Just imagine: A shipload of starving, scurvy-ridden Spanish sailors struggling ashore through the tidal mud flats and seeing...this? A deck full of tourists and well-heeled Diegans scarfing away at ribs, burgers, and cervezas? They missed …
It’s Winona! Winona Ryder! You would swear. Straight out of The Age of Innocence. Those eyes, that quizzical smile. Okay, Winona turns out to be Amy. She’s helping run the bar of this terrazza in …
At first, I’m thinking Tacos El Gordo, because it’s near Chula Vista’s H Street trolley. Then I go in. Wall-to-wall! Three lines stretching right to the doors. Fuggedaboutit. And, actually, a steak’s what I’ve got …
"Over here!” It’s the beautiful Carla. Fresh from her frou-frou session at Diane’s salon (“Diane is the only person in this world who understands my coiffure needs, darling”) here on the Emerald Isle of Coronado. …
This was where I learned to appreciate the humble carrot. It started simply enough. I was heading along Market past that cool newish condo tower Strata, when I came across this sign: “Café Now Open.” …
"You can sit over here if you like,” says this guy over in the booth. He’s noticed me craning my head to catch the Costa Rica game. Against mighty Colombia. Copa América. David and Goliath. …
Hmm... Which whiskey? The Glenfiddich 40-year-old costs $1049 per shot. A jigger of Benchmark costs $1. I hesitate. “Gimme the Gl…Glenfid…d’uh, no. I guess I’ll take the Benchmark,” I say. The $1 Benchmark is part …
I arrived too early. For Ramadan, that is. This was before last Sunday, when Ramadan began. I came because I was curious about what you eat if you are Muslim and fasting for the month. …
It’s the kids. They’re all over the table. And into the spaghetti and goat. All except Anas and Khalid. The two older boys are plowing into their own plate of chicken drumsticks. Their dad has …
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 …
“But whatever you do,” he says confidentially, “don’t eat crabs from Southern California.”
Photo by Andy BoydAsada days and adobada nights — A little taste of Loreto in San Diego. by Mary Beth AbateTacos where you least expect them — Looking beyond standard tacolandia. By Ed BedfordTaco mecca …
Fish tacos, 99 cents? With all the taco talk this week, how come I missed this place? I should have seen the taco deal on the signs outside. But I was busy trying to figure …
Here’s what I was thinking: ever since Glen Bell ran with the hard-shell taco idea and created Taco Bell back in the 1950s, tacos have become part of our landscape. Except now the real taco …
You know the theory: restaurants with great views rest on their location laurels.
"Drink this. It’s 9500 years old.” The lady’s thrusting a glass of what looks like water at me in front of this food truck, “California Braise.” Truck’s new around here. And they serve this Carlsbad …
Took a gamble tonight. I spotted this sign: “Lucky Lady, Casino Restaurant & Bar.” Hmm... Casino restaurant? Looking through the windows, I see about a dozen gaming tables, all crowded. And this is a Monday …
I am the captain of my ship. I stride my bridge deck. I scan the scuddy blue seaway ahead of me. Tallships bob everywhere below. That’s how it feels anyway. Star of India, HMS Surprise, …
Mary Smith sat here. So did a lot of her ladies of the night. So did the mayor of San Diego. They say he was a client. But that was the Gilded Age. It was …
Oh, man. Ria wants nuts and twigs. I’m dreaming of fish and chips. Splots of malt vinegar. Cocktail sauce. Greasy, crispy chunks of cod. “Ho-kay,” says Ria. “Your funeral, buddy. Know how many calories and …
So it’s like two. In the morning. Everything is closing down, or they’re not happy to see you walk in. But you’ve gotta have a snack before you head home. Gaslamp may have a few …
Cucarachas? Never thought I’d be eating them tonight. But, Barrio Logan is full of surprises. This new Baja bar-eatery, El Pulpo, has sprouted up in what’s becoming “downtown” Barrio Logan. Tonight, Friday, sunset’s glowering over …
“Usually, you’ll hear the roar down here, guys yelling when a race is entering the last stretch.”
“The methane that cattle produce warms the world 20 times faster than auto emissions.”
“No!” says Carmen. “Finish first. You will eat my camarones hot.”
Out on Park. Just come from NewSchool of Architecture. Lecture by this guy who wants to “depave” the world and “rewild” the cities. Oh, man, if only we could. Of course, the talk and questions …
“Shin-nyen kwhy-ler,” says Dong Ha. “Happy New Year! Mandarin. What they’d say in Beijing.”
“He wants some food,” says Marianna. “But he only eats raw fish.”
Hmm... Keep thinking of that warm bar with the hugging hostess.
I was passing 15th and J the other evening. The pinnacle apartment tower was all lit up, advertising rental apartments from $2K to $10K per month. But where do all those gentrified renters go to …
Five minutes later she arrives with my steaming torta. All wrapped in its own papoose.
It’s 6:30 at night. Dark already. The rain’s dropping in sudden downpours and then disappearing. Tents line the chain-link fence of the vacant block on J Street. And then, in the gloom, you realize those …
“Our regulars?” she says when I ask what they eat. “Anything with gravy. Lakeside loves gravy.”
‘Do you know how to operate this projector?” asked H.R. Haldeman, President Nixon’s chief of staff. “Sure,” said Tony Vasquez. And from that day on, Tony, the guy sitting next to me at the counter, …
“Let’s stop right here, take it all home. Then fry it all up for breakfast tomorrow. Yes?”
“Name’s Ken,” says the guy on the right. “As in ‘Ken, still looking for Barbie.’"
“It’s fresh, not processed, and have you ever seen a fat Japanese guy? Except for sumo wrestlers?”
The sign looks new: IB Street Tacos. Now Open. It’s been slung up on a banner above the street frontage. Always suspicious when a place says it has “street tacos.” Means it’s actually middle class, …
My knowledge of coffee? It ranges from joe with milk to joe “au naturel.” So when I happened upon this new (couple of months, max) Place-With-No-Name (at least as far as outside signage) at J …
“It’s the border,” Rodrigo says. “So crazy. It stops good things happening all the time.”
I went here before the Paris massacre. Now I’m glad I did. Because it makes you remember what it is you love about the French. Like, Paris, and the café life they gave the world. …
You feel a little awestruck just walking around here. This is Scripps, maybe the biggest concentration of brainpower west of Harvard Square. Everyone has to have a PhD to even get in the door, seems …
Zzzzooooommm! It’s 11 p.m. A roar like a fighter jet in trouble heads right for us. Actually it’s a squadron of bikers, taking off at the light here at ECB and 70th. First one, then …
He won’t say how he got it, but Steve “Kim” Moreno says he has a cutting from one of the original Mission vines that Father Junípero Serra brought up with him from Mexico in 1769. …
I knew it the moment I hauled open the door. This. Is. A. Mistake. Could see the businessmen inside cracking their chopsticks apart, flattening down their silk ties. I mean, this is Nobu, right? The …
‘Ya-hooo! Drink Mountain Dew!” I’m in a museum here. On a side street in Lemon Grove, looking at this ancient wall ad. I like the last line, too: “It’ll tickle yore innards!” Next to it, …
For Bad Coffee! That’s what it says at Simon Says, the coffee kiosk at on F and Fifth, the coolest area of the Gaslamp. It’s five o’clock on a Friday night. Everybody’s your friend. They …
Areekah? Eureka! Yemeni cuisine ancient and, in Southern California, rarified.