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
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
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
Descanso Junction: Unchained lunch
“This place is so unusual... It’s history. It’s itself.”
Taco salad with carne asada in an edible tortilla bowl, $15.99
“Are we there yet?”
That’s me. Even though Annella and Adrian are doing the driving, this twisty, hilly trip seems like it’ll never end. For starters, we’ve come all the way up to 3500 feet, here in the Cuyamaca mountains. For seconds, I didn’t grab anything to eat before we started. By the time we pull over, we’re super-ready to sniff the BBQ meat aromas wafting out through the door of the Descanso Junction restaurant. We don’t even have to say anything, my corazon Diane, her friends Adrian and Annella, and me. Just a mutual look, like “Yesss!” And we’re in like Flynn.
The place is cowboy all the way. “We don’t dial 911,” reads the sign with a Colt .45 slung next to it, posted just below a six-foot set of longhorns alongside cross-strung rifles.
Turns out this place has been here for generations. “At one point, there was a gas station here, and a store, and a restaurant,” says Tina, who’s in charge. “Now it’s just us, the restaurant. But back in the day, downstairs, during Prohibition, they had a speakeasy in the cellar. And I did hear that the place next door is over 100 years old. They say it was a house for the ladies. So you could stop here and get everything taken care of!” She laughs. Hey hey. Tina points to a picture of Descanso with a coating of snow, with one of those stretched “service cars” they used to have before Greyhound in the foreground.
“Lunch!” says Adrian. He’s a take-charge lawyer kind of guy.
We sit down at a long varnished table. Tina splays out menus, and we hunker down to concentrate. “Specials,” she says, stabbing with her finger. The page in front of us says “Limited Time Only. Appetizers.” Has four items. Fried zucchini, $8.99, cheese curds, $9.99, BBQ chicken flatbread, $9.99, and pork skins, $10.99. Next page advertises live music Friday and Saturday nights, plus games like corn hole and horse shoes (“Kid and pet friendly!”) all summer long. Uh, and winter too?
The place is 100 years old, but full of life
Next pages have beer (on tap), wine by the glass, and “Fancy” drinks like mimosa (champagne and OJ) and hibiscus (champagne and cranberry) — pretty-much all priced at $6.99 each. Deal. They have daily dinner specials, like Thursday’s “giant beef ribs” ($19.99), or the Friday Fish Fry: cod, fries, coleslaw for $17.99. Have to come back for that. Right now, it’s three in the afternoon. We’re too early for dinners, too late for breakfasts (they stop at 1 pm, cost around $18, say for a Benedict). Pity, because daily dinner specials include things like all-you-can-eat spaghetti on Tuesday, $17.99; pot roasts on Thursdays, $18.99; and a Saturday treat, prime rib for $28.99.
But today, we’re hitting the modesty button. Annella and Adrian choose to share a taco salad for $15.99. They can get it with carne asada, chicken, or beef, and it comes in a crispy, edible flour tortilla bowl, topped with sour cream and avocado, and sitting in what looks like a desert-dried puddle of frijoles. Adrian takes the carne asada option. Diane goes for the chili and corn bread special for $10.99. Me, I’ve gotta have some of those delicious-looking baked potatoes, buried under “everything,” called “pork skins.” Saw Tina transporting a plate-load to some people. Costs $10.99. We fall silent when she brings our array out from the kitchen and we set to. Okay, Adrian and I get a Corona on tap each ($6.99) and that matches perfectly with the rich pungency of my carne asada strips. Man. They lick around the heavily-seasoned baked potato halves. Two giant blobs of sour cream sit melting over everything, including a garden of fresh salad leaves that give you a break from all that riqueza de sabor.
Diane spoons up every drop of her chili and the light fluffy chunks of homemade cornbread. But I see her eye’s wandering towards my last potato skin half. “No way,” I say as I hand it across plates. Sigh. The cost of love. “Darling,” she says. “Just think of it as part of my education into your Wild West ways.”
“Thank Tammy and Brett Cooks,” I say. I’m jes’ reading that this building is also over 100 years old, and that this eatery has been around for 22 years under Tammy and Brett. They opened up here in 2003, and are still going strong.
