Por Dr. Ink | SDUN Columnist

“This is like a second home to me,” said my friend Liz as we perched ourselves at a high top table along the open front windows at Counterpoint. For months she had been raving about the bistro’s comfortable and modern design, its good food and drinks, and more so, its magnetic social vibe fueled largely by her fellow inhabitants of Golden Hill.

Not even 15 minutes into our visit, I agreed that she was right on all counts.

Counterpoint is a vertical, two-level structure sitting unobtrusively at the southern end of 25th Street. Despite its sleek, contemporary construct, the space blends easefully with the neighborhood’s nearby historic houses and tree-lined streets. Inside, a colorful globe light grabs attention as it presides over clean, flowing lines that ascend to a smaller lounge on the second level. The entire blueprint seems lifted from a book of feng shui, filled in with mixed elements and judicious splashes of art.

Depending who you ask, some describe Counterpoint as a wine bar. Others call it a small restaurant stocked with artisan eats and serious craft beers. Owner Cameron Fomby prefers “neighborhood bistro.”

Happy hour on Saturdays and Sundays runs for a generous six hours beginning at noon, although weekdays demand that you get right down to business within a much shorter time slot between 5 and 6 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays.

A chalkboard posted alongside the bar lists nearly 20 draft and bottled beers, all crafts and imports. Those marked by stars are reduced to $3 apiece. And from the wine selection on a paper menu, the bartender points out a few of the daily deals, discounted also to $3. In our visit, all three wines were Spanish, including a vibrant tempranillo rosé layered with the flavors of currants and young berries.

Among the beers on special was Mama’s Pils from Oskar Blues in Colorado, a hoppy ale tempered by sweet malts that put me squarely in the mood for Counterpoint’s unexpected fried bologna sandwich. Sadly the kitchen ran out of the disreputable meat by the time I asked for it.

The sandwich sells like crazy, says Fomby, who waxes nostalgic over the days he’d eat it as a kid with his grandfather while visiting his Texas ranch: “It was the only thing he knew how to make.”

Fomby has upped the ante by assembling the sandwich with fresh ciabatta rolls and Porter-infused Cahill’s cheddar. It shares menu space with hand-shaped pizzas, artisan cheeseboards and other sandwiches more indigenous to modern times.

Food prices aren’t punched down for happy hour, although most items trail below $10, such as a trio of warm, roasted nuts for $4 and a prosciutto sandwich with chevre and figs for $9.

Lingering beyond the curfew of happy hour, we indulged also in a substantial, rectangular-shaped sausage pizza with Asiago cheese for $14. Counterpoint, I learned, is a difficult place to leave and an easy joint for meeting new faces in a neighborhood that appears filled with convivial down-to-earth people.?

“This is like a second home to me,” said my friend Liz as we perched ourselves at a high top table along the open front windows at Counterpoint. For months she had been raving about the bistro’s comfortable and modern design, its good food and drinks, and more so, its magnetic social vibe fueled largely by her fellow inhabitants of Golden Hill.

Not even 15 minutes into our visit, I agreed that she was right on all counts.

Counterpoint is a vertical, two-level structure sitting unobtrusively at the southern end of 25th Street. Despite its sleek, contemporary construct, the space blends easefully with the neighborhood’s nearby historic houses and tree-lined streets. Inside, a colorful globe light grabs attention as it presides over clean, flowing lines that ascend to a smaller lounge on the second level. The entire blueprint seems lifted from a book of feng shui, filled in with mixed elements and judicious splashes of art.

Depending who you ask, some describe Counterpoint as a wine bar. Others call it a small restaurant stocked with artisan eats and serious craft beers. Owner Cameron Fomby prefers “neighborhood bistro.”

Happy hour on Saturdays and Sundays runs for a generous six hours beginning at noon, although weekdays demand that you get right down to business within a much shorter time slot between 5 and 6 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays.

A chalkboard posted alongside the bar lists nearly 20 draft and bottled beers, all crafts and imports. Those marked by stars are reduced to $3 apiece. And from the wine selection on a paper menu, the bartender points out a few of the daily deals, discounted also to $3. In our visit, all three wines were Spanish, including a vibrant tempranillo rosé layered with the flavors of currants and young berries.

Among the beers on special was Mama’s Pils from Oskar Blues in Colorado, a hoppy ale tempered by sweet malts that put me squarely in the mood for Counterpoint’s unexpected fried bologna sandwich. Sadly the kitchen ran out of the disreputable meat by the time I asked for it.

The sandwich sells like crazy, says Fomby, who waxes nostalgic over the days he’d eat it as a kid with his grandfather while visiting his Texas ranch: “It was the only thing he knew how to make.”

Fomby has upped the ante by assembling the sandwich with fresh ciabatta rolls and Porter-infused Cahill’s cheddar. It shares menu space with hand-shaped pizzas, artisan cheeseboards and other sandwiches more indigenous to modern times.

Food prices aren’t punched down for happy hour, although most items trail below $10, such as a trio of warm, roasted nuts for $4 and a prosciutto sandwich with chevre and figs for $9.

Lingering beyond the curfew of happy hour, we indulged also in a substantial, rectangular-shaped sausage pizza with Asiago cheese for $14. Counterpoint, I learned, is a difficult place to leave and an easy joint for meeting new faces in a neighborhood that appears filled with convivial down-to-earth people.?