At last. Have been watching this site for months. I’m riding on the southbound Orange Line as it pulls in to the Park and Market stop. Bunch of school kids haul out and start streaming …
June 18, 2014
Back to profile
Stories by Ed Bedford
A whole lot of lunch
Dollar belly filler
Can a feller fill a belly for a dollar in this town? Just ask Carlos. That’s what I did, because that’s all I had. Exactly one Washington in the pocket, eaten nothing all day, had …
June 17, 2014
Ploughman's ten-year-old lunch at The Headquarters
What's the best lunch deal at The Headquarters downtown? Four slabs of ancient cheese in a stretch of crunchy baguette and a fresh pear for $6.50. That's a deal? You betcha. Those four golden slabs …
June 12, 2014
Mad with envy
“You come at, say, nine in the morning, I guarantee you won’t get out before two.”
June 11, 2014
All the wine glasses on the high shelf shatter
Opera? On Orange Avenue? I was ambling up Coronado’s main street, trying to figure out what to do for the three hours Carla usually takes to get her hair frou-froued up over here — Diane …
June 4, 2014
It’s worth dipping into
"’ll meet you at the Galley,” says Joe into his cell phone. This was during one of the heat waves. He lives way east of El Cajon, so I knew he was pitching for the …
May 28, 2014
Korean taco + Russian ale = heaven
Sometimes two good things create a third thing that's bigger than the two of them. Case in point: Outside Mission Brewery's big ol' brick place at 14th and L. Used to be the Wonder Bread …
May 22, 2014
Sprouts and mussels and — wait, did I miss it?
“Everyone has waited ten years for this,” he says. “People said, ‘It’s I.B. It’ll never happen!’”
Like it was dug out of Tenochtitlan itself
It pierces the night. A sharp whistle and then a woolly hoot. First thought: train. But how come a train is running through downtown Tijuana late at night? It’s not far. I can see the …
May 14, 2014
Don Pedro’s bit of real Mexico
Is there any real Mexico left in the borderfied, industrialized, Spanglish north end of Baja? Oh, yes, there is. Like, right now, we’re just pulling up beside an isolated house beside the old highway, south …
May 14, 2014
Ed Bedford's 1000 Cheap Eats of San Diego
He’s never seen a chafing dish that rubbed him the wrong way.
May 7, 2014
Ed scarfs his 1000th Tin Fork meal after a game of craps
‘Oh, no. Midnight!” The guy looks at the dice. Two sixes facing up on the pavement. (Two sixes? Like, twelve. That’s why they call this roll “Midnight.”) He picks up the dice and shakes them …
May 7, 2014
Gumbo on the run
What's the difference between gumbo, jambalaya and étouffée? Tonight I've got a chance to find out. This is at 57 Degree's monthly food truck gathering (1735 Hancock Street, near Washington), and the last truck in …
May 3, 2014
Liver lovers, heads up! They take you seriously here
"What am I, chopped liver?" This is Jennifer, standing with her hands flung out sideways. Then she relaxes. "Everybody says that, when they see it on the menu." Chopped liver sandwich is part of a …
May 1, 2014
Rico suave pork torta
"Things have been pretty horrible in the Congo for decades. So, their coffee is in this beer.”
April 23, 2014
Hot, cool, beautifully squishy at La Fachada
Sherman Heights. Around seven in the evening. I’m standing over the grilled onions, breathing in their fumes. And the blackened green jalapeños. Man. You cannot beat this. With most Mexican food trucks, the health authorities …
April 16, 2014
East Village: Hot hot hot!
Wow. Things are certainly taking off in East Village. Stone Brewery's setting up another Company Store at 795 J Street in the century-old Simon Levi Company building, tucked right in by the ballpark, where Proper …
April 10, 2014
Ichiban: with rolls at $2.50, this hour is happy
Ichiban ("Number One" in Japanese) has been here three decades, and still gets as crowded as when it first opened. Why? All-Japanese crew, real bargains, and a real easy atmosphere. And did we mention a sushi happy hour?
April 5, 2014
Coffee Bak, Vietnam style
Very Vietnamese coffee place is where it's at with the local community. Coffee is all they have, but what coffee! Early morning is when the crowd really comes.
April 4, 2014
Evil submarines
Determined to tackle something more adventurous, I find my answer in Vietnamese porridge.
April 2, 2014
Seaport Deli: Is there happy hour after happy hour?
It's about the sunset. The water. The squawking gulls. The magician disappearing balloons down his throat. Say what? Oh, and the food ain't bad either. I'd just missed happy hour at the Cheesecake Factory, across …
March 28, 2014
Tacos bulge with generosity at Mariscos Germán
Oh, man. Trolley’s crowded tonight. ’Course, Friday night, Blue Line, heading south, what else would you expect? Especially this front car. Everybody’s packed in here so they can get out closest to the line in …
March 19, 2014
At the house of frog tacos
You notice it as you come in on the Blue Line: The pool of light. The clump of customers. The mariscos (seafood) food truck. Everybody's standing around, heads forward, chowing down. Lotta customers: good sign. …
March 18, 2014
Bee Sting coffee: where is thy sting?
Crista's sister was down from Montana. She too had been a barista here, at Café Madrid, and now she had something to teach her kid sibling. "Bee Sting," she says to her. "You've got to …
March 15, 2014
What’s this meatball deal at Rustic?
