As we enter 2013, Buzz thought it would be worth a look back at the various issues that caught her attention while dining in San Diego during the year.  You too can add to this list.  Please feel free to comment.

**Demographics matter: Pushing 40 years old, Brian Malarkey is all over the map, literally.  He and partner James Brennan open fabric named restaurants faster than you can sharpen your kitchen knives.  So how good are they?  Well, Gabardine in Point Loma opened early in 2012 without much thought to the neighborhood and as Buzz wrote in June, the place needs focus.  These restaurateurs assumed diners–with an average age of roughly 35 to 45–would brave traffic and come to the nearly dead end of Rosecrans Street to dine.  We wish it would be so, but not in Point Loma.

**$20 and under menus:  This tag line for restaurants has had its day says Amy T. Granite at San Diego City Beat. Think about it, two items at $15 each makes a $30 tab for one and you’re just drinking tap water.  Restaurants, price your menus fairly and diners won’t wonder if they’re getting a deal, or not.

**Happy Hour:  What’s so happy about a $45 bill (with tip $53) for two that included happy hour prices for fish and chips ($10), shrimp and grits ($9), roasted Brussels sprouts ($4), Laird Pinot Grigio ($10) and Gingham Syrah ($9).   Portions  were large enough for dinner…so why call it happy hour Gabardine?  Instead, go to The Marine Room  where you can enjoy a swell view, lounge appetizers at $7 or at their sister restaurant The Shores, $6 plates.  Or try another Buzz favorite, The 3rd Corner for a $10 bowl of Prince Edward Island mussels with a pile of frites and a $3 draft beer.

**Noise: How about those restaurants with noise so great we can’t even hear the person next to you?  Here’s a clip from the Today Show that looks at restaurants and their noise levels.  Not everyone is 30 years old and high noise levels in restaurants such as Brooklyn Girl Eater or Searsucker, and others you may add, may have decent food, but if can’t hear the person sitting next to you, what’s the point?

**Wine: Restaurants take note:  Sparkling wine poured into a carafe at the bar, then poured into glasses at the table and called a “half bottle” on the menu just sucks.  So does serving red wine too warm–room temperature as many places do–either by the glass or bottle.  Don’t believe me? Ask America’s first master sommelier, Eddie Osterland.

**Ambiance comes in many forms at a restaurant: low light, music bass heavy and loud (as well as unknown composers). Other issues abound when it comes to menus.  If you can’t read the menu because of a meager table candle, print so small or a font so precious even the best eyes can’t decipher it, the meal could be off to a difficult start.

**Location and Name:  Yes, it matters, just ask the people at Location Matters who help restaurateurs expand, buy, sell or lease venues.  Restaurant names we don’t understand:  Sora (Japanese for Sky) with an Italian/Japanese menu in a tough downtown location that includes validated parking.

**Websites: Things we find unhelpful to the dining public:  Websites that are not current, in other words, show what you’re serving now, not last summer. That includes places like Buzz favorite La Villa. This restaurant, with the innovative and creative chef Chris O’Donnell at the helm, needs to post its menu not the website’s current one of their sister restaurant Buon Appetito.

**Photos: And what about diners constantly taking pictures, all the time, of every dish? Watch Eat it Don’t Tweet it  a video moment for levity and amusement from L.A. Chefs Column . As Barbarella (Diary of a Diva) notes here, we’re done with the food paparazzi.

**Service (or lack thereof) ought to be a bigger deal than it is in laid back San Diego. You’ll find extraordinary service at La Villa as happened on a wet cold night when we arrived without a reservation.  Quick thinking from GM, Derry Van Nortwick pulled a table from the patio into the warm packed room–where there was room for two of us as well as the 20 at the next table.  Other restaurants would have turned us away saying “sorry we’re full tonight”.

Miscellaneous musings for 2013:

**Tired yet of bacon in and on everything?  And you’d think craft beer was the only beverage in the city.  We’re happy to see San Diego as a top spot for beer; we hope food will follow.

**A reader wonders why salt and pepper shakers no longer appear on many dining tables…who says the kitchen knows best for a diner’s taste buds?  But then there’s this that lets you know who’s in charge!

**Speaking of tables…Do you dine with the smart phone strategically placed next to your plate?  Time to let that go and enjoy the reason you came to the restaurant…the food, the ambience and, hopefully, the company at your table.

**TV’s are everywhere and many times in the wrong place–fine dining isn’t a sports bar.

**Resolve for 2013 to try a new restaurant or a dish you’ve never experienced.

San Diego’s Restaurant Week runs for two weeks in September and January–two generally slow months for restaurants. Much is made of the event that began in 2004, sponsored by the San Diego County Chapter of the California Restaurant Association (SDCCRA) that organizes and provides the press for the restaurants that serve a prix fixe two-course lunch for $10, $15 or $20  or a three-course dinner for $20, $30 or $40, all depending on the restaurant.  More than 200 restaurants took part in week one (just ending today, September 21), and week two runs from September 23 until the 28th with more than 150 dining choices.

