I really love Ocean Beach but it seems like since the Vine first opened I haven’t really been excited about any of the new places that have opened up since that… we have a lot of new bars mostly. Not even NEW bars but instead, old funky bars that have been renovated into nicer looking, more expensive bars that all seem to be carbon copies of one another. Anyhow, they are bars, and as much as I love bars, do we really need anymore in Ocean Beach? Not really.

So, I was pretty excited when I noticed, a couple of months ago, that a new “Cuban Style Patisserie” would be opening up on Newport Street. I think if it was just a “Patisserie” I wouldn’t have really cared, but it was the “Cuban Style” that got my attention. I’ve never been to Cuba, even, but for some reason this sounded really cool. In a situation similar to when the Vine was getting ready to open, I started stalking the place, waiting. I think I walked by every freeking day, waiting, waiting, waiting.

So Thursday, finally, Azucar opened! And I am still excited, because this place ROCKS. They have sandwiches made with Spanish tortilla! They have serrano ham! They have cupcakes! Unfortunately, they don’t have wine but hey, you can’t have everything.

Friday I had one of their cuban sandwiches for lunch, and for dinner, a potato croquette stuffed with meat filling. But the thing that really rocked my world that first day was a coconut flan. I have a serious sweet tooth, and I am especially fond of anything custardy or puddingy. Azucar’s coconut flan… well, let’s just say I don’t think I have tasted a dessert that good in my ENTIRE six years here in San Diego. The only thing that could even come close to this is the panna cotta at La Zucca in Venice, and I would venture to say this may even be better, due the big glop of coconut on top of the custard. YUM.

Yesterday I went back and got a custardy ham and cheese quiche thing baked inside of a croissant dough. This is something I would imagine eating walking down a street in Paris, NOT Ocean Beach. I seriously tried to get the thing home before I snarfed it down, but that didn’t work. So much for the three mile walk I took before I got there.

And for dessert last night, while watching Heima with firecrackers going off in the distance, I had my first cupcake from Azucar – coconut, with a beautiful chocolate butterfly on the top of it. I love custards, but cupcakes run a close second.

So this is all really dangerous, because I love this kind of stuff. Out of sight, out of mind, only it’s not so out of sight any more.

I took some pictures, but my digital camera broke yesterday. My pictures wouldn’t really do the place justice, anyway.

My new plan is, I can only go into Azucar on the weekend. The cool thing is, I still have two days of this weekend left.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 at 10:06 am and is filed under Tales from a Strange Land. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.