Photo from searocketbistro.com
Located in the hip North Park neighborhood Sea Rocket Bistro stands apart as a truly unique concept. While North Park is full of great places to eat, no other establishment embraces the aesthetic of serving sustainable, locally grown and harvested foods quite like this place. Sea Rocket not only embraces that concept theoretically, they prove that you can do it well!
On a recent Wednesday night we strolled in at 6 and were very pleased to be greeted with a window table and a comfortable server. Knowing that Sea Rocket specialized in locally harvested fish, we were heavily dependent on our server to act as a guide through the simple, yet ample menu. Likewise, we continued this dependency through a local beer and wine list of San Diego area beverages.
For our starter we enjoyed mussels and clams as well as some fantastic bread and flavored butter. (We chose to skip the house special of raw sea urchin. We were in the mood for adventure, but that was a smidgen beyond our comfort level.) The following two courses, we played it safe and enjoyed the recommendations of our server. We loved that the entrees weren’t so abundant that we had to shy away from dessert. We topped off our meal with a kumquat bread pudding that was both tasty and light. While our meal was full of fresh seafood it is notable that Sea Rocket Bistro offers a full array of vegetarian dishes.
When visiting Sea Rocket you really need to accept that part of the fun is that everything is local. The food is local. The drink is local. The clientele is local. The staff is local. I don’t think their goal is to please your inner food critic. I think their goal is to prove that to prove that you can have a vibrant, great bistro fully supplied and supporting by the local economy. And that is a goal I think they achieve with flying colors.
Geeky side notes: As a social media junkie I was pleased to see that Sea Rocket actively maintains both their website and a blog. Additionally, you can follow them on Twitter. (We actually heard about Sea Rocket on Twitter!) I’ve been especially impressed at how active they are in the community and how well their blog documents involvement. Oh, and you don’t want to miss this little detail. You can go to their food map and see exactly where everything they serve comes from! Transparency in a restaurant? Imagine if that concept took off!
Sea Rocket Bistro 3382 30th Street, San Diego Map $20-$30 per person No kids menu
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Sea Rocket Bistro is very community-minded. In fact, they recently bought the first batch of produce grown from an individual farmer’s plot at New Roots Farm in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego. The New Roots Farm provides access to more healthy food options, while also creating micro-enterprise opportunities for resettled refugees. Now that’s locally grown goodness.