944 MAGAZINE: ECLECTIC EATERY
Cook Up a Storm
Published February 2008

Celebrdate a little earlier thatn the 14th with a cooking class for you and your beau. On Febrary 5, Kitchen Witch in Encinitas will offer a live cooking demonstration of its "Valentine's Day Celebration" for $55 per person, where you'll learn how to prepare a full meal from start to finish.

On February 10, Cafe One Three in Hhillcrest will hold its "Simple Chocolate Gifts & kDesserts" hands -on class for $75 per person that includes wine pairings. Create sweet treats such as Bittersweet Chocolate-Espresso TDruffles and Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Hearts. Make sure to R.S.V.P. early since space is extremely limited.

SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE
Cafe One Three: Dessert Pick
Published February 2008
By Stephanie Sweat

Cafe One Three in Hillcrest considers itself an "eclectic eatery." The menu - comfort food with a kick - features at-home faves like meatloaf, past and chicken. Desserts change frequently and are prepared daily in-house. One staple is the chocolate Kahlua cake, made with everything naughty for the body. The cafe keeps frugality in mind with half-price wine Wednesday, and a sunset prix fixe dinner Tues-Fri. Dinner nightly (except Monday). 4207 Park Blvd., 619-260-1311. FB, LD Fri & Sat, CR, $$-$$$

GAY & LESBIAN TIMES
Coolest Neighborhood Cafe
Cafe One Three, 4207 Park Blvd., North Park
Published 12/20/07
By Frank Sabatini Jr.

The vibe is stylish without being pretentious. And if I bothered including a "best meatloaf" category in my roundup, I'd cross-reference this eatery. The recipe uses finely ground pork, veal and turkey - resulting in a Cadillac quality that other restaurants fail to achieve. Meal are made with fresh ingredients, and they're artistically presented. A good bang for the buck.

SAN DIEGO HOME/GARDEN LIFESTYLES
A Guide to 150 of San Diego's Finest Restaurants
Published December 2007

THE BOTTOM LINE MAGAZINE
Charm And Killer Cuisine at Café One Three Do the Math...
Published January 2008
By Tryce Czyczynska

You wouldn’t mistake the pet-friendly sidewalk dining for a Southern porch or the pleasant interior of your living room, yet once you’ve soaked in the courteous vibe at the new Café One Three you’ll surely feel like family.

My date and I were promptly welcomed by manager Michael Lunsford, a stickler for great customer care. We enjoyed co-owner Jason Dean, a Tennessee man famous for managing The Prado. The Café venture is shared with Mexican-born Carlos Legaspy. Chef John Kennedy reigns from the CA Culinary Academy of San Francisco. The combination is a blend of perfect hospitality and effortless confidence.

Café One Three displays a charming, quiet pride in its simple sophistication. Only experts could achieve this soft appeal, given their focus on black and steel. The open kitchen beckons behind custom, curvy counters with inset colored glass chunks—the place foodies sit for specialty cooking classes.

Diners enjoy padded, matte lacquered black chairs on earthy carpeting surrounded by cream walls and a ceiling crown of metallic taupe. Amber light glows through glass fixtures and mosaic candle lamps dot every table. Locally made colored glass sculptures are shelved on one wall, with a smattering of muted color throughout. The open floor plan is balanced by smaller flanks of tables-for-two with window seating.
While the décor revived us from a long day, their killer Texan-inspired Tortilla Soup brought color to our cheeks. Not overly hot, not overly simple, this ‘just right’ yum wafted like an authentic tortilla kitchen with colors like autumn. Cubes of avocado and white cheese basked in a perfect broth with shredded chicken, cilantro and tortilla strips—all lightly sweetened by dried, deep red pasilla chilies. The combination is dark and wintry with spices that cheer.

