Here's the Deal
“This is an homage to Tijuana’s golden era, which was Prohibition time in the States,” says Nórtico owner and chef Ruffo Ibarra, who unveiled the West Coast–style speakeasy hidden within his restaurant Oryx Capital last …
San Diego is home to a number of Mexican bars that follow more or less the same format. You’re probably already familiar with it. You can hear the corridos blasting from blocks away. Buckets of …
If you’d have asked me about brunch a few years ago, I would have laughed in your face. Brunch is just breakfast with booze (hardly a novel concept). Brunch is where saps take new girlfriends …
“Remember one thing: la city is not a utopia or a dystopia, it’s the afterparty where you hear the last call.” The words of the late Rafa Saavedra, a culture writer and champion of Tijuana …
Supporters of long-standing punk haven Scolari’s Office had a knee-jerk reaction of disdain when, in 2008, the place traded hands, remodeled, and reclaimed its title from the ’50s, “The Office.” It felt off. Its manicured …
Sharing walls with the Stone Company Store in the historic McClintock building by Santa Fe Depot, the Flight Path juxtaposes the 1928 warehouse’s original exposed columns and polished concrete flooring against all-white minimal modern Italian …
What’s this? Craft beer on Fifth? That’s right. Our downtown strip is straying further from its time-honored formula of tourist traps and EDM cesspools to bring West Coast suds to the Gaslamp. Nearby establishments such …
Blame the humidity, but my first instinct upon entering Sidecar was to draw a cynical correlation between the place’s name and the thought that they were more or less riding shotgun to the passing fancies …
The Tin Can Ale House, a Bankers Hill live music go-to and canned-beer wonderland, has traded in their aluminum for glass. The Balboa debuted in March with a cocktail menu designed by Jackson Milgaten (who …
An international craft oasis in El Cajon's American macrobrew desert.
Moustache has always struck me as a Tijuana twist on North Park’s Bar Pink. Both are surefire spots to run into familiar faces most nights of the week and catch (often) free live music from …
It doesn’t look like much, the windowless portico brooding in the glow of a Hotel Circle Travelodge. However, behind a red door next to the lobby lies a world-class throwback that shows little indication of …
Suds lovers, rejoice! It’s your turn to draw that draft, thanks to Barrel Republic’s pour-it-yourself tap room, which opened last November. “A lot of people compare it to Yogurtland,” says barmaid Nikki, one of the …
La Cupula is everything I’d hoped a vampire bar in Tijuana would be. At first I’d pictured an all-out monster mash: freaks sipping gore-toned cocktails and stomping around to industrial remixes of 45 Grave. It …
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 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 …