Staff Blog Entries

Huevos de toro at Café Europa downtown: Thanks for the tip!

Ed eats meatballs, drinks Chianti for $10.15 -tip included

Aah. Flamenco guitar. Guy’s playing it just inside the door of the Gran Tapa. This time I don’t just hang ...

Zia: Pizza is a wrap unrolled

Son of an Afghan immigrant creates fusion pizzas: Taste the old country in his toppings

“How’s your dad?” I’m asking Khaled Waleh. Last year his dad Zia decided to return to his farm in Afghanistan ...

Gaslamp: Desperation eats at Ciné Café

When all else is closing down, you can rely on Haitham

The chairs are going up all down Fifth Avenue. I’m in the bowels of the Gaslamp. It’s late. Like, okay, ...

Normal Heights: Chicken, wine, custody battles

At Proprietor’s Reserve, Ed finds wine, HH deals and a warning: Don't bring your ex. It's too small for hissy negotiations

No, not talking about me. Carla and I are fine. And when she has an issue, an entire school cafeteria ...

PB: Drink your greens!

Greenfix is the pause for your pores at all the farmers' markets

“Filler up.” Matt plonks his growler on the counter. Phil grabs it, goes back to the tap, and starts pouring ...

Just for the halibut: Chip's Beach Eatz makes PB fish delish

Locally sourced, locally sauced! This halibut was trawled 100 yards offshore. Now Chip works his saucy magic

You know those trawlers you see drifting up and down off the coast, from IB to La Jolla? They’re catching ...

Mission Beach’s Better Buzz: But from oatmeal?

While Mad Scientists from The Lab make your coffee, ask about their jar of oatmeal.

Huh. Wandering up Mission Boulevard when I pass by a bunch of laptoppers sitting right next to me at a ...

Reading the coffee grounds: Breakfast in Mission Beach

Olive Café has all-day breakfasts, and Turkish coffee, so you can read your future…

I’m looking deep into my Turkish coffee cup. The grounds have about three bumps up the left side, and a ...

Eat hearty, eat arty: gyros hit Coronado

Salah learned his art in Baghdad and Damascus. Check it out as you chomp cheap

Salah Jamel learned his art in Baghdad and Damascus. Now he’s bringing it to life in Coronado. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/04/41086/ I come ...

Animalized! First Bar Downtown delivers $1 IPAs, sensational sprouts

Happy hour deals in the finest bar you’ve never heard of.

I thought I knew downtown. But here I am walking up First Avenue from Broadway, heading past the Bristol Hotel ...

Ali Baba’s in Sorrento Valley: Fast company, fast fish

Ed discovers a bar in the middle of nowhere, packed with the IT in-crowd

I guess it’s because I’ve been dreaming, looking over the bridge rails of Los Peñasquitos (“The Little Cliffs”) river, watching ...

Little Italy Waterfront happy hour: Free is good

And this HH is specially hard to beat when it includes free crab legs

Good news you forgot you knew: I was on Kettner around six in the evening ''t'other day and heard the ...

Chiquibaby's, Logan Heights: Tostada and Karaoke

Neighborhood bar brings out the (Mexican) musician in you. And the appetite

The little cream stucco building shines out into the dark. From across Dewey Street you can hear the crack! of ...

Broadway bargain: Taking Time Out for a quesadilla

Surprising food and drink deals at language students’ downtown hangout

This place right next to the Converse language school for foreign students is great to hang out at, partly to ...

Santee Anny’s: The burger at the end of the line

Do South Koreans make the best burgers in California?

“We would kill for winters like this,” says Rick. He’s from New York City. “You call this cold?” The truth? ...

Stout downtown: It’s hockey time. Eat your poutine!

Ice hockey season brings the annual pilgrimage of puckista fanatics

Why does Stout always look crowded these days? Ice. And we’re not talking immigration. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/20/40481/ ’Tis the season for San ...

Aphrodisiac? Sexy pupusas at I.B. Farmers’ market

El Salvador's Gastro-Embassy's right by the pier...

Aphrodisiacs at a farmers’ market? That’s what they say about pupusas with the loroco flower buds in them. Seems loroco ...

Tent City Intensity: Harry D’z BBQ sets I.B. nostrils a-twitch

Harry’s reinvented the BBQ sauce, and the nation's most SW farmers' market is richer (in aromas) for it

Was at my favorite farmers’ market. It's the one in IB (Imperial Beach Pier Plaza, 10 Evergreen Avenue, Imperial Beach, ...

Acoustic in Middletown: Unplugged beer comes to oldest brewery!

Expect noise. Acoustic Ales Brewing Experiment about to rock old Mission Brewery

Actually it was the nose, not the noise. Started twitching as I walked up Washington from the trolley. That sexy, ...

Gaslamp: Oceanaire on the cheap

Happy hour opens the gates to another swank eatery

Above: Bartenders James and Ron rock this place So the search for Chinese at Red Pearl Kitchen (see blog below) ...