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

First look at Lucky Bastard Saloon

New bar downtown makes an effort with the comfort food...and the chaps.

Skipping past the juicy but irrelevant PR hype (“ermhagerd it’s owned by a Playboy Playmate!”), the Lucky Bastard saloon at 840 Fifth Avenue looks like its trying harder than most to put food worth eating on the menu. This is no binding review, as the restau is still mired in soft-open confusion, but the place has some promise.

Of course, it’s still a Gaslamp bar with free beer pong on the mezzanine and an official dress code of chaps and tiny little knickers. Yeah, that’s right. Chaps. And here we were thinking chaps were just for wild gay dudes during Pride....

But, back to the menu. It really looks like they’re giving it a go with a legit menu of comfort food. Fried cheese curds ($7), despite being candidly undersold by a diminutive server with a sense of humor and an odd collection of big sky idioms in her vocabulary, tasted of little more than deep-fried cheese, although not as “gooey” as the menu promised.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jul/26/50089/

The namesake cheeseburger ($10), laden with bacon and peanut butter, must have weighed close to a full pound when all was said and done. It was an eating person’s cheeseburger, not a drinking person’s burger, and that’s an important distinction.

Hungry bastards, if I may, get to pick from other good stuff. A $14 ribeye steak with fries? That’s a good use of $14, provided it’s an actual ribeye of any quality. Chicken and waffles graced the menu’s copy, which included not a single capital letter, oddly enough. The most curious dish was a bowl of chilli...served with a hot cinnamon roll on the side.

Maybe this is asking too much of a bar, but it really looks like they’re trying to make the menu worth it for those who want more than soggy flat-top cooking. If the prices stay reasonable and the menu remains expansive, Lucky Bastard could be a cool place for the hungry, not just the drunken.

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

Previous article

Birding & Brews: Breakfast Edition, ZZ Ward, Doggie Street Festival & Pet Adopt-A-Thon

Events November 21-November 23, 2024

Skipping past the juicy but irrelevant PR hype (“ermhagerd it’s owned by a Playboy Playmate!”), the Lucky Bastard saloon at 840 Fifth Avenue looks like its trying harder than most to put food worth eating on the menu. This is no binding review, as the restau is still mired in soft-open confusion, but the place has some promise.

Of course, it’s still a Gaslamp bar with free beer pong on the mezzanine and an official dress code of chaps and tiny little knickers. Yeah, that’s right. Chaps. And here we were thinking chaps were just for wild gay dudes during Pride....

But, back to the menu. It really looks like they’re giving it a go with a legit menu of comfort food. Fried cheese curds ($7), despite being candidly undersold by a diminutive server with a sense of humor and an odd collection of big sky idioms in her vocabulary, tasted of little more than deep-fried cheese, although not as “gooey” as the menu promised.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jul/26/50089/

The namesake cheeseburger ($10), laden with bacon and peanut butter, must have weighed close to a full pound when all was said and done. It was an eating person’s cheeseburger, not a drinking person’s burger, and that’s an important distinction.

Hungry bastards, if I may, get to pick from other good stuff. A $14 ribeye steak with fries? That’s a good use of $14, provided it’s an actual ribeye of any quality. Chicken and waffles graced the menu’s copy, which included not a single capital letter, oddly enough. The most curious dish was a bowl of chilli...served with a hot cinnamon roll on the side.

Maybe this is asking too much of a bar, but it really looks like they’re trying to make the menu worth it for those who want more than soggy flat-top cooking. If the prices stay reasonable and the menu remains expansive, Lucky Bastard could be a cool place for the hungry, not just the drunken.

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

A year of chili cheese fries

Sister Rays turns a pile of meat, cheese, and potatoes into pure comfort
Next Article

Eats by Samburger the Cooking Guy

Behind a lot of “ghost restaurant” branding sits a waterfront sandwich counter
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