Along with our Travel Channel-based knowledge of San Diego's "Hotel del," this description convinced us to sign up for the tour of the Hotel.
The tour leader began with a presentation on the vision of Elisha S. Babcock, retired railroad executive from Evansville, Indiana; Hampton L. Story, of the Story and Clark Piano Company of Chicago; and Jacob Gruendike, president of the First National Bank of San Diego, who bought all of Coronado and North Island for $110,000.
Construction of a hotel "on a sandspit populated by jack rabbits and coyotes" began in 1887.
But back to the tour. It was at this point that the leader decided to insert some personal political comments into the his presentation. Several members of our group took this as a sign that their opinions were worth sharing. The tour became a neighbor bar.
We left the tour. And called the historical society to express our dissatisfaction with the leader's deviation from the prepared text about the hotel.
(Kate) Being determined not to let our unpleasant tour experience ruin our day, we went through with our plan to have lunch at one of the Hotel del Coronado’s restaurants. Of the four dining options – the Crown Room, 1500 Ocean, Babcock & Story, and Sheerwater – only the last two are open for lunch. Babcock & Story is the most casual and is an order-at-the-counter type of restaurants. We felt that our day at the hotel deserved more, so Sheerwater was our choice.
As you would expect, service was impeccable, and we received water and menus as soon as we were seated. We sat back, relaxed, and looked over the menu. I saw a number of items that looked tempting. There was the baked Atlantic salmon with sweet corn and bacon succotash and a dill crème fraiche; there was the cioppino with shrimp, scallops, calamari, clams, mussels, roasted peppers, fennel, spicy tomato sauce, and artichoke rouille; there was the achiote chicken and chorizo flat bread with black bean hummus, chorizo, pepper jack cheese, avocado, cilantro and sour cream; or there was the blue crab cake sandwich with avocado slaw and chipotle aioli on a brioche bun.
Chuck was ready to order the sautéed shrimp and pancetta pasta bowl with garlic, sweet peas, and an asiago vodka cream sauce. But he sometimes finds the taste of asiago cheese to be too powerful, so he changed his mind and went with the fish and chips (Karl Strauss beer battered Atlantic cod with fries, coleslaw and malt vinegar).
When Chuck’s plate arrived, the food looked amazing. Unfortunately,
I was ready to order the chicken and chorizo flatbread, and then I saw Cobb salads being served to the two women at the table next to ours. The Cobb salad was created by Robert H. Cobb (trivia answer – he is the first cousin of baseball great Ty Cobb) and was the signature salad at the famous Brown Derby in Los Angeles.
There must have been a quarter pound of good and not overly strong blue cheese, a medium chicken breast worth of meat, a quarter pound of chopped bacon, two chopped eggs, one chopped medium tomato, and a whole avocados worth of avocado slices all on a bed of iceberg lettuce. And the green goddess dressing was mildly herby and didn’t overpower any of the salad ingredients.
I would rate my salad as worthy of 4.5 Addies. My only quibble is “Did I really spend that much for salad?” Chuck’s fish and chips is worthy of no more than 3.0 Addies--and that might be generous.
A big disappointment.
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