The Glass Door restaurant, a top the Porto Vista hotel in Little Italy tops the list for Best New Restaurant opening in 2008 in San Diego in Living in Style magazine’s holiday issue. We, as a restaurant are proud of this achievement and hope that all of you who have walked through our doors continue to enjoy the food, the wine, the atmosphere and the view here at the Glass Door.

To see the list, follow this link, 2008 best New San Diego restaurants

A big kudos to Draven, Greg, Mo, Chenais and the rest of the staff at the Glass Door & the Porto Vista hotel for making this all possible. This would not have come to fruition without the hard work and dedication of all involved.

Cheers!

chefRob

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Images of the Glass Door restaurant

Here is the first “peek” at our new ad for 944 magazine. I have to say that Draven did a great job, along with the crew over at 944 to come up with such a striking ad. I find that it portrays the restaurant in just the right light and offers those who have not visited us yet another reason to come. Keep an eye out for it in the Nov issue.

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Salad Nicoise by Chef Robert Conaway & aGreatChef.com

Lunch is one of my favorite meals, especially here in San Diego. I am, as many know not a big breakfast eater and working late as I do lunch is (usually) my first meal of the day, unless you count coffee as one. I have designed the lunch menu at the Glass Door around some of my old time favorites, and am very excited to start working on bringing some new and interesting dishes to a meal that many of us just write off. I will be posting these new dishes here but first I would like to take a minute (and a blog post) to discuss one of my all time favorite salade composee, Salade niçoise.

Salade niçoise is probably the most famous of all of the traditional french composed salads. Originating in Nice France, Salade niçoise has over time accrued a world wide following and seems to be on everyone’s menu here in California…

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Roasted Jidori Chicken by Chef Robert Conaway & aGreatChef.com

Menu highlights is a new feature that I am going to start doing on occasion. Highlighting items off our breakfast, lunch, dinner and small plates menu’s, offering you a bit more of a description that can be placed on our menu or that our server’s can remember. This is an opportunity lost to most chef’s, a way to truly describe one’s creations and the ingredients behind it.

I have chosen to start this off by focusing on my Jidori Chicken dish, for no other reason than I like this image and I am hungry from some poultry. My needs aside, this is a very tasty and popular dish with roots in southeast Asia.

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Sunset from the Glass Door restaurant San Diego, what's your view like?

29 Sept sunset from the kitchen of the Glass Door restaurant San Diego. What’s your view like this evening?

Leave a comment and let me know!

Best,

chefRob

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Now that I have a quick minute to catch my breath, I thought it would be a good time to begin the discussion on the products that the Glass Door uses. As a chef, I have for years beat the organic/sustainability/hormone free drums and am glad to see that the public is responding. We here at the Glass Door have a lot of great products we showcase and we, unlike many other restaurants, don’t namedrop on our menu. That by all means doesn’t suggest we do not use the same quality products, it just means educating our diners takes a different path…

The first product I am so very proud to offer and serve is our Duroc pork chop. Duroc pork is a heritage breed of pork that has been raised in the US since the early 1800’s. To many, including myself it is considered the Black Angus of pork…a well marbled and flavorful meat that is hormone and additive free. The Duroc pig is red in color and is a cross between the New Jersey Jersey and New York Duroc hogs. Happy pigs make happy pork chops and our chops come from pigs that are raised and allowed to roam green pastures in search of their food.

Since this is the best pork chop available, no marination is needed. As a refresher, marinades are usually reserved for tough and inexpensive cuts of meat to help tenderize and to impart flavors lacking it the product.

Served with our organic pee wee fingerling potatoes, organic heirloom roasted carrots, juicai onion sousbise and sweet soy reduction, you are offered very complimentary flavors and textures without overpowering or changing the flavor of the pork itsself. If you really want to taste pork the way nature made it, without all the cross breeding and “fat” removal (remember “Pork, the new white meat”) then this dish is for you!

If you would like to learn a bit more about Duroc pork and our producer, please follow this link, Vande Rose Farms

Thanks again for stopping by and I am looking forward to seeing you at the Glass Door soon.

Best…chefRob

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Things have been a bit slow around the hotel these days, with the holiday over and all but the kitchen has been buzzing! Getting closer to our goal of having our full dinner menu available, we have been offering our customers 4 of our house made desserts. As a chef I am very excited as not having a full menu is kinda like going to the prom alone and it means that a day off is (finally) in sight. Opening a from scratch restaurant is trying enough, opening one with 5 different menu’s in addition to catering and special event menu’s is alot to wrap your hands around.

Our current dessert offerings are the following;

1. Triple chocolate mousse with florentine crisp and Guttard chocolate sauce.
2. Creme brulee
3. Raspberry and lemon mousse with fresh raspberries
4. Haagen Dazs Vanilla ice cream in a handmade Florentine bowl.

We are working on our 5th and final dessert (for now) and we will begin the coming week with our appetizers. Thanks again for your continued support and patience while we make the Glass Door San Diego’s best local restaurant and I try and figure out how not to delete your kind comments ;).

Best,

chefRob

ps - If you have a iPhone or an iTouch I just updated the blog so now it loads and looks like an iPhone application…hooray!!! So now go and check it out…

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