March 30, 2006

The great casual fare at Batter Up! is hearty enough to make Barry Bonds happy
San Diego Union Tribune
By Maria C. Hunt / RESTAURANT CRITIC

Batter Up! is the kind of place to visit with a good friend or no one at all.

I say this because you are likely to wind up smooshing your face into one of the oversized sandwiches, licking your fingers after picking through a basket of spicy fried shrimp, and basically forgetting about table manners.

Batter Up! is the creation of Melvin Johnson, a talented chef who has come up with an inviting menu of hearty, carefully prepared casual fare, including sandwiches, chicken wings, ribs and entree-sized salads.

Johnson's most notable chef gig in San Diego was at the Juke Joint Cafe; he says he later headed east and spent a year as a sous chef at Mesa Grill in New York City.

It's a shame Batter Up! isn't in the East Village, because the fare it serves would be a great improvement on what's found at Petco Park. As it is, the restaurant, in the Market Creek Plaza at Euclid Avenue and Market Street, is only about 10 minutes from downtown.

Johnson creates a baseball state of mind with a row of blue-numbered chairs culled from Dodger Stadium and a faux brick wall emblazoned with Padres pennants, a photo of Satchel Paige and other memorabilia.

Hollowed-out wooden bats from Jauregui in Chula Vista, placed tip to tail, line a partition. Flat-screen TVs behind the counter and in the dining room are tuned to all sports, all the time.

Menu items, scrawled on a chalkboard over the register, sport catchy names drawn from local or athletic themes. A Double Play Combo features battered fish fillets along with chicken tenders.

The Philly Pitcher is the best cheesesteak I have had in a while, with its tasty mix of thinly sliced beef, provolone, mushrooms, green peppers and sweet caramelized onions.

It's not “lite” as billed, but I didn't have any other issues with the California Catcher – grilled chicken breast, bacon, avocado, tomato, lettuce and a secret mayo sauce slapped between slices of toasty wheat bread. Somehow, I managed to finish it.

Shrimp coated in a light seasoned batter and lightly fried make up the Shortstop Shrimp, which come with fries, cocktail sauce and spicy remoulade. The shrimp, like the equally tasty chicken wings, can also be doused in a special Buffalo-style hot sauce and served fireman-style.

On my next visit, I plan to try the 619 Chicken, a grilled breast served muffaletta-style with roasted red peppers, provolone and a garlic olive relish.

Hot dogs aren't my thing, but if they were, I would order one of these. Johnson uses Vienna Beef hot dogs from Chicago and the same company's poppy seed buns.

There are onion rings and then there are Johnson's onion rings – perfectly golden halos, crisp and barely greasy, encasing sweet onion. I could order these every time.

Kids are well-served too with special meals of corn dogs, guppy fish nuggets and chicken digits, served with fries, a drink and Cracker Jack for $3.95.

If you can, try one of the desserts Johnson bakes daily. There's carrot cake, a gourmet apple pie and a unique caramelized butter cake that the chef loves to mix with ice cream from Coldstone Creamery next door.

The Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation is a non-profit foundation that operates on the premise that residents must own and drive the change that takes place in their community for it to be meaningful and long-lasting. JCNI explores new pathways to change through entrepreneurial relationships, hands-on training, and the creative investment of resources.