October 2026 Dining Diary: A’Louest, Communion, and fresh finds from our Food Editor-at-Large

After all the influencer buzz and the flurry of press fervor finally dissipated, I quietly booked a table at A’Louest to see what all the fanfare has been about. If you have not heard or read about it, A’Louest is the newest member of the Trust Restaurant Group (Rare Society, Fort Oak, Trust Restaurant) to open in San Diego. Located on Adams Avenue in North Park, this beautifully designed corner bistro is definitely living up to the hype. Beautiful, maxi-marbled interiors meet high ceilings and an open, airy, plant-filled dining room, with a gorgeous bar facing the street. A great place to meet and mingle, even if you’re not dining. But, do dine!

The menu is California-French inspired and includes all your favorite standard French bistro fare. Think: French Onion Soup, Steak Tartare, Chilled Seafood Platters, and Duck à l’Orange, with a peppering of crudos, charcuterie, grilled vegetables, and ravioli to round out the offerings.

I absolutely loved the Chicken Liver Parfait (served in a silver parfait glass), topped with blackberry compote, shaved fennel, and chives. The sweet-and-salty thing is addictive. It comes with tender, milky-white toasted brioche for smearing. Be sure to order the epi baguette as a starter, too, as the liver is equally delicious on it (and with a little butter).

Anytime I’m at a French brasserie, I nearly always order the Steak Frites. I consider it a staple and a dish to judge the restaurant by. At A’Louest, you have your choice of three steak cuts to suit your fancy (and price range) and all three go perfectly well with the crispy-seasoned frites.

Duck is the new chicken of the culinary world, and it’s popping up on a lot of menus again. I recently dined at Communion in Mission Hills. You might know it — perched atop the flamingo-pink high-rise on the prime corner of Washington and Goldfinch. The views are stellar. My son pointed out his UC San Diego dorm to the north, and downtown sparkles to the south.

Chef Dante Cecchini, who was named one of San Francisco’s rising young chefs by The San Francisco Chronicle, recently did a menu makeover. While keeping many of the most popular items (the Brioche Loaf!), he has added new dishes that reflect his Italian heritage, like the crostino (grilled sourdough with seasonal toppings), agnolotti with squash, and devilishly good Pasta alla Vodka Diavolo.

The standout dish is the 14-day dry-aged crispy duck. A whole Sonoma duck is first brined for two days, aged for 14 days, then smoked just before service. It is served with a sweet, umami-rich sauce and grilled figs. 

Yes, I dine out a lot, but what I really, really loved this month is my new Beast Mega 1200 blender. I paid for it, and they have given me absolutely nothing for this unbridled, glowing review. In my more than 25 years in the restaurant business, I have worked with a lot of blenders, and the Beast ranks supreme. Not only do I love the beautiful design — it looks so sleek in my kitchen — but it absolutely conquers whatever I am
using it for.

Like many of you, I start every day with a smoothie: frozen berries, kiwi, kale, flax, fresh ginger — you know the drill. And this thing makes it basically into soft serve.

I also use it for soups: roasted tomato, curried butternut squash with carrot, and lately, a big batch of Green Vegetable Soup. There’s really no recipe to it, and you cannot go wrong. It’s just a great way of getting in your greens.

I lay out a sheet pan of veggies — any combination of leeks, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and garlic (get that cruciferous fix) — drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast at 375 degrees until soft. Once cooled, I put them in a pot with my homemade chicken bone broth. Any good-quality store-bought broth works fine. I use my homemade recipe (shared in our January 2026 issue) because I want the extra collagen as I am in a war with wrinkles.

To the pot, I add one bunch of fresh spinach (stems and all) and just let it blanch — until tender, but not fully cooked — and a fourth of a cup of dry chicken base along with a can of white beans. The beans add another layer of fiber and thicken the soup up even more.

To make the blending process easier, I then remove the entire pot from the heat and use my stick blender just to get the big chunks broken down. This helps even out the ratio of veggies to broth that I am placing in the blender.

This is a good time to taste the soup and season. Then, fill your Beast to the fill line (in batches) and blend away. The result gets you on your way to your daily requirement of vegetables and fiber. It’s a feel-good lunch, delicious on a fall day, and it will remind you of restaurant-quality soup.