Nicky Rotten’s
560 5th Ave.
San Diego, CA
560 5th Ave.
San Diego, CA
The Gaslamp Quarter is to San Diego what the French Quarter is to New Orleans…
What Beale Street is to Memphis…
What Ybor City is to Tampa…
What the River Walk is to San Antonio.
It’s where the fun is.
Where local party girls in skin tight mini skits and wide-eyed tourists alike flock to after the sun goes down.
And Nicky Rotten’s, a San Diego Gaslamp Quarter institution known for good burgers and good times, just seems to fit right in.
Drunken “type A” personality traveling salesmen pour out of the nearby Residence Inn to belly up to the bar at Nicky Rotten’s to crack jokes with the bartendress and run up tabs of Jager Bombs on their expense accounts.
I know what you’re thinking: “Suit757, isn’t that kinda like the pot calling the kettle black?”
Well, yes and no.
I might be a “type A” traveling businessman, but give me a good microbrew, a game on the flat screen and a corner alone at the end of the bar and I am perfectly conte
nt.
Human interaction not required.
Trust me, the inebriated, butt cheek pinching loud mouths running up Herculean tabs on their expense accounts get on my last nerve.
Especially when I consider the fact that they probably work for some feeding-at-the-trough federal contractor and I’m going to end up paying for it all in the end.
But Nicky Rotten’s has something going for it all the other Karaoke bars and pseudo-Irish pubs with cleavage-bearing hostesses beckoning passersby on the 5th Avenue sidewalk don’t have.
World famous burgers.
Or so the men
u says.
The menu also claims Nicky Rotten’s burgers have “no hormones & no antibiotics”, whatever the hell that means.
It’s soooo California.
Always a sucker for condiment overload, I ordered the Rotten's “Dirty Sanchez” Baja Burger, a medium rare (but organic and humanely treated) cow patty topped with chili, cheese, jalapeños, onion rings, salsa, guacamole, lettuce and tomato.
I wish I could say all that pampering this cow supposedly received paid off in extra delicious flavor, but how the heck would I know?
With all those ingredients piled on top, it was a like a D Day invasion for my taste buds.
Just squeezing it together with two hands and wrapping my mouth around the thing was challenge enough.
There was one thing all that chili, salsa and jalapeños necessitated.
Beer!
Fortunately, Nicky Rotten’s has an excellent selection.
I started with a local Green Flash “Hop Head Red”, a delicious and unique
hoppy version of a traditional red ale. It was like taking the best elements of a Smithwick’s and an IPA and combining them into one great brew.
My next choice to douse the jalapeño burger flames was another local brew – Stone Brewery’s version of an IPA.
Maybe it was just a tough act to follow the excellent Green Flash, but I was a little disappointed with Stone’s version of a highly hopped beer. I guess I was expecting something more spectacular from the brewery that also makes such legendary brews as Smoked Porter, Arrogant Bastard Ale and Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale.
My bartendress said she really liked the newest offering from Hawaii’s Kona Brewing Company, Koko Brown, which is brewed with toasted coconut. She gave me a free sample to try, and I liked it, but it was very sweet, espe
cially following two highly hopped beers.
I capped off the night with one last local San Diego brew, Yellowtail Pale Ale.
You never know what you’re going to get with a Pale Ale.
Traditionally, Pale Ales were only “pale” as compared to porters or stouts.
In other words, they aren’t pale at all. Often, they come highly hopped to the point of putting hair on your chest.
Sadly, this Yellowtail Pale Ale offers no such manly credentials.
More of a light pilsner, my Yellowtail wasn’t a bad way to cap the evening, but it paled (pun intended) in comparison to my previous beer choices.
After multiple beers and a couple pounds of burger and assorted condiments, it was time to relinquish my bar stool to another set of out-of-towners who clearly don’t get out enough.
For Suit757? It’s just another night of been there, done that, and will probably do it all again in another town tomorrow.
Rating: Would Wear A Free Shirt.
What Beale Street is to Memphis…
What Ybor City is to Tampa…
What the River Walk is to San Antonio.
It’s where the fun is.
Where local party girls in skin tight mini skits and wide-eyed tourists alike flock to after the sun goes down.
And Nicky Rotten’s, a San Diego Gaslamp Quarter institution known for good burgers and good times, just seems to fit right in.
Drunken “type A” personality traveling salesmen pour out of the nearby Residence Inn to belly up to the bar at Nicky Rotten’s to crack jokes with the bartendress and run up tabs of Jager Bombs on their expense accounts.
I know what you’re thinking: “Suit757, isn’t that kinda like the pot calling the kettle black?”
Well, yes and no.
I might be a “type A” traveling businessman, but give me a good microbrew, a game on the flat screen and a corner alone at the end of the bar and I am perfectly conte
nt. Human interaction not required.
Trust me, the inebriated, butt cheek pinching loud mouths running up Herculean tabs on their expense accounts get on my last nerve.
Especially when I consider the fact that they probably work for some feeding-at-the-trough federal contractor and I’m going to end up paying for it all in the end.
But Nicky Rotten’s has something going for it all the other Karaoke bars and pseudo-Irish pubs with cleavage-bearing hostesses beckoning passersby on the 5th Avenue sidewalk don’t have.
World famous burgers.
Or so the men
u says. The menu also claims Nicky Rotten’s burgers have “no hormones & no antibiotics”, whatever the hell that means.
It’s soooo California.
Always a sucker for condiment overload, I ordered the Rotten's “Dirty Sanchez” Baja Burger, a medium rare (but organic and humanely treated) cow patty topped with chili, cheese, jalapeños, onion rings, salsa, guacamole, lettuce and tomato.
I wish I could say all that pampering this cow supposedly received paid off in extra delicious flavor, but how the heck would I know?
With all those ingredients piled on top, it was a like a D Day invasion for my taste buds.
Just squeezing it together with two hands and wrapping my mouth around the thing was challenge enough.
There was one thing all that chili, salsa and jalapeños necessitated.
Beer!
Fortunately, Nicky Rotten’s has an excellent selection.
I started with a local Green Flash “Hop Head Red”, a delicious and unique
hoppy version of a traditional red ale. It was like taking the best elements of a Smithwick’s and an IPA and combining them into one great brew. My next choice to douse the jalapeño burger flames was another local brew – Stone Brewery’s version of an IPA.
Maybe it was just a tough act to follow the excellent Green Flash, but I was a little disappointed with Stone’s version of a highly hopped beer. I guess I was expecting something more spectacular from the brewery that also makes such legendary brews as Smoked Porter, Arrogant Bastard Ale and Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale.
My bartendress said she really liked the newest offering from Hawaii’s Kona Brewing Company, Koko Brown, which is brewed with toasted coconut. She gave me a free sample to try, and I liked it, but it was very sweet, espe
cially following two highly hopped beers. I capped off the night with one last local San Diego brew, Yellowtail Pale Ale.
You never know what you’re going to get with a Pale Ale.
Traditionally, Pale Ales were only “pale” as compared to porters or stouts.
In other words, they aren’t pale at all. Often, they come highly hopped to the point of putting hair on your chest.
Sadly, this Yellowtail Pale Ale offers no such manly credentials.
More of a light pilsner, my Yellowtail wasn’t a bad way to cap the evening, but it paled (pun intended) in comparison to my previous beer choices.
After multiple beers and a couple pounds of burger and assorted condiments, it was time to relinquish my bar stool to another set of out-of-towners who clearly don’t get out enough.
For Suit757? It’s just another night of been there, done that, and will probably do it all again in another town tomorrow.
Rating: Would Wear A Free Shirt.
No comments:
Post a Comment