I ask Annella how their taco salad is. By now she and Adrian are cracking down the walls “Just look what you get!” says Annella. “The salad, the tacos, the bowl you can eat, and the...what?” They’re from northern California. You have to forgive them.
“Frijoles,” I say. “Refried beans.”
“All I’ve got to say is this is unusual,” says Adrian. “Completely apart from the food, getting a restaurant like this, an old house, on a stage coach line, how do you beat that kind of history? There are very few places left in the United States on roads like this, serving this kind of food, that aren’t chains. Most disappeared years ago. I’d make sure everyone appreciates that they’re on the old stagecoach route here. It is something to be savored, to be appreciated. I’ve driven across the country four or five times. This place is so unusual. It’s not a Michelin restaurant. It’s history. It’s itself. That’s enough. We’re from San Francisco. Don’t try to compare this place with some city restaurant there. This is sui generis!”
I look it up. Sui generis: In a class by itself.
As I say, Adrian is a lawyer.
The Place: Descanso Junction Restaurant, 8306 Highway 79, Descanso, tel: 619-659-2199
Hours: 7am-8pm daily
Prices: Most drinks: $6.99; smoked Bourbon tri-tip and eggs, $18.99; chicken fried steak and eggs, $18.99; chorizo and eggs, $15.99; vegan skillet, home fries, $15.99; fried zucchini, $8.99, cheese curds, $9.99, BBQ chicken flatbread, $9.99; baked potato and pork skins, $10.99; Thursday’s “giant beef ribs,” ($19.99); Friday Fish Fry, cod, fries, coleslaw for $17.99; all-you-can-eat spaghetti, $17.99, pot roasts on Thursdays, $18.99; Saturday treat, prime rib, $28.99; chili and corn bread special, $10.99; taco salad (with carne asada, chicken or beef, in crispy, edible, flour tortilla bowl), $15.99
Buses: 888, 894 (Warning: very infrequent)
Nearest bus stop: Old Highway 80 and Riverside Street, Descanso, near restaurant
Here's something you might be interested in.
Descanso Junction: Unchained lunch
“This place is so unusual... It’s history. It’s itself.”
Descanso Junction: Unchained lunch
“This place is so unusual... It’s history. It’s itself.”
Taco salad with carne asada in an edible tortilla bowl, $15.99
“Are we there yet?”
That’s me. Even though Annella and Adrian are doing the driving, this twisty, hilly trip seems like it’ll never end. For starters, we’ve come all the way up to 3500 feet, here in the Cuyamaca mountains. For seconds, I didn’t grab anything to eat before we started. By the time we pull over, we’re super-ready to sniff the BBQ meat aromas wafting out through the door of the Descanso Junction restaurant. We don’t even have to say anything, my corazon Diane, her friends Adrian and Annella, and me. Just a mutual look, like “Yesss!” And we’re in like Flynn.
The place is cowboy all the way. “We don’t dial 911,” reads the sign with a Colt .45 slung next to it, posted just below a six-foot set of longhorns alongside cross-strung rifles.
Turns out this place has been here for generations. “At one point, there was a gas station here, and a store, and a restaurant,” says Tina, who’s in charge. “Now it’s just us, the restaurant. But back in the day, downstairs, during Prohibition, they had a speakeasy in the cellar. And I did hear that the place next door is over 100 years old. They say it was a house for the ladies. So you could stop here and get everything taken care of!” She laughs. Hey hey. Tina points to a picture of Descanso with a coating of snow, with one of those stretched “service cars” they used to have before Greyhound in the foreground.
“Lunch!” says Adrian. He’s a take-charge lawyer kind of guy.
We sit down at a long varnished table. Tina splays out menus, and we hunker down to concentrate. “Specials,” she says, stabbing with her finger. The page in front of us says “Limited Time Only. Appetizers.” Has four items. Fried zucchini, $8.99, cheese curds, $9.99, BBQ chicken flatbread, $9.99, and pork skins, $10.99. Next page advertises live music Friday and Saturday nights, plus games like corn hole and horse shoes (“Kid and pet friendly!”) all summer long. Uh, and winter too?
