Hints at Old Town's Californio history
Walking around Old Town last month, I noticed a sandwich board sign advertising afternoon tea at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. That’s the proper, British-style afternoon tea, complete with a big ceramic pot and a three-tier platter ...
Early Old Town general store, Bazaar del Mundo, New Town, Presidio Hills Golf Course, crumbling Presidio
General store ledgers tell how people lived in Old Town Finding which store the ledger came from involved detective work. In 1864, there were only two general merchandise stores, one in Old Town, the other ...
Pretzels, pickles, and candy aren’t even the half of it
It can be fun to play tourist in your own city, but that doesn’t mean we’re obliged to eat Mexican food when visiting Old Town. While traipsing about the historical park the other day, rather ...
More than four days in a house-made miso marinade
“It’s the best seabass in San Diego.” That’s what a server tells me, when I tell her I’m trying to choose between the grilled Chilean sea bass and the teriyaki black cod. Often, black cod ...
250th anniversary this week, July 16
Almost five years ago, Bill Lawrence, president of the San Diego History Center, went to Los Angeles to accept an award from the California Preservation Foundation. The purpose of the award was to honor the ...
Four adobe houses survive from the 1800s
‘It’s been vacant as long as I can recall” was the consensus I got when asking about the vacant lot on the corner of Congress and Harney streets in Old Town. An empty lot is ...
A culinary tour of South America, without leaving Old Town
Fun fact: the State Department has still been issuing passports during the federal government’s partial shutdown. For this, I am grateful. My renewed documents arrived this week, prompting the return of a favorite hobby: studying ...
Waitress didn't get the pina colada joke
Tahona Bar in Old Town is one of those places that is going to get a lot of jokes, just because of its location: next to the Old Town cemetery. “Tahona? I’m dying to go ...
Open next year at Old Town museum
Back in 1966, a young Dave Naylor remembers he and his father attending a dedication of the new Interstate 5 rest area at the La Costa Avenue exit, in Leucadia. He clearly recalls a time ...
An inside look at how he operated
Ed. Adam Parfrey, publisher of books from Feral House and writer for the Reader, died on May 10, 2018. The following came by email to the Reader on July 3. It is not generally appreciated ...
Bladimir Lopez of Vista was arrested for 300 graffiti in 2014
Graffiti is nothing new along transit routes. The local trolley's general manager was quoted in 1987 saying graffiti clean-up was a high priority. "When graffiti is noticed, it is our policy to remove it immediately." ...
What will get more riders to saddle up?
Metropolitan Transit System or MTS has been hanging Choose Transit posters at bus stops around town. Plus they reached out to ask public opinion in April and May. Shorter commute times, more transit options, and ...
Presidio parking lot gets more action than the greens
In March, the city rejected all proposals vying to operate the Presidio Hills Golf Course. This was a harsh blow to the Friends of Presidio Hills Golf who spent a lot of time and money ...
The move to Old Town proves more than photogenic
When we last saw Ceviche House, chef Juan Carlos Recamier's business had graduated from farmers market stall to a tiny counter service shop in North Park. Not even two years later, Ceviche House took another ...
“I remember Frank Drennen squirted ketchup and mustard all over the audience."
It’s been 26 years since Joe Flammini opened Java Joe’s, one of the few coffeehouses back then that offered live music with your latte. In 1991, Java Joe’s was located in Poway. The shop moved ...
Half-acre of Old Town reclaimed for lemonadeberry and hummingbirds
A half-acre of Old Town State Historic Park, located at the junction of Taylor and Congress streets, is a native plant landscape that focuses on coastal native plant restoration. The San Diego Chapter of the ...
Too late I discover that I could’ve had a quiche for $4.95.
Sixties time-warp! I’m sitting in the friendly gloom, watching Lisa Sanders and Karen Hayes sing personal songs in dreamy harmonies. Acoustic, coffee-bar singing, outside. It feels time-warpy in more ways than one. This space is ...
Old Town ready to roll up sleeves — will the city help them?