“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy,” I say to no-one in particular. Sigh. Actually, no chance of a bottle in front of me. Not tonight. Gotta work. Came …
March 12, 2014
Inn of the Sixth Happiness
So I was just leaving this kinda cute patio where I'd been having a late brekky with my friend Ernesto (La Mesa Bistro, more on this in upcoming Tin Fork), and, well, we talked a …
March 11, 2014
Nobody knows Happy Hour in San Diego like Ed Bedford
The man has been chasing cheap chomps and chugs around San Diego (and telling you all about it) for over 20 years. Ed, we raise our discounted-drink glasses to you.
March 5, 2014
Sushi, SoCal-style, on a roll!
What if you could walk into a sushi joint and invent your own sushi roll? Just tell the chef "Gimme some of this, some of that, and I don't care if they shouldn't go together, …
February 28, 2014
Great, though not goat
The golden-brown steaming lake of birria sends wafts of beefy, spicy, cilantro-y, almost mole-ish richness swirling up my nostrils. And now the lime I’ve squirted on it makes it so purr-fect it almost sings as …
February 26, 2014
Croce's happy hour: so-so food, go-go beer
It looks kinda like a sheikh's tent from across the street. Cabana-style brown and black drapes and awnings half conceal the big sidewalk terrazza. We're at the "Fifth and Olive Building" up here at, well, …
February 24, 2014
Cinderella’d into Acme Southern Kitchen
Wow. What a difference from last time. I stuck my nose in in early January. This is near the old Central Library, Ninth and E. The sign, “Acme Southern Kitchen” was up, but inside it …
February 19, 2014
Cheap Buds, saintly salads
Will somebody please tell me where there is a better happy hour deal than here at the House of Blues' Crossroads Bar? Two-dollar pints of Bud Light! Five-buck quesadillas. Free live music! So okay, the …
February 15, 2014
Can afford to sin
“Darlin’, best way you can help is getting your butt out of sight,” says Carla.
February 12, 2014
Duck egg: cure for happy hour blues?
I swear. If I see the word "curated" one more time I'm gonna scream. "Curated," "hand-crafted" "flights" of booze, food, you name it... the hand-ringing pretentiousness has swept like a virus through the menus of …
February 11, 2014
Fresh and fluffy
“It’s Hook’s cheddar. Costs $40 a pound. That would come to about $15 per sandwich.”
February 5, 2014
Drinking in history
"Sometimes," says Wes, "late at night, when I'm cleaning up and nobody's around, you feel them. You don't exactly hear them or see them, but you feel them. The spirits." He's talking about the women …
February 4, 2014
You want fast food? This is fast food
This time I really was in a hurry. Had a limousine departing Imperial Beach in ten minutes, and a three-minute run up to the bus stop. So I'm on Rainbow Drive, heading up from Palm …
January 31, 2014
Sausage-wise
I sit here shivering. Ends of fingers white, no blood. Only my hands are warm. And that’s because I’ve got them wrapped around a toasty-warm glass of, uh, beer. No kidding! I was just as …
January 29, 2014
South American salad in hidden Old Town
When you think about it, Mexican restaurants are everywhere. But South American restaurants? Not so much. Tonight, I'm wandering away from the crowds on San Diego Avenue in Old Town, heading down Twiggs in the …
January 27, 2014
Firehouse closed
The Firehouse, one of the newest sports bars in Coronado, has closed its doors, after only 3-1/2 years in business. The signs are already down, and the interior is being cleared out. The Firehouse may …
January 24, 2014
Pork chops and nostalgia at YMCA’s Grand Central Café
“Don’t get me wrong. If I didn’t love my place up in the Hollywood Hills, I’d come live down here.”
January 22, 2014
Dancing in the moonlight...
"I'm in a phone booth baby. Your number's scratched up on the wall. I'm new here in San Diego. Ain't got no-one else to call..." It's that Robert Cray song, "Phone Booth." Boy. Christian Hastings …
January 20, 2014
Aztec salad?
A salad! A salad! My kingdom for another salad! Running out of time, getting closer and closer to 12th and Imp and the bus I've got to catch in, like, half an hour. Without a …
January 17, 2014
Trust me. I’m a chef.
“Hi there!” “Hello. Care to see...” I notice they target the man every time. Good strategy.
January 15, 2014
Eating with the bigwigs
Condoleezza Rice was here. Bigwigs of the PGA eat here. That's the kind of place it is. Only reason I'm here is their happy hour. And that's not in the luxe back room. It's at …
January 13, 2014
Deep South arrives downtown
"I like being early," says Terryl Gavre. She's the wunderkind gal who started up Café 222 (remember her on posters wearing a waffle on her head?), and then Bankers Hill Bar/Restaurant, and then Bankers Hill …
January 10, 2014
Larb at first sight
You don't think of "Asian" and "salad" in the same breath. But here I am up in the wilds of 47th street, heading behind a garage/tire shop. Looking for a low building with the sun-faded …
January 9, 2014
Nunu's, the hoppingest place
Ed gets punched by a nubbly, crunchy, and salty burger at Nunu’s in Hillcrest.
January 8, 2014
Ed does — eek! — salad
Oh Lawdie. Some much gunk. This whole holiday season I have gone ape on burgers, spuds, chocolate cakes, Cool Whip, donuts, burritos, donuts, grog, beers, vino... Time to pull back. Take the higher road. Eat …
January 2, 2014