Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Cheap eats before a pricey flick

Meze Greek Fusion at Liberty Station

Melted Swiss cheese doesn't add to the gyro experience
Melted Swiss cheese doesn't add to the gyro experience

The LOT theater at Liberty Station offers a posh moviegoing experience: you sit in cushy, reclining seats, each furnished with a swing out tray so you can eat and drink while you watch. There’s even a call button in the armrest, so you can summon waitstaff mid-movie for another round of food or drink.

Place

Meze Greek Fusion Liberty Station

2820 Historic Decatur Road, San Diego

You wind up paying about 20 bucks per ticket, though, and when you factor in the price of entrees and cocktails — in the $28 and $12 range respectively — modest ordering still sees the cost of this night out surpasses $60 per person before you get to the opening credits.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Whatever you order at Liberty Public Market can be eaten with beer at the Bottlecraft bar

I’m more accustomed to the Netflix and chill price point, so I hopped over to nearby Liberty Public Market before the film started for a cheaper dinner. There were many options of course; the market has seen vendors come and go since opening in 2016, but there’s always a breadth of meals available. A quick browse through its hallways had me deliberating among jambalaya, empanadas, lobster rolls, and pasta.

In each case I asked myself: which dinner will go best with a beer? Half the reason I order food in the stalls of Liberty Public Market is I know I can take my food over to the bar at Bottlecraft beer shop, found in the dining hall at the east end of the building. There are always excellent local beers on tap, and any food from market vendors is welcome.

With this in mind, foodwise I settled on a gyro from Meze Greek Fusion, a familiar local brand behind my favorite Mediterranean restaurant in East Village. This food counter version of Meze is clearly a different class of restaurant, and its menu reflects that. So do its prices. I couldn’t resist trying the cheesesteak inspired Greek Philly: a pita wrap featuring swiss cheese melted over gyro meat and sautéed mushrooms, peppers, and onions for $12.

Apologies to the bartop at Bottlecraft, because despite being neatly wrapped in butcher paper, the gyro proved quite messy, endlessly dripping Tzatziki and mixed oils running off from the veggies and cheese. That’s likely one reason it’s not more common to find cheese in a gyro; the flavor is another. The thick, melted Swiss added too much earthy character to a sandwich that already had plenty, thanks to generous portion of beef and lamb meat. A nice idea, but next time, I’ll keep Meze’s cheese and sandwich offerings separate. Its saganaki fried cheese dish is quite tasty by comparison.

I fared better on the beer side, scoring a pint of Czech-style pilsner to wash everything down before walking two blocks to the theater. One of these days, I’ll go whole hog at the LOT, and enjoy a premium night out. But for this round, keeping dinner and drink under 20 bucks helped me afford a movie night out that surprisingly exceeded the comfort streaming movies from my sofa.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Temperature inversions bring smoggy weather, "ankle biters" still biting

Near-new moon will lead to a dark Halloween
Melted Swiss cheese doesn't add to the gyro experience
Melted Swiss cheese doesn't add to the gyro experience

The LOT theater at Liberty Station offers a posh moviegoing experience: you sit in cushy, reclining seats, each furnished with a swing out tray so you can eat and drink while you watch. There’s even a call button in the armrest, so you can summon waitstaff mid-movie for another round of food or drink.

Place

Meze Greek Fusion Liberty Station

2820 Historic Decatur Road, San Diego

You wind up paying about 20 bucks per ticket, though, and when you factor in the price of entrees and cocktails — in the $28 and $12 range respectively — modest ordering still sees the cost of this night out surpasses $60 per person before you get to the opening credits.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Whatever you order at Liberty Public Market can be eaten with beer at the Bottlecraft bar

I’m more accustomed to the Netflix and chill price point, so I hopped over to nearby Liberty Public Market before the film started for a cheaper dinner. There were many options of course; the market has seen vendors come and go since opening in 2016, but there’s always a breadth of meals available. A quick browse through its hallways had me deliberating among jambalaya, empanadas, lobster rolls, and pasta.

In each case I asked myself: which dinner will go best with a beer? Half the reason I order food in the stalls of Liberty Public Market is I know I can take my food over to the bar at Bottlecraft beer shop, found in the dining hall at the east end of the building. There are always excellent local beers on tap, and any food from market vendors is welcome.

With this in mind, foodwise I settled on a gyro from Meze Greek Fusion, a familiar local brand behind my favorite Mediterranean restaurant in East Village. This food counter version of Meze is clearly a different class of restaurant, and its menu reflects that. So do its prices. I couldn’t resist trying the cheesesteak inspired Greek Philly: a pita wrap featuring swiss cheese melted over gyro meat and sautéed mushrooms, peppers, and onions for $12.

Apologies to the bartop at Bottlecraft, because despite being neatly wrapped in butcher paper, the gyro proved quite messy, endlessly dripping Tzatziki and mixed oils running off from the veggies and cheese. That’s likely one reason it’s not more common to find cheese in a gyro; the flavor is another. The thick, melted Swiss added too much earthy character to a sandwich that already had plenty, thanks to generous portion of beef and lamb meat. A nice idea, but next time, I’ll keep Meze’s cheese and sandwich offerings separate. Its saganaki fried cheese dish is quite tasty by comparison.

I fared better on the beer side, scoring a pint of Czech-style pilsner to wash everything down before walking two blocks to the theater. One of these days, I’ll go whole hog at the LOT, and enjoy a premium night out. But for this round, keeping dinner and drink under 20 bucks helped me afford a movie night out that surprisingly exceeded the comfort streaming movies from my sofa.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Three nights of Mission Bayfest bring bliss

“This is a top-notch production.”
Next Article

Big swordfish, big marlin, and big money

Trout opener at Santee Lakes
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader