Hotel Thrillist Bombs San Diego With The Party of all Parties

All night I kept saying to myself "Do Not Fall Into the Pool!!"

Last weekend I got invited to a party!   And it wasn't some lame party thrown by my brother-in-law who likes to go to bed at 830, this was the Hotel Thrillist San Diego party held at the Hard Rock Hotel.  With a line that wrapped around the block you knew that this was the hot ticket of the night and once inside the place was kind of crazy and wild.  I'm guessing the open bar featuring Malibu Rum had something to do with it.  Maybe.....

Or was it the food?  There were 11 restaurants/food trucks there serving up some really great stuff as well as some craft beer served up by a few of my favorite local breweries, namely Karl Strauss, Coronado Brewing and Mother Earth Brewing.  Before we get to the food let's take another look at this place.

Great shot probably taken from the police helicopter wondering what all the commotion was about.

I mean, come on!  Only Thrillist.com could pull this off.  I like these guys because they really just cut to the chase with showing some of the coolest things in San Diego and when they say they are throwing a party they mean an all-weekend party.  Seriously!

There are a lot of guys in this pool.  Just saying...

The food event was Friday night but the next day there was a pool party for those who just could not get enough.  That's me in that photo above.  Find Wally.  Where?  Where????? 

I think I need to work out more if I'm going to parties like this!  No, that is NOT me on the right.

But back to the Friday night party and, yes, the food.  Here's who was there:

• Brian’s Malarkey's restaurant, Searsucker, served hamachi tartar with shallot, crème fraiche, chives and jalapeno
• Salt & Cleaver created an authentic Moroccan lamb merguez with mint, lime and cucumber
• Puesto dished up a California taco complete with filet mignon, melted cheese, crispy potatoes, homemade guacamole and tomatillo roja salsa
• Donut Bar created a ‘Big Poppa Tart’ Donut 
• The Cravory invented ‘wookies,’ their own version of whoopie pie – they served lemon bar, birthday cake and banana pecan pie wookies 
• Duck Dive served pan seared duck breast with Duck Dive dragon glaze over blueberry risotto and sautéed spinach
• Slaters 50/50 prepared a Tequila Chorizo Fundido Burger topped with beer battered onion rings, fire roasted green chilies, fresh guacamole and drenched in house-made fundido sauce
• Casanova Fish Tacos supplied Baja-style shrimp ceviche
• GreenGo Grilled Cheese prepared a Nogada Grilled Cheese with pork belly, grilled dates, caramelized red onion and their signature Nogada spread 
• New York on Rye served up delicious rueben wontons<
• Not So Fast Food Truck made Scarpariello chicken wings served with fresh baby fennel.

OK already, here's a photo.  Just one because it's not fair to show you all this great food if you can't taste it.

This is good, really good.

  

Oh yeah, this is the Slaters 50/50 looking very civilized in a messy sort of way. First off, if you have not had a Slaters 50/50, which is half hamburger and half bacon meat, it's really something else!  Here's why you don't ever want to try to do this at home.

Try to look cool, don't worry, stay calm, you will not burn down the Hard Rock Hotel.  Probably not.

Ha, I guess there's just a little bit of tasty fat in the 50/50 meat mixture!  The smoke got so dense that people were ducking behind poles but I did not move one inch.  I wanted my burger!  And everything else was equally good.  I went back a few times for the duck breast from Duck Dive and the weird won ton filled the makings of Reuben sandwich inside from New York on Rye was oddly appealing.  And, of course, Seersucker does everything right so can't complain there!

OK, one more photo.  This innocent looking wonton was filled with Reuben sandwich fixings which my  wife thought was weird and I was glad she did because I got to eat her wontons.  It was weird, to be honest, but weird in a good way. 

So go eat, San Diego.  If you are lucky enough to be reading this post today, Sept 26th, you can go to any of these restaurants and order these off-the-menu items.  But if you missed it, don't worry!  Each restaurant here is worthy of your time and worth seeking out.  If their food is anything close to what we had at the Hotel Thrillist San Diego event then you you can't go wrong.

Local Wally
www.LocalWally.com
www.DrinkUpSanDiego.com