Sea Rocket Bistro was recently named freshest seafood restaurant in San Diego by the Union-Tribune’s Superdiners, so it’s no surprise that our chefs were tapped to be the headliners for celebs at ChefDance, an invitation-only event held in conjunction with Sundance Film Festival.  Last year, one of the other chefs was a Top Chef judge and celebrity guests included Kate Bosworth, Susan Sarandon and Shawn White, among others.  Chefs Chad and Tommy also catered to the organizer’s birthday party, which was attended by celebrities as well as top national food writers (and VH-1!).

We thought it would be fun to bring the atmosphere of this event back to San Diego with us, and give folks here a chance to experience the fabulous menu we prepared there.  So this Thursday, February 2, we’ll be hosting our own version of the dinner at the Rocket, which will be open to all of you San Diego stars…our guests!  This is the last chance you’ll have to see Chefs Chad and Tommy cooking side-by-side before Chad moves on to his next culinary adventure!

MENU

6pm – Champagne & Tray-Passed Hors d’Oeuvres

7pm – Dinner

Sea Urchin Ceviche
Fresh uni+ gelato + sisho + cauliflower foam + candied ginger + caper salt

Black Cod Confit
Smoked banana + grapefruit + Serrano + smoked shrimp dust

Pork Cheeks
Brussels + Lardo blanket + apple pop rocks + mustard paint

Elvis
Chocolate peanut butter pot de crème + grape chantilly + banana brule

Guests are encouraged to dress in Hollywood glam and, if you want, dress like your favorite movie star!  We’ll have raw footage of the ChefDance dinner in Park City playing throughout the night, we’ll have the red carpet out for you, and a sponsor wall for you to take photos in front of.  Our photographer/videographer Andrew Shepherd will be on-site throughout the night to record your special time in the spotlight!

Reservations can be made through February 1st, which is only 3 days away, so please act fast (pun intended)!  The cost is $75 per person which includes the 4-course menu, hosted champagne, and hors d’oeuvres!  Call us at 619-255-7049 to ensure your spot today.  Seating will be communal and dinner will be served banquet style, so this is the perfect occasion to mix and mingle with your friends and neighbors.

If we haven’t seen you yet this year to tell you in person, Happy New Year!  We had our best holiday season yet this winter, and have enjoyed getting to know more and more of our neighbors regularly.  Thanks so much for your interest in what we do, and for introducing us to so many of your friends and and family…it’s been such a thrill!

We do have some big news to share with you, as well as an exciting lineup of events in the next few months.  Please click the links provided below to get all of the juicy details on each topic.  And stay tuned to our facebook page as we make more time-sensitive announcements there!

NEWS

New Year Changes (new and expanded promotions!)

Sea Rocket Chefs Cook at Sundance Film Festival

Tommy Fraioli Promoted to Executive Chef

Domestic Sake Comes to the Rocket

Astrology-Inspired Wine Specials

UPCOMING EVENTS

Artist’s Reception & Wine Tasting
Thursday, January 26th, 6-9pm
Wedding Photography + Complimentary Wine Sampling + Sea Rocket Hors d’Oeuvres!

30th on 30th
This multi-neighborhood tasting event continues on Monday the 30th, with a featured beer paired with a special small plate at the Rocket, along with lots of other specials from participating restaurants and bars.

Farewell to Chad White
Tuesday, January 31st
Come wish Chef Chad well in his new venture on his last night at Sea Rocket.  But don’t be too sad to see him go, as he will still be popping in and out at times to say hello as well as participating in special events that we host at least once a month.  He has introduced us to a whole new world of intriguing food preparations and flavor combinations, tantalizing our taste buds and infusing our little bistro with love and vitality.  Chad will continue to be our business partner and kitchen confidant and we wish him all the happiness in his certain rise to culinary stardom!