The world travels of the team at Café One Three shows in its eclectic menus for lunches, soon to be famous brunches, dinners and catering. With soups, salads, entrees, specials and desserts, it’s no surprise that patrons come back regularly for their fine fare.
Our dinner dishes included a hearty oven roasted pork loin of tender, white, lean meat stuffed with apricots, pistachios and soy-rizo with a subtle orange, fennel slaw and a chipotle glace drizzled about. The flavors were both deep and light, with enough verve to charge your senses. Their moist pork had a perfect pink shade. The dynamic sagey rizo matched the apricot sweetness, although I wouldn’t object to a stronger apricot flavor. My perfectly matched wine, a Cartilege & Brown Pinot Noir, kept my palette fresh. The meal itself was comforting.

My date let me graze on her impressive molasses-bathed roasted garlic prawns, grilled and spread over a delightful, smoky succotash of eggplant, squash and tomatoes, and our second favorite, cheddar-laced creamy, savory grits that were buttery, fluffy and fun to eat. Truly a kicky combo! The giant prawns were paired with the recommended house wine, a delicious port-like Cabernet by Manzanita Canyon. All servings were attractively plated in ideal portions with excellent pricing.

Their most deserving dessert was a vodka-spiked Kahlua Cake. Cut tall to show off meticulously proportioned stripes of dark chocolate sponge cake and airy chocolate mousse, the cake was backed by a towering, thin shell of dark chocolate that hints at its uplifting sweetness. It was surrounded by a lavish drizzle of wet, dark chocolate all on a clear, light blue glass plate. The slight alcohol warmth went well with the weightlessness of the chocolate. No guilt, no shame, just forgivable decadence that lingers after melting in your mouth.

Just as the food satisfies the senses, the Café satisfies all types of dining arrangements. We saw groups of friends, couples and a single diner with a good book. Patrons ranged from 20 to 60 in years and looked slightly collegiate, in a Seattle-ite kind of way. Some were hip, some were openly LGBT and everyone belonged.

A peek at their porcelain fed the stereotype that gay men know décor. Challenged by a single, unisex parlor, they succeed at making the most of a smallish space with shiny white tiles and appliances for the lower walls and a faux paint design of tall, narrow diamonds in a grainy, brush stroke using the metallic taupe of the restaurant ceiling. It’s softened by a cream paint base and a single decor highlight, a three-foot glass vase of enormous willow branches. (The lighting complemented my complexion, but there was no place to rest my belongings, and putting a purse on the floor is icky.)

The bottom line is Café One Three marks a solid ‘four kiss’ experience out of five —we’d rush back to kiss the crew and sample the specials. At this new venue, you’re sure to feel special!

SAN DIEGO FAMILY MAGAZINE
Dining
Published December 2007

Café One Three isn’t your typical café. The brunch, happy hour and dinner menus are filled with eclectic items: the meatloaf scramble with fresh tomatoes, onions and horseradish cheddar cheese, Thai turkey burger topped with Swiss cheese and Asian slaw on a ciabatta bun with a choice of herbed pommes frites or sweet potato fries, or roasted yellow and red beet salad with pancetta and pepato cheese on a bed of mixed greens. This eatery has other nobel causes, besides just filling your belly with tasty food. When my family and I dined at the cafe, they were raising money for children at St. Jude's Hospital. Cafe One Three supports the I AM Foundation, dedicated to creating a more loving and peaceful world by focusing on children, adults, literacy, self-esteem, love and the unity of all people. The I AM Foundation inspires millions of children and adults worldwide by gifting them with educational books and music.

