A wonderful new restaurant named Roseville opened last week in the Point Loma community known as Roseville–one of the first areas settled by Louis Rose in the mid 1800’s. It’s the first restaurant for George Riffle, long known in this town from his stints managing the original Laurel Restaurant & Bar to opening Blanca in Solana Beach and Ivy Hotel in the Gaslamp.
He and his wife Wendy took the space next to the Point Loma-Shelter Island Drug store at Rosecrans and Canon that, in the 1960’s, was the gourmet market called Jurgensens. After the market closed, Italian restaurants came and vacated. Now Roseville brings to the area French-Mediterranean brasserie food and an eclectic wine list. The transformed space features booths, banquettes, a beer and wine bar and open kitchen–a lively room with a comfortable decibel level.
Executive chef Amy DiBiase, a graduate in culinary arts and food service management at Rhode Island’s Johnson & Wales University, gives a talented hand to the kitchen. She worked with Riffle and under then executive chef Jason Shaeffer at Laurel to eventually become top toque. When Laurel sold, she moved to Baleen at Paradise Point resort and now Roseville. Pastry chef Heather Fangon rounds out the original Laurel team with desserts that wow, now at Roseville.
And the food? It’s terrific. The Buzz disclaimer: I know the Riffles, DiBiase and Fangon, and have followed them since their days at Laurel many years ago.
Of the recent meals I have eaten with friends (and yes, I paid), the classic duck confit with shell beans (currently cranberry beans) comes with crisp skin and well-seasoned beans cooked with smoky bacon. Or, try the lighter flat iron steak, sliced and served on bed of cherry tomatoes with French feta cheese and light vinaigrette. Start with Carlsbad mussels steamed with flavorful fresh fennel and finished with a fresh herb salsa…and use a piece of Con Pane’s bread to sop up the juices. A deliciously zippy spring salad brings all fresh fava beans, corn kernels and blanched artichoke hearts mixed with an addictive grainy mustard dressing. Lamb, scallops, halibut, veal cheeks, daily specials and sides of frites, asparagus and other seasonal vegetables round out the menu. Ethereal desserts include a lemon chiffon parfait, a dark chocolate pot au crème and more. Service still has a few minor bumps, but the polish is nearly there-small things to be expected in a restaurant open not even a week. Prices range from $6 to $30. Roseville, (website soon) 1125 Rosecrans in the Village of Point Loma, 619-450-6800 for reservations. Dinner from 5:30pm, Closed Sunday
The food was excellent. This is a real treat for the Point Loma area!
Ambience, service and quality of food all get an A. We tend to
favor the neighborhood restaurants of Hillcrest, University Heights and Kensington and relative to those it was a bit pricier. We wish them much success, Roseville is a great addition to the Point!
Great room. Like Laurel meets Blanca with a little old school elegance thrown in. Loved the stuffed zuchini blossom … best I’ve had in this town, for sure.
Roseville is a charming addition to San Diego’s dining community. A fellow blogger and I happened upon Roseville one evening and were delightfully pleased with the classic duck confit, papillote du jour, and orecchiette & humboldt fog gratin enhanced by a wonderful wine selected for us.
This is a definite throw back of the days when restaurant servers were refined and took pride in their presentation as they assuredly do at Roseville.
Marie Daniels
Shine Editor at http://www.theshinepost.com
dont order the salad….it is a bag of lettuce w/o anything else for $9…the place was overpriced not worth the trip
Hey Smitty,
when you order the mixed greens you get mixed greens. If you order the comise pear salad with st.agur cream, candied pecans,
red wine gastrique & belgian endive you get a comise pear salad with st.agur cream, candied pecans, red wine gastrique & belgian endive.
See how that works?
My husband and I went to Roseville the last night of restaurant week and sat at the bar Great experience. Food was fantastic, the dessert – a hazelnut creation was to die for. So nice to have an upscale neighborhood restaurant. Highly recommended.
Disappointing
Food was ok, nothing special, service was bad, room is disappointing.
Apps: Asparagus salad, Ok, Cauliflower puree soup: bad: foie gras very good.
Entrees: Flat Iron Steak good, Duck: ok, nothing to return for.
Deserts: ok, nothing to return for.
Services: Bad, Wine Service, Very Bad.
Room: Ok.
Overall find somewhere else to dine.
Buzz wants to know what made the service and food items bad (and what made the foie good?). Restaurants need to know the good, bad and ugly about their operations.
To those that complain that $6-30 meals and entree are pricey, come on down to OZ where I would be more than happy to pay that sort of price for what sounds like an up-market dinning experience. Up-market dinning here will give you entrees at $8-22 and mains $26-40, don’t forget the $8-12 for dessert; so get over it!!!
The one thing this ex-InSane Diegan really does miss is good Mexican food and I always treat myself up when I come back. I will have a go at Roseville next visit as it sounds good by all accounts, dispite Benleo’s jab..
Some people would complain even if you hung them with a NEW rope…!
Good idea, extremely poor execution! We were one of only 3 tables on a Sunday night. There was a “wait” to seat us as they set the table (despite the fact that we had a reservation through open table). They never came to take a drink order, were out of the bottle of wine we requested (despite a limited number of choices). The waiter came and jokingly said, “oh sorry, sometimes we loose people in these booths”….then in the middle of us ordering left “to go do something” and we had to get up and go retrieve him from organizing silverware! I swear I’m not making this up! Food was ok. The mussels, previously reviewed as wonderful, were ENORMOUS…way too big for a natural mussel. The broth was excellent. Halibut was excellent. Too bad the execution is so poor. This place will never survive unless they have a major change in their service.