Did you know that there is only one artisanal cheese maker in Southern California that can actually sell cheese? It seems almost impossible, but any cheese you get at the farmer's markets around here is from a far off land, unless it's from Winchester Gouda.

Fortunately, their cheeses are some of the best. It's authentic Dutch style gouda, a creamy white to yellow cheese made with raw milk that can be either soft or hard depending on how long it's been aged. We'll be featuring a cheese plate of 5 different types of Winchester gouda starting August 1st. The cheese melds perfectly with flavors like garden herb, jalapeno, and cumin.

On Thursday, August 5th at 7pm, Jeffrey Smoot, expert cheese maker at Winchester Gouda, will be joining us for a 5-course gouda tasting menu. If you've ever wondered about how great cheeses are made, this is your chance to learn and indulge. Chef Christy will be making 5 special menu items to highlight the flavors of each cheese which will be paired either with a taster size local draft beer or half glass of wine.

The price for the dinner will be $45 per person and include a short presentation about how Gouda is made! Reservations for this event are required. Please call or e-mail Elena at 619-997-8043 or elena@searocketbistro.com to hold your seat. A credit card is required and $10 will be charged per person for any no-shows the night of.

Here is the scrumptious menu that Christy is planning:

Garden Herb Gouda Cracker Bread with Susie's Farm Heirloom Tomato Salad
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Susie's Squash Blossoms Filled with Mild Gouda, brown rice and summer squash
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Jalapeno Gouda Nachos with Brandt Ground Beef and Cunningham Farms Avocado Guacamole
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Cheesy Local Mushrooms from Golden Gourmet & Mountain Meadow Farms with Smoked Gouda
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Local Farms Fruit Plate with Super Aged Gouda

On Thursday, July 8th, and continuing throughout the rest of the weekend, we'll be creating some special menu items to pair with the three World Beer Cup Gold Medal Award Winning beers from Ballast Point Brewing. They also won the Champion Brewery and Brewmaster award for the Small Brewing Company category. Cheers to local craft breweries everywhere!

Here are our planned small plate specials:
Braised Beef & Cabbage, paired with Piper Down Barrel Aged Scottish Ale
Spicy Grilled Fish & Cucumber Salad, paired with Fathom India Pale Lager
Vegetable Curry with Coconut Milk, paired with Sculpin IPA

And here are the beer details straight from the brewer:

Piper Down Barrel Aged Scottish Ale
The Ballast Point Brewing Company Bag Pipe Band was the inspiration behind this Scottish Ale. Pipe Major and BPBC owner Jack White wanted a moderate alcohol, low hopped and malty Ale to be enjoyed by the band. Using UK Maris Otter Malt, Roasted Barley (no Peated Malt), UK Hops and a three hour boil, we did just that. Now take that base beer and age it in Bourbon Barrels for genuine "Kentucky Flavor" and you have our 2010 World Beer Cup Gold Medal winner in the Barrel Aged Category!

Fathom India Pale Lager
Originally brewed for the 2003 Southern California Home Brewers Festival this "out of style" adult beverage has been a part of the Ballast Point’s five lager line up since 2005. Made with a "traditional" West Coast IPA recipe but changing out the warm fermenting Ale yeast with cold fermenting Lager yeast. Helping to get rid of any fruity Ale esters and taking advantage of the cleaner Lager profile. Allowing the Hop flavor and hop aroma to shine brightly! German Pilsner Malt, Warrior and Magnum Hops all add to this unique 2010 World Beer Cup Gold Medal winner in the Traditionally Brewed/Out of Style category!

Sculpin India Pale Ale
Inspired by our own Home Brew Mart employees Gold Medal success in the American Homebrewers Association National competition, we combined both a Single and Double IPA recipe with a few ingredients added by our Brewer to make this a truly “in house” collaboration. With the addition of Belgian Crystal Malts and Simcoe, Amarillo and Northern Brewer Hops a very tropical fruit forward aroma jumps out of the glass. Its lighter body helps balance the large amount of hop oils that give this beer a sticky, not sweet, mouth feel. Bronze Medal at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival in the Pro-Am category. Silver Medal at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival in the American IPA category. Gold Medal at the 2010 World Beer Cup in the International Pale Ale category!

In the meantime, Happy 4th of July everyone!

Here are the specials that Chef Christy's got planned for Mother's Day this year, which is coming up on Sunday, May 9th. Whether you want to come in for lunch or dinner, call us for reservations at 619-255-7049.

LUNCH ONLY
Belgian Waffle with Pastured Bacon & Eben-Haezar Eggs

LUNCH & DINNER
Starter
Gazpacho
chilled blended tomato soup
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Entrees
Nicoise Salad
featuring pole-caught American Tuna
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Ground Beef and Pork Meatball Sandwich
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Dessert
Belgian Waffles with Strawberry Ice Cream

Here's some Spring news from all of us at Sea Rocket.

Special Events & Community Outreach
30th on 30th is this Friday! Our $8 pairing this month will be a bottle of Ballast Point Yellowtail Pale Ale with an Egg & Tortilla Chilequiles w/greens, cotija cheese & salsa roja. It's like a baked omelet or quiche layered with tortillas. Yum. We'll reserve the front room just for this event and try to get you in and out of there quickly so that you can move on to the next great spot!

The annual Art Alive celebration at the Balboa Park Museum of Art happens this weekend. We're donating some food to Thursday's Opening Celebration but this fundraiser goes all weekend with a variety of artsy activities.

Or, also Thursday, April 29th, you can join the Go Urban San Diego Meetup Group for a happy hour at the bistro from 6-8pm. You'll get $2 off all draft beers and wines by the glass for the duration.

Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday, May 9th. We'll offer some specials during both lunch and dinner and we'll accept reservations that day, so give us a call at 619-255-7049 if you like to plan ahead.

