ADDISON Focus on local tastes, Mexican specialties
MICHELIN-STARRED RESTAURANT ADDISON UNVEILS CALIFORNIA CULINARY EVOLUTION This year, menus have moved away from heavy cuisine
CARMEL VALLEY
For 13 of its 14 years, Addison restaurant identified itself as a contemporary French restaurant. But San Diego’s only Michelinstarred restaurant has been undergoing a quiet but significant evolution in 2020.
In February, founding Chef/Director William Bradley unveiled Addison’s newly decorated dining room, bar and lobby. Heavy maroon draperies and Old World-style paintings were replaced with sheer window coverings that let in more sunlight and lightertoned paints. In the months since, Bradley has also transitioned the restaurant’s menu away from heavier French dishes
to lighter, more localized fare he describes as California gastronomy.
Instead of decadent French gougère pastries to start the meal, Addison diners might now get a cup of hibiscis tea, a welcoming warm-up since all of the restaurant’s seating has been outdoors since it reopened in August. One of the dishes on the current
10-course prix-fixe menu is a boule of fresh-baked California sourdough bread. And the parting gift from the kitchen now, instead of, say, a bag of French macarons, is a jar of house-made cherry and toasted coconut granola.
Although French cooking techniques still guide the way food is prepared at
Addison, heavy French sauces and preparations have been replaced with lighter, brighter, more acidforward dishes.
“We’ll never stray from the French roots of our techniques, but we want people leaving here feeling very satisfied but not stuffed,” he said. “Food is medicine and we need to feel healthy about what we eat.”
Bradley, 45, said the new California gastronomy focus ref lects how his tastes and cooking have evolved since he opened Addison in 2006.
“Why not cook more Californian if I am from California?” said Bradley, who lives in Carmel Valley with his family. “That’s the beauty of living where we’re at. It’s really helping us in creating our own voice. I’m always working hard to be different and I feel now that at my age I’m moving to embrace the California gastronomy. I feel very confident at this time. It’s an evolution of me as a cook.”
Some of the Californiagrown ingredients Bradley has been working with this year are artichokes, persimmons, pumpkins, yuzu, grapefruit and passion fruit. He has also been inf luenced by regional Mexican cuisine, like in his current charred chorizo-stuffed mussels. And his new toasted rice custard dessert is his playful take on the horchata he grew up drinking in his hometown of Chula Vista.
“Those f lavor profiles are really enriched in my mind,” he said. “I grew up with a lot of friends from Hispanic backgrounds and
“Why not cook more Californian if I am from California?”
William Bradley
remember eating their parents’ food and their grandparents’ food. Now, looking back on it, it had a big impact on my palate for things that are warm and cold and crisp and light and very diverse.”
Although the pandemic has impacted Addison this
year, Bradley said that since reopening outdoors, business has been steady, with most tables filled most nights. The restaurant always had a large semishaded scenic patio with 10 or more feet between tables, but outdoor heaters have been installed to get the
restaurant comfortably through the winter months. And as for diners’ thoughts on the new menu focus?
“It’s been going very well,” he said. “People are really enjoying this next chapter and we’re going to continue to really showcase what this area is and how it continues to develop.”
Addison at 5200 Grand Del Mar Way, is open for dinner from 5:30 to 8 p.m. daily. A 10-course tasting menu is $275, a five-course tasting is $185. Wine pairings are extra.