When it comes to nightlife, Tijuana’s Sexta has something for everyone — time-honored cantinas, craft-beer cinema bars, kitschy mezcalerías, jazz joints, after-hour dance clubs, ’til-dawn punk dives, and old-timey cumbia halls. Now, Bakbuk is bringing …
You may have seen it on a Barrio Logan hilltop just west of I-5: an electric-green trapezoid in an otherwise vacant lot, a triangular opening on one end and a larger square portal on the …
You wouldn’t guess it from their island-style coffee-shop façade, but beyond the organic drip java and veggie wraps lies a top-notch wine and beer bar with selections meant to be paired with their eclectic, globally …
Peter Ryan has played percussion in a number of projects from his hometown of San Diego, on to Seattle with Kusikia (whose record was put out by fellow San Diegan-gone-Northwesterner Alex Miranda on his vinyl …
Anyone who’s had the pleasure of tossing back a few cocktails at this 50-some-year-old Fifth Avenue landmark knows that a large part of the appeal comes from its shadowy interior lined with red Naugahyde booths. …
In an era when any jerk with a Wi-Fi connection can condemn every small business on Earth for no good reason, it speaks volumes to find a bar with zero Yelp reviews. No off-topic whiners. …
Be it a liter of gut-wrenching booze-cophony from a TJ punk cave or a martini glass of tamarind/mezcal slush, borderland cocktails unite us, con gusto. Chiquita’s Mexican Food This Fairmount Park villa is the epitome …
“There are a lot of really crazy rumors going around town about El Dorado,” says Ryan Kuntz, manager of the East Village cocktail lounge. “‘I heard it was going out of business.’ ‘I heard it …
Aiming to bridge the gap between art creators and art appreciators by removing expression from the confines of a gallery, FIGMENT made its San Diego debut last year, drawing over 1000 participants for the day-long …
All My Friends music festival started as a house party in Tijuana five years ago and has been broadening its scope and attendance annually ever since. This year, they’re shifting from an autumn to a …
On January 1, a wizard-bearded Norman Feller emerged from his Canadian bunker for the first time since he’d locked himself away from the impending anticlimax of Y2K. Actually, he didn’t. The CBC Radio broadcast turned …
Abraham Lincoln once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” It was under this premise that Ash Eliza Smith has spent the last several months teaching an experimental course at …
The Bucking Delorian is the kind of place you want to fall in love with. I mean, it’s a freaking Back to the Future–themed bar in downtown Lakeside! But, not unlike the broken promises of …
It’s been less than a year since Soft Lions started playing together, but they are releasing an EP titled Earth Energy, on June 7 at Soda Bar. The self-described “moody post–riot grrl jams” feature members …
The last time Nick Campbell came to San Diego, he set up an innovative sound-art installment at Space 4 Art as part of the fourth annual San Diego Experimental Guitar Show. The installation, called PERSONO, …
A few months back, my roommate Matt came to me with an idea. His buddy David — a mixed-martial-arts student at Chakal Mx gym in Tijuana — wanted to throw a festival. The gym would …
Ask any Santa Ana breeze and she’ll tell you, Mexicali’s known for sweltering hot summers, a relaxed, rural demeanor, Chinese food and an abandoned underground Chinatown, carne asada, outlandish music, and beautiful women (some attribute …
Seth and Alexis Sullivan don’t look like they belong in Mexico. A gringo by blood — his parents relocated to Tijuana from North Carolina and Kansas nearly four decades ago — Seth is known among …
Over the past few years, the food and drink corridor of 30th Street has grown beyond its University Avenue origins to extend past El Cajon Boulevard and clear through BeHe up to Adams. Locales such …
Behind a nondescript door next to the new TJINCHINA gallery and down a long hallway, the first batches of Tijuana’s greenest microbrewery are bubbling up in small, stainless steel tanks. “When I started at Beer …
Mexico City has always been a magnet. Post-Toltec Nahua tribes gravitated there to live along the shores of the now-drained Lake Texcoco. The Aztecs then claimed it as their promised land and the center of …
On Sunday, April 27th, local Paleolithic diet advocates will host a dinner at Turquoise Cellars (5026 Cass Street, Pacific Beach) to demystify the so-called “Caveman Diet.” The dinner includes keynote speeches from local whole-animal butchers …
The first thing you notice is the whistling: this sprightly ditty that feels familiar at first, but you can’t put your finger on it. Then he rounds the corner, a willowy, relaxed figure with a …
Having finally come to terms with the jeering orange pile of disillusionment that is being marketed as the original taco al pastor in Mexico City, I returned to an old Tijuana favorite to reaffirm the …
When a collective of Pomona musicians and artists known as Moon Block Party got invited to host a show in Desert Hot Springs concurrent with the 2012 Coachella festival, they had no idea that they …
El Tizoncito invented the taco al pastor in 1966 by exchanging the lamb shawarma brought by Lebanese immigrants for marinated pork shoulder on a tortilla. Blame the half century since its inception, but these tacos regrettably don't hold a candle to Baja's succulent adobada tacos served on fresh masa tortillas.
