Chad Deal | Stories | San Diego Reader

Booming bivalves at the Brig

Depending on who you believe, the origins of the Baja-style fish taco will take you two places. Fans of entrepreneurial success stories will favor the narrative popularized by San Diego restaurant mogul Ralph Rubio, who ...

Will Barton thought he was dead

Will Barton was walking home late one night in October 2012 when Philip Martin Hernandez, on a crime rampage with his young wife (Cindy Altamirano Garcia), shot him a few times and left him for dead. As he struggles to heal, health insurance companies create barriers.

Talk low and slow at Longhorn Cafe and Saloon

Drinks in the John Wayne room at the Longhorn Café in Grantville.

Come out and play

Chad Deal parties with an insane lumbering monster.

Were it not for the photographic evidence, Figment could have been a hallucination. The annual Chicano Park festival is how American families everywhere would be spending their Sunday afternoons if Jello Biafra had been elected ...

Taking up the challenge at Cali Comfort BBQ

Looking at it now, you may have to squint a little to envision the Spring Valley home that Bulgarian-farm-boy-cum-doctor Luben Walchef bought in 1972 and converted into a family restaurant about ten years later. The ...

Happy Hour: that transcendental space between drinking too early and drinking too much

Happy Hour: that transcendental space between drinking too early and drinking too much. We all know what it’s like rushing out of work early to catch discount suds at the local dive. Some of us ...

Hoffer's Cigar Bar

Hoffer’s Cigar Bar in La Mesa is easy to miss, but that’s what locals like about it.

Unique animals

Signposts along the way to Tijuana’s realization of itself

Indian mystic Meher Baba defined involution as “the inner path of the human soul to the Self,” in which the ecstatic rapture of realization is the highest and ultimate purpose of the illusory material world. ...

Musician Interviews

Octa#grape gives the garage an long-overdue cleaning

Can we all agree that garage rock has reached an impasse? Don’t get me wrong. I love fuzzed-out guitars, lo-fi drum tracks, and retro vocals as much as the next guy — and San Diego ...

Blurt

Now you know: Emerald Rats

When Wild Wild Wets frontman Mike Turi released the debut EP Everyday Obstacle from his solo project Emerald Rats last month, he opened a window into a cerebral world of psychedelia. “It’s been exciting to ...

East County deserves good beer, too — welcome to Brody's

It’s no secret that San Diego has become world famous for its craft-beer culture over the past few years. Our county is home to several landmark breweries and brew pubs that have garnered praise from ...

Oysters Obama

No oysterphiles among these limousine liberals

San Diego seafood lovers may soon be paying more for their oysters since the Drakes Bay oyster farm in the Bay Area is being threatened with closure.

Progamundo

After a five-year hiatus, Baja Prog 2013 will take place from April 3 through 6 in Mexicali.

Blurt

Is San Diego bait for a nuclear attack?

Interview with Bobby Bray of Innerds, who has a series of shows booked on the outskirts of San Diego, his “pre-postapocalyptic” tour that suggests San Diego is a military target.

On the Rocks

On the Rocks in Chula Vista -- a good place to find out if your date is a bedwetter or cheapskate.

Bonanza of bands

Desert Daze Music and Art Festival returns as a one-day camping jamboree near Desert Hot Springs, on the same weekend as Coachella Music and Arts Festival.

The appeal of 98 Bottles

Taking their name from a twist on the drawn-out folk song (the 99th bottle presumably being the one in your hand), 98 Bottles lends its own flourishes to the bottle-shop/beer-lounge arrangement that is on the ...

Borderphobia in Tecate

"I don’t know what you know about big cats,” Emilio says as he reclines in his chair and draws from a glass of whiskey, “but one thing you have to know is to always look ...

On the Record

Mike Gao's Beta World Peace

Elaborating on textures from his 2011 debut, Sun Shadows, Beta World Peace sees a continuation of Mike Gao’s signature lurching bass lines, asymmetrical percussion, and glowing synth leads, orchestrated, in part, by his brainchild, Polyplayground ...

Charcoal House

Charcoal House Restaurant in La Mesa offers the Wrinkle Room, full of cougars and saber-toothed tigers.

Blurt

Claudeo's goal to eat ice cream across America

Indie electro-pop duo Claudeo recently returned from their first U.S. tour.

Musician Interviews

Author & Punisher Tristan Shone's got a Human Cud Bag

The deafening, complex roar of urban movement finds kindred company in Tristan Shone’s homespun sound machines.

Copalis Beach

On the road in Washington state.

There’s only one place to drink in Copalis Beach. The river winds through a short slough to the ocean and, just south (as "just south" as it could be), sits Green Lantern Tavern. The nondescript ...

Behind the vinyl curtain at El Uno Bar

If you’re not ready for Tijuana, try El Uno Bar in City Heights.

Blurt

Feral Elephants

Hills Like Elephants headed to South by Southwest

Pat's punted

“Hipsters” blamed for North Park gentrification

"It's a mom-and-pop operation with just Mom," says Pat (last name withheld) of North Park antique-and-collectible shop Pat's Corner. The boutique has been at its current location on 30th and Upas for eight years, offering ...

The Press Box

Rancho San Diego’s Press Box Sports Lounge has a beer selection that outshines any sports bar for at least ten miles in any direction.

We don’t belong to Mexico and we don’t belong to the U.S. We are our own universe.

We’re loud in anything we do

Few have captured Tijuana's cool new vivacity like filmmaker Aaron Soto.

Lopez Island, Washington

Z and I arrive by evening ferry at the nondescript dock of Lopez Island. A sign by the terminal advises that “All at large dogs will be detained” – curious, to say the least. We ...

Blurt

Now you know: Penis Hickey

All about Penis Hickey, “an anarchic steel-toe to your earballs.”

They'll spank you at Babycakes

Babycakes is a good place to start the day with a cocktail, a pastry, and a spanking.

Bands Across the Border

Tijuana’s All My Friends fest goes international this year, inviting bands from Long Beach, Brooklyn, San Diego...

Whidbey Island, WA

A hot sun overhead, we roll into Coupeville in the early afternoon and stop in at Toby’s Tavern on the town’s historic port waterfront. The bartender, a raspy woman in a Harley-Davidson vest, lists off ...

Blurt

Now You Know: Wild Wild Wets

You have every right to instantly like WWW when you read their Facebook bio: “Sounds like Elvis on acid buttf!!!ing Brian Wilson in the face.” Then you see the genre listed as “Rolling down a ...

Blurt

Boyish Bravado

Is chillwave dead?

I’m Sure, the newest effort from La Jolla–via–Mexico City bedroom-dreamer Twin Cabins (Nacho Cano), is the definitive soundtrack to star-crossed late adolescence. While Cano’s earlier releases explored more introspective, ambient textures, I’m Sure finds footing ...

Aero Club's 600 Whiskeys

The Aero Club on India Street offers 600 whiskeys and 1 apple-pie moonshine.

Blurt

Raunchy Peaches

DJ Peaches to host the Peaches DJ Extravaganza in Tijuana.

The Greek Sombrero

Garlic carrots and surly regulars at the Greek Sombrero.

Musician Interviews

Manuok Traps Ghosts

Interview with Manuok’s Scott Mercado, whose résumé includes recording/touring stints with Black Heart Procession, the Album Leaf, Tristeza, Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects, and Ilya.