Celebrity ChefDance Dinner – CANCELED, but menu available as a la carte specials instead!
Thursday, February 2nd, 6pm
Experience Sea Rocket like no other time, and indulge in an extravagant menu similar to the one that our chefs prepared in Park City last week during the Sundance Film Festival.  This is your chance to eat like a celebrity!  Exact menu and more tantalizing details will follow in a few days, but feel free to call now for reservations.

***Help us promote this event on TV on Monday, January 30th!  Click here for details.

Valentine’s Day – A Chocolate Seafood Dinner (x2)
Monday, February 13th & Tuesday, February 14th
I’ll include this in our February Newsletter as well, but since it’s going to be quite the grand, chocolatey affair, I wanted to give you a heads up so you don’t miss out once we start advertising it to the rest of the public!  Plan your special day in advance by calling us for reservations: 619-997-8043.

Hello friends and fans!  News is already out that Chef Chad White will be moving on from the Rocket to open a new restaurant in Point Loma soon.  But we wanted to give you the official scoop right here, and because I’ve been writing so many blogs lately, I’m just going to use the press release that our publicist Brook Larios created for us recently.  We hope you’ll join us on Tuesday, January 31st to bid Chad adieu (though we’ll be seeing him plenty afterwards as he’s not going too far!) and congratulate Tommy on his promotion.

Tommy Fraioli has been promoted to executive chef of Sea Rocket Bistro, a San Diego-based restaurant that supports local growers and fishers, in addition to ranchers that raise their animals responsibly and humanely. Fraioli, who began cooking professionally at the age of 18, comes from a large, multi-generational Italian family that spent weekends in the kitchen cooking together. At the age of seven, he joined his dad in the kitchen.

Fraioli has been executive chef/partner Chad White’s trusted sous chef since April 2011, when White joined the Sea Rocket team. Prior to his tenure at Sea Rocket, Fraioli was sous chef and kitchen manager at Bing Crosby’s in Mission Valley, where he quickly climbed the ranks during his five months in the kitchen before its closure. He will headline with White at ChefDance, the Sundance Film Festival’s premier culinary event, in two weeks.

“I’m the shy, quiet guy at Sea Rocket that, until now, has stayed out of the spotlight,” said Fraioli, who says the wheels in his head are madly turning as he begins contemplating new menu concepts for the coming months. “Cooking has been my passion — my drive — as long as I can remember, and doing it at Sea Rocket Bistro, with owners who share my food philosophy, is an honor. I love serving people the type of food they’ll long be talking about.”

News of Fraioli’s promotion comes on the heels of White’s Jan. 11 announcement that he will leave his post as executive chef next month, retaining partnership status at Sea Rocket, while co-creating with Fraioli the vanguard menus for which Sea Rocket has become known. In February, he will also move into his new position as executive chef and partner at Gabardine, part of the Enlightened Hospitality Group, helmed by Brian Malarkey and James Brennan. Gabardine is slated to open in February.

“There’s absolutely no way I’d leave my post as executive chef of Sea Rocket if I didn’t have full faith in Tommy’s abilities,” said White who, as co-owner, is invested in the restaurant’s success. “I haven’t been cooking at Sea Rocket for months — only overseeing the kitchen’s operations. Tommy is the guy behind the scenes, turning out the food for which we’ve become known. People will be amazed at what he will continue to do.”

Fraioli undoubtedly has some big shoes to fill, but his have been sharing space with White’s for nine months. As those familiar with the restaurant industry know, chefs spend an average of 12 to 16 hours together in the kitchen each day. The quality and integrity of Sea Rocket’s food will remain top-notch as the little restaurant with a lot of heart continues to be the go-to for the freshest seafood in town.

We’re pairing up with David Bacco Chocolatier to create a unique Chocolate Seafood Dinner for Valentine’s Day this year!  Keep reading for all of the details and make note that we’ll be offering this menu exclusively both on Monday the 13th and Tuesday the 14th (for those industry folk out there and anyone else who likes to beat the crowds!)  There will be 2 seatings available each night, at 6pm and 8:30pm.