My family, including my husband David, Kelly, 15 and Jack, 4, went to Cafe One Three on a Sunday evening. The café is named after the owner’s lucky number 13. The restaurant has a neighborhood bistro feel, with an outdoor garden patio. Black lacquered tables and chairs fill the intimate space. bold paintings hang on the butter-yellow walls, The refrigerated dessert case filled with homemade desserts baked daily is a focal point. The menu is filled with a combination of global-inspired and down-home Southern style food. David ordered the Oven Roasted Chicken Breast (skin on) stuffed with spinach, herbed chevre and gruyere cheeses served with sun-dried tomato-caper butter with twice baked potato du jour and seasonal vegetables ($14.99). Between bites, David hummed about how good the dish was. I shared the Tuscan Bread Salad Tower on a bed of mixed greens and tomato and fresh mozzarella bruschetta (($9.99). The combination was delightful. I also tried the Vegetarian Paella with grilled vegetable ratatouille and soy-rizo ($12.99). My husband is from Spain and I've been fortunate to eat my fair share of this traditional Spanish dish, but I thoroughly enjoyed the vegetarian twist of Cafe One Threes paella with a glass of Brander Merlot ($8). Kelly ordered Pasta Provencal, with fresh tomatoes, garlic, capers, olive oil and white wine ($13.99). She added chicken for three dollars extra. She enjoyed it so much that there was a good hearted argument between David and Kelly about whose chicken was more delicious. Kelly also ordered a fun Izze Pomegranate Sparkling Water ($4.75). Jack ate pasta with olive oil ($4.95) with great gusto.

What would dinner be without dessert? We had the made-to-order Belgian chocolate cookie served warm with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top. The cookie melted in our mouths. Yummy! We also had berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. The dessert was absolutely delicious and big enough to share with the family.

Tuesdays through Fridays from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., the eatery offers a three-course Sunset Prix Fixe Dinner. Have a glass of wine or beer during happy hour and enjoy an awesome choice of reasonably priced appetizers.

Cafe One Three is located at 4207 Park Boulevard. Call 619-260-1311 or visit www.cafeonethree.com. Closed Mondays.

SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
What's Happening
Published 12/05/07

COOKING CLASSES:

"Pastries 101: The Finishing Touch for Your Holiday Party": with Cafe One Three, 5 to 7 p.m. Dec. 9 at 4207 Park Blvd. $75 includes wine parings, a souvenir T-shirt, prepared take-home dishes, and the chance to win one of the cooking utensils used in the reparation of the meal. Reservations: (6109) 260-1311.

SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
Cafe One Three lights up University Heights
Published 11/27/07
By Wolfgang Verkaaik

Thank goodness for neighborhood restaurants, and the fact that they are popping up throughout some of San Diego's classic neighborhoods. Last year Cafe One Three opened in the University Heights area at 4207 Park Avenue, and it appears well on its way to establishing a firm foothold in the community. Word is getting out as well as folks in the know come from all over the county for the savory eclectic menu and the contemporary urban ambience.

The owners are to be congratulated as this, their very first effort is the biz, is a rousing success. They are partners Jason Dean and Carlos Legaspy, Jason, who works in the restaurant daily, honed his skills in management at The Prado restaurant for five years while Carlos stays behind the scenes and continues his stockbroker career. The two have terrific support team in manager Mike Lunsford and Chef de Cuisine John Kennedy, a former Airborne Ranger turned chef with years at eh Hyatt Regency. The restaurant also offers a one a month cooking class, with the next on scheduled for Sunday afternoon, December 9, called "Pastries 101: The Finishing Touch for Your Holiday Party."

Dining at Cafe One Three is a joy. The kitchen is big time exhibition-style, taking up a large area in one corner. Among the culinary highlights here is the Sunset Prix Fixe menu, a sensational value served from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays for only $13.99. You'll enjoy a marvelous three-course dinner with a first choice of fresh green salad, small Caesar salad, a cup of delicious chicken tortilla soup or the soup du jour. Then choose an entree, usually favorites from the regular menu. You'll love the savory Cafe One Three Meatloaf (make with pork, turkey and veal and served with mashed potato and great Cole slaw). Another choice is the oven roasted skin-on chicken, with sauteed vegetables and da Provencal sauce, the Murphy Stout Beer Fish & Chips Martini served with remoulade sauce or a pasta dish with angel hair, tomatoes, garlic and capers, The third course will be on of John's homemade desserts, likely a fruit crisp/cobbler or another choice. The regular dinner menu begins with appetizers such as, hummus, homemade potato skins of the day, tart du jour or a plate of cheeses, nuts and accruement from around the world. Also on the menu are Molasses and Roast Garlic Grilled Prawns, Oven roasted pork Loin, Mustard Rubbed Grilled flat Iron Steak and a fish-of-the-day. The Sunday brunch menu is extensive and includes banana French toast, Cafe Christo, house-made biscuits and Yankee sage, sausage gravy and much more.

