Ida's Deli: Lebanese surprise in the giant black building
Ida's got a big following for her hot beef melts
Walking past that big black glass building at 7th and B in the financial district. Thing I notice is the single table and chair under the tree outside that slope-glass frontage. Gets me curious. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jan/03/37854/ So I haul inside into …
Downtown Ue Kara: Sushi goes Mexican?
Everybody around here knows it: Arturo's take on sushi has Baja written all over it
Big surprise at this little place next to the old Churchill Hotel. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jan/03/37847/ Arturo, who owns Ue Kara Grill (819 C Street, 619-231-0865...it means "From Above" in Japanese) has decided to put his Mexican background into his sushi. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jan/03/37849/ "I …
Little Italy: The gastropub pioneers are back! (Think Ironside...)
The guys who gave you Craft & Commerce, Neighborhood, El Dorado, Underbelly, are landing again in LI
Are these guys on a roll or what? Arsalun Tafazoli and Nate Stanton started off - only five years ago! - with Neighborhood, the gastropub in East Village that really pushed local beers and seems to have made gastropubs cool, …
Karl Strauss’s IPA: double, double, stir in trouble…
Add lotsa hops, fine. But roasted green chilies?
My beer pick of the week: A brewski with, uh, roasted green chilies in it. Talking about Karl Strauss’s Green Chili Big Barrel Double IPA. I discovered this by accident. Was sitting here at Karl Strauss’s original downtown joint, the …
Landini's: Little Italy's cheeriest frontage?
The little pizzeria on India Street has town's most seductive decoration for the season
And the prize for the best-decorated restaurant of the season...has to be Landini's Pizzeria (1827 India Street, Little Italy, 619-238-3502). Come here around sunset and their decorations, combined with the artwork of artist Grant Pecoff, who has the studio upstairs, …
Plumeria: Scaling University Heights on Thai heat scale
“On a scale of 1 to 10, how hot do you want it?”
Stopped in my tracks last night. Walking north on final few yards of Park Boulevard. University Heights, at Adams. Looking for that little kinda French place, Savory Deli & Market. I’d had the best beef Bourguignon ever there. But…erk? This …
Clayton's delivers: Coronado's morning-after comfort food
Think of it as your head's recovery ward
Some come for the food. Me, I come for the cash register. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/26/37462/ Okay, not quite true. Came here to recover from yesterday with some home-cookin' food. But this classic machine is always the first thing I notice: a still-working …
Mexican in Chinatown? Cheese, chorizo, Cetto, Candelas!
Top Mexican chef cooks for...Ed?
