The Red Door Restaurant and Wine Bar.

On my last visit to San Diego, Morgan arranged a dinner for a group of BlogHer attendees. Somehow, I lucked out and made it into the group.


We took a couple of cabs from the downtown Marriot and about ten minutes later we arrived at The Red Door Restaurant and Wine Bar. When the first half of our 11-person reservation arrived, the waitstaff was a little confused. When the second half of our reservation arrived, the waitstaff was a little frantic. From what I could tell, it seemed like maybe someone forgot to make a note in the RSVP book about our group.

Fortunately, the manager came straight out and got to work. She apologized to every one of us and offered us complimentary drinks. Thankfully, the wait wasn't very long and we ended up getting the whole bar-room area to ourselves.

The exterior, and even interior, of Red Door looks like a house. It's broken up into three separate rooms- the first is the bar/ dining and the other two are just dining. The overall decor is very cozy, lots of natural lighting, and has a feel like you're sitting in someone's living room. It's on the small side- I would say maybe 10 or 12 tables max. This would be a great place for a quaint, intimate meal and also possibly if you're looking for a small venue to rent out for a cocktail party (or something like that).

Because our reservation was a prearranged event to showcase Red Door's new happy hour menu, our food consisted of appetizers and cocktails. -Which totally worked for me.

Appetizer #1: Red Door Sliders

"char grilled meyer natural ground beef on ciabatta buns, american cheese
lettuce, tomato, carmelized onions, house burger sauce with shoestring fries - $8"

This burger was good, but I think it may have been too toasty for me. Most of the buns were blackened and I'm not really a fan of char-grilled flavor, in general. Keep in mind, this all comes down to personal taste. I'm sure this burger would be perfect for many people, but I don't think I'm really a "fancy burger" kind of person.


Appetizer #2: Steak Skewers

teriyaki glazed charolais ny steak - $5

Again, these weren't really my thing. They seemed a little... overcooked, in my opinion. The teriyaki glaze was flavorful and sweet, but I just wasn't a big fan of how the steak was cooked. Too tough and chewy.


Appetizer #3: BBQ Pulled Pork Quesadilla

"mozzarella, parmesean and romano cheeses housemade bbq sauce
and onion straws - $5"

Now this.... THIS is where the money's at. These quesadillas were by far my favorite item that night, and to this day I cannot stop thinking about them. The craziest part is, I don't really eat pork very often (unless you count my bacon addiction) and I can't believe I almost passed on this appetizer all together.

The cheese combination creates this great, salty-yet-mellow flavor. The pulled pork is moist and not overpowering. They use corn tortillas, which is less commonly seen than its cousin, the flour tortilla. -But definitely much better, in this case. And it's fried perfectly so the edges are crisp, while the center still has a bready texture. Finally, the bbq sauce is sweet and tangy- a great topper for this delicious plate. I would strongly recommend ordering the BBQ Pulled Pork Quesadilla if you try this place out.

Appetizer #4: Shrimp Creole

"mexican white shrimp sautéed with onion, celery, green bell pepper, garlic.
cajun spices, white wine & cream served over crispy polenta - $8"

I don't have too much to say about these guys because I'm pretty weak when it comes to spicy food. I only had one bite, just to get a feel for what I was missing out on. Based on my one taste, I can tell you the shrimp was perfectly cooked, not gummy at all. The shrimp itself tasted great... but those creole spices were a bit too spicy for my fragile palate. But for people who like spicy food, I would recommend these.


The Red Door Restaurant and Wine Bar is located at 741 West Washington St., San Diego.

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BlogHer Part II

As many of you know, BlogHer was this past weekend and I was lucky enough to experience it. If you don't know what BlogHer is (and clearly didn't see my last vlog post), it's a big convention for women bloggers. This year it was held in San Diego and over 3,600 bloggers attended.

Since there's TONS of material to cover, I'm going to *try* to make this as cohesive as possible. However, I'm totally aware that this post may just end up being an endless pit of pointless rambling. Thankfully, I have low standards and that's pretty much how all my posts end up anyway.

OVERALL SCHEDULE

I arrived in San Diego on Thursday night and had dinner with Erin and Christina. This was our first time meeting IRL, and everything went totally smoothly like we'd known each other all along. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to check out the The People's Party and Queerosphere. I had high hopes for both because The Bloggess was supposed to be at The People's Party and Queerosphere was a disco-themed gayfest, two things I love, natch. Unfortunately, neither party was very exciting. Maybe it was because it was just the first night and technically the "conference" hadn't really started yet. Regardless, I think I would probably skip the first night's parties next time.