MENU

Ménage a trios
Oyster + sea urchin + pomegranate-ginger ice + espelette + white chocolate

Albacore Carpaccio
Chipotle-chocolate paint + pickled strawberries + mint pistou + lavender salt

Thresher Shark Almandine
Smoked mole + almond foam + banana puree + swordfish pancetta + basil

Romance de Chocolat
Warm 71% Bittersweet Truffle + passion fruit coulis
served with
Sea Rocket Bacon Jam Caramel + fig vinegar + 38% milk chocolate
Passionfruit Caramel + 42% milk chocolate
Vietnamese Cinnamon-Nougatine Truffle + 65% bittersweet chocolate
Fresh Orange & Wildflower Honey-infused 68% bittersweet chocolate

About David Bacco
Single Origin Cocoa Beans and “Grand-Cru” (noble grade) Couverture are the foundation for David Bacco Chocolatier.  Focusing on the individual flavor “personalities” of the chocolates and combining them with the purest, freshest, all natural ingredients brings out the utmost expression of decadence.  In addition, David Bacco Chocolatier uses organic and local ingredients in their chocolate whenever possible to promote sustainable agriculture both close to home and abroad, and they abide by strict standards of using Non-GMO products.

About the Chocolate
The espelette will be made with a Venezuelan 34% white chocolate.
The chipotle paint will be made with an organic Elvesia 74% bittersweet from the Dominican Republic.
For the Romance de Chocolat the first truffle will be made with Sambirano 71% bittersweet chocolate truffle from Madagascar.
The Sea Rocket BJ will be with a Hawaiian 38% milk chocolate.
The Vietnamese cinnamon truffle ganache will be made with a 65% bittersweet chocolate from the region of Sur del Lago in Venezuela.
The fresh orange and wildflower honey-infused chocolate will be made with a Madagascar 64% bittersweet chocolate, and enrobed in a 38% milk chocolate from Venezuela.

This special menu will cost $65 per person, and an optional Wine Flight will be offered for just $20 more which will include half pours of a California Sparkling Wine, White Wine, Red Wine, and Port to pair with each course.  Call us today at 619-997-8043 for reservations!  Again, 2 seatings will be offered each night at 6pm and 8:30pm.

We have some exciting news to share!!  Tomorrow Elena will accompany star chefs Chad White and Tommy Fraioli up to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where they’ll cater and cook for the movers and shakers of the festival, including the organizers of ChefDance itself (a five-night culinary affair featuring celebrity chefs from around the country) and the writers, producers, and actors associated with the films debuting there.  Chad took part in one of these fancy dinners last year and was invited back this year to serve up an entire 4-course menu of his own creation!

Before you read on, here’s a quick teaser for you: We’re going to bring all of the excitement back to San Diego with us by recreating this exclusive ChefDance menu here at Sea Rocket on Thursday, Feb. 2nd!  Celebrity games, official guest photos, and raw footage of our participation at Sundance will be just a few of the highlights of the event, so mark your calendars and call us for reservations!  More details about the event will be provided upon our return, but there will be just one seating starting with a champagne mixer at 6pm and here is the menu that you can anticipate…try not to drool on your computer!

The Sea Rocket entourage will also include local filmmaker and commercial videographer Andrew Shepherd, graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and President of Converging Perspectives Inc., who will capture some footage of the dinner for us to share with you when we return.  Andrew specializes in documentary and feature films of an uplifting nature.  He filmed the commercial for our Local Cycling Discount Program in 2009, and other credits include The Square Dance Caller, a documentary on the career of legendary caller Larry Ward, and Campaign America!, a political comedy web-series soon to be produced as a feature film.

Honorary mentions go to our publicist Brook Larios of Plain Clarity Communications for helping coordinate and promote our involvement in this, our trusty fishmonger Tommy Gomes of Catalina Offshore for a very sizable donation of local seafood for the event, and Specialty Produce for their food donation.  Thanks to everyone involved for your generosity and help in making this happen!

