"This is crazy,” says Carla. We’re climbing up the stairs toward the most expensive watering hole in downtown Coronado, if you’re after steaks. A $120 steak, anyone? News of this ran like an electric shock …
February 25, 2015
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Stories by Ed Bedford
Like rich people
Fire + Fly: brand-new artisan pizza joint already hot
Father and six-year-old son leave Fire + Fly Artisan Pizza, the just-opened joint on Coronado's Orange Avenue. Dad's carrying four boxes of pizzas. "Dad, I'll take them." "Nope." "Can I hold in them in the …
February 14, 2015
I.B.'s menudo institution
The hoof stares me in the face. “Eat me!” it says. Oh, Lordy. But this is what I came for. It’s Sunday. Feeling a little hung over, truth to tell. “You sure this works?” I …
February 11, 2015
Upscale harem
“Hookahs are definitely cheaper there,” she says. “But you get less of a head-rush from them.”
February 4, 2015
At the Bleu Whisk: "I have cooked for both Bushes, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama"
Man, this is one broad Broadway. Broadway, Lemon Grove, that is.
January 28, 2015
Under the eating tent
It’s dark in the Barrio. Seven o’clock, Sunday night. I’m hoofing it along Logan Avenue. Muttering to myself. “Late again...” Because everything is closed. Carla will have eaten. Gotta have something. I hurry past Cuatro …
January 21, 2015
City's Secret: Happy hour even students can afford
This is where professors come to start affairs with their students. Okay, kidding. But it's easy to imagine. This dive called The Hive sits right across the street from City College. It has a kind …
January 16, 2015
Gold Rush–era gluttony in Little Italy
“This used to be a brothel upstairs and liquor place down here.”
January 14, 2015
Voilà, instant burger
“This place is old-fashioned, like a Cairo café. We don’t do loud music and DJs.”
January 7, 2015
The restaurant at the end of the universe
His dream was always to make this the #1 jazz spot in the country. Or at least the county.
December 31, 2014
Squeaky cheese?
She looks like Renée Zellweger. Wait. Maybe she is René Zellwegger. Maybe the real Renée got sick of the movie life and paid another chica to come out to the cameras after the “facelift,” pretending …
December 24, 2014
Quartyard courts the Village
Pork sandwiches and beer in a garden in an empty downtown lot? And next to them, a folk concert tent next to a farmer's market next to a play park for your dog next to …
December 22, 2014
Poetry on a plate
Under the stainless grill is a fire with a pleasant resinous flavor wafting up from it.
December 17, 2014
Breakfast or bust
"Best Breakfast in Town Coming Soon.” I’ve been watching this sign for months. We’re up on Hancock in the courtyard of 57 Degrees, the wine barn that hosts a monthly food-truck get-together. Not to mention …
December 10, 2014
Michelle and the Great Boffee Experiment
Michelle Shirley shakes some Ghirardelli cocoa powder on top of my beer. Am I surprised? No way. This gal is into experimentation big-time, specially when it comes to Cafe 1134's coffees and San Diego's craft …
December 4, 2014
Transmogrified
At night, that long walk up from the 8th Street trolley stop to National City Boulevard can get a little spooky. Especially when you’re walking the echoey stretch under the I-5. But then you cross …
December 3, 2014
Manic about organic
"Become totally manic about organic. Get your healthy on. Super foods for super humans!” Uh-oh. Back in the land of the super-healthy again. It’s incredible. Healthy is busting out all over. This cute place with …
November 26, 2014
Juices get running at Al Azayem
Sunday night. East Main. El Cajon. Warm, balmy, a relief from another El Cajon day. Families, older men (Chaldean, mostly) sit around in clumps on the boulevard’s benches and in Prescott Promenade Park, talking, playing …
November 4, 2014
No pho king here
I don’t know how O.B. does it. Places like the Joint — packed, noisy, cheap, cool. And now this joint, packed, noisy, cheap, cool. I guess we can only blame O.B. Tonight, Saturday, 9:30, I’m …
October 29, 2014
Stake ready to grill
In a blizzard of new openings in Coronado, the latest, Stake Chophouse is — finally — all but ready to start serving steaks. But be warned: this might turn out to be the island’s single …
October 24, 2014
First Nations-Asian
I’ve never been Number One at anything. Not till now. But so happened I was loping down Orange Avenue, past where another eatery, Rhinoceros, had always been, — just at the moment the new “Islander” …
October 15, 2014
Coffee break? Take your time!
What is up with East Village? Every time I look, a new place has "Now Hiring" signs in its window. We've seen Común and Bottega Americano opening to mucho fanfare (and success, looks like. Last …
October 9, 2014
We like sweet things
Oh, man. What’s up? When a place you’ve been going to every now and then for years turns up in world headlines, you sit up with a jerk. When the news hit that a San …
October 8, 2014
Fit for a sultan
"I built our own oven. Just like they have had in Beirut since forever."
