Though The Next Door in San Clemente calls itself “a local bar & kitchen” and not a gastropub, hearing the details about the soon-to-be open restaurant will all but confirm it is one. There's, of course, the name, which closely resembles the last gastropub to debut around these parts, SideDoor.
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But most telling are their featured items of fish and chips, chicken pot pie, charcuterie and burgers, offered price points starting from $4 and up. If that's not enough to convince you that this is a gastropub, there will be an “upscale pub motif” in their 60-seat, 2,000 square feet space, with craft beers and other libations.
The women behind the venture is Mira Selbo and Dana Robertson, mother and daughter who opened The Melting Pot in Irvine eight years ago. The Next Door is located, you guessed it, next door to the San Clemente branch of The Melting Pot at 647 Camino de los Mares.
It's shooting to fling open its actual doors in about two weeks or so.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.