For reservations, call (619) 260-1311.

DISCOVER SD:
Café One Three Innovates San Diego Cooking Classes

Published 09/27/07
by Michelle Guerin

When it comes to new restaurants in San Diego-bold originality is hard to find. We've seen arrayed cuisine fusion, daring interior design, charming garden patios, and even inventive cooking classes and events. With the dawn of each new San Diego restaurant, local diners are perpetually harder to please.

Café One Three is a Hillcrest neighborhood bistro that engages a county-wide clientele with none other than cuisine fusion, interior design, garden exterior, and cooking classes. So, despite the seemingly fixed restaurant recipe, what is the key ingredient that makes Café One Three rise above the rest?

To discover what makes Café One Three one of the top neighborhood restaurants in San Diego, we dug deep from foundation past to plans forward.

From the old location of Indulgence Café in Hillcrest, Café One Three was born. This self-proclaimed eclectic eatery is the vision manifest of supreme chef and owner, Jason Dean. A southern boy raised in Tennessee, Jason developed an early passion for comfort food, and elevated passion with innovation and skill as he traveled the world and finally landed in San Diego. Jason managed The Prado in Balboa Park under the Cohn family for several years and eventually took over the Food and Wine School at Balboa Park. The combination of his southern upbringing and international experience nearly forced him to embark on a culinary venture of his own.

On a jet-set mission to discover signature items from each travel destination, Jason brought international comfort food to San Diego. Café One Three serves sophisticated global comfort food with an eclectic twist. The inventive menu incorporates brunch, lunch, and dinner; featuring an amalgam of southern dishes such as the herbed potato pancake with gravlax for brunch, the Thai turkey burger for lunch, and the molasses and roasted garlic grilled jumbo prawns and signature house meatloaf for dinner.

Café One Three is above-all a neighborhood bistro, blending Jason's vision with Hillcrest's omnipresent vibe. The charming garden patio takes allure to the next level. The garden serves both an aesthetic and culinary role-as Jason picks fresh basil and other seasonal spices on a daily basis. An intimate patio overlooking Park Avenue welcomes guests with modern black and steel furniture shaded by oversized umbrellas during by day and warmed by heat lamps by night.

Inside, globally-inspired art paints Café One Three with hues of Paris, Venice, and even Morocco. Guests choose from a generous selection of petite tables or the wrap-around bar overlooking the open-air kitchen. A comfortable, understated elegance defines the interior of Café One Three. Rather than force a concept or style onto the guests, the chefs and service staff are trained and dedicated to cater each dining experience to the guest's individual needs and desires.

This flexible nature extends into Café One Three's premiere cooking classes. Different from the larger cooking schools in San Diego, Café One Three offers an intimate setting that promotes hands-on learning and over-the-top fun. With 6 front-row seats at the kitchen-front bar, the new cooking classes are perfect for a night out with the girls, an avant-garde family dinner, or a romantic date for two. Also different from traditional cooking classes, the restaurant will still be open to the public during the demonstrations, to maintain the exciting nightlife atmosphere with educational instruction. Café One Three will feature pre-designed classes such as All Things Vegetarian: Not Just Veggies Anymore and No Time to Cook? Meals in Minutes. Jason will also open a public discussion forum to encourage fresh ideas, ensuring guests always come first.

Chef Deborah Shubert will lead Café One Three's cooking classes. With her own catering company, Decidedly Better, and an impressive culinary class background at Williams-Sonoma, Chef Deborah mixes a fun-loving attitude with top-notch cuisine tips, enabling you to become a top chef in your own home.

Café One Three Cooking Classes launch Sunday, October 28th, 2007, and will be offered every Sunday then after. Make sure to make your reservation quick, as the classes will fill.

