Jeremy’s on the Hill Food and Wine Pairing

Jeremy’s on the Hill Food and Wine Pairing

An afternoon with Chef de Cuisine, Jeremy Manley

Jeremy's on the Hill

Jeremy Manley is one talented chef. And busy. As the owner of Jeremy’s on the Hill in Wynola, cooking isn’t foreign to him. At the age of ten, Jeremy started working in his mother’s business kitchen at Angels Landing Country Inn, first washing dishes and then around age eleven, he chopped and diced with a family member, Karla Ludtke. Under her tutelage he worked with many different types of food from Italian to African, learned to carve fruits and create beautiful displays. By age thirteen he took over cooking, catering weddings and retreats.

“Sometimes, we would have a wedding in the main area, a retreat going up in the conference room and a rehearsal dinner up in the Lilac Suite.  Very often, days would start at 6:00am and end at 10:00pm. Jeremy has quite the stamina,” says his mother, Teresa Keller.

After graduating from Julian High School, Jeremy headed to San Francisco to study at the world famous Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. After an externship at Mill Fleur in Rancho Santa Fe, he was ready to start his own adventure. In March 2008 he opened Jeremy’s on the Hill, a true family affair, with his sister, Brigida, mother Teresa, grandparents and cousin Karla all part of the restaurant.

Jeremy Manley

After the Julian Union High School District was awarded one of Michelle Obama’s Farm-to-Table grants, Jeremy was selected to offer the lunch program for the schools.  Starting this fall, he will make food at his restaurant and distribute it to the schools in the district.

Recently, in spite of his busy schedule, I was lucky enough to enjoy a food and wine pairing that Jeremy prepared for a group of food and wine writers. This memorable meal was paired with local wines making it all the more special.

Flash Fried Brussel Sprouts

The amuse-bouche, offered to tease and cleanse our palates, was crispy flash-fried Brussels sprouts with Jeremy’s tangy ponzu sauce (a soy sauce infused with citrus) and an orange slice to soften the flavors. This made the usually ordinary greens absolutely luscious. The burst of flavor in my mouth was an excellent starter to the meal. I was told that this recipe was a result of a mistake, and what a wonderful mistake it was.

The first course was a Festival of Radish Salad and homemade blistered jalapeno stuffed with hunter sausage. Jeremy makes his sausages with pork from Cook Pigs Ranch in Julian. The medleys of radishes were delightfully light and fresh and served on a bed of spicy radish leaves. Perfectly matched with a Grenache Blanc from Turtle Rock Ridge Winery in Ramona, this surprisingly rich and full white wine had plenty of crisp acid to hold up to the radishes.

In between courses we were introduced to each entrée and regaled with stories of Jeremy’s life, his friends, what he’s up to and all the fun he’s having with his food truck. This summer he has been out at Turtle Rock Ridge Winery offering foods for guests on the patio.

Next up was an heirloom tomato salad with smoked eggplant, Maytag blue cheese, red onions and sage balsamic vinaigrette. This was paired with a Warner Springs Hawk Watch 2010 Syrah. Jeremy smoked the eggplant because he felt that the Syrah was smoky and the two would complement each other. He was right. Summertime and lush tomatoes go hand in hand. This pairing was the group’s favorite.

Heirloom tomato salad with smoked eggplant

The main course was a house made sage fettuccine with a summer vegetable ratatouille, featuring locally grown vegetables and house cured Pancetta (bacon) from Cook Pigs Ranch and sprinkled with a thinly sliced Manchego cheese. Warner Springs was well-represented with a 2008 La Serenissima Cabernet Franc. Tony, the winemaker, has craft this bold and complex wine that held up nicely with all the flavors of the entrée.

We finished with a Strawberry Shortcake Jeremy Style. Peach preserves, oregano and mint garnished with shaved chocolate. Aah! Paired with 2012 Menghini Winery Julian Gold Muscat Canelli, this dessert melted in our mouths.

This fall when you’re headed to Julian for Apple Days or Pumpkin picking, make sure that you stop in Wynola for a spectacular meal. You can thank me later.

Robin Dohrn-Simpson Freelance Writer www.robindohrnsimpson.com

Three San Diego Urban Wineries: Abnormal Wine, Witch Creek Winery and San Pasqual Winery

One of the exciting things happening the San Diego wine scene is the phenomenon of “urban” wineries. Urban Wineries are popping up all over the county, as well as many city settings around the United States. An urban winery purchases its grapes from the countryside and produces the wines in the city. An urban winery doesn’t require a drive to the countryside (although we all love a drive out in the countryside), and urban wineries usually have a tasting room with facilities to sit and have a glass of wine after you’ve found your favorite wine. Urban wineries usually offer all of the amenities of estate wineries including wine clubs, wine events.

