There are many cool sport bars within easy walking distance of San Diego’s Petco Park baseball stadium. Most of them are on the Gaslamp Quarters side to the north, however. Holding the beach head to the south is The Tilted Kilt, just a long fly ball from home plate (literally) and filled with enough serving ladies in skimpy (and… tilted) microkilt (to say mini- is to supersize it) and liquors to be a favorite place among the baseball-crazed locals.
This place is really a large and loud British-American theme sport bar filled with British artefacts (armor, helmets, and other Englishy things you can pull out of the top hat) pool tables, dart boards, shuffleboard, and totally overloaded with flat-screen TVs (they even have one in the bathroom!)! There is a pet-friendly patio seating with good view of Petco Park (though you can’t really see into the ballpark from here). The space is quite well managed and there are plenty of room to move about…. a very good quality when the ratio between sober and drunk patrons is almost always on the tipsy side of the scale.
The bar is, as it should be, well stocked and offers a large variety of beers on tap (there’s a house brand wheat ale that my dining buddy likes very much). The menu is something of a hybrid between American sport bar food (burgers, pizzas, wings, fried finger foods, etc) and Britishy dishes. I have only eaten here once (it is rather expensive and you can expect dinner for two to ring up $40 or more, depending on if you can refrain from keep hitting the bar!
The roasted garlic fries are pretty awesome; crisp and well seasoned. I was on an Italian sandwich streak and had their Longshanks sausage sandwich, mainly to see if it would measure up to the sausage sandwich I had at Pete’s in Little Italy a few days before. It’s a totally different beast; being drowned in melted provolone, onions, and bell peppers. You really taste the dressing more than you do the meat. My pal was better behaved than I was and went instead for the supposedly healthier Braveheart’s chopped salad with turkey (well, it looked healthier until he flooded the thing with the Thousand Island dressing he brought from home, that was).
The Tilted Kilt doesn’t take reservation (and from its location, it’s easy to see why). The staff are friendly and efficient… Though this wouldn’t be a place to entertain your date or mother. If you’ve been to a Hooter before, then you know why. I’m not normally very social, and it took some getting used to for me to get so much cheerleading attention from well toned serving ladies who are practically spilling out of their micro-costume. I mean… I would be severely tempted to call this sport bar ‘obscenely overpriced’ if not for the amount of non-edible skin I get to enjoy while munching my food there. So… if you are geriatric and/or have high blood pressure, be sure to bring your meds before waltzing in to tilt the kilts here. And have fun!
The Tilted Kilt (www.tiltedkilt.com/california/san_diego/index.html)
310 Tenth Avenue (next to Petco Park), San Diego, CA 92101. Tel (619) 814-5458.
Opens daily 11-2 AM. All major credit cards accepted.