On May 24, a city council subcommittee unanimously recommended to make $14 million available for golf course projects over the next three years. Kris Shackelford, city’s public works department, gave a one-minute presentation. The whole ...
Presidio Park — try to channel Serra and Portola.
In 1769, Father Junípero Serra along with Gaspar de Portolá established the mission and presidio as the first European settlement on the Pacific Coast. There is minimal evidence of the original site just west of ...
Try something with the word “creole” in it
Between the quality shows at Cygnet Theatre and the lighthearted comedy of Old Town Improv, I’ve been finding more reasons to spend time in Old Town, an area that, along with the Gaslamp, I once ...
A neighborhood pub in a touristy area
If ever there were a compelling reason for San Diegans to hang out in Old Town, it’s Home & Away at the former location of Kelly’s Pub. For about two years now, locals and tourists ...
Staffmembers "improperly paid"
San Diego Unified’s iHigh Virtual Academy, “a tuition-free public high school offering students the opportunity to earn a high school diploma primarily online,” per its website, has an overspending problem. So says a report for ...
“You San Diego guys wimp out that easy? Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!”
"Milwaukee.” “San Diego.” “Milwaukee!” “Saan Diy-egow!” “’Scuse me. Ever hear of Miller? Schlitz? Pabst? Old Milwaukee? And you’re trying to tell me San Diego is the beer capital of America?” Did I mention Saf is ...
Transit system says DecoBike hasn't sought out new locations
A May San Diego County County Grand Jury report accuses officials at the Metropolitan Transit System of refusing to get onboard with the city's bike-sharing program. DecoBike, launched in 2013, has been touted as a ...
Real seducer
He thought they were joking. Even when they had him standing on a horse-drawn dray with a rope around his neck. All he’d done was go for a joyride in a rowboat. He called it ...
Explore San Diego's origins on the grounds of this 1700s Spanish fort.
Set above Old Town, San Diego’s forty-acre Presidio Park is a National Historic Landmark preserving the first permanent European settlement on the West Coast and the site from which exploratory missions embarked into California's interior. ...
Lope into Harney for Late Night Social Hour
“It’s fresh, not processed, and have you ever seen a fat Japanese guy? Except for sumo wrestlers?”
Jazz-age behavior
Cygnet Theatre offers a “double bill” of Noël Coward’s The Vortex (1924) and Hay Fever (1925). Staging his early plays in repertory has advantages. The dark, brittle Vortex is almost a photographic negative of the ...
Middletown's best restaurants
These days Little Italy offers some of the best food in town, or at least the most photographed. The neighborhood keeps serving up hits, almost eclipsing the tried-and-true eateries that sit between its shiny new ...
Sentiment can't repair buckled sidewalk hazard
LuAnn Porter attempted to rally the troops on Facebook to attend the Old Town San Diego Community Planning Group meeting on Wednesday, August 12. It ended up being a small affair with six or seven ...
Cygnet stages Dogfight; New Village Arts explores Forbidden Planet
Did Eddie spend four years in Vietnam? Or did it just seem that way?
Theater preview for the month to come
T’is the season. Count some of the ways: NOW PLAYING: La Jolla Playhouse: Come From Away. The world premiere musical, by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, creates a comedy within a tragedy. On the morning ...
The Whale devotes his last days to honesty
Lights come up, dimly, on a dingy brown old couch with a deep sag in the middle. Close by: a laptop, a TV-tray-like table with rollers, a low slung reading lamp, and a small bookcase ...
The charro and the pioneer lady set the kids into teams. “Now, don’t worry about breaking the eggs,” says the lady. “They’re made of wood. First team back with the egg still in the spoon ...
The final opportunity to see these notable shows is fast approaching
Two beautifully performed shows must end their runs this Sunday. The White Snake, Old Globe Theatre. Mary Zimmerman does theatrical adaptations of literary works, among them The Odyssey, The Arabian Nights, and The Notebooks of ...
Wonderful My Fair Lady enthralls at Cygnet
“I could’ve donced all night, I could’ve donced all night” — at least half the audience at intermission, it seemed, bounced up the aisles at Cygnet Theatre singing this song, including the accent! And when ...