We will explore three urban wineries in San Diego:

Abnormal Wine Company/ Rancho Bernardo:

Located in a commercial building complex in Rancho Bernardo this winery strives to push the boundaries of what people think about wine and how it is presented. They label their wines by number (as opposed to varietals), therefore making their wines more approachable to people who can’t pronounce or don’t know about a particular varietal or who might be scared to try a new or different wine. Owners James Malone and Matt DeLoach say the core of their drive is the knowledge of creating something new. They want to change the way people think about the current wine culture.

Abnormal's Wines

Co-Owner Matt

“We’re not doing things the traditional way,” Matt says. “We’re working on using essences. We have a Chocolate berry port and Chocolate citrus port and we’re working on a coffee port.” Tip: Try the #18. Matt says there are #18 fan clubs.

No. 19

Also a strong focus for these two men is education. They call themselves novice winemakers and feel that the time is now to get into the wine industry in San Diego.

Enjoy their lovely tasting room/lounge Wednesday through Sunday 2-6pm (9pm on Thursdays and Fridays). For more information go to: http://abnormalwine.com/

Witch Creek Winery/ Carlsbad:

Tasting Room in Julian, CA.

The first urban winery in San Diego, Witch Creek has expanded to two tasting room locations. Founded in 1993 they have a tasting room on Main Street in Julian and on Highway 101 in Carlsbad in 1996, just two blocks from the beach. Owner Dave Wodehouse, was the winemaker until he fired himself.  Now the winemaker is Ryan Baker assisted by Ryan Scott.

Their Carlsbad tasting room is a working winery and tasting room combined. It is a walk-up tasting room. There are no chairs and tables to sit at and sip wine. When you taste there you are among their barrels, making you feel like you’re a part of the production process. The barrels are all covered with fun trivia, like it takes 75-100 grapes to make a glass of wine or one acre of land averages 797 gallons of wine.

Fun trivia at Witch Creek Winery

Carlsbad Winetasting room

This winery currently sources their grapes from Clarksburg, by the Sacramento River in Northern California, and Baja California’s Guadalupe Valley. This summer they have been tasting seven red wines,  two whites and two sweet wines. For those big, bold red wine lovers, definitely try their Montepulciano, Primitivo and Kathy’s Cuvee, a Meritage blend of Bordeaux varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot.

Tasting hours in Carlsbad for the Fall are 11AM-5:30PM Sunday-Thursday. They stay open a half hour later on Fridays and Saturdays. The tasting room on Main Street in Julian is open 11AM-5PM daily.

San Pasqual Winery/La Mesa

La Mesa's own Winery

San Pasqual Winery has been on the move in 2013. In June owners Mike and Linda McWilliams augmented their Pacific Beach production facility and La Mesa storefront tasting room and added another much larger facility and tasting room on Center Street, just a few blocks away. The industrial neighborhood in La Mesa is very approachable with plenty of parking. A new 4,500 square-foot facility has room to process grapes, tanks for storage and a tasting room. The winery still offers music on weekend nights, come sip wine and listen to local musicians. They will also continue promoting local artists as well as their different arts programs where people create art projects in the winery. Watch for them to grow even more. This winery has quite a reputation for their quirky Passion Fruit/habanero wine. You must try it! Sure it’s just for fun; you can find other serious wines with grapes from Northern California: Tempranillo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. There are plenty of sparkling, white and rose wines also. Currently the tasting room is open 12PM-8PM Monday through Thursday, 12PM-10PM Friday and Saturday and 12PM-5PM on Sunday. For current events go to: http://www.sanpasqualwinery.com/

If you’re researching urban wineries, San Diego has a newly formed urban winery alliance. Currently eight urban wineries are part of the alliance. http://sdurbanwineries.com/

Robin Dohrn-Simpson Freelance Writer www.robindohrnsimpson.com

A Taste of Coronado Cuisine and History: An Afternoon Walking Tour

A Taste of Coronado Cuisine and History

We girls are always looking for fun and unique things to do with our friends. We need our girl time away from daily life, time to chat and find out what each other is doing, how the kids are, the husband, parents, how the job is going plus time to get out and exercise, try some new foods and learn about different neighborhoods in San Diego. History and culinary tours in San Diego offer just that; a great girl’s outing and an afternoon with friends.

