Here's something you might be interested in.
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
Even a sandwich snob likes a deal
Working Class beer combo gets it a second look
A Reuben for $9, with beer and fries for $5 more
At the North Park street corner where Ritual Tavern sat for the past decade or so, a new, neighborhood-oriented bar and eatery has opened, refurbishing the space and offering a different interpretation of the gastropub concept. They call it Working Class, which seems like solid branding these days. In the event someone like me comes along to say it's not very good, everyone can just chalk it up to white-collar snobbery. Which it might well be.
But I'll start by saying this: there's plenty to like about Working Class. It's designed to be bright and wide open, giving the interior plenty of sunshine during the day. In the front, bright blue storage container siding meets the striking contrast of an orange-stained wood pergola framing a patio that feels connected to happenings along busy 30th Street.
Kids and pets get the best part of Working Class: the back patio
Like the restaurant itself, these happenings usually involve food and craft beverages. Specializing in American-style comfort food, Working Class's prices are great for a table service restaurant, particularly by North Park standards. A menu of all-day breakfast and lunch plates start at $8, with dinners topping out at $12, and a three-hour weekday happy hour boasting $5 starters and $4 pours. The menu of brews gets handily divided into styles of beer (hoppy, malty, sour, etc.), with tags distinguishing not only which beers were produced in San Diego but which are local to North Park.
Front patio, with bar stools facing 30th Street
Beer and wine list aside, Working Class aims for a family and pet-friendly environment, to the extent it furnishes both kid and dog menus. However, nearly the entire front portion of the restaurant, interior, and patio is bar stool seating only, a fair amount of it belly-up to a long, wraparound bar.
Better for families and fur kids is the spacious back patio. It's a whole other world back there, made of bright green artificial turf and wood-bench picnic tables. Whereas the inside walls are dominated by TVs tuned to sports, out back there are living wall planters and heat lamps.
Even if nothing really stands out as distinctive, there's a little something for everyone, and it makes a solid addition to the neighborhood in that regard. There's only a problem if the lack of distinction carries over to the food. Alas, at first taste, I found myself struggling with a too-bland burger and a too-sweet (yet otherwise bland) fried chicken sandwich.
Disappointed with the sandwiches, I returned to try one of the working class themed dinner entrées. It was either going to be the Salisbury steak plate or the chicken pot pie, but somewhere in my deliberations I finally noticed a deal I had missed. For five bucks you can add fries and a half pour of beer to any sandwich order.
That brought the sandwiches back to my good graces. I decided to check out the pastrami Reuben, grilled on sourdough with sauerkraut and melted swiss, then added a favorite local Belgian style ale, the Lost Abbey's Devotion, to go with the crisp, parsley seasoned fries.
I enjoyed the meal, but like the burger patty before it, the pastrami itself didn't offer as robust a flavor as I expect form that most glorious deli meat. However, I enjoyed the diced scallions tossed over the crispy grilled sourdough, and it tasted like caraway seeds were added to some component of the sandwich as a creative sort of rye-bread reference.
That showed me, finally, that food here isn't entirely erring on the side of mild. I do view it as an accomplishment that Working Class's community-friendly amenities manage to add value to a neighborhood that wasn't exactly aching for a new beer-and-grub spot. But until I eat something more memorable, it won't be one of the first places that comes to mind when I want to eat in North Park, unless my dog is with me.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Even a sandwich snob likes a deal
Working Class beer combo gets it a second look
Even a sandwich snob likes a deal
Working Class beer combo gets it a second look
A Reuben for $9, with beer and fries for $5 more
At the North Park street corner where Ritual Tavern sat for the past decade or so, a new, neighborhood-oriented bar and eatery has opened, refurbishing the space and offering a different interpretation of the gastropub concept. They call it Working Class, which seems like solid branding these days. In the event someone like me comes along to say it's not very good, everyone can just chalk it up to white-collar snobbery. Which it might well be.
But I'll start by saying this: there's plenty to like about Working Class. It's designed to be bright and wide open, giving the interior plenty of sunshine during the day. In the front, bright blue storage container siding meets the striking contrast of an orange-stained wood pergola framing a patio that feels connected to happenings along busy 30th Street.
Kids and pets get the best part of Working Class: the back patio
Like the restaurant itself, these happenings usually involve food and craft beverages. Specializing in American-style comfort food, Working Class's prices are great for a table service restaurant, particularly by North Park standards. A menu of all-day breakfast and lunch plates start at $8, with dinners topping out at $12, and a three-hour weekday happy hour boasting $5 starters and $4 pours. The menu of brews gets handily divided into styles of beer (hoppy, malty, sour, etc.), with tags distinguishing not only which beers were produced in San Diego but which are local to North Park.
Front patio, with bar stools facing 30th Street
Beer and wine list aside, Working Class aims for a family and pet-friendly environment, to the extent it furnishes both kid and dog menus. However, nearly the entire front portion of the restaurant, interior, and patio is bar stool seating only, a fair amount of it belly-up to a long, wraparound bar.
Better for families and fur kids is the spacious back patio. It's a whole other world back there, made of bright green artificial turf and wood-bench picnic tables. Whereas the inside walls are dominated by TVs tuned to sports, out back there are living wall planters and heat lamps.
Even if nothing really stands out as distinctive, there's a little something for everyone, and it makes a solid addition to the neighborhood in that regard. There's only a problem if the lack of distinction carries over to the food. Alas, at first taste, I found myself struggling with a too-bland burger and a too-sweet (yet otherwise bland) fried chicken sandwich.
Disappointed with the sandwiches, I returned to try one of the working class themed dinner entrées. It was either going to be the Salisbury steak plate or the chicken pot pie, but somewhere in my deliberations I finally noticed a deal I had missed. For five bucks you can add fries and a half pour of beer to any sandwich order.
That brought the sandwiches back to my good graces. I decided to check out the pastrami Reuben, grilled on sourdough with sauerkraut and melted swiss, then added a favorite local Belgian style ale, the Lost Abbey's Devotion, to go with the crisp, parsley seasoned fries.
I enjoyed the meal, but like the burger patty before it, the pastrami itself didn't offer as robust a flavor as I expect form that most glorious deli meat. However, I enjoyed the diced scallions tossed over the crispy grilled sourdough, and it tasted like caraway seeds were added to some component of the sandwich as a creative sort of rye-bread reference.
That showed me, finally, that food here isn't entirely erring on the side of mild. I do view it as an accomplishment that Working Class's community-friendly amenities manage to add value to a neighborhood that wasn't exactly aching for a new beer-and-grub spot. But until I eat something more memorable, it won't be one of the first places that comes to mind when I want to eat in North Park, unless my dog is with me.
Comments