and 24th.  Showtime will be at 8pm now that it is getting darker so much later!

In other news, Dine Out for Life is happening on Thursday, April 25th.  Come spend your money at the Rocket and we will donate 25% of all sales for the night to help fight AIDS!

Have you been holding your breath for our next Cooking Class with Chef Jenn?  Well, you can exhale!  We’ll be hosting a “Quatros de Mayo” Cooking Class on, well, May 4th, from 3-6pm in the usual format.  Students break into small recipe groups and make the meal from scratch from start to finish, sitting down at the end of the instruction for a communal meal.  In keeping with the theme, this menu will be accompanied by a Michelada, which is included in the price of the class.  Click on the link above for more details and to register!

On Thursday, April 25th, Sea Rocket will be participating in the 7th annual Dine Out for Life event, a fundraiser created to fight AIDS organized by The Center (San Diego LGBT Community Center.)  We will be donating 25% of all sales for the night (that’s a lot!) so come in for dinner and spend as much as you can to help benefit this great effort!  Reservation are highly recommended and can be made by calling us at 619-255-7049.  Make your plans to dine out for life today!

Inspired by holidays spent eating extravagant, multi-coursed, from-scratch meals with family on the farms in northern Italy, we are offering a Family-Style Prix Fixe Menu this year on March 31st, Easter Sunday!  The menu, which we estimate will be able to feed 4-6 people, will cost $75, and will be served on communal platters.  Drinks & dessert can be ordered a la carte (as well as the rest of our regular menu!)  You don’t have to be family to take advantage of this communal meal, so grab some friends and head to the Rocket this Sunday!  We’re open 5pm-10pm as usual.  Reservations happily accepted!

MENU

Whole Roasted Chicken Cacciatore
with polenta, peppers, and mushrooms

Angel Hair Pasta Aglio e Olio
with basil, extra virgin olive oil, black pepper and pecorino

Tossed Green Salad
with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, onions, and roasted garlic vinaigrette

Grilled Vegetables
with zucchini, asparagus, yellow squash, roasted tomato and balsamic

Grilled Ciabatta Bread
with olive oil, vinegar, basil butter, and cheese

And just a reminder about this Thursday’s screening with the producer of Suds County USA.  Chef Tommy will be preparing some signature pizzas for the occasion, which will be suggested with our selection of local craft beer on tap that night.  Don’t miss out on this unique chance to meet some of the earliest movers and shakers of the San Diego craft beer industry via this artfully made documentary!

Happy Spring San Diego!  Our favorite news for this month is that we released our new Spring Menu last week!  Click here for some photos of our new dishes and here for a copy of our printed menu.  Our new Grilled Sardines are high on the list of our guests’ favorites so far!

Also exciting, our friend, neighbor, and cinematographer extraordinaire Nick Colombini, is working on a promotional video for us which will feature, as we do here at the bistro, our local sources – farmers, fishermen – highlighting our concept of local foods and our goal of connecting our guests to those who grow and harvest it.  This is a photo from yesterday’s visit to the New Roots Community Farm in City Heights to gather some footage- a beautifully developed, small area along 54th Sreet run by IRC Ssan Diego and tended to by refugees from around the world.  We currently get kale and some other veggies from them on a regular basis.

We celebrated the spring season recently with a Blood Orange Menu highlighting the delicious fruits of Miro Ranch Farm in Fallbrook.  Some of these dishes are now on our regular menu so come check them out while the season is in full swing!

Our Wednesday Night Movies continue with a slew of Leslie Nelson flicks.  Join us at or before 7pm to take advantage of these free showings plus bottle discounts every week!

Tonight (March 17th) we’ll be serving some St. Paddy’s Day specials, including last year’s popular corned swordfish, some Irish Nachos, and an all night long happy hour draft featuring the Mad River Brewing Extra Stout for just $3/pint!

An event we’re really looking forward to is a screening of the San Diego craft beer documentary “Suds County USA” by local filmmaker Sheldon Kaplan.  This will take place at the bistro on Thursday, March 28th at 7pm.  Meet the producer, and cheers the early San Diego brewers who struggled to make possible the wonderful explosion of craft beers we have today!

On Easter Sunday (March 31st this year) we will be doing something a little different than past years and offering a family-style share menu inspired by holidays on the family farms in Italy.  The menu is still being finalized but will serve 4-6 people…and you don’t even have to be with family to order it!  So get some friends together and make a reservation!

Heads up to April: We will be participating in the Dining Out for Life fundraiser this year.  25% of the total night’s net sales will be donated to fight AIDS.

Thank you to all of our friends and regulars for making what we do worth doing!  We hope to see you again soon.

Released in October of 2012, Suds County USA is a documentary that introduces us to many of the earliest local craft brewers, who share their story of trying to bring their full-flavored beers into the “Coors-light town” that was, and still is in large part, San Diego.  On Thursday, March 28th we’ll be screening this film at the bistro and we’ve invited the producer Sheldon Kaplan to join us for the evening.  He’ll be available for any questions you may have, as well as just to chat and enjoy some signature Sea Rocket fare alongside today’s craft beers with you!  There is no charge for the film and we will be creating some unique house-made pizzas for the occasion.  We’ll also have our Thursday night $8 Beer Flights as usual!  Arrive before 7pm to take advantage of our other Happy Hour specials and to get your seat at the communal table.  Seating will be first come, first served!

Our pizza menu will include:

Seafood Pizza
with shrimp, crab, goat cheese, basil, and roasted garlic white sauce

Oinker Pizza
with pork cheek, bacon, bbq sauce, cilantro, serrano, red onion, and smoked mozzarella

Super Veggie Pizza
with zucchini, tomato, red onion, arugula, kale pesto sauce, and pesto jack

Here’s a little background about Sheldon, in his own words, to get you up to speed.  I don’t think I could have said it better myself anyways!

This is my first movie as a resident of San Diego since I moved here in ’96 as a “Hollywood refugee!”  I moved to SD the same year that Stone launched and also by fluke happened to meet Skip Virgilio around the time he started AleSmith, which kindled my interest in the SD craft beer scene, though admittedly from a distant vantage point.   I initially ran an organic tea company which I created along with some tea blends before getting back into movie making – my true passion. 

SUDS COUNTY, USA is my first foray back into the medium.  I wanted to make an San Diego based movie about a subject that interested me and when I started the project in 2010,  I was surprised that it was still virgin territory from a film stand point.  I believe I am the first person to comprehensively document the local industry and its renaissance in any form.  What I find most rewarding is that the brewers appreciate that someone took the time to tell their story and help fill the gaps that they at times were not always fully up to speed with.  SUDS COUNTY, USA is a true labor of love by all the crew that worked on it and is in essence a “love letter” of appreciation to the brewers of SD County.