Who’s NEWS? Business news and special achievements for North San Diego County. Send information via e-mail to community@ coastnewsgroup.com. Change of address OCEANSIDE — Thrivent Financial for Lutherans opened a new office at 3402 Piazza De Oro Way, Suite 200 in Oceanside. Everyone is welcome at an open house at 2 p.m. and a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce at 4 p.m. Aug. 27.
Chairwoman honored OCEANSIDE — Sylvia Ramirez, noncredit-ESL department chairwoman at MiraCosta College, has received the 2010 Promising Outcomes Work and Exemplary Research, or POWER, award for Exemplary Student Learning Outcomes SYLVIA Assessment RAMIREZ in Noncredit. The award comes from the SLO Collaborative of the Academic Senate and the RP Group.
New sports bar ENCINITAS — Encinitas’ newest sports bar for the whole family, Stadium Sports Bar and Restaurant, at 149 S. El Camino Real, will be opening at 11 a.m. through 2 a.m. Aug. 28 hosted by 3b Charities, benefiting local sports and children’s activities. Along with a full menu of steaks, seafood, plus kidfriendly burgers and sandwiches, Stadium has 60 TVs, a mahogany bar and serves dinner on a blue glass, fire canal on its open patio. The bar will be stocked with the finest tequilas and craft beers. Children will be catered to with age-appropriate arcades and a monitor at the tables for parents to watch the youngsters from private, oversized black leather booths. The restaurant will also feature live music. “The Stadium restaurant is excited to introduce a new and luxurious concept in family sports bars, food and fun for everyone. This corporation and restaurant has no affiliation with the previous establishment,” said owner /manager Brandon Gonzales.
Fair dates set DEL MAR — The 22nd District Agricultural Association board of directors announced the 2011 San Diego County Fair will run for 22 days opening June 10 and closing July 4. The fair will be closed the first three Mondays, June TURN TO WHO’S NEWS? ON A16
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RANCHO SANTA FE NEWS
AUG. 27, 2010
Lumberyard Tavern’s Laurie Delk on pairing food with beer thought wine was what I would do for the rest of my life! Then about a year ago, I discovered the wonderful world of craft beer and I haven’t turned back. Wine will always have an important place in my life, but the craft beer movement is incredibly exciting right now.
DAVID BOYLAN Lick the Plate I’ll admit up front that I’m a bit of a latecomer to the whole craft beer thing. If it were not for my son and his insistence that I expand my horizons beyond “yellow fizzy beer” as the people at Stone call it, I probably would still be calling my occasional forays into Sam Adams and Guinness adventurous. I’ll always stick to my rule that if it tastes good to you, drink it. That goes for beer and wine as there is a time and place for a crisp cold light beer and even a chilled white zinfandel on a hot summer afternoon. Wait, did I just say that? Yes I did. You get my point; drink what tastes good to you. That said, if you limit yourself to the beer of the masses, you are really depriving yourself of a wonderful experience. I recently met Laurie Delk, an emerging expert and chronicler of the craft beer movement. Laurie tends bar
BEER QUEEN Laurie Delk, queen of all things beer. Photo by David Boylan
at The Lumberyard Tavern & Grill in Encinitas and I became aware of her blog , when I Licked the Plate there a few months ago. The blog has become a bible for beer enthusiasts internationally and I would highly suggest it to both rookies and veterans alike.
LTP: Do you recall the first time you had beer paired with food, was there an ah-ha moment where you realized that beer could compliment food as well as wine? LD: The first time I had beer paired with food purposefully was a tasting in the wine shop with various cheeses and wine versus beer. With each cheese, one wine and one beer was selected as a pairing to uncover which was the better match. We did six pairings, and amazingly beer won five out of six times! It was a tremendous revelation for me. It wasn’t long after that I had my idea for my blog.
Here are some highlights was general manager of a from a recent conversation wine shop in New Orleans for with her. several years. I taught classes, helped customers organize Lick The Plate: Let’s their cellars, and conducted start with your background tastings. I have taken classes LTP: San Diego is and what lead you to be such from UC Davis and lived in officially on the map as a a beer aficionado. Italy where I worked a har- craft brew powerhouse. What Laurie Delk: My back- vest with a prestigious PiedTURN TO LICK THE PLATE ON A18 ground is actually in wine. I mont winery. I honestly
Winemaker of the Year named at the San Fran International Amanda Cramer of Niner Wine Estates on the west side of Paso Robles, and some of her wine creations, have taken top honors at the recent San Francisco International Wine Competition. Her Niner 2007 Premium Bordeaux Blend ($58) took Double Gold and Best Bordeaux Blend, and her 2007 Cabernet Bootjack Ranch ($28) also took Double Gold. Cramer has been with Niner since 2004 and came there from assignments in the Napa Valley, Australia and Chile. “Given the opportunity to help build a winery from the ground up in the attractive Paso Robles area was something I simply could not pass up,” she said. “I’ve always loved the combination of agriculture, chemistry and artistry that winemaking represents. The agricultural is the most important,” she said, pointing
FRANK MANGIO
Taste of Wine out that 2010 will be Niner’s first all-estate produced vintage. “As winemaker, the most important decision I make is the harvest date.” Amanda’s background as a Washington, D.C., teacher of math and chemistry provided solid preparation for the road out west and enrollment in the UC Davis School of Enology and Viticulture, considered the foremost in the country, while interning at Far Niente Winery in the Napa Valley. After a series of high-profile positions in winemaking at such names as Chimney Rock, Robert Mondavi, D’Arenberg and Casa Lapos-
tolle, she took a job as assistant under the great Heidi Barrett at Paradigm in the Napa Valley, who developed Cramer’s expertise in Bordeaux varietals. Then came the chief winemaker opportunity at Niner Wine Estates, and this year the Winemaker of the Year Award at the San Francisco International Wine Competition. See more about Niner by visiting www.ninerwine.com.