For more information on Café One Three and the all-new Cooking Class schedule, get the details here.

THE SAN DIEGO READER:
Lucky 13

By Naomi Wise
Published September 6, 2007
Cafe One Three
** 1/2 (Good to Very Good)

4107 Park Boulevard (at Howard)
University Heights
619-260-1311

HOURS: Dinner Tuesday--Thursday 3:00--10:00 p.m., Friday until 11:00 p.m.; Saturday 9:00 a.m.--2:00 p.m., 5:00--11:00 p.m.; Sunday 9:00 a.m.--2:00 p.m.; closed Monday.

PRICES: Starters, soups, salads, $5--$12. Main course salads, $11--$16. Entrées, $13--$18. Prix-fixe early-bird weeknight dinners (5:00--6:30 p.m.), three courses, $14. Brunch (à la carte) entrées, $9--$11.

CUISINE AND BEVERAGES: Eclectic bistro cuisine with global flavors, seasonally changing menu. Interesting California wine list, plenty of affordable bottles and choices by the glass.

PICK HITS: Tortilla soup; savory tart du jour; meat loaf; stuffed pork loin; house-made desserts. Chef's choice: meat loaf; vegan paella.

NEED TO KNOW: Happy hour 3:00--5:00 weekdays. Half-price wine bottles Wednesday and Sunday nights. Informal and noisy, with open kitchen and bebop playing loudly; heated sidewalk patio. Plenty for lacto-vegetarians, two vegan entrées. Reasonably healthy cooking, with less fat than at most restaurants, produce from local farmers' market. Only 13 tables, so reserve (especially for this weekend).

Cafe One Three feels like home for a San Francisco expat -- an eclectic, creative eatery that you might find in the Inner Sunset or Cole Valley, where good neighborhood restaurants are thick on the ground. Here, the restaurant's reputation is spreading far from its neighborhood: I heard about it from my friends Marty and Dave of San Carlos, who heard about it from their friends in O.B. Obviously San Diego is seriously hungry for sweet spots where you can get a fresh-tasting, interesting meal without straining your budget or searching your closet for suitable garb.

The location is on the former site of Indulgence, a low-carb bakery-restaurant on Park Boulevard, a half block north of Henry's. The decor has come a long way from dietetic utilitarian: It now sports vintage French ad posters and is partially carpeted, with an aura of chic urbanity garbed in black and white. If you value quiet, the stanchion-heated patio is the place to sit -- you can hear the tasty jazz from there, but not the clatter of the open kitchen.

My companions Marty and Dave, veteran eaters at this café, recommended the tortilla soup, and they were spot-on, because it's just about perfect, with a light but rich tomato-chicken broth of perfect spiciness (emphatic, not painful) garnished with chicken chunks, avocado, pasilla chiles, gooey melting Mexican cheese, and crisp tortilla strips. "Oooh, chef has a palate," I said.

The "savory tart du jour" that evening featured a creamy crab topping with more than a modicum of hot chile -- again, enough for liveliness, not pain. The pastry was flawless and buttery, the filling, a pleasure. But a hummus platter with "Moroccan chicken wings" was slightly disappointing because the wings didn't quite live up to their billing. You hear "Moroccan," you think "complex spicing." These wings were plain broiled drumettes. The hummus was muscular with dried chiles and ample cumin and came with toasted bread from the famed La Brea Bakery in L.A. The array was almost exciting -- if only the bird had something more exotic to contribute.

"Tuscan bread salad tower" also suffers from a slight misnomer. It sounds like a version of panzanella, Tuscany's brilliant mixture of day-old bread and raw salad veggies soaked in good balsamic vinaigrette, but it's not exactly that. It's a more ambitious and (to my taste) less delicious column of toasted bread pieces layered with creamy mozzarella fresca and diced fresh tomatoes, with a distinctly sugary dressing. If you don't like sweetened vinaigrettes, a better bet might be the rather pricey classic Caesar salad ($12 per person), assembled at the table, or the "small Caesar" with cilantro lime dressing. I've seen too many beet salads lately, but the rendition here sounds interesting as well, with pancetta and Pepato cheese rather than the usual chèvre.

