Little Italy Stories
The family of a 79-year-old Chinese immigrant who was struck and killed by a speeding Amtrak train near Little Italy in February of this year has filed legal claims against ...
It’s been a hell of a year, and it’s not over yet. First, in San Diego County as elsewhere in these Divided States, we’ve been treated to a masquerade ball, ...
"Detectives in northern division received a report regarding a theft near 5700 Santa Fe St.," posted the San Diego Police Department on social media on October 26. "They were able ...
As little Italy adds condos and shops, its centerpiece, Our Lady of the Rosary Church, has undergone a restoration. On the corner of State and Date streets, the church is ...
Little Italy Stories
The restaurant business, as Bette Davis once said about growing old, ain’t no place for sissies. The hours are long; the profit margins, razor-thin. Customers are notoriously fickle, and a few bad Yelp reviews can ...
A shudder passed through San Diego’s sandwich-loving community this week when news spread of a suspected arson attempt at San Diego’s old school Italian deli, Mona Lisa Italian Foods. In as perilous a year as ...
There’s something familiar about the creepy clown sitting at the middle table, like I’ve seen him before. I’m pretty sure last I saw him, he was giving off his too shiny, too smiley vibe to ...
It was a good night for the restaurants, I have no doubt. On Saturday, June 13, Little Italy closed streets to car traffic and allowed restaurants to extend their seating out onto the asphalt. The ...
Zinqué. Guess I just like the crazy French name. It’s what French hipsters call a sidewalk bar where you can stop, slurp a beer standing at the counter, and carry on with your day. Now ...
This week in Unreal Estate, we’re exploring a property perfect for the aspiring real estate mogul who also needs a place to stay in downtown’s trendy Little Italy neighborhood. Sure, you get the 7000-square-foot penthouse ...
Word got out this morning. “Today’s the day!” This was last Thursday. Everybody was talking about the reopening of restaurants for sit-down. So hey, I decided just to hop on the Orange Line, ride it ...
This spring was supposed to be sort of a moment for vegan sushi in San Diego, a reminder that — minus the fish — rice, rice vinegar, and seaweed fit well within the plant-based ethos. ...
Normally, a late morning visit to the James Coffee co-op in Little Italy would mean searching for a place to park, bumping into someone I know on the street, standing in line for a pour ...
Tiny rooms in Little Italy On a Little Italy plot where a Victorian house stood for more than a century, construction of tiny apartments is underway. The house, built in the 1890s at the corner ...
When ballyhooed East Coast burger chain Shake Shack made its way west a few years ago, all we loyal Southern California burger fans rushed to say how much we still prefer In-N-Out. And yet, somehow, ...
On Christmas weekend, I looked for Spin motorized scooters to test drive; I hopped onto the Spin app, and noticed two were closeby at City College. I strolled and jogged around the campus, between the ...
I’ve got a love/hate relationship with poke. The love is based on trips to Hawaii, where a simple poke salad of raw fish, sliced onions, sesame oil, and maybe some chili spice turns out to ...
Part of my ritual for dropping friends off at the San Diego Airport includes a stop at James Coffee Co. in Little Italy. Tucked away in a transformed warehouse at the very end of the ...
“If you want, I’ll give you a hug,” a tall man with silver hair says to a seated congregant. “I give man hugs,” the silver-haired man says after the two have bro-hugged. It’s noon on ...
‘Why did the cow jump over the moon?” asks this black felt letterboard. “Because the farmer didn’t warm his hands.” I’m outside at The Farmer’s Table, the newest eatery to open on Piazza della Famiglia ...
Last weekend brought good tidings for fans of saucy seafood sandwiches in the downtown area, namely me: Supernatural Sandwiches held its grand opening in Little Italy. When I first got hooked on Supernatural, it was ...
On a Little Italy plot where a Victorian house stood for more than a century, construction of tiny apartments is underway. The house, built in the 1890s at the corner of Union and Cedar, was ...
India Street is typically thronged on a Saturday night, its city best restaurant scene luring every manner of date night, birthday celebration, and — is that a bachelorette party? I’m forced to wonder, what is ...
There are plenty of items I expect to find on a Mexican restaurant menu, but here’s one that I don’t: fried rice. I’m at King and Queen Cantina, the upscale casual restaurant that took over ...
The best part of a cinnamon roll is the gooey center portion, shielded just enough by the outer rolls that it doesn’t quite bake through, so instead of crusting up, it remains entirely soft and ...
Catching up for a quick lunch with a friend, I found myself back at the Little Italy Food Hall, scanning its several restaurant counters for something we can agree on. As often happens in such ...