Despite the never-ending sunshine, San Diego is rarely thought of as a “green” city. While it ranks 14th in a 2012 study by Corporate Knights (a publication that promotes “clean capitalism”), the city failed to …
Like most sterling life decisions, the Salty Frog was born out of little more than camaraderie and a sturdy dollop of beer-addled whimsy. Jason Hasty, his wife Alisha, and Kanai (pronounced “Can-I”) — a buddy …
“The San Diego Experimental Guitar Show started out as an event that included all of my noise-artist friends,” says host Sam Lopez in anticipation of the event’s fifth annual incarnation at the Soda Bar on …
Macaulay Culkin’s Pizza Underground turned out be exactly what everyone had expected — an over-hyped, under-talented group of friends who got stoned and took an inside joke (which should have worn off with the weed) …
Last month, Jsix completed a renovation that included walling off the dining room with exposed brick and concealing the open kitchen to place added emphasis on the bar, which has been extended to seat 19 …
For the past ten months, producer/engineer/DJ Keith Milgaten (aka Jamuel Saxon) has been living in Brooklyn and, under the alias Keith Sweaty, dropping the occasional dance mix on Soundcloud, including his own spin on brother …
It’s Saturday night on El Cajon Boulevard. A mob of cyclists banters on the sidewalk, cheering and slapping high-fives as friends wheel across the finish line with endorphin-tinged grins. The race — organized by Lucas …
Amid playing with Mexicali hardcore outfit Los Nuevos Maevans (actually just some dudes Milli Vanilli-ing a pre-recorded ’80s punk play-list — seriously), Guillermo Estrada went on a spirit quest and re-invented himself as flute-tooting techno-shaman …
The Brigantine Landlocked pirates, beware! The Brigantine — a microchain that touts more seafood specials than one’s sextant can fathom — finds true north during Happy Hours from 4pm to close on Sundays and Mondays, …
About a year and a half ago, Jaime Brambila and five associates began transforming the 1800-square-foot curio stall above his family’s former restaurant, Café La Especial (1952–2008), into a contemporary gastro bar. La Justina — …
In 1949, Tahitian artist Felix Lynch opened up what is now San Diego’s oldest tattoo shop, at 317 F Street, catering to sailors who landed in port just blocks away. Six location changes and two …
Anything but a newcomer to electronic music, Aaron Hastings (aka Arkon) has hosted local late nights such as Ajna After Hours, Bordello Breaks, Trance Mission, and — starting in 2007 — began working alongside Gage …
While the rest of the country braces for the next ice age, San Diegans take lackadaisical bike rides to neighborhood brew pubs to catch a buzz with a few friends under the burning winter sun. …
The new video from killwave duo Prayers, “Ready to Bleed,” was filmed in the alleyway behind vocalist Rafael Reyes’s home in Sherman Heights and at Saint Jude’s Catholic Church in Shelltown. “Both are heavy gang …
Hotel Nelson premiered in 1948 as an extravagant south-of-the-border vacation destination boasting telephones in every room and the first elevator in northwest Mexico. Thanks to its central location and (at the time) luxurious accommodations, the …
For a party dubbed “El Futuro,” the Tijuana-modern house situated above the Caliente greyhound track felt perfect. The façade’s dominant feature — a series of angled mirror-windows — echoed the outside swath of streetlights and …
Only hours after playing for a full house at El Dorado Cocktail Lounge (1030 Broadway, Downtown), Bob Dazzla had over 60 records stolen from in front of his Bankers Hill home at around 6:30 on …
San Diego’s first and only whole animal butchery, Heart & Trotter, has yet to find a place to call home (they’ve been eyeing North Park for a few months now), but their sustainable, locally sourced, …
Those holiday gift cards gathering dust in your drawer are now good for something other than a day at the movies, an elaborate latte, and a few plates of lackluster potato skins. Adult website Naughty …
It’s December in Tijuana, and that means residences and public spaces across the city are exploding with seasonal posada parties. The 400-year-old Mexican custom celebrates the Virgin Mary’s immaculate conception and pregnancy with candle-lit processions, …
Writer Chad Deal gets drunk under the table with Fireball shots by a 90-some-year-old woman in a wheelchair.
Tijuana’s so-called “tolerance zone” has been canonized as a post-topian hive of lechers, dope fiends, harlots, swindlers, and godforsaken gringos — and all for good reason. The infamous red light district is Biff Tannen’s alternate …
Before we head south to navigate the late night street carts and hole-in-the-wall taqueros of Tijuana, let’s check in at one of our most widespread (with at least 14 locations countywide) Diego-Mex institutions: MXN. There …