Sandpiper Wood Fired Grill & Oysters

Sandpiper hits you with smoke and salt before the menu even arrives. Wood coals sing from a custom grill, oysters are shucked to order, and the back patio coughs up firelight on cool La Jolla nights. Expect precise char on a Berkshire pork chop, briny pop from a half dozen fresh oysters, and a New England clam chowder that tastes of butter and the ocean. Service leans professional and relaxed, the kind that knows when to leave you alone and when to recommend the profiterole with tart raspberry. Locals come for happy hour and business dinners, tourists slip in for coastal flavors without pretension. Sunday through Saturday there is a deliberate casualness to the place, a friendly confidence in the kitchen. If you go, sit outside near the fireplace and order the cheddar grits with the pork chop; the contrast of smoke and cream is stubbornly good.