Among the entrées, our favorite, weirdly enough, was a light, lean meat loaf made of veal, house-ground pork sausage, and turkey (no beef), which reminded me of a lower-fat take on a country-style French pâté. Well- seasoned and airy in texture, it was an unexpected pleasure -- nothing like Mom's -- garnished with garlic mash and a clean-tasting, mayo-free coleslaw dressed in vinaigrette and sweetened with fresh carrot slivers. It's a perfect coleslaw (and a perfect meat loaf) for a warm summer evening; neither weighs you down. And I can promise that if you have to doggy-bag some of the loaf, the leftovers get better overnight.

Grilled jumbo prawns swathed in molasses and roasted garlic were a trifle overcooked (by perhaps a half minute), lightly robed in the darkly sweet sauce. They rode atop a layer of creamy grits laced with Cheddar. I later asked the chef what, after all, is the difference between grits and polenta, and he kindly explained that polenta is yellow corn meal, whereas grits are made from hominy -- white corn that's been slaked with lime. (Every time I eat grits -- especially "cheese grits" -- I like them more and more.) An accompanying mélange of seasonal veggies included chunks of boiled eggplant apparently innocent of any oil, hence healthy. (I missed the oil that eggplant loves so much; without it, this vegetable is as virtuously boring as a Presbyterian church sermon.)

We enjoyed a roasted pork loin stuffed with a forcemeat of minced apricots, pistachios, and soy riso (tiny rice-shaped pasta, in this case made from soy flour), with a bright-tasting chipotle glaze spread onto the plate alongside. Normally, the dish comes either with the same garnishes as the meat loaf or with the veggie mélange of the shrimp, but that evening, the plate was heaped with fried disks of red yams that were fun when hot, no fun once cooled.

A potentially interesting entrée we didn't try (but were curious about) is the skin-on roasted chicken breast stuffed with spinach, chèvre, and Gruyère cheese. The details indicate that the chef understands chicken breast, which is too bland and prudish to be palatable when plain but comes alive like a good girl gone deliciously bad when seduced by a rich, gooey filling.

When Cafe One Three bought its space from Indulgence (after the death of one of the latter's owners), it inherited a serious baking armada, with which dessert chef Michael Lunsford now bakes the house pastries. A glassed-in case reveals the day's selection. Stuffed to the gills, my friends and I chose a single pastry to share, a small round of pineapple upside-down cake, about the diameter of a Hostess Sno-Ball but flatter. The cake was so buttery, we smiled at every bite and by the end felt surfeited. (The other choices that evening were sweeter, more elaborate cakes, which none of us could face right after the meal. There's also an international cheese plate listed among the appetizers, which would make a fine dessert if you still have some wine to finish off.)

Weekend brunchers will also find an interesting menu almost as extensive as the dinner offerings. The choices include an avant-garde Monte Cristo, machaca con huevos, oatmeal with coconut milk, biscuits with sage sausage gravy (made with house-made Yankee pork sausage!), and herbed potato pancakes with house-cured gravlax and caviar. The normal eggy brunch fare is also served. Lucky are the neighborhood folks who can waft in when they wake up on the weekend and order up their heart's desires.

I found Cafe One Three thoroughly likable -- to line up the adjectives, it's enjoyable, unpretentious, affordable, and creative enough to keep you coming back for more. This is the neighborhood bistro that every neighborhood needs, and it's a mark of San Diego's culinary backwardness that every neighborhood doesn't have its own version.

ABOUT THE OWNERS AND THE CHEF

Jason Dean and Carlos Legasty are the owners of Cafe One Three. Jason, the more actively involved owner, grew up in Jackson, Tennessee. "I've been in the restaurant industry over half my life now, and I wanted a place where the experience and the food ran hand in hand. It's a neighborhood bistro. I love going to places like that myself, and I really felt that this neighborhood, specifically, could use what I was trying to create.

