My spouse and I visited Farmer’s Table for breakfast on a
Thursday morning in early July 2018. The restaurant is open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can make a reservation
using the online Open Table system.
San Diego Dining Group
operates Farmer’s Table, as well as Greystone The Steakhouse, Osetra The
Fishhouse, Osteria Panevino (all in the Gaslamp District), Farmer’s
Bottega (in Mission Hills), and Fig Tree Café (in Hillcrest and Liberty
Station). A second location of Farmer’s Table is scheduled to open soon in the
Little Italy neighborhood of San Diego.
Farmer’s Table occupies the
corner of a small upscale strip mall in La Mesa (in the space formerly occupied
by Sanfilippo’s Pizza). The restaurant offers a glass-walled kitchen, which
features a wood-burning Napoli pizza oven. Furnishings include reclaimed items
such as a vintage 1939 tractor parked in the bar area, custom light fixtures (made from the metal rings of wine barrels), Edison
bulbs, old farm tools and memorabilia as wall and shelving décor, and beautifully
mismatched patterned upholstered chair backs and cushions. You can sit in the
bar area (or at the bar, which also offers a few al fresco seats), on the
covered porch (which adjoins the regular dining room by means of large glass
doors that are retracted to connect the indoor and outdoor spaces), or in the
regular dining room (at mostly free-standing tables with a few that share a
banquette).
Farmer’s Table serves farm-to-table cuisine, including breakfast entrees (which
are all more upscale and unique-sounding that your usual egg-and-pancake fare),
sandwiches, pizzas/flatbreads, and salads. As a Bloody Mary aficionados, we had
heard about an incredible version served by Farmer’s Table, so we made the trek
from San Diego in search of it. And what a worthwhile trip it was – it will be
hard for any bar/restaurant anywhere to top this version! Called “The
Barnyard”, it begins with a pitcher of four drinks that contains at least a
whole head of celery stalk and a jar of pickled veggies (giardiniera). But then
they pile on the truly good stuff: grilled corn-on-the-cob pieces, hunks of mozzarella
cheese, cherry tomatoes, slices of bacon-wrapped hot dogs, chorizo, shrimp, and
the piece de resistance, a whole rotisserie chicken! The “drink” is meant to
serve four people, and takes about 15 minutes to prepare, although we shared it
between the two of us as our brunch meal, not needing to eat again until late
that same night. It was truly amazing, and well worth the $45 cost!
We loved our brunch at Farmer’s Table – the Barnyard Bloody Mary is
something we will never forget!