Customer #1
"Can I be your first customer?" This is me, at "Islander," Coronado's newest eatery, on the actual evening it opens. Well, soft, soft opening. Only thing that's open is the doors, really. So far no …
September 29, 2014
Basted, Azeri-style
Sunset. Goin' with the flow like a pooh stick in a slow crick, sauntering with the crowd down Fifth Avenue. It's the height of happy hour. Conventioneers have been let out and are looking for …
September 19, 2014
Real or gringo way?
Just as well you get a plastic knife and fork. It is a mess — a hot mess at that.
September 17, 2014
Your town
Scoping the new-old and admiring Wisconsinite appetites at Taco Tuesday.
September 10, 2014
Bursting to go in East Village
Huh. Door's open, a bit. Squeeze through. Oh man. This is spacious, but busy. Bars everywhere, huge white pizza oven dome, communal tables kinda winging out from it, sit-up seafood bar beyond, schools of cute …
September 4, 2014
The last word in cheap eats
First up, I’m not an early-morning guy. But on this perfect food day, you’ve got to start at the crack of dawn. Because that’s when the dja kwai are at their freshest at Trieu Chau …
September 3, 2014
Rhinoceros Café to close: Big free party!
Coronado is reeling in shock. One of their most beloved eateries, Rhinoceros Cafe & Grille, is closing down, kaput, about to go extinct. The place has always served middle-priced, middle-of-the-road American bistro food, which suits …
August 31, 2014
Lotsa pork and onions
Wow. Pointed prow of a big ol’ Navy cruiser knifes right past. In the waters between us and the island of Coronado. It kinda fills the sky. Heading under the bridge and home port. The …
August 27, 2014
Arabs and Jews alike
Whew. Hot day out here on the La Playa Trail. La Playa Trail? Just the oldest commercial trail in the Western United States. ’Course we know it as Rosecrans Street. I notice this li’l historical …
August 20, 2014
Bar la carte at Fleming's
Usually I'd walk straight past. I mean Fleming's? Steaks muy caro. Thirty bucks? At least, probably. This is expense-account land. Plus when you do walk in, into the dark, where you can just make out …
August 18, 2014
We like cows
“Want some? It’s not on the menu yet. We’re just experimenting for winter.”
August 13, 2014
The jam they give you
“When I first met her, I weighed 190 pounds. Now I’m 240,” he says.
August 6, 2014
Pleasure additive
‘Whu-where are we?” Yes, I’m kinda nervous. Driving with Ria, Carla’s best buddy. I mean, she’s a good driver and all, but this wagon: Volvo, 200,000 miles before the odometer stopped working, heater won’t turn …
July 30, 2014
First nibbles at Común
The octopus tentacle sticks up purple and angry out of the roiling mass of pink and white quinoa, and the green and yellow and red wall of heirloom tomatoes. In the enamel mug beside it, …
July 23, 2014
The Alabaman way
Tuesday, 8 p.m. What’s this buzz outside Felix’s? People, mostly African-American, are milling around the entrance, some dressed to the nines. Inside you can hear music and see what looks like a party going on. …
July 23, 2014
Late latte with Lulu
Café Lulu is the nearest thing to a Bohemian hangout in downtown's Gaslamp. Great for late-nite lattes, hubble-bubble pipes, and street-life people-watching.
July 19, 2014
Dog fight in Golden Hill
Street King Tacos is a food truck with very good tacos, plus tortas, and TJ-style hot dogs that are as good as any on Revolución. Excellent fish tacos, too. Open late. Stays at this location.
July 17, 2014
Just the right amount of wrong
Oh, man. This is one desolate little stretch of street. Lytton. Loma Portal. Quarter mile of traffic-crammed blight. Maybe it’s the half light. Whatever, I come to a closed-up, windowless, brick-red-painted concrete building with no …
July 16, 2014
Hoary gents & brandy
"Come in, sir,” says this voice. It’s a guy looking through a partition. We’re inside an ancient, 100-year-old building right by the ballpark. I just wandered in here looking for food. We’re in this passage …
July 9, 2014
Corporate quinoa
‘Look, I’m telling you,” says my buddy Daley, “this place is the real deal. Ya gotta have the quinoa burger.” He’s talking about this health chain. I mean, Daley was in the Army. Likes no-nonsense …
July 2, 2014
Hot dogs and holiness
"Misery loves company, but holiness loves company more!” I can hear him across Petco Park’s parking lot. He’s standing, speechifying, holding forth. Something about “I was high on crystal meth. I got beat up by …
June 25, 2014
Hawaiian sandwich, Russian stout: perfect combo?
Is this the future of food trucks? Joel — Joey — Rodriguez calls it a pop-up. It's just a canopy over a cooking ring. With a couple of canvas chairs for Joey, his wife Olive, …
June 21, 2014