Hillcrest Stories
Twenty-dollar bottomless mimosas were behind the decision to go for Saturday brunch in Hillcrest. Everyone had endured four frustrating nights without election results and hoped to temper our collective anxiety. But by time we head ...
I’m used to having leftovers. As someone who writes about food, I’ve long been in the habit of ordering more food than I can eat. And as a bachelor, I could always count on all ...
“This certainly doesn’t look like beef,” said the boy, before he took a bite. After a few chews, he added, “But it kind of tastes like it.” We were trying out Burger Lounge’s new Flora ...
More than 800 San Diegans have petitioned San Diego City Councilmember Chris Ward to step into a tug of war that pits Hillcrest and El Cajon Boulevard business districts against what they see as a ...
Sweet news, everybody! San Diego may have missed out on a county fair this year, but thanks to a burgeoning farmers market business, we can still sample the wares of last year’s best-in-class candy maker. ...
If there were an alternate timeline, in which a pandemic never showed up to close local restaurants, I’d have been happily feasting on biscuit breakfast sandwiches all through the spring and summer. Alas, it took ...
We were craving a meat and cheese platter but didn’t want to dine in at a restaurant due to the latest coronavirus surge. So I took a look around for take-out options, and saw that ...
Gayborhood or ghetto? “I still love Jesus, and I’m still a conservative,” Texana R., 17, tells me. “I just am — I don’t care what my mama or my aunt or my step sister or ...
Dining rooms have returned to San Diego, but that doesn’t mean restaurants don’t still find themselves in a sort of pandemic limbo. As social distancing restrictions remain, most traditional restaurants can’t seat enough of diners ...
The seven pieces of sushi were packaged in the sort of container you’d expect to find in a grocery: one of those rectangular trays with a clear plastic, snap-on top. Except grocery store sushi boxes ...
Since the call went out for all but essential businesses to close during the coronavirus crisis, exactly what constitutes an “essential business” has been a point of public debate. “Are restaurants?” some wonder; “Are bakeries?” ...
San Diego City Councilman Chris Ward contravened the wishes of some of his most vocal constituents by seeking to exchange a portion of land at the city-owned Mission Valley stadium site for 2.5 acres of ...
A couple of years ago, after a decade doing business in Hillcrest, fancy cupcake maker Babycakes moved out of its 5th Street home base to pursue a bigger bakery opportunity out in in Paradise Hills, ...
Every time I’ve eaten at a Vietnamese restaurant with a group, deciding on appetizers has become a whole discussion. Should we get spring rolls, or egg rolls? How many? Tofu or pork? Shrimp or sweet ...
I heard about a place that uses chicken parmesan as a pizza topping. Lucky I did, because Sisters Pizza operates in a part of Hillcrest I don’t normally go looking for restaurants. It’s a stretch ...
Change is coming to the UCSD Health hospital campus in Hillcrest, change so sweeping that the campus will look completely different when it’s over. Instead of the sprawling, built-as-needed mish mash of 37 buildings and ...
When Fruitcraft Fermentery and Distillery dropped anchor in Hillcrest two years ago, it primarily carried on the work of its original brand iteration, California Fruit Wine. That is, it fermented wine from virtually every type ...
It’s tough to ignore a restaurant name like Breakfast Bitch. Which could prove to be important, because the willfully sassy breakfast spot recently filled in a Hillcrest location that’s been devastating to its past few ...
Through a sidewalk counter window in the middle of a lively block on University Avenue, I meet Hillcrest’s resident hot dog maven. His name is William Schroeder, but with a streetwise New York accent, he ...
Late last year, news spread that longstanding Point Loma rotisserie chicken joint, Natural Style Chicken, was opening a second location on a busy corner of Hillcrest. The new space boasts a larger kitchen than the ...
I’ve paid lip service to vegan ramens before. Interesting, I’ve said. Oh, that is good,” I’ve agreed. But I haven’t meant it. Not to the extent that I would choose to order one over a ...
Maybe it’s just California, but the açaí bowl concepts appear to be multiplying, especially around Hillcrest. I stumbled upon one with the achingly San Diego appropriate name, Roots Bowls; it serves açaí bowls, smoothies, pressed ...
Week after week, people pour in and out of their favorite fitness classes, myself occasionally included. I’ve noticed fitness classes becoming a new kind of runway, where you can flaunt your style while you sweat ...
Watchers of land-use politics in San Diego were surprised when late last year two names usually on opposite sides of controversial building projects suddenly showed up in TV interviews espousing the same passionately held position ...
While I’ve been sitting here the past couple years trying to figure out which are my favorite tacos, the rest of the world has apparently become obsessed with Nashville hot chicken. The cayenne-spiced fried chicken ...
On Oct. 9, 1975, the Reader published a story on driving shortcuts. It was written by then cabbie Ray Lilly and contained 14 San Diego shortcuts when gas went for about $.57 per gallon. In ...
