North Park Stories
Once, when I was writing a news story about an early morning raid to arrest a drug dealer, a police officer explained to me that whoever who moved into the newly vacated house could expect …
The allure of Ethiopian food, I once wrote, has as much to do with presentation as it does spice. I was but a baby writer at the time, living in Los Angeles, visiting the restaurants …
Where is everybody? This was last Tuesday, in Oceanside. I was looking for food. Don’t look for food on Tuesday afternoons. So many places are closed. Specially last Tuesday, the day the whole nation fell …
As we approach the Art Déco facade of Part Time Lover in North Park — where Bar Pink operated for over a decade — I remind my wife Shelley that I’m on assignment. Because Wednesday …
“I watched a bandmember of mine almost die a couple of times, and I still didn’t get it,” says Sprung Monkey guitarist Will Riley. “I was a drug addict, and I didn’t understand that. A …
“I’ve been chasing this specific award since I made the leap from homebrewer to brewery owner almost six years ago,” beams Kelsey McNair, founder and head brewer at North Park Beer Co., discussing his gold …
“Eee-yew! Spongey!” cries my buddy Tim. “And you have to eat with your fingers? A mess! Why can’t we have a knife and fork like at any other place?” He has just unrolled a section …
“It was so rad hanging with Tony Hawk,” says 27 year-old singer Dani Miller, whose band Surfbort recently released a video for their track “Open Your Eyes” featuring the members battling local skateboard legend Hawk. …
“My debut album was lost to the unforgiving digital gods due to a fried hard drive in 2001, so I’ve come out of a 20-year slumber to start making music again,” says Jordan Snodgrass, whose …
There are a lot of used-to-be’s on El Cajon Boulevard. The now-gentrified corner at Utah used to be a mattress store. The Red Fox Room used to be on the south side of the street. …
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a music writer isn’t going to get rich plying his trade, but at least he’ll get free stuff: albums, concert tickets, swag, perhaps even the occasional backstage pass. …
Trombone virtuoso and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Matt Hall is poised, after a Covid-caused two-year delay, to release his first album on the noted independent label Summit Records, one that features an all-star lineup of …
How do you get the best out of happy hour? Mandy and I think we have the perfect in: Bleu Bohème in Kensington. She knows the place. It looks expensive and French, but she says …
"I had a wooden baseball bat, a Louisville Slugger, in my car. And the plan was we both walk up, Patrick grabs the bike, and I watch his back just in case this guy is …
As I drive along El Cajon Boulevard through North Park, a swirl of pink neon lets me know that it’s not just the same old deli making sandwiches within the ABC Market & Deli. Rather, …
In my search for Ukrainian food, I end up on ECB - El Cajon Boulevard. Talking North Park here. I’m outside Pomegranate, the Georgian-Russian restaurant of Golden Hill fame. Georgian owner Mark was the jokingest …
This is a story about the summer of ‘79, but it starts a year earlier, circa mid-’78. That’s when I first drove into San Diego. Within minutes of my arrival, I was almost murdered — …
“I recall the show went very well, the band seemed to be in good spirits,” remembers XTC drummer Terry Chambers about the final concert that band ever played — in San Diego, circa March 1982. …
Apartment construction in North Park sometimes pops up in unexpected places. Since there are no vacant lots, developers must buy an existing building. Then the building is demolished, and construction is scheduled. One example is …
After a two-year hiatus, Queen Bee’s owner Alma Rodriguez is set to resume the annual Beatle Fair on March 26, promising a full day of music, talks, screenings, and shopping for all things related to …
Singer/bassist Jin Salamack was originally from Hawaii before relocating to San Diego and co-founding pop-punk band Wanted Noise with San Diego singer-guitarist Suryendra Sherman. A seven song EP called Plate Lunch was released in 2017, …
There was a five-year span in Greg Vaughan’s childhood that was little more than a whirlwind of commitments. He was playing soccer and baseball; pursuing his interests in music via voice, piano, and guitar lessons; …
Digging concurrence Unfortunately have to concur with most of the digs (“The internet writers gang up on San Diego,” Cover Stories, January 19). Born in MA, grew up in NC, have lived in LA (total …
New to the neighborhood, Wormwood introduces itself as an absinthe-focused bar. After greeting me, Ben Marquart busts out a beginner’s lesson on absinthe. He decides Le Frappe is a good place to start. “It’s an …
As of late January, work crews had finished installing the last leg of buffered bike lanes along 30th Street, in North Park. I noticed the new lanes, added just south of Adams Avenue, while slurping …
It’s been a couple years since the alt-weekly San Diego CityBeat and its blend of local news, irreverent columns, and cultural coverage went silent. The paper disappeared after a cascade of events, starting when Times …