The place is 100 years old, but full of life
Next pages have beer (on tap), wine by the glass, and “Fancy” drinks like mimosa (champagne and OJ) and hibiscus (champagne and cranberry) — pretty-much all priced at $6.99 each. Deal. They have daily dinner specials, like Thursday’s “giant beef ribs” ($19.99), or the Friday Fish Fry: cod, fries, coleslaw for $17.99. Have to come back for that. Right now, it’s three in the afternoon. We’re too early for dinners, too late for breakfasts (they stop at 1 pm, cost around $18, say for a Benedict). Pity, because daily dinner specials include things like all-you-can-eat spaghetti on Tuesday, $17.99; pot roasts on Thursdays, $18.99; and a Saturday treat, prime rib for $28.99.
But today, we’re hitting the modesty button. Annella and Adrian choose to share a taco salad for $15.99. They can get it with carne asada, chicken, or beef, and it comes in a crispy, edible flour tortilla bowl, topped with sour cream and avocado, and sitting in what looks like a desert-dried puddle of frijoles. Adrian takes the carne asada option. Diane goes for the chili and corn bread special for $10.99. Me, I’ve gotta have some of those delicious-looking baked potatoes, buried under “everything,” called “pork skins.” Saw Tina transporting a plate-load to some people. Costs $10.99. We fall silent when she brings our array out from the kitchen and we set to. Okay, Adrian and I get a Corona on tap each ($6.99) and that matches perfectly with the rich pungency of my carne asada strips. Man. They lick around the heavily-seasoned baked potato halves. Two giant blobs of sour cream sit melting over everything, including a garden of fresh salad leaves that give you a break from all that riqueza de sabor.
Diane spoons up every drop of her chili and the light fluffy chunks of homemade cornbread. But I see her eye’s wandering towards my last potato skin half. “No way,” I say as I hand it across plates. Sigh. The cost of love. “Darling,” she says. “Just think of it as part of my education into your Wild West ways.”
“Thank Tammy and Brett Cooks,” I say. I’m jes’ reading that this building is also over 100 years old, and that this eatery has been around for 22 years under Tammy and Brett. They opened up here in 2003, and are still going strong.
I ask Annella how their taco salad is. By now she and Adrian are cracking down the walls “Just look what you get!” says Annella. “The salad, the tacos, the bowl you can eat, and the...what?” They’re from northern California. You have to forgive them.
“Frijoles,” I say. “Refried beans.”
“All I’ve got to say is this is unusual,” says Adrian. “Completely apart from the food, getting a restaurant like this, an old house, on a stage coach line, how do you beat that kind of history? There are very few places left in the United States on roads like this, serving this kind of food, that aren’t chains. Most disappeared years ago. I’d make sure everyone appreciates that they’re on the old stagecoach route here. It is something to be savored, to be appreciated. I’ve driven across the country four or five times. This place is so unusual. It’s not a Michelin restaurant. It’s history. It’s itself. That’s enough. We’re from San Francisco. Don’t try to compare this place with some city restaurant there. This is sui generis!”
I look it up. Sui generis: In a class by itself.
As I say, Adrian is a lawyer.
The Place: Descanso Junction Restaurant, 8306 Highway 79, Descanso, tel: 619-659-2199
Hours: 7am-8pm daily
Prices: Most drinks: $6.99; smoked Bourbon tri-tip and eggs, $18.99; chicken fried steak and eggs, $18.99; chorizo and eggs, $15.99; vegan skillet, home fries, $15.99; fried zucchini, $8.99, cheese curds, $9.99, BBQ chicken flatbread, $9.99; baked potato and pork skins, $10.99; Thursday’s “giant beef ribs,” ($19.99); Friday Fish Fry, cod, fries, coleslaw for $17.99; all-you-can-eat spaghetti, $17.99, pot roasts on Thursdays, $18.99; Saturday treat, prime rib, $28.99; chili and corn bread special, $10.99; taco salad (with carne asada, chicken or beef, in crispy, edible, flour tortilla bowl), $15.99
Buses: 888, 894 (Warning: very infrequent)
Nearest bus stop: Old Highway 80 and Riverside Street, Descanso, near restaurant
Comments