Wine Spectator annual restaurant awards Wine Spectator is the most circulated wine publication in the world and the most prestigious. Every year, they research restaurants worldwide for best wine list, pricing, sommeliers and food and wine presentation. Three levels of awards are given: Award of Excel-
lence, Best of Award of Excellence and the highest, the Grand Award. The following are the San Diego area winners that I have reviewed in my column: — Grand Award: Addison, Grand Del Mar Resort; and The WineSellar & Brassiere, San Diego. — Best of Award of Excellence: Amaya Bistro, Grand Del Mar Resort; Delicias, Rancho Santa Fe; and Donovan’s Steak & Chop House, University City. — Award of Excellence: Bistro West, Carlsbad; Firefly, Encinitas; Firenze Trattoria, Encinitas; Island Prime, San Diego; Mille Fleurs, Rancho Santa Fe; Paradise Grille, Del Mar; Truluck’s University City; and West Steak & Seafood, Carlsbad. I have observed and commented that many more restaurants are upgrading their wine presentations and
deserve consideration. Innovative offerings like direct sales by the bottle, lowering or even waving corkage fees, lowering prices by the glass and adding wine “flights” are just a few of the serendipitous findings on the wine list. Wine is helping to bring the customer back into the restaurants.
Wine Bytes — Relm Wine, Beer and Bistro, a new wine bar, has opened in Carlsbad at 2917 State Street, operated by Rene Fleming. A wide variety of small plates will be offered starting Aug. 24 including soups, salads and unique sandwiches. Call (760) 434-9463 for more information. — San Diego Wine Company has a Fritz Portfolio Tasting with owner Clay Fritz TURN TO TASTE OF WINE ON A18
SANDAG to fund senior, disabled, low-income transportation COAST CITIES — SANDAG is soliciting applications for $4.5 million in funds available through three separate grant programs that will support various transportation initiatives serving seniors, the disabled, low-income individuals and reverse commuters. The three grant programs include two funded by the federal government and administered by SANDAG — Job Access and Reverse Commute and New Freedom. T h e third program, Senior Transportation Mini Grant, is funded by the local TransNet half-cent sales tax. All three programs require various levels of matching funds. “Most of these funds will be aimed toward new or expanding programs,” SANDAG Executive Director Gary Gallegos said. “Our
intentions are to distribute a large number of relatively small grants to encourage a variety of services to help fill the gaps in our transportation system.” Grants will be awarded to programs that meet the priorities outlined in the SANDAG Coordinated Plan, which identifies mobility needs in the county from a passenger perspective and focuses on transportation for seniors, persons with disabilities, reverse-commute trips and employmentrelated transportation for persons with limited means. Applications are due no later than Nov. 12. SANDAG will host an application workshop in September. Date and location will be posted on the SANDAG website, along with the Coordinated Plan, grant application forms, and related materials at www.sandag.org/ CoordinatedPlan.
The $2 million in Senior Transportation Mini Grant funds will go to innovative and flexible programs that support the transportation needs of people aged 60 and older. Examples of eligible projects include senior shuttle services; volunteer driver programs; brokerage of multijurisdictional transportation services; mobility/travel training; support of accessible taxis; and rideshare and vanpool programs. The $1.6 million in JARC grants will fund employmentrelated transportation projects serving low-income individuals and reverse commuters. Examples of projects that may be funded through JARC include late-night and weekend fixed-route service; employment shuttles; guaranteed ride home service; vanpools, ridesharing and carpooling activities; regional
mobility management; bicycling programs and car sharing; and intelligent transportation, information and dispatch systems The $940,000 in New Freedom grants will be awarded to applicants who can provide new or expanded transportation services for individuals with disabilities that go beyond the requirements of the Americans with
Disabilities Act. Examples of eligible projects include purchasing accessible vehicles; administering voucher programs; administering volunteer driver programs; regional mobility management; travel training for individual users; expansion of paratransit service beyond ADA required boundary; and providing doorto-door or door-through-door shuttle service.