Pinnacle Peak has GREAT hard-core frontier food (their steaks rank as follows: Cowgirl = 15oz T-Bone; Kansas City = 16oz Bone-In New York; Cowboy = 20oz T-Bone; & Trail Boss = 28oz Porterhouse), and they're cooked over an open mesquite-wood fire pit. They come with salad and beans, other sides if you want them. The steaks are lightly sprinkled with Garlic Salt (I usually get some extra to share around the table). It's a GREAT steak-house. Wear an unwanted tie if you want to get some extra attention and a kiss from your server (with names like Cheyenne, Cinnamon, Rocky, Double-Down, etc., etc.).
I REALLY don't think they'd EVER open one of their restaurants in Hillcrest.
But you never know, if they could get the business they wanted, I think the $$$$$$ would override their hesitation to have male servers kissing other male patrons after cutting their ties off.
I visit that restaurant once a month for our NRA Members Council meeting (they have a VERY large meeting room), and since my wife isn't usually with me, I frequently just get their VERY tasty burger, called a Wrangler - a 1/2 pound ground sirloin sandwich. It also comes with salad and beans.
You can find Pinnacle Peak's menu online by
clicking here.
A good compromise between steak and seafood between San Diego, La Mesa, & El Cajon is The Brigantine Restaurant in La Mesa on the El Cajon summit, right off Interstate 8. You can find their various menus by
clicking here. When I clicked on their dinner menu,
this is what I got.
My wife (who HATES seafood) and I have eaten there many times. From what I saw, as long as you give them plenty of advance warning, they can get a bunch of tables together without too much trouble. Although the meat isn't as good as Pinnacle Peak, they do a good job of it and the same for the seafood - which is more of their specialty.
Personally, I can go either way - meat and/or seafood. My wife will only eat meat, so as long as it's available, she should be okay. I'm not real keen on middle-eastern food, but we enjoy Italian - and there's a GREAT AUTHENTIC Italian restaurant in El Cajon named Marechiaro's, on North Second Street. If you want REAL Italian food, go here! They've been around a LONG time and have an almost cult-like following. It's EXCELLENT!
Another good place if you want chicken and ribs is a place called Michael's Grill on Mission Gorge Road in the Vons' shopping center (near where the old Santee theaters used to be). They've been there over 20 years and fix EXCELLENT chicken dishes. I've heard their other dishes are as good, but I've never tried them 'cause I love their chicken so much I don't WANT to try them and fill up on it and not eat their chicken! They also cater, as does Marechiaro's, so if we decide on something other than a sit-down dinner and want our food BROUGHT TO US (like at the range or something), then they can handle it.
I'm flexible: I love Chinese (but haven't mentioned much here), LOVE seafood, LOVE great steaks, enjoy Italian, enjoy Japanese (to a certain degree - depending on what's being served, but LOVE Sushi and Sashimi as well as tempura), LOVE chicken, not a big fan of pork, not a big fan of Greek food (who knows, it might grow on me), and do NOT like eating BRAINS (especially while those are still in use), or other internal organs.
Muscle meat only for me, thank you VERY much!
We have a wide variety of places to choose from, and sometimes that's part of the problem (after all, right across the freeway from The Brigantine is Anthony's Seafood Grotto, which has a good selection of seafood but my wife won't want to go there due to their limited non-seafood selections - the La Mesa location
menu is here).
I'm flexible - seafood or meat, my wife will only eat meat, so as long as it's available, we're good to go.
I'm looking forward to meeting some more of you folks! Let's make it happen!