To some, Hillcrest is little more than 40 acres of overpriced, rambling urbanity to be avoided. Such Hillcrest-averse see two problems: scarce parking, and a homeless crisis that seems “worse than Ocean Beach.” “Currently the ...
Earlier this year, news broke that a longtime eatery in North Park, The Red Fox Steakhouse and Piano Bar, was going to vacate its current location in the Lafayette Hotel. It came as a surprise ...
A sign near the door of this bakery promises all goods are free of gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, tree nuts, and peanuts. What’s left? I’m forced to wonder. Starry Lane Bakery originally opened out in ...
It was my wife’s birthday and I was on a quest: To find a really superlative chocolate croissant. Here’s the backstory: We got engaged in Paris back in 2000, and one of the other highlights ...
Some San Diego area stores owned by Mattress Firm, Inc. may be closed as part of the recently announced Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the company, which is owned by Steinhoff International Holdings, a South ...
While leasing of retail spaces is part of the usual business activity on University Avenue in Hillcrest, you don’t see many buildings for sale there. Landlords like the monthly income, and you can raise the ...
The loudspeaker blasts go on all day, says Mary Alsop, who lives a half block from the Hillcrest Department of Motor Vehicles office. So when the DMV presented its proposed design for the replacement building ...
Devoted fans of the Hillcrest bagelry Big City Bagel Cafe had to go about two months without this spring as a fire forced the 24-year-old breakfast and lunch spot to close temporarily. I don’t know ...
Two planning groups that share Park Boulevard as a boundary formed a task force to look at the historic district on Park between Upas St. and Robinson street, one that the city’s historic resources board ...
At the July 16 city council meeting, the usual sea of green (pro-vacation rental) and red (anti-vacation rental) t-shirts will be joined by blue representing Ocean Beach. The Ocean Beach town council has chartered a ...
Though the cooking technique dates back countless centuries to natives of the Pacific Northwest, here in latter day America, cedar plank salmon has largely become the provenance of upscale dining venues. But don’t tell that ...
It’s noon on a warm Sunday, and I’ve just come from pinching produce at the Hillcrest Farmers Market to quench my thirst a flight at Hillcrest Brewing Company. It’s a journey of about twelve feet. ...
“We’re not a brewery,” stresses Beau Schmitt. Schmitt and business partner Mike Sill opened the Brew Project in Hillcrest in fall of 2015, converting an old craftsman home into a bar and restaurant outfitted with ...
We’ve all seen commercial spaces, some at large shopping centers, strip malls or standalone, which either remain vacant or have a lot of turnover. Businesses come and go, with months of vacancies in between. Are ...
Back in 2011, the city got things moving to begin the Georgia Street Bridge reconstruction in North Park. Simon Wong Engineering, now Kleinfelder, received an amended agreement from the San Diego City Council, boosting their ...
When I think about Brazilian skewers, my first thought is always of all you can eat churrascarias, such as downtown restaurants Rei Do Gado and Fogo de Chão, where you pay a flat rate to ...
Every Friday in Hillcrest an advertisement circular is tossed from a delivery van to driveways and sidewalks around the neighborhood. The publisher calls it Local Community Values. Some from the community call it litter. The ...
Over the past few years, Denmark has gained a reputation as being the happiest country in the world. And that might explain why there’s not an abundance of Danish restaurants here — happy people don’t ...
Better Buzz Coffee is on the move. The Vista coffee roaster has opened its eighth coffee shop in San Diego, its fourth in just over two years. However, while most Better Buzz shops have been ...
San Diego Pride's former executive director is suing the organization for wrongful termination, age discrimination, and defamation of character. Stephen Whitburn, also a former city-council candidate, began working for San Diego Pride in 2013 as ...
Look near the top of any Thai restaurant menu in America, and you're sure to find one Thai dish in particular: Pad Thai. However, as chef Nattapon "Nat" Thitathan explained to me in a recent ...
A deaf man says he was doused with pepper spray and tased for parking in a commercial loading zone in Hillcrest for two minutes. The man, Jeffrey Robinson, has since filed a claim to San ...
Holy Matcha, a tiny cafe specializing in the powdered green tea for which it’s named, feels like it was designed by an Instagram algorithm. The interior is all pink and green, and everything — down ...
Memes are usually captioned photos or short repetitive videos that go viral and transform to amuse, inspire, humor, or mystify people. A meme can also be only text that convey how the meme-poster feels at ...
Normal Heights residents remain frustrated and angry over the recent influx of homeless people in their neighborhood — which city staff say was prompted by the downtown streets bleaching to ward off hepatitis A. The ...
It’s early, the marine layer still a veneer over the city, when we park the car just shy of the suspension bridge. The day promises to be hot but, at this hour, the sun hasn’t ...