Callie Restaurant is the melding of Chef Travis Swikard’s love of Mediterranean cuisine but using farmer’s, and fishermen’s and ingredients from the San Diego region. Swikard is a native of San Diego who gained experience cooking in NYC and England before opening this, his first solo venture. The name Callie is Greek for “the most beautiful” and that well describes the large striking interior and well-seasoned, tasty food. You enter near the bar with its curved wood ceiling and then move into the large dining area filled with bare wood tables. A variety of seating options include chairs and benches some with windows to the outside streets and some next to the glassed in wine cellar and private dining room. The long open kitchen is on one side, exposed ducts are painted white in the ceiling, with lots of plants in the room and background music. They have no dedicated parking lot but a city lot is next door and the restaurant will validate your parking ticket there for a couple of hours. The menu was supplemented by some nightly specials (some of which we chose) and the wine list was well priced. Service was super friendly and helpful in determining how many of the small shared plates we would need. They do offer a ‘feed-me’ menu where the kitchen picks what you get for a set price, but we picked our own items. It was a flavor packed delightful meal. I hope you’ll try it when in town.
Set-Up
Food
Artichokes, peas and mint also contained whipped burrata, basil, pistou and lemon oil. The burrata was hidden under all the fresh, tender and well-seasoned leaves. Some mashed peas were also in the bottom which mixed with the burrata. The artichokes were good but overwhelmed by the other ingredients. I liked the lemon dressing but would have preferred a vinaigrette, but I did love that it wasn’t over-salted.
Winter greens scarpinocc was a stuffed pasta with yukon gold potato, maitake mushrooms and Parmigiano Reggiano. This was on the nightly specials menu. The potatoes were mixed with mascarpone cheese and some greens to make the filling for the pasta. They were topped with the mushrooms and a drizzle of balsamic. While some of the pasta ends got a bit thick they were not tough and cooked perfectly. The maitakes were great – to make this plate even tastier than the first.
Line caught market fish was a locally line-caught crispy Katiafi halibut which was served with dill, confit tomatoes and crusted with crisp thin noodles. A dill yogurt and lemon sauce was underneath. This was wonderful. The noodles added a fun crunch to the nicely cooked fish.
Honey glazed dry aged duck breast was plated with fennel, spinach, candied kumquats and citrus jus. The spinach and fennel made up the sauces underneath this wonderfully moist duck. The Liberty Duck was on the spicy side and cooked a perfect medium rare. It was amazing.
Crunchy Egyptian carrots were seasoned with cilantro and cashew dukkah with a burnt orange-habanero dressing. The carrot ribbons were dressed with cashew cream and sesame seeds. They were not spicy and were not a favorite of my husbands.
Turkish Rice Pudding included coffee-date jam and pistachios and then was brûléed on the top. The sweet mixture was good with textural contrasts but I would have liked more rice to jam in the ratio. Either way it was still a good sweet ending for a really fine meal.
A Chef’s daily selection of gelato and sorbet was a mix of orange blossom and cranberry swirl gelatos with a cookie crumble. This was a gift from the chef and it was outstanding. The smooth gelato was perfect with the buttery cookie crumbs.
