NIGHT LIFE
'I poke fun at the wine establishment'

John Alongé's San Diego Wine & Culinary Center skips the 'tude while saluting the grape

By David L. Coddon
ASSOCIATE NIGHT&DAY EDITOR

April 12, 2007

You know those boring people who can't resist anthropomorphizing wine? The self-appointed connoisseurs prone to sniffing a wine's bouquet and proclaiming the contents of the glass “playful” or “provocative,” “impetuous” or “coy”? You'll hear adjectives you haven't heard since Psych 101.

The anthropomorphizers get under John Alongé's skin, too, and he's in the business. The former restaurateur and current owner of the 3-year-old San Diego Wine & Culinary Center proclaims himself “the San Diego Wine Heretic.”

“I poke fun at the wine establishment,” says Alongé, who grew up in the wine-rich Loire Valley in France before operating restaurants in Paris, San Francisco and near Santa Barbara. “I believe that 95 percent of what's written about wine is for 5 percent of the clientele.”

the buzz > > > > > > > >

SAN DIEGO WINE & CULINARY CENTER: 200 Harbor Drive, Suite 120, downtown; (619) 231-6400 or www.sdwineculinary.com

THE SCENE: No-attitude wine bar

THE CROWD: Lotsa locals

PARKING METER: Walk or take the trolley

PRICE CHECK: No cover; wines by glass $5 to $15

DON'T MISS: Dog lovers' Wednesdays
This philosophy – and the fact that he was, admittedly, “burned out on the restaurant business” – led Alongé to open the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center. It's downtown, on Harbor Drive, along the Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade and across the street from the convention center. If not for the patio tables outside, it wouldn't look like a wine bar; nor does its corporate/educational-sounding name suggest that it is a place of business, much less entertainment.

But it is.

While Alongé quantifies that “82 percent of the business is in private events” (the 8,000-square-foot space now includes a sizable banquet room area), the SDWCC is, in addition, a wine bar that also serves food, a wine-retail shop, and a venue for cooking and wine classes that are open to the public.

“There are a lot of moving parts,” Alongé says.

The common denominator is wine, and plenty of it. While a variety of foreign and domestic labels is sold and served, “We made a decision that we were going to be the first place ever to assemble most of the wines of San Diego County and locally produced food products,” says Alongé, offering the surprising (at least to me) news that there are 30 San Diego County wineries. (Temecula's better-known wine country, which is in Riverside County, does not count.)

The SDWCC is partnering with one of those wineries, Fallbrook Winery, for a concept Alongé calls the “Urban Winery.”

“We won't make wine here, but we'll age it here, we'll barrel it here, and we'll create a wine experience here” – just like you would at the winery itself.

What about the wine bar experience? Well, it reflects Alongé's unpretentious approach to oenology. The front-room bar is cozy, friendly and ideal for locals to sidle up, sip and converse. On Thursday nights, an unobtrusive jazz group performs; on Fridays, a keyboardist-guitarist plays (it'd be better if it were a piano rather than an electric piano). Nearby Marina District residents – no doubt descending from all those towering condos – seem to love “Canines & Wine” Wednesdays, when they can sit out on the SDWCC patio with their beloved pooches and commune. I wonder if the dogs, the scent hounds especially, sniff wines.

Wine by the glass ranges from $5 to $15, with flights anywhere from $7 up to $18.

The dining room, in which a small but affordable menu (salads, paninis, appetizers, light dishes) is available, feels sterile, in spite of the red linens and candleholders. Better ambient light (perhaps some of it directional, upon the walls' artwork) and throw rugs here and there would help.

Alongé calls his “a secret location,” and that may be good (if you know about it and don't want tourists to ruin it for you) or bad (if the owner wants to grow his clientele). I'm not wild about the mouthful of a name, but it serves Alongé's marketing and business purposes, and, he maintains, best describes what his place is about.

I find it awkward asking a date to meet me at the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center. On the other hand, she can be sure I'm not asking her to rendezvous at a dive bar.

David L. Coddon's nightlife reviews appear monthly in Night&Day.