We can’t wait to share our Sundance stories with you!

Our next art installation at Sea Rocket will feature the beautiful images of local wedding photographer Bryan N. Miller.  Bryan has been a professional wedding photographer for several years, and has been responsible for capturing that special day for many San Diegans in both local and remote locations, as well as providing memories of engagements, family reunions, and other special events relating to the wedding industry.

We’ll be holding a reception for Bryan on Thursday, January 26th from 6pm-9pm.  And to help celebrate, we’ll have free sampling of some wines by Marie Fox of 12 Signs Wine, a new California winemaker basing the profiles of her wines on astrology.  Give them a try and see if you think your sign’s wine matches your personality!  We’ll be serving these wines in turn throughout the year during their time of the zodiac, and whenever you come in to dine while the wine matches your sign,  you’ll get $2 off our glass price!  Just show your server your ID card to get your discount!

The reception will cost a mere $10 at the door and will include a variety of hors d’oeuvres from Chef Chad White.  We hope you can join us for the reception, and that you’ll take advantage of this fun new wine promotion!

There’s a new California wine company called 12 Signs Wine, which has developed wine styles based on astrology. Their website is a fun read- check it out and see if you agree with their pairings of signs with wines!

We’ll be featuring their wine on our list starting next week, beginning with the Aquarius Chardonnay, and for those of you with birthdays between January 20th and February 18th, we’ll offer the wine to you at $2 off the glass price!  Each month, we’ll bring on the next “wine of the sign” and offer the same discount- all you have to do is show us your ID to get the special zodiac price.

On Thursday, January 26th, winemaker Marie Fox will be bringing in four wines for a complimentary tasting to accompany our next Artist’s Reception with wedding photography from Bryan Miller.  This will be your chance to taste all of the “sign wines” and know what to expect when we get to them throughout the year.

We hope you’ll take advantage of this fun, ongoing wine discount program in 2012!  Of course we’ve pre-tasted the wines for you already, and they are all quite delicious and complex.

Cheers!

Happy Hour Additions
Great News!  We’re expanding our Happy Hour Drink Specials in 2012, including $2 Chilled Sake Shots (read about our domestic Sake here), $5 Glasses of Sparkling Wine, and $5 Glasses of our House Sangria (red or white).  This will be in addition to our continuing $3 Tapas, $3 Fish Tacos, $3 Select Drafts, and $5 House Wines.  Come take advantage any night (except Tuesday) between 5-7pm!  Tuesdays we’ll continue to focus on $1 Raw Oysters but also offer the $2 Sake Shots since we think that will make a great match!

Bottle Nights!
We’re introducing a new promotion to our weekly schedule- Wednesday Bottle Nights- which will mean that you can get 20% OFF any bottle in the house whether it be Beer, Wine, Mead, Cider – anything alcoholic in a bottle!  In addition, on Bottle Nights we’ll waive our $12 Corkage Fee so even if you bring your own bottle of wine in to dine, you’ll still save!  We hope you’ll enjoy and take advantage of this new promotion, which CAN be combined with our Happy Hour discounts from 5-7pm…but Bottle Night discounts will run all night long even after Happy Hour is over!

Sunday Brunch & Saturday Lunch Discontinued
Our Sunday Brunch menu is being discontinued as of January 1st, 2012.  It simply didn’t make sense for us to create an entirely different menu just for one day of the week, so for the time being, we’re stopping our Sunday 10am-3 pm hours.  We’ll miss those guests who did enjoy our brunch menu, and of course we’ll keep the possibility alive for special occasions and revisiting in the future…maybe we’ll just make it a summer thing!  We’re also going to discontinue our daytime hours on Saturdays and just concentrate our efforts again on our 7-night-per-week dinner menu.  As business continues to grow, we may very well bring these weekend hours back, but for now we thank you for your support and understanding.

To wrap it up, our new Hours of Operation will be simply Monday-Sunday 5pm-10pm.