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 ...
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 ...
After years of construction, Little Italy’s pedestrian-friendly Piazza Della Famiglia has opened, and the ten-thousand square foot, Euro-styled plaza has proven an ideal venue for the neighborhood’s Saturday farmers market. When I showed up on ...
The Cloak & Petal’s bar manager Faisal Asseri explains that the name for Little Italy’s Japanese-inspired restaurant blends opposites to form a new whole. “Cloak” communicates mystery and intrigue, and “Petal” is a rough English ...
Whether the original members of As I Lay Dying should or should not get back together with Tim Lambesis is now only a philosophical question. The five internationally famous metalcore bandmates are in fact reuniting ...
It’s the free blankets. A whole wicker basket filled with them, all rolled up. Mexican blankets, waiting for patio customers to grab ‘em and warm themselves up. April 16th, opening day, on the patio of ...
The first thing we learn about the lonely film character Dominique Bretodeau, of the 2001 French cinema masterpiece, Amelie, is that every Tuesday, he roasts and carves a whole chicken for himself. Before he even ...
It’s Saturday morning and I’m helping my wife and daughters clean Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Little Italy. It would be purest folly for the church to hire cleaners when they can instead ...
While snappy terms such as "farm to table" have gone from trendy to passé due to misappropriation and overuse, the locovore movement remains relevant. Personally, I find comfort in the simplicity of knowing where my ...
"Buona sera, signore,” I say. “Buona sera, buona sera,” says Nick Pecoraro from his gold-encrusted porch. I’ve stopped by to pay my respects to Little Italy’s unofficial ambassador. This is the time of night when ...
The Little Italy I love has always been its sumptuous food and sensual people, both of which, despite the nouveau riche takeover of late, remain as present and prosperous as ever. That Little Italy is ...
Portland's hippest ice cream shop has made its way to San Diego. Salt & Straw recently opened a shop in Little Italy, and as it's done in previous expansions to San Francisco and Los Angeles, ...
I'm never sure how many San Diegans have discovered Fifty Seven Degrees. The huge wine bar and art gallery offers tasty wine and beer, and enough space that I've never failed to find an open ...
Huh. Row of guys’ butts bulging out onto the sidewalk, right where Fir crosses Kettner. This has to be the first place I’ve seen where people actually sit up to a bar on the street, ...
The hotel building boom in San Diego continues unabated. Two new hotel projects at a Little Italy site are now under review by Civic San Diego. Most of the structures on the property surrounded by ...
"Stop and smell the rosé,” says the sidewalk sign. Huh. Are we seeing the start of a wine pushback, after all these glorious beer years? This is happening quite a ways up Kettner, Little Italy’s ...
In Japan, you'd call this an izakaya. In Spain, a bodega. Both of them are basically kinds of after-work snack and drink pubs. Mainly sake in izakayas (you pronounce it "i-ZAK-aya," as in "saké place"), ...
‘This is how you make a decent cocktail,” says Doug. He sneaks out a nubbly silver pocket flask, opens it, then slides his glass of whiskey sour under the counter and starts secretly pouring bourbon ...
I drive past it often — whenever I take the Washington Street exit from I-5 north to go to Mission Hills. But Il Centro Pizza e Birra always goes by in a blur. Problem is, ...
“I didn’t miss church [because] I’m the choir director – so it’s essential that I get there,” said Nina Gilbert. Gilbert was one of the prepared ones for the detours and roadblocks brought about by ...
Locals love both Mexican food and Asian cuisine, so why not combine them? That is the idea behind Pokirrito, a restaurant that gained a reputation for its sushi burritos. If you’re not a foodie purist ...
San Diego jazz fans might be on the verge of losing another music venue now that Harbor Music Hall (1506 India Street) has been threatened with the potential loss of their beer-and-wine license due to ...
"Shiny beans,” says Dave. “Sure sign.” He’s talking coffee beans. And he should know. He’s managing this new coffee place-café here kitty-corner to the Firehouse museum at Cedar and Columbia in Little Italy. “Uh, sure ...
Nuts make you talk. Nuts make you cry. I’m chewing Thai nuts while Phon, Cheri, Lynn, and I talk on about the king of Thailand. King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He died six months ago, but for ...
After one of the hype-iest openings in recent history, Herb & Wood remained for many months a place I was afraid to visit, lest it disappoint me the way a few other big-money, big-hype restaurants ...
“It started as a joke,” says veteran rock jock Mike Halloran about the fundraising concert he’s spearheading for a fellow veteran of the local music scene. “I announced on Facebook that Chris Cantore, Steven Woods, ...