Trust

Trust opened on Park Boulevard in Hillcrest and is the restaurant that started chef Brad Wise's group, which now includes Fort Oak, Cardellino and Rare Society. Its own description is plain about what it is: a neighbourhood restaurant, bold flavours cooked simply over an open flame, built on relationships with local farmers and purveyors. San Diego Magazine has given it awards for best brunch, best service and best new restaurant.

The Spirit Free section on its drinks card is five deep and splits neatly in two. The bought-in half is strong: St. Agrestis' Phony Negroni at fifteen dollars, the bottled non-alcoholic negroni that is genuinely bitter rather than sweet, and Athletic Brewing's Upside Dawn golden ale at eight. The house half is three drinks at eight dollars each, and they are the reason this list is worth describing rather than just counting — a grapefruit and strawberry lemonade, a honeydew and lemongrass limeade, and a vanilla whip cold brew. None pretends to be a cocktail. They are made in the kitchen from fruit and herbs, priced like soft drinks rather than mocktails, and they are the honest answer for a guest who wants something good without paying cocktail prices for a drink with no spirit in it.

That pricing is worth dwelling on. In a city where zero-proof cocktails now routinely land between fourteen and eighteen dollars, a restaurant that puts three made-to-order non-alcoholic drinks on the list at eight is making a choice about who it wants at the table.

The practical details: the restaurant is closed on Tuesday, serves dinner from five until nine or ten, and runs brunch on Saturday and Sunday from nine until two — which is when the cold brew makes most sense. The room is loud and busy at weekends and reservations are the safer route. Like the rest of the group, this is a licensed restaurant rather than an alcohol-free space.

Trust is also the easiest of the group's rooms to visit without an occasion. It sits on a busy stretch of Park Boulevard with parking on the street, the bar takes walk-ins, and the menu is built for sharing rather than for a formal three courses. The open flame does most of the cooking — the restaurant's own line is that it believes in bold flavours cooked simply over fire, and in buying from local farmers and makers. For a non-drinker, the combination of a genuinely bitter bottled negroni at fifteen dollars and three made-to-order fruit drinks at eight covers both ends of the evening without a compromise in either direction.