So Cal Food Tours currently offers two different itineraries: one for Friday afternoons and one for Sunday afternoons. This Sunday the group met at the Tent City Murals at Glorietta Bay Marina. Owner, tour guide and Coronado resident Barbara Trenchi told stories of life on Coronado in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s on a three-hour tour of the south end of the quaint island.

Murals of the Tent City Vacation Area

The tent murals are a tile mosaic marquis with photos transferred on to the tiles depicting the seaside resort of the Tent City, south of where the Hotel Del Coronado now stands.

Between 1900 and 1939 cost-conscious vacationers from around the world would flock to the seaside resort community of Coronado and stay in one of the 1,000 tents set up on the Coronado Strand. Started by sugar magnate John D. Spreckels this cost conscious vacation was priced at $5.00 a week. Although visitors staying in tents, it was much more than a rustic experience. This family destination boasted a trolley, carnival booths, a Ferris wheel, and a dance pavilion named “Casino”. Vacationers could attend a performance at the Pavilion theatre, stroll the boardwalk that led to a seal tank, visit an ostrich farm and see the monkey cages. Or they could simply swim in the ocean or bay, take your pick which side of the strand you wanted to enjoy. One of the many attractions was a 10-cent performance of a horse named Cash diving into a pool of water. Wyatt Earp even did gun fighting demonstrations in the shooting gallery.

The tour passed by the ubiquitous Hotel del Coronado, built by Elisha Babcock and Hampton Story between 1887 and 1897 with the goal of being the “talk of the Western World”. Built entirely of wood in the Queen Anne Revival style the hotel features whimsical turrets and an asymmetrical design. The Hotel Del Coronado currently has a turret wrapped up with a red bow in celebration of its 125 year anniversary. Mr. Spreckels bought the hotel and built his private residence across the street, which is now the Glorietta Bay Inn.

Next door is the El Cordova Hotel, originally built as Elisha Babcock’s retirement home and currently houses the charming and colorful patio restaurant, Miguel’s Cocina. Over appetizers tour members met and munched tasty chips, salsa and creamy white sauce. Some of our group enjoyed a margarita along with a sample platter of zesty Mexican antijitos (starters) of ceviche, rolled tacos and fried calamari.

Across the street we went to see the first house that was built in Coronado. It was built f the first couple who got married at the Hotel Del Coronado. Today a plaque proclaims it the “Home of a Naval Aviator”. On this day we were fortunate enough to meet the owner/aviator in front of his house and he regaled us with stories about flying navy planes with George H.W. Bush. Huge smiles on the group’s faces reflected the charm of this man and his stories. The house has neither heat nor insulation. It has been a labor of love to own it and try to bring it up to this century’s standards.

House where Frank L. Baum wrote 2 of the Wizard of Oz books

We passed by the house on Star Park Circle where Frank L. Baum wrote two of the Wizard of Oz books enroute to our next culinary stop, Coronado Taste of Oils, an olive oil and vinegar store on Orange Avenue.  

The group enjoyed meeting the owner, Roberta Korte, who gifted us with vanilla ice cream drizzled with chocolate balsamic vinegar. This heavenly concoction was a very creative use of vinegars. There were many “Oohs and Aahs”. We were given a paper with the top pairings and encouraged to roam and try some pairings. A favorite was Peach White Balsamic and Tuscan Herb Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You could really spend hours here trying different recipes. We left the store laden with treasures.   

Next stop was Alexander’s Pizza which has been voted “Best Pizza” of Coronado year after year. We enjoyed gooey Scooby Snack appetizers (dough balls with red sauce for dipping) and two pizzas, the highlight for all being a vegetarian pizza.

Refreshing artisan gelato was served at Bottega Italiano before walking to the house on Ocean Avenue that once belonged to Mr. Spreckels and now finds itself in the forefront of a murder/suicide mystery.

We dispersed from the charming boutique hotel, The Glorietta Bay Inn, overlooking Glorietta Bay and the Coronado Yacht Club. Mr. & Mrs. Spreckels sure knew how to live. This lovely property built with the classic simple lines of the Italian Renaissance style boasts many patios, an Elizabethan garden dotted with colorful bougainvilleas, a lap pool, a music room with a baby grand piano and an air of sophistication.

Coronado has much to be proud of and seeing a tiny bit of it on this tour whets the appetite to try the next tour. To enjoy a fun afternoon with your girlfriends go to: http://socalfoodtours.com/ or to reserve your space call 800-979-3370 or 212-209-3370. 

Robin Dohrn-Simpson Freelance Writer www.robindohrnsimpson.com