"I started my first restaurant job when I was 15, as a busboy at a French-style epicurean restaurant in Tennessee, cummerbund and black tie, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. That job turned into other restaurant jobs over the years, from busboy to server to bartender to trainer to manager. I moved to San Diego in 1996. I needed more sunshine, and I met someone from San Diego in a restaurant in Monterey where I was working, and he encouraged me to come down here and check it out. I worked at the Prado Restaurant in Balboa Park for five years and was assistant manager. It was the most challenging and 'funnest' job I have ever had in my life. But it was time for me to spread my own wings and fly. The Prado's owners, David and Leslie Cohn, have been incredibly supportive.

"This being my first venture, I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew. I wanted a neighborhood restaurant. I knew the previous owners of Indulgence -- Tom and Fritz were friends of mine -- but Fritz was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer early last year. They had three years left on their lease, and I had already quit my job and was actively looking for a restaurant. So that's how it fell into our laps. So we opened for business December 29 of last year. We've gotten a lot of word-of-mouth. I rely on doing what I do best -- feeding people and giving people a good time. The reason I built this was for the community, and not just the surrounding neighborhood but for people who love food and wine and the experience.

"The name, Cafe One Three, is synonymous with my lucky number, 13. The digits in the address add up to 13. The numbers of my home address add up to 13, too, and we started the escrow process on the 13th of May. And we have 13 tables. But I didn't want to call it '13' because some people are superstitious about that number and might be turned off."

Realizing that he had a full job handling the business side of the café, Jason hired chef John Kennedy. Born in Long Beach, California, Kennedy has weighty credentials for a bistro chef. (A hilarious malapropism in the G&L Times review referred to it as his professional "pedicure" rather than "pedigree" -- QED, Kennedy has the prettiest toenails of any chef in town.) "I was a ranger in the U.S. Army, and I'd always enjoyed cooking, and when I got out of the Army and became a civilian, I looked at my prospects and what I enjoyed doing -- and believe it or not, a kitchen is the closest to a regimented system outside of the military. They don't call it a 'kitchen brigade' for nothing.

"I got my degree in culinary arts from the California Academy of Culinary Arts in San Francisco, with my veteran's benefits paying for a great deal of it, and I've worked with some really fabulous chefs, including Thomas Keller at French Laundry, Charlie Trotter, Daniel Boulud, Gary Danko. I was with the Hyatt for about six years, first at the Grand Champion in Palm Desert, and then two years at the Manchester here." Unfortunately, his position at the Manchester was in the banquet department -- a stultifying rut for any creative chef who wants to have fun exploring fresh flavor combinations. "One day, I went home and responded to a posting on craigslist, and 15 minutes later, Jason Dean called me to schedule an appointment.

"Everything I do, I like to throw my own gist into it. People throw around the word 'fusion,' but I do like to bring in different ingredients from different areas and blend them in. Like in the vegetarian paella, there's an Indian-based five-spice blend in the ratatouille that goes on top of it. I like complex flavors, explosions in the mouth." I asked him if he'd traveled. "Oh, yes, dear, when I was in the military I went to 36 countries. That's probably another reason I got into cooking -- I so enjoyed traveling and the different cuisines. The cuisines that inspired me most were India, Thailand, and Korea. In India there are 120 different spices not used within the Western kitchen, and I have a number of them in my kitchen here. I like to throw those little nuances into my food. But I try to tailor to my clientele. I'm not one of those chefs that wants to train people how to eat. I'd rather give them food they can enjoy, with a little twist. I see the restaurant as an eclectic comfort-food café. It was Jason Dean's concept when I came on board, and I try to uphold that."

THE SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE:
The right number: Cafe One Three serves homey yet inventive dishes in an inviting space

By Lori Weisberg
STAFF WRITER

August 16, 2007

The number 13 has been lucky for Jason Dean for as long as he can remember, so he knew his new University Heights restaurant just had to have those numerals in the name to sustain his lucky streak.

