The Regal Seagull

I fully admit I am biased towards the coastal north county region of San Diego.  Especially anywhere that I can get to via my beach cruiser. So it's not uncommon for there to be a place on my list of "Must See (or eat, drink, experience, etc.)" that goes sadly ignored for extended periods of time due to it being located more than 5-10 miles from my home base in Solana Beach. So imagine my excitement when finally a place I wanted to go to came to me.

The Regal Beagle is located just on the outskirts of downtown San Diego. I've seen it from the freeway on every drive back from the San Diego airport since I was told by a former co-worker that due to my love (obsession?) with GOOD beer, I had to make my way there. And each time we pass I lean over to my husband and point it out. "That's it! The Regal Beagle. They have good beer. I want to go there sometime." He always smiles and agrees, as if it's not the tenth time I have made that exact statement on this exact same drive.

So imagine my excitement when I overheard some friends discussing a new bar opening in Leucadia called The Regal Seagull. The owners of The Regal Beagle were opening a new restaurant in my part of town. I came home to my husband that night and informed him that we were going to the Regal Seagull. They had good beer. And we didn't have to drive downtown to get to it. Within weeks we called some friends and planned to meet up for drinks and dinner at the new Leucadia bar.

The Atmosphere
One of the essential elements of any dining experience for me, be it drinks, dinner or both, is the atmosphere  I always have an extensive beer and wine menu at home, and consider myself to be a fairly good cook (plus i actually enjoy cooking), so if I'm going switch out of comfy sweatpants to pay good money for someone else's food and beer, I need more than just the food and drink to be good. I need an experience. In that, the Regal Seagull did not disappoint.

The place is relatively small, but there is ample seating at the bar, and a few 4-seater tables along the window that almost entirely takes up the wall facing the street. There are additional tables on a patio out front, which is a huge bonus and something that many local bars are sadly lacking in such a perfect weather city. The menu is printed on a chalkboard that takes up the entire southern wall, and the beer list is found on the wall behind the bar, with each beer offering printed out on individual chalkboards. It was the little things that hooked me in: the humorous descriptions of the menu ("sweet potato fries- voted best sweet potatoes fries - by us" and French Fries that "are actually american"), the binder clip that was used to transport each customer's order along a string connecting the bar to the kitchen, and that for each order from the kitchen, instead of asking your name, the bartender gave you a ticket with a fictional name, anything from Luke Skywalker to Danny Tanner, which would later be announced over the loudspeaker when your food was ready. Great personal touches.


The Food
If you are looking for healthy or vegetarian food, you may want to keep driving (though kudos for having a veggie patty on the menu). If you like sausages and bar food, look no further. The Regal Seagull has an extensive menu of sausages and brats, with multiple toppings and sides. My husband and I started off with an appetizer while we waited for our friends. We waited for our name to be called (Trapper John) and then began to chow down on fried mac'n'cheese. My husband pointed out that the mac'n'cheese was almost certain Kraft, or a close imitation thereof (which I thought was fine but he saw as a negative), but there can be no denying that no matter what type of mac'n'cheese you fry, it's going to be deliciousness. When the rest of our crew arrived, we ordered four varieties of the sausages, plus an assortment of sides, including friend green beans, which ended up being one of my favorite food items of the evening (refer to above, fried = deliciousness). I'll admit to not being a huge sausage fan in general, but to me, with the combination of the unique atmosphere and the solid selection of beer, it worked. And if you aren't in the mood for sausages, the dinning experience was not essential to enjoying what The Regal Seagull had to offer.

The Beer
I was a huge fan of both the selection available and the amount of information at your fingertips to make that selection. Each beer was allocated its own small chalkboard complete with the brewery name, beer name, type of beer, price and alcohol percentage. The staff was knowledgeable about their beers, ready with suggestions and opinions on the various brews. And the menu was not overwhelming, i'd say about 24 options on tap. The beer drinking experience was what sealed the deal for me. It was a place you could feel comfortable grabbing a beer or two, chatting it up with the bartenders at the bar, or enjoying some California sunshine on the front patio. In fact, I was surprised to see that, despite being open only a few weeks, the place already had regulars, including some that used to brave the long trek from North County down to the Beagle just to soak in some of the beer/brat environment. And as convenient as having the Regal Seagull open in my own neck of the woods is, my experience there has only convinced me more that its downtown partner will be worth the trek.