Absinthe bar to open in North Park

Wormwood, an absinthe bar and restaurant, is opening on 30th Street.

Nov. 23, 2021 6:15 AM PT

Wormwood, billed as San Diego’s first absinthe-focused cocktail bar and restaurant, will open later this month in the former Jayne’s Gastropub space in North Park.

Owned by Amar Harrag, who runs the mezcal-focused Tahona Bar and restaurant in Old Town, Wormwood will specialize in serving up to 30 varieties of the green-hued anise-flavored spirit from Europe and the U.S. Absinthe originated in Europe in the mid-19th century. After it arrived in the U.S. in 1912, it was banned for more than 100 years under the mistaken belief that it had hallucinogenic properties.

Besides full cocktail and absinthe education and event programs, Wormwood will also serve French-influenced shareable plates such as roasted bone marrow wagyu tartare, creamed pearl onion and caviar with sea urchin flan. Wormwood is at 4677 30th St. in North Park. Visit wormwoodsd.com.

Pam Kragen writes about restaurants for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Email her at pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com.

Pam Kragen

Pam Kragen is the arts and entertainment editor, as well as the chief theater, dining and opera critic, for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She joined the Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. And in 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterf, Conn.