CRISSY PASCUAL / Union-Tribune

The new Cafe One Three in University Heights is an inviting space with a hip feel. The menu melds Southern traditions with international influences.

After all, the digits in the restaurant's street address, 4207, add up to 13, as does his home address, 3325, and he and his business partner opened escrow on the lease on May 13. Oh, and three months after opening, Dean realized that he had exactly 13 tables in the restaurant?

And so Cafe One Three it became.

But luck has little to do with the homey yet inventive dishes coming out of the kitchen, which borrows from various regional and international cuisines to give familiar dishes a special twist.

Designed as a cozy neighborhood eatery located on a broad, busy street, Cafe One Three is an inviting space that feels hip, with its nearly all-black motif and retro bar embellished with black tile along a curved base. Outdoor tables shaded with patio umbrellas are perfect for dining on warm summer evenings.

CRISSY PASCUAL / Union-Tribune

Meat loaf, made from pork, veal and turkey, and topped with crispy seasoned onions, is among the memorable dishes at Cafe One Three.

If you're lucky, your server will be Megan, who's earnest and friendly without being overbearing and who clearly enjoys pleasing her customers.

A real treat here is the Caesar salad, which, while a bit pricey at $11.99, is prepared tableside, something you don't see much anymore, especially at a casual restaurant. Megan clearly relishes the task, narrating as she mashes the roasted garlic and anchovies, squeezes a lemon, adds the yolk of a coddled egg and swirls in the olive oil.

“The trick,” she points out, “is to keep stirring.” The result is a tangy, smooth dressing that melds well with the crunch of romaine and perfectly crisped croutons.

Also an impressive starter was the soup of the day, which on this particular evening was carrot ginger, a silken golden orange bisque festooned with a swoosh of mossy green cilantro foam.

When the cafe first opened, Dean, who was raised on Southern cooking in Jackson, Tenn., thought he could oversee the kitchen himself, but he soon learned that he had taken on too much. He did well to hire chef John Kennedy, formerly of the Manchester Grand Hyatt, who has incorporated Dean's worldwide travels and love of the South into the menu offerings.

You don't get much more Southern than shrimp and grits, although here the shrimp is prepared with molasses. Trouble is, I was hoping for a more assertive taste, but my dish had only the faintest taste of sweetness. The grits, though, had just the right amount of creaminess, flavored with Vermont cheddar.

The oven-roasted chicken, stuffed with chevre, spinach and Gruyere, and enhanced with a sun-dried tomato-caper butter, is a better choice. It's paired with a small twice-baked potato that was infused with bits of bacon the night I was there. A favorite of my dining companion was the meat loaf, a combination of ground pork, veal and turkey that has a nice crusty edge and tender interior with an herby Mediterranean flavor. It's topped with a nest of crispy onions seasoned with cumin, coriander and chili powder.

If you're a chocolate lover, do save room for the chocolate KahlÚa cake, a moist devil's food cake layered with a KahlÚa mousse and encased in hardened chocolate that shatters with that first bite.

Who knows, maybe you'll feel lucky afterward.

944 MAGAZINE: ECLECTIC EATERY

Café One Thee is a cozy little bistro tucked into a charming University Heights block. It calls itself an eclectic eatery, and it is. The menu pulls from the very different backgrounds of its two owners - the tortilla soup comes straight from Carlos Legaspy's family recipe and the villages of Oaxaca where he grew up; while the molasses and grilled jumbo prawns trailed Jason Dean from his childhood in Tennessee. Order a discriminating glass of vino such as Rabid Red and feast on the most popular entree: meatloaf from Chef John Robert Kennedy (hey, we said this place is eclectic). The café carries itself like European cafés do - comfortable, warm and with a steady buzz from the patrons dining around you. Oh, the "one three" comes from Dean's lucky number, 13, so best of luck to y'all.

4207 Park Blvd., University Heights | 619.260.1311

UNION TRIBUNE: "GREAT NEW NEIGHBORHOOD EATERY" Click below for the full sized review from the April 2007 San Diego Union Tribune's Night & Day section.

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