Chef Graves' Rainbow Beet Terrine |
With its much-anticipated renovation completed, Jsix Restaurant at Hotel Solamar has reopened its doors to welcome San Diegans back to its tables. Located in downtown’s East Village, the restaurant has retained the unique charm and culinary perspective that have made it a top choice for neighborhood dining for the past seven years, but it has been dialed up with a completely overhauled interior and refocused food and drink programs. Created by award-winning Executive Chef Christian Graves, the new menu offers guests sophisticated examples of scratch-cooked American cuisine. To complement Graves’ food, Jsix added top bartender Nate Howell to the roster to engineer a bar program that exemplifies the tradition and history of cocktails. The result is a modern American restaurant that serves quality food and drinks that honor the past and recognize its place in the future.
Chef Graves’ transformation of the menu at Jsix gets to the heart of what guests crave. His ability to take simple American classics and reconstruct them with thoughtfully selected ingredients and a modern spin, makes dining at Jsix an experience rather than just another night out. The restaurant’s playful menu is now piled high with small plates designed to be shared. Examples include the Little Dumplings with Hen Broth, chicken sausage stuffed dumplings, spinach, young onions and lemon oil in a fortified consommé, and short or tall stacks of Baby Potato and Dungeness Crab Pancakes with American caviar and a side of hollandaise sauce. Larger entrees like Braised Rabbit and Spinach Pasta with roasted fennel, ricotta and mint leaves are also part of the nightly offerings.
Lunch guests to Jsix will be introduced to a new kind of afternoon dining. In addition to light fare and larger midday staples, Graves has created a Long Lunch menu featuring six carefully designed, themed food and beverage pairings for the full lunch experience. For the pensive theorist, order The Philosopher, which includes a board of Graves’ charcuterie and cheese combined with a glass of Chateau Briot Bordeaux. The Doctor is a light chicken and spinach wrap chased with a vodka gimlet to keep strength up. Then there’s The Attorney, a bleu cheese burger and glass of Macallan 12 Year Single Malt Scotch, because working a 16-hour day requires a satisfying reminder of the good things in life. Items will also be available a la carte.
“The beauty of Jsix today is that we are taking the best components from the past seven years and turning the volume up to 11 with the things we have always wanted to do,” said Graves. “Whether you need some healthy, soulful food or some good bartender voodoo wisdom, we will be at the top of the list.”
Working in tandem, Head Bartender Nate Howell uses Chef Graves’ food to inspire his drink menu, which focuses on regional products and utilizes ingredients infused with Graves’ smoked meats and rubs. Guests to Jsix can expect to find honest cocktails that celebrate the best of America, like Howell’s riff on a classic Mai Tai called Our Own Backyard. The blend of Ballast Point rum, Marie Brizard Apry apricot brandy, salted orgeat syrup, fresh lime and mint from the restaurant’s rooftop garden create a drink that salutes San Diego in a way that is uniquely Jsix. Paying tribute to his own beginnings in Indiana, Howell created the High Five with Mittens, a Midwest-inspired combination of a Ramos Gin Fizz and Root Beer Float using Death’s Door white whiskey, sarsaparilla-vanilla syrup, Wisconsin heavy cream, egg white and soda water. The menu will also offer well known favorites and obscure classics like the Bijou and Chicago. To balance the spirit selection, guests can pick from wines by the bottle and glass or choose from the collection of hand selected bottled and draught craft beers, including a limited release IPA co-created by Chef Graves and Mike Hess of Hess Brewing.
Jsix welcomes in its neighbors who will find comfort and conversation at communal tables in both the bar and dining area. The new design reigns in the restaurant's interior space and is inspired by early America, featuring era specific building materials like exposed brick walls, subway tiles, distressed metals and reclaimed woods presented in a modern, polished finish. Vintage photographs of the city's humble beginnings as a shipping village are also displayed throughout, tying back to the restaurant’s early American design and San Diego's roots.
Jsix Restaurant will be open daily for dinner at 5:30 p.m., with happy hour at the bar offered daily from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Breakfast will be served daily from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., while a casual and quick lunch service will be offered from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Brunch will be Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Jsix Restaurant is located at 616 J Street, San Diego, CA 92101. For more information and updates, follow Jsix on Facebook at facebook.com/jsixrestaurant.