Wormwood is San Diego's first absinthe bar and bistronomic French restaurant, anchoring the corner of 30th St in University Heights at 4677 30th St, San Diego 92116. Founded in November 2021 by Amar Harrag — a native of France with Algerian heritage, University of San Diego graduate, and founder of Be Saha Hospitality Group — the restaurant occupies a 1,700-square-foot space formerly home to Jayne's Gastropub, which ran for 13 years before closing. Harrag also introduced San Diego's first mezcalería with Tahona Bar in Old Town in 2018, and Be Saha now operates nine venues across San Diego and Baja California with 150 employees. Executive Chef Danny Romero and Group Culinary Director Janina Garay both trained at Michelin-starred Addison and Bracero, and the kitchen channels classical French technique into a French-Mexican conversation using guajillo chiles, roasted poblanos, and Baja seafood alongside six-hour clarified stocks and precise reductions. The bar stocks more than 30 absinthes sourced from France, Switzerland, New York, and Louisiana, each served through traditional slow-drip fountains with a sugar cube in the Belle Époque ritual — a spirits focus that puts the cocktail program in a different register from the Provençal wine list at Bleu Bohème further north on the Normal Heights dining corridor. Cocktails revisit absinthe-era classics — the Sazerac built on rye, Peychaud's bitters, and absinthe; the A La Louisiane layering sweet vermouth and Benedictine — under Beverage Director Ben Marquart, who joined from opening teams at Ironside and Counterpoint. The seven-course Best of Wormwood tasting menu runs $120 and moves through Champagne-dressed scallop, kampachi crudo, steak tartare, watermelon salad, a protein course, cheese, and a chocolate tart. L'Heure Verte — the restaurant's take on happy hour — serves one-dollar Baja oysters alongside sommelier-led wine flights and absinthe cocktails. The Old World wine list extends a neighborhood wine culture that includes the retail bottle and tasting programs at Clos Wine Shop on Adams Avenue. Le Jardin Secret, the hidden event space behind the main dining room, seats up to 105 guests in a brick-walled courtyard for private dinners, corporate events, and the monthly First Tuesday Society symposium modeled on the absinthe salons of London. Sunday jazz brunch fills the patio with live rotating artists, mimosas, and artisanal coffees, drawing the same performing-arts audience that anchors around Diversionary Theatre on Park Blvd in University Heights. Balboa Park sits a short drive south, and the restaurant draws pre-theater and post-museum diners looking for restaurants in University Heights with a European fine-dining format. The interior runs vintage Paris — subway-tiled floors, dark wainscoting, oversized mirrors reflecting candlelight, brass accents, and faux taxidermy that references the Belle Époque without becoming a museum piece. Small-plate portions skew European, with tasting-driven courses like roasted bone marrow, wagyu tartare, lamb, and steak de boucher finished tableside with cherry-mezcal bordelaise, creamed pearl onions, and pommes paillasson across a 1,700-square-foot dining room and courtyard.