Frank Sabatini Jr. | Downtown News
Jsix
616 J St.
619-531-8744
Dinner prices: Starters, $6 to $18; entrees, $9 to $29
It wouldn’t seem odd if the new winter dishes at Jsix were served on dinnerware embossed with scenes from Currier & Ives. Ingredients like pumpkin, chestnuts, late-autumn pears and roasted chicories glide across the menu in a sleigh ride leading to wine-braised short ribs, Maine diver scallops and house-made ravioli.
A double-cut Niman Ranch pork chop reads like a gourmet pfeffernusse cookie. The meat is served with spiced molasses, apples and chicory, and with a brandy sauce to boot. Grilled wild salmon also summons sweet holiday cheer with the addition of honey-roasted pears from northern California’s Frog Hollow Farm, a pioneer in organic farming.
Executive Chef Christian Graves is no stranger to farm-fresh ingredients. With his sous chef, Leland Heaton, they turn often to Suzie’s Farm for produce as well as the medicinal weed known as purslane, which goes into pesto for a dish of spinach pasta strewn with braised brisket. The tiny succulents flaunt a grassy flavor that matched well to the other greenery in the entrée. Throughout the Middle Ages, purslane was used as a blood cleanser and for fighting bacterial sores. Scientists today acknowledge its high levels of Vitamin C.
A riot of herbs take center stage in an emerald puree encircling pull-apart “monkey bread” topped with a lobe of soft burrata cheese. Graves makes the bread from a sourdough starter he’s kept alive for the past several years. The pieces are tossed in garlic and Parmesan, with the best bites arising from those blemished with toasted portions of the cheese.
Graves’ knack for hunting down obscure ingredients extends to black tellicherry pepper, considered the Cadillac of pepper because the plant’s extra-large berries are kept on the vines longer. The spice is incorporated into fresh, perfectly thin pappardelle pasta tossed in cured pork jowl, sage and Parmesan cream sauce. Every bite feels like a warm hug as the pepper-infused pasta sends out meek bursts of heat.
For a gnocchi dish, little cubes of pan-seared mortadella raised the comfort level, with their fatty juices forming the thin sauce. Crispy leeks entered into the equation as well, although we would have welcomed more of them to balance out the starch component.
Bell-shaped “end of the woods” mushrooms were a flattering match to Maine diver scallops and the marvelous chestnut puree sitting beneath them. Interspersed between the mollusks were baby Yukon potatoes. In another fine presentation, a mondo two-bone short rib braised in red wine and veal stock played up to the evening’s chill. The meat sat atop a puddle of nurturing parsnip puree that took on a pleasant sharpness from Swiss chard.
The new menu contains several gluten-free items such as seared albacore in cauliflower puree and Brandt beef New York steak with Dungeness crab and sunchoke gratin. The chefs, however, are adept at tweaking most of the dishes to anyone’s dietary needs.
The illuminated bar at Jsix is a laboratory for “bar engineer” Lauren Lathrop Williams, whose signature cocktails capture an alchemy of infused syrups, muddled fruits and interesting spirits. Among them is Genever, a juniper berry liquor famous in Holland that Williams combines with muddled blackberry, lime and Malbec in a kicky drink called Midnight.
We especially loved the Fall Back, in which muddled burnt orange, fresh apple juice and thyme turn Wild Turkey Whiskey into something highly drinkable. And when we rolled into an assortment of house-made ice creams for dessert, we dabbled in scratch-made eggnog spiked generously with brandy and dark rum, and sweetened with clove-allspice syrup. Merry Christmas!
At any time, residents who live in Downtown’s 92101 area code will receive 10 percent off their total bill if they show ID. For those living outside or within the urban core, Jsix also offers weekday specials that include “martini Mondays,” “beer tasting Tuesdays” and “wine Wednesdays,” to name a few.
Frank Sabatini Jr. is the author of Secret San Diego (ECW Press), and began writing about food two decades ago as a staffer for the former San Diego Tribune. He has since covered the culinary scene extensively for NBC; Pacific San Diego Magazine; San Diego Uptown News; Gay San Diego; Living in Style Magazine and The Gay & Lesbian Times. You can reach him at fsabatini@san.rr.com.