The idea of restaurant week began in 1992 when the late restaurateur Joe Baum and Tim Zagat (yes, that Zagat) thought it would be a gesture of good will to the 15000 reporters in New York who were there to cover the Democratic convention. It was a four day affair–now counted in months rather than days–that grew to cities and towns around the country, many coordinated by city groups, restaurant associations or local community organizations. The various reasons for such events include: increase tourist traffic, help restaurants through slow months and allow diners to try places they may have heard about and want to try and hopefully return for another meal.

In San Diego, as in some other places, it’s “pay to play” for the restaurants. First, to participate a restaurant must be a member in good standing of the SDCCRA. The approximate membership price for a 50-seat restaurant with mid-range prices is $590, based on annual revenue.  As a member there is a registration cost for the restaurant’s inclusion for press and other publicity that ranges from $400 to $1000.  Those early bird prices depend on whether a restaurant serves lunch, dinner or both, and wants to participate in one or two months. The Association also presents those Gold Medallion awards we hear about in May after their annual dinner.  And you can’t get a medallion if you’re not a member, so how important is the award when it’s insiders voting yearly for the same restaurants?  (Buzz wrote about this a few years back).

Second, while that special menu for dinner or lunch may be $10, $30 or $40, etc., remember that price does NOT include gratuity, tax or beverage.  Thus you may end up with bill closer to $20, $40 or $50 (or more).  Is it a bargain?  You can decide.  Is it a hassle? Perhaps.  Is the food as good during this special week?  Maybe, or maybe not, because the restaurant tends to be full, service may suffer, and so could the food. Jan Borkum (“proud mom” of Tracy Borkum) at the SDCCRA said they have stressed to restaurants to put their best food and service forward  after complaints in earlier years of skimpy portions and lousy service.  And based on the experience of one meal during a busy week, does that bring repeat business to the restaurant as many restaurateurs expect?

Third, note that many restaurants choose not to be an Association member, so they don’t participate.  In North Park, such places as Urban Solace‘s chef/owner Matt Gordon prides himself on serving terrific food all the time and years ago knew that joining the lobby group (the primary function of the California Restaurant Association), was not for him. Jayne’s Gastropub and  Finch’s Bistro and Wine Bar in La Jolla aren’t members either.  Instead, Gordon and many other restaurants around town serve their regular menus or their own their versions of a prix fixe menu during the week. Many times you may spend less and eat well, with good service at the non-member places.

Farmhouse Cafe however, decided this year to join the Association for the benefits and help it gives small business owners especially when it comes to understanding the constantly changing laws, rules and regulations affecting the industry. They, along with many other participants, have the prix fixe special menu along with  their regular menu during the two weeks.

A final observation:   San Diego’s restaurants depend on the support of us, the diners, whether we’re eating a fish taco or a filet mignon, during restaurant week or not.  Buzz wants to know your experiences during this restaurant week–whether a diner or a restaurateur.  Diners:  Did you try a new place?  If so, would you return?  Restaurateurs:  Was the week successful for you, staff and do you expect to see new faces once the hoopla dies down?  Oh, Yelpers take note:  Please don’t ding a restaurant you’re trying for the first time during restaurant week…it’s just not nice.

In Kensington, a “uber  fun, cool and eclectic” new wine bar , Village Vino, opens  (softly) June 28 at the corner of Adams Avenue and Kensington Drive in the same block as the Ken Theater and Kensington Grill.  Owner  Rita Pirkl will feature wines from around the world from small producers, many family run.  There will be classes too.  Buzz has seen the space and it offers all of the fun and none of the pretense of so many other wine bars in this town (no sofas either!).  4095 Adams Ave., 619-546-8466, open Sunday to Thursday 11am to 10pm, Friday and Saturday until midnight, closed Monday.

If you’re looking for a restaurant to buy, here are two you might be interested in:  Avenue 5 Restaurant and Bar in Bankers Hill is on the block as is City Deli in Hillcrest.  For additional information, 858-792-5521.

More Malarkey for his minions:  The empire spreads  to Scottsdale with a second Searsucker  for those hungry “zonies; waived c orkage Tuesdays and half off selected bottles at all five venues; and happy hour arrives at Burlap  from 4 to 6pm.  Growing pains at the three-month-old Gabardine where chef Chad White is out and Malarkey is in with a pared down menu (unfortunately not yet posted online) and appetizers that include mac n’ cheese, shishito peppers and fries (they were sides before).   Is  Malarkey trying too hard here with a new brunch hook at Gabardine? Disco? Kind of odd for this old Point Loma neighborhood.

Herringbone just opened in La Jolla, making it the fifth in the fabric named restaurants.  If you love noisy, be-there-be-seen places, you’ll be right at home here as you watch nimble wait staff juggle food and drinks around a packed bar and 100-year-old olive trees planted inside the huge ex-warehouse space.  Expect a pricey dinner meal with most mains in the high $20′s and starters in the high teens.

And a final thought on Malarkey:  Is the expansion too fast and furious given his turnover of chefs (Burlap and Gabardine)?  Gabardine certainly needed more thought when it opened (and still may) as the elements of decor, dark corners at the bar, noise and a mish mash of a menu were not cohesive for the four times I visited.  (The place is a mile from my home.)  Time will tell if he can get the locals hooked.