Two poems
Of heart and eye. They stood on supreme heights.
Rupert Brooke 3:30 p.m., Aug. 15
Food and Drink
This week keeps on rolling
A North Park rolled taco specialist with family roots
It seems like just yesterday I was writing about a new hand roll-only sushi bar, and finding a way to compare its seaweed wrapped fish and vegetables to tacos. But here I am, today, stumbling ...
That’s what I’m temaking about
Sushi hand roll bar prevails by keeping it simple
The next sushi trend to conquer America could be something way simpler than we’re used to: the dedicated hand roll bar. To many, the sushi means sushi rolls, a.k.a. maki, wherein fish, rice, and sheets ...
Good Fridays on Third Ave.
Beer and food trucks make a beautiful sight
It’s Friday night on Third Avenue in Chula Vista, and it’s no easy decision where I’m going to drink beer. Looking south from E Street, I see lots of activity, evidenced by a squadron of ...
Why did the cheesesteak guy cross the road?
A neighborly collaboration emerges in Golden Hill
On the block of 28th Street where South Park becomes Golden Hill, the small diner Giorgino’s has made a name for itself over the years for all things Philadelphia: cheesesteaks, pork rolls, Tasty Kakes, and ...
Voodoo culture
Flaming Tiki drinks emerge like disembodied spirits from the Club’s purple-tinted semidarkness
The Cat Eye Club is a weird hybrid— a Tiki bar with a speakeasy vibe. It might be too dear to refer to it as a “Tik-easy,” but stranger things have come out of the ...
A sub sandwich joint
Where college kids with the munchies eat
If I didn’t already know the word cheba is slang for marijuana, I figured it out soon after walking through Cheba Hut’s door. It might have been the colorful mural of a surfer smoking a ...
Pure pupusa pleasure
“I’ve always loved their soft squelchiness, and the things you can fill them with.”
Sunday night, seven, 8th Street, up near Highland, National City. Not many places open for a hungry lad like myself. Yes, Cabo Wabo Grill and Bar is blasting out Historia de Un Amor, but I’m ...
How to eat and pronounce Uyghur
Lunch served with a geography lesson
It’s an old joke by now, something along the lines of: "going to war is how Americans learn geography." I’ve laughed about it myself, but I’ve been able pick out Kuwait and Vietnam on a ...
New again after 70 years
El Carrito's return to Barrio Logan
A fixture in Barrio Logan for more than 70 years, the tiny restaurant known as El Carrito sits inside a retired trolley car, a relic of nascent San Diego’s cable car era. After a stint ...
Do you like lamb?
Texas smoked BBQ shank begs the question
“What can you tell me about the lamb shank?” I ask. “Well, do you like lamb?” comes the answer. At first, it sounds like a silly question. Actually, a non-answer to my question. But it’s ...
Panini plan has to work
“I turn away people asking for omelets every day, but I’ve stopped feeling guilty about it.”
Bob and Kate Carpenter had a decision to make. “I said ‘We have no pension, no safety net. This has to work,’” says Bob. The question? Whether to give up their lives as journalists and ...
A cool patio on a hot day
Parkside property in East Village gets Amplified
When two-headed business Halcyon Coffee and Stella Public House launched in a new East Village construction in 2014, it created one of the best outdoor drinking spaces in all of downtown. Its perch overlooking Fault ...
Does your momma's birria taste like this?
The sizzling hot cow platter is just a bonus
When the server placed it on my table, she warned me the platter would be sizzling hot. I appreciated that. And also the fact it was shaped like a cow. It’s place called Not Your ...
Oh good, more Italian!
Unexpected hospitality experience in Nolita
Attempts to make food halls viable in San Diego have come and gone over the past five years, and when I heard about Nolita Hall opening recently at the north end of Little Italy, I ...
A strong stirred direct cocktail
“But the lavender softens it around the edges.”
If your tongue is quiet enough, it can taste the whisper of Japanese whisky folded gently into the other spirits that Herb & Wood’s cocktail curator Meghan Balser puts into her Vodka & Lavender. “I ...
