Restaurants
Remember the guy who hijacked a tank and drove it through the streets of San Diego? They say this is where he got the tank, at the National Guard Armory in Linda Vista. And not …
After nearly nine years in San Diego, I’d never been to any of the Bully’s restaurants and felt a tad guilty about my ignorance of a local institution. The mini-chain was established back in 1967, …
"Ho, ho, ho.” He sits four chairs down, at the end of the bar. Cherry cheeks, white mustache, Burl Ives beard. Would make a perfect Santa Claus, but you can tell he’s saying it out …
“It’s demeaning,” says Carla. “Treating them like sex objects. And the men! They look so stupid, like kids spying on a nudist camp.” Part of me agrees. On the other hand, my buddy Frankie — …
Vagabond was a sensation when it opened in the spring of ’06. As the realtors say, it had a huge edge: location (times three). Restaurateurs Philippe Beltran and Jerome Gombert chose to open an eclectic …
Is this where Obama won the election? The little pizza shop was a hotbed of political debate for the longest time before the Great Victory. Everyone’s committed, one way or the other. Ivan, one of …
Spain’s on the same latitude as New York, so in winter the rain in Spain must mainly be a pain. I love eating Spanish food in rotten weather — all that warming olive oil and …
This restaurant is closed. Should I or shouldn’t I? I stand at the base of the steps. Up top, a couple of “log” fires are burning in their chimeneas, kivas. Beautiful People sit around them, …
Where has all the foie gras gone, long time passing? These are bad times! Don’t it just make you wanna throw your shoes at someone? A year ago, the glitzy openings of Quarter Kitchen at …
I admit it: I’m moth to the flame. Just ambling down Garnet, around 8:00 at night. Place is buzzing with life. But right across from Longboard’s rowdy crowd, I start feeling the pull of this …
Olivetto is no relation to the fabled Oliveto up north in the Rockridge District of Oakland — there’s no Paul Bertolli in the kitchen, creating legendary handmade salumi from scratch. But, with that out of …
I can’t believe this. I’m looking down — way down — at the kelp beds off La Jolla. Brown bruise on blue ocean. Jet fighter zooms out to sea — underneath us! Chopper whirrs by, …
After looking over the interesting, many-page menu at Azuki, and after trying the miso soup and the first “test roll” (uni, of course) to the accompaniment of lilting Brazilian pop, I made a firm decision: …
And then the Great King came forth, and he did spake, saying, “Let There Be Law!” Thirty-seven centuries later, I’m lookin’ him in the eye, raising my glass mug of chai, and saying, “Sir, you …
For a few decades — roughly Carter through Clinton — old-fashioned French restaurants seemed increasingly vieux chapeaux, in view of the lighter, cleaner-flavored “new French” cuisine fermenting during those years. That was also the period …