An outstanding production from Cygnet must close this weekend
Cygnet Theatre must close its outstanding production of Sons of the Prophet this Sunday, February 15. Stephen Karam’s comedy-drama is one of those rare plays that are, often at the same time, extremely funny and ...
It’s just a room upstairs, in an old two-story house. They say when it opened, on December 1, 1868, 150 watched the Tanner Troupe perform a song and dance revue at the “Brick Building.” A ...
All is not well for the Sons of the Prophet, but at least it's funny
Kahlil Gibran wrote one of the best-selling books of all time. Translated into over 40 languages, The Prophet (1923) records the poetic observations of the Lebanese mystic Almustafa on self-knowledge, good and evil, death, and ...
Minor reinvention breathes new life into the spirit of A Christmas Carol at Cygnet Theatre.
For several years, Cygnet Theatre did a popular version of A Christmas Carol as a live, 1940s radio show — 100 years removed from the original. Sean Murray’s world premiere script returns the durable Dickens ...
Some fine productions, including one of the city's all-time best, must close November 2.
These shows must close this Sunday, November 2 — aka “Black Sunday,” given their high quality. The Royale, Old Globe Theatre One of the year’s best directed shows is so well done you’d think Marco ...
Shepard seeks to convey "what it feels like to be two-sided."
Cygnet Theatre Shep-reps, staging True West and Fool for Love
Fool for Love at Cygnet Theatre honors the spirit and the anarchy.
Cygnet Theatre is running two of Sam Shepard’s plays in repertory: True West and Fool for Love. In Cygnet’s opening day/night double bill last Sunday, True West came off the stronger [to be reviewed 10/15]. ...
Good enough, but Ed may not remember the Alamo.
Scoping the new-old and admiring Wisconsinite appetites at Taco Tuesday.
A meager scavenger looking for easy prey in Old Town.
What do the tourists see when they come to San Diego? I wondered this as I walked around Old Town, trying to decide in which hokey Mexican spot to have lunch. Fiesta del Reyes seemed ...
Pageant: the Beauty Pageant Musical at Cygnet Theatre
From the fluffy curtains to the large G hovering over the faux marble floor, everything’s an ardent pink — the signature color of Glamouresse, whose beauty products include an aerosol that protects the ozone layer ...
Surprises, double standards, and reversals in The Motherf**ker With the Hat at Cygnet Theatre
It’s a snappy chapeau: reddish with a narrow brim and wide band. The question for Jackie, on parole after 26 months in stir for dealing drugs, is “who’s the motherf--k who owns this motherf--ker?” Jackie ...
Two quality shows must close this Sunday; now you see ‘em, or you won’t
Mark Rothko and his fellow Abstract Expressionists (though they didn’t like the name) battered the Cubists to pulp. Now, as Rothko contemplates what could be his masterpiece — and the place to showcase his special ...
But still far from being the best burger in town
We're a hamburger town in a hamburger country, and whether it's fast food or fine dining, most of the American-style restaurants in the city include a burger on the menu. Hell, some of the Asian ...
It’s an open and shut case, according San Diego’s city auditor. The operator of Old Town’s Presidio Golf Course, owned by the city, was using it as an illegal parking lot over last year’s Cinco ...
Spring Awakening's lovely/evil
This idea for a musical sounds doomed from the start: base the story on a 100-plus-year-old play so controversial several countries banned it, which closed after one night on Broadway; talk and sing openly about ...
Aspire Center to treat veterans, help stop homelessness
On Monday, February 17, community dignitaries, public officials, veterans’ representatives, and members of the neighborhood gathered in Old Town for a grand-opening ceremony for the Aspire Center; Aspire is an acronym for "American Service members ...
Ken Leighton 2:37 p.m., Jan. 28
Ian Anderson 1:24 p.m., Jan. 28
Delinda Lombardo 8:56 a.m., Jan. 28
Ian Anderson 1:56 p.m., Jan. 27
Matt Potter 12:31 p.m., Jan. 27
Mike Madriaga 10:30 a.m., Jan. 27