The new Park2Park Shuttle service launched last weekend. Read up about it on their website and hop aboard for just $5/night or $10/weekend (Thursday-Saturday) and leave your car behind. Designated drivers even ride free!

Daisy the Cow has been visiting with us this month. Make sure to stop by and appreciate this colorful fruit paper mache cow and give a donation to a great cause- improving the quality of food in our schools.

Speaking of cows, Dennis & Elena paid a visit to third generation cattle rancher Steve Tellman in Ramona recently and ended up buying a whole animal that we expect to start serving sometime in May. You might want to pencil Tuesday, June 1st onto your calendar, when we'll be highlighting several beef dishes in celebration of our 2-year anniversary!

Menu Updates
A lot of you apparently noticed when we took our popular Beet & Goat Cheese Tart off the menu last month. We've been trying out some new dishes lately and just can't practically keep everything we've ever liked on the menu, but because we've had so many requests to bring the Beet Tart back, we're buckling and will offer it regularly again starting next week. Please forgive us if we occasionally run out though- it's not something we can make "on the fly" so if we get a run on it, it's gone for the night but is usually prepared again the next day.

We'll also be adding our previously-lunch-only Beet Salad to our dinner menu- tender organic baby greens topped with roasted red beets & fresh goat cheese. Those of you who love beets will now really be able to get your fill!

We'll be putting a full-size Sloppy Joe on the menu too, so you can either get the miniature sloppy joe tapa or enjoy this delicious mess as an entree, which comes with cole slaw.

Christy created the most amazing Avocado Cream Pie as a dessert special the other night and we weren't the only ones to fall in love with it! So we'll be putting it on our dessert menu for as long as we can get those tasty avocados. It's got a graham cracker crust and is topped with a fantastically tart Lime Curd and some of our sweetened whipped cream. It's got a super creamy texture that will make you not want to share!

On another dessert note, we've been making these Chocolate Macadamia Nut Candied Bacon Cookies which have been very well received, and we seem to be able to keep the bacon on hand right now, so these will also be available for a while on our Sweet Endings list. Yes, that's really bacon in the cookie.

In the News
We got a nice mention in a Grist.com article this month. Check it out!

Our recipe for Sea Urchin Bisque will be featured in a book entitled "The Wild Table: Adventures in Pacific Foraging & Cuisine" by our friend, wilderness guide and author Jennifer Hahn. The book will be out this Fall and we'll be planning a book release party then, so stay posted.

Elena went up to the bay area recently and made a video at the Tesla Motors showroom that you might be interested in.

Promotions Recap
Mondays: Flip Night- Take a Gamble and win a Free Entree!

Tuesday: $1 Raw Oysters all night long (or until supplies run out...)

Wednesdays: Select 1/2 Price Wines by the glass all night long- 3 Red & 3 White each week

Happy Hour Daily at the Bar:
5-7pm: $2 Tapa free with every Draft Beer (including Cask when available)
After 9pm: $2 OFF all Draft Beers (including Cask when available)

Also: Get a voucher for a $5 Bottle of Wine with Dinner each time you come in for Lunch in May or June. We're open for lunch every Saturday and Sunday from 11:30-3pm. Check out our Grilled Fish Tacos! You can even sit outside in the sun with your doggie if you want- just ask your server if there aren't tables outside when you arrive and we'll put some out! Of course we can't serve alcohol out there, but it's still a nice option since most of the rain has now passed.

It's newsletter time, so let's get newsy. April is packed, so I'll try to keep it as to-the-point as possible.

We just had a great skateboard photography exhibition party for Brian Fick. I used to skate with Brian when they had the vert ramp in Mission Valley, and now more recently at the park in Clairmont. We'll have his photos up through mid-April for you to check out. There are photos of everyone from Bucky Lasek to Bob Burnquist, as well as a bunch of other amazing skaters.

Our fish sculpture artist Matt Mahoney just had his senior exhibition at the Keller Gallery at Point Loma Nazarene University.

A group of ranchers are trying to get a USDA slaughterhouse going in San Diego. If this happens, it could make local grass-fed meat readily available in San Diego without the costs of going to L.A. for slaughter.

On Tuesday (that's probably today!), we're doing the 30th on 30th. Our special pairing this month will be a Ground Beef Sloppy Joe with house-made pickles & bottle of Ballast Point Calico Amber Ale for $8.

We had a great time watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution this past Friday. In fact, it was so much fun we'll be showing it every Friday at 9pm on our big screen.

On Easter Sunday (April 4th), we'll be doing some to-be-determined brunch specials. We're open for lunch every Saturday and Sunday from 11:30am-3pm.

On Mondays in April, we'll be continuing Flip Night. If you call it right, one of your entrees is free!

Thursday, April 8th, we'll be hosting a Dine Out for San Diego Oceans Foundation fundraiser. 15% of sales will be donated to this great cause.

Thursday, April 15th is tax day. To make things easier for you that day, we're doing a No Tax Day! Have dinner at the restaurant and don't pay any sales tax on your check. Given that sales tax is now at 8.75% in San Diego, that's not a bad deal for you.

Saturday, April 17th, from 5-7pm will be our next Blind Wine Tasting. Bring a bottle (hidden in a paper bag) and $15 and enjoy a mixer-style happy hour which includes a variety of tasty tapas. We'll add a link to the meetup page when week get it.

April 21st is the monthly Third Wednesday DrinkAbout. It's been gaining steam ever since that night it poured rain on everyone.

April 22nd is Earth Day. It's also the start of the Park 2 Park Shuttle. Omar Passons has been doing a lot of work to make this a great service. Looking forward to seeing it in action!

April 24th is an electric vehicle conversion workshop. Read about it here and see Schwarzenegger on one sweet ride.