Red Leight isn’t a district but is a cleverly named and bottled Rosé.   The vineyards are in Malibu on 37 acres  and they have been producing since 2006.  Howard Leight created Red Leight which is under the Malibu Rocky Oaks Estate Vineyards label that produces award-winning Cabs along with a Syrah and Merlot.  Buzz was lucky enough to taste the Rosé and Syrah along with San Diego’s top sommeliers, wine directors and distributors–and the wines are notable.  You can purchase online at their website and soon (we hope) will have distribution here.

Just opened, Sessions Public, an odd name for a new contemporary place sandwiched next to the retro Catalina Bar at Voltaire and Catalina.  The tavern style food is good and if the Cat Bar (as the locals refer to it) is too retro, the restaurant’s  long skinny contemporary room features  a full bar to go with the eclectic yet approachable food.  There’s a mystery consulting chef who created the menu that includes an additive bowl of tender crispy chicken oysters ($9), duck confit with an Asian flair of udon noodles ($17),  Nueske bacon tempura lollipops ($8),  short rib sliders ($11) and lobster-scallop cioppino ($20). Happily, most of the menu is $15 and under.  Four of us feasted well though we weren’t impressed with the miniscule serving of Serrano ham and artisan bread ($6).

Buzz wonders if the mysterious consulting chef at Sessions Public  could be Jason Maitland who had been at Arterra for ages…until the axe fell on him and others of the dining management team.  Maitland, is  teaming up with Jerome Astolfi who just left the front of the house at Market Restaurant + Bar in Del Mar to become the general manager at Flavor.  They will open late summer in the old Epazote Steakhouse in Del Mar Plaza.

Charlie’s Best Bread’s new location is the former Con Pane space in Point Loma.  Con Pane, for those of you who missed it, is now in a spacious new space at Dewey and Historic Decatur Streets (in the same  building complex as Ace Hardware, Tin Fish and Point Loma Sports Bar) with lots and lots and lots of free parking.  It’s a short walk to the park if you want a place to relax with a coffee, sandwich or just a slice of artisan bread.

The just renovated Cosmopolitan Hotel and Restaurant in Old Town San Diego  State Park is destined to be a hit.  Most will know the spot as the former Casa Bandini restaurant.  But oh what a cool place it is now with a second floor of ten hotel rooms and some familiar faces to welcome you for drinks and food.  The proprietor is Joseph Melluso well-known for his Tin Fish restaurants in San Diego and around the country, the chef is Amy DiBiase formerly of Roseville and bar goers will find  Sheila Tracy mixing drinks.  The entire venue is set in the 1870′s, complete with period costumes for the staff and victuals that reflect a modern take on those from earlier times.