If you remember from my vlog, I was going to stay at Morgan's house. Plans changed at the last minute when I received a text from Mandy offering the extra bed in her hotel room. So that's what I did.

Anyway, Friday was filled with convention stuff and I felt like I was on the go nonstop. Breakfast was served from 8-9am. First session started at 9:30, the last session started at 4:45, and there was a 1.5 hr lunch break in the middle. After 15 minutes of sitting through my 1:15 session, I didn't feel like I was getting much out of it, so I went back to the room to rest. I headed back down to the convention center for my 2:45 session because you better believe I wanted to learn the move to the Single Ladies dance (a class on losing your inhibition). That night, Erin and Christina and I went to the Sparklecorn party, an event that nearly everyone was at. We danced and snacked and I called it a night when my feet had turned into burning hot lavaballs.

Saturday was my "free day" because I only purchased a one-day ticket for the conference. I grabbed some free breakfast at the convention center, made my rounds to grab free shit in the expo hall, and then spent the day with my friend Michael who lives in the area. That night, a group of us had dinner at The Red Door thanks to Morgan's networking talents.

After dinner, we went to the Aiming Low party, which was supposed to be a relaxed, low-key getaway from the rest of the BlogHer parties. Unfortunately, there was too much going on for it to be "relaxed", but not enough for it to be a real "party". It wasn't really my thing, so I went back to my room. After reading some tweets about how great the Cheeseburgher party was I decided to check it out. Pretty much everyone was there and the dance floor was packed. This party was sponsored by McDonalds and they had hot cheeseburgers and fries on hand all night long. :::WINNING:::

PROS

-Great speakers who made you feel like they were casually talking to you one-on-one.

-Plenty of blogging topics to choose from at each session.

-Tons of swag.

-Breakfast, lunch, midday snacks, and party admission included in the price of ticket.

-Food options offered Vegan and Gluten-free.

-Opportunity to meet people whose blogs you follow and/ or who follow you.

-Opportunity to meet completely new bloggers who you may have never heard of before.

-Reliving the "sleepaway camp" feeling (unless that feeling was awful, in which case, it was nothing like that).

CONS

-Seemed like the "speed dating" thing was poorly organized. (It was supposed to be a quick introduction between two bloggers, switch business cards, and then move down the line. In reality, our line never moved.)

-Not enough down-time planned into the day. The conference was non-stop, but I had to make my way back to the hotel to rest twice because it was exhausting. My first "nap" only lasted a few minutes though because I felt bad for wasting my precious BlogHer time.

-Breakfast at 8am? Next time, let's move it back an hour.

Knowing what I know about BlogHer, would I do it again? Yes, definitely. Would I go to next year's BlogHer? No, because it's in New York and that's a bit too far (see: pricey) for me.

Favorite part about BlogHer: A certain blogger I met told me I'm just like I seem based on my blog. This was really great to hear because I always wonder what people think I'm like. So basically, if you think I'm annoying on my blog, chances are you will think I'm annoying in real life.

PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS

The main registration area.

Breakfast...

Breakfast...

Breakfast.

Midday snacks.

"Speed Dating", the first event at BlogHer.

Favorite speaker Ananda Leeke, during the Wellness session

Practicing stretches and breathing exercises.

Learning the moves to the Single Ladies video thanks to Jenny Eckton.

Blogger dinner at The Red Door: Mandy, Morgan, Jules, Lexa, Kristine, Carrie, Stacy, San Diego Momma, and two others whom I didn't get to meet (we were at different tables).

MegaSwag thanks to all the generous sponsors at BlogHer.

My business card thanks to the wonderful design talents of Mr. Boyfriend.

So that's it for the second installment of BlogHer11. I think I'll probably give it a few days and then post some pix of what people wore. And maybe even a video of the Single Ladies dance.

Stay tuned.

Boner'ppetite!

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BlogHer.

Here's a little video I just whipped up. It's about BlogHer.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

(Since I can't preview the video before posting, I'm not sure if it's going to be all glitchy and possessed looking. If so, I'm blaming it on Blogger.)

Also- Are you going to BlogHer???



For more BlogHer intro videos, visit the blogs below.

Musings of a Madwoman

The Sweetest

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