Winter Menu
We introduced our new winter menu last month.  If you haven’t been in recently, you need to come check out some of Chef Chad’s creative creations, such as our Sardine or Veggie Flatbreads, Smoked Fish Tzatziki, Black Cod Foie Gras, and Shredded Brussel Sprouts.  Some repeating specials also include Whole Grilled Local Tilapia, fresh from just a few miles up the road at the IRC New Roots Urban Farm, and Grilled Fish Collar served with house-made kimchi.  Super tasty, local, sustainable seafood awaits you at the Rocket every day…in many forms!

If you haven’t made New Year’s plans yet, there’s still time to make a reservation for our dinner + dance party.  Just call us at 619-255-7049.

Thanks from all of the staff at Sea Rocket for making 2011 an incredible year – we wish you an extraordinary year ahead!

We’ve just introduced a new section on our drink list which features a domestic (California) sake called Yaegaki Dry.  We’ll be serving Chilled Sake Shots for $3 (just $2 during Happy Hour and all night long on Tuesdays!) and Juiced Sake with orange or cranberry for $5.  We’ll develop more mixed sake drinks in the near future.

Here’s some information about the Yaegaki Corporation and a description of the sake:
YAEGAKI Dry represents the top of YAEGAKI’s domestic sake line. It is made with rice polished to the extent that the nearly 40% of each grain has been polished away, and is brewed at a low temperature for a long period of time. YAEGAKI traces its roots to a sake brewery founded in Banshu, Japan, in 1666. They brew pure rice sake with a rich local flavor using traditional methods and top-quality ingredients. The sake is highly regarded throughout the world and has won eight consecutive Gold medals at the prestigious Monde Selection Awards in Europe. Now YAEGAKI is producing the same quality sake here in the U.S. Brewed under the supervision of Reiko Kushibiki, the first female Sake Master in the U.S., YAEGAKI Sake is silk-smooth and full-bodied.

Try it out next time you’re in and let us know what you think!

We’re excited to announce our New Year’s Eve Party 2011!  We hope you can join us, either just for the fabulous dinner Chef Chad is creating, and/or to celebrate with us into the new year by staying late and kicking it up!  Here are all of the details for you.  (Please note we will be closed for lunch on Saturday beforehand in order to prepare our special menu.)

4 Course Menu + Amuse + Champagne + Dance Party after 10pm
Hootin’ & Hollerin’ at Midnight Strongly Encouraged!
$65 per person (not including tax and service)

A few notes:
***Prix Fixe Menu includes a glass of champagne with dessert
***Special dinner music will be provided from 7-10pm
***Dance party starts as soon as we can clear enough space!
***A local painter will be on-site for anyone interested in New Year’s portraits to capture the night

MENU

Amuse
Smoked Mussel
panise saffron aioli, basil pistou

1st Course
Kohrabi Soup
egg nog crema, fried parlsey, nutmeg

2nd Course
Local Spiny Lobster
62 degree egg, duck prosciutto, tarragon puree

3rd Course
House Made Gnocchi
strawberry sauce, panchetta, ricotta, micro thyme

4th Course
Chocolate Mint Bread Pudding
candy cane chantilly

A selection of Tapas will also be available, which can be mixed and matched with our Prix Fixe Menu if you like:

Oysters with champagne mignonette
Shark Corn Dogs
Deviled Eggs with bacon jam
Oyster Shooters
Uni Shooters
Chipotle Marinated Green Olives
Flat Breads – Beef Heart | Sardine | Vegetarian
Roasted Mixed Nuts
Pickled Vegetables

Last but not least, we will offer the following DRINK SPECIALS ALL NIGHT!
$2 Sake Shots
$3 Select Drafts
$5 Sangrias
$5 House Wines ($20/bottle)
$5 Sparkling Wine ($30/bottle)

We hope to see you on the 31st, and again in 2012!  Please call us at 619-255-7049 for reservations!