A week or so after Christmas Eve parties and two days after New Year's Eve, piles of trash sitting in and around Republic Services dumpsters and trash bins throughout our county have yet to be …
Justin Greenwood 619 Spirits North Park 3015 Lincoln Avenue North Park A pretty candy-red cocktail adorned with a sprig of green, the Blood of the Scorpion comes served with a warning. “It’s based with our …
Renovations of historic buildings often move at a snail’s pace. An example is the former Woolworth’s store in North Park, standing vacant for many years. Located at 3067-3075 University Avenue, its last tenant was a …
New construction in North Park/University Heights has been expected for years now, and it’s now in full swing. Along central El Cajon Boulevard, from near 30th Street and beyond, the changes are beginning to reshape …
About two weeks ago, several North Park dwellers reported accidents on University, a couple of blocks east of Texas Avenue. Bob LaRose, who lives closer to Morley Field, emailed Councilman Stephen Whitburn on November 9. …
Major nonprofit thrift stores in San Diego have been around for decades. Then along came Covid and took its toll. Two longtime San Diego Rescue Mission thrift stores (North Park and City Heights) closed down. …
On September 28, City of San Diego personnel installed reflective bollards along Pershing Drive by the Balboa Park Golf Course across the street from the Morley Field Golf Disc Course by North Park. "The dividers …
The past year hasn’t been easy for San Diego beer-bar lovers, who have seen local watering holes such as Toronado, Small Bar, and Hamilton’s close their doors for good. Happily, relative newcomer Original 40 Brewing …
Bryan Hance, the co-founder of BikeIndex.org, said the jump in stolen bikes reported in San Diego "is all sort of tied together with the story of covid. "In 2020, 243 stolen bikes were reported to …
Katiee Mitchell Metl Bar Creamery & Cafe 2835 University Avenue North Park Metl Bar Creamery & Cafe may have gained a reputation as the House of Boozy Ice Cream, but I want to shake things …
Out in search of a romantic dinner, we approached a rather nondescript, gray storefront on University Avenue. The place didn’t even have a sign up — were it not for a handful of diners enjoying …
Plant-based eateries aren’t as tough a sell as they used to be in San Diego, but they’re still part of the volatile restaurant business, so even some of the good ones close before their time. …
How many times have I potholed my way up University, juddering past this place and watching it transform from a lamp store, think it was, to this so-cool coffee, food, cool-merch emporium, right next to …
It’s just after noon on a Thursday at Escondido’s TJ Tacos. The place is surprisingly uncrowded, with only about six people in line for the taco stand’s signature adobada tacos, a spicy blend of marinated …
As the city moves to make outdoor dining permanent, a few hitches remain. Spaces as Places, a post-pandemic draft plan to develop the many outdoor niches discovered during lockdown more fully, isn't only about dining. …
One of the saving graces of pandemic summer 2020 was the emergence of Metl Bar: specifically, its talent for creating small batches of boozy ice cream. Often, they’re inspired by classic cocktails. So a negroni …
On June 30, a local reached out to the 1,700-plus members of the Stolen Bike San Diego Facebook forum. "My Jamis City bike was stolen from my garage in Hillcrest last night along with my …
A day or so before June 24, an anonymous person living by the El Cerrito neighborhood enclosed a hand-written letter in an envelope that read "Why?" and "my gosh .... how sad," — poking fun …
This is a story I meant to write over a year ago, before I owned any masks. That’s roughly the time Tabu Shabu opened up in the North Park property that was the long, long …
“The whole ramen thing again?” says my friend Annie. We’re on the phone. “No. This is like the original, and IMHO the best,” I say. “Come on down! Sun’s got two fists to go!” Up …
It’s that super-chilly Monday last week. The sun has just set and temps have dropped with a clang. Knife-edge breeze. At the corner of Upas and 30th, I’m standing trying to decide where to chow …
I felt like a kid in a pizza store, looking through the front window of Gelati & Peccati. Rather than post a menu, the North Park eatery lays out its colorful spread of Roman-style pizza …
It figures given the year we’ve been having that fate, and/or the state of California, picked the coldest, windiest time of the year to re-institute outdoor dining in San Diego. I’m sure there are plenty …
On January 5, Sand One pulled into an undisclosed Tijuana strip mall where a questionable "doll" is depicted on an eyelash extension salon's signage. She activated her phone's camera, then zoomed into the doll's larger …
There’s a sort of fundamentalism that exists in certain corners of the foodie universe, wherein self-appointed protectors of the cuisine will tell you which ingredients are allowed or not allowed in a dish. On the …
With only a few weeks left in the year, San Diego restaurants are back to take-out and delivery only for effectively all of them. A new stay-at-home order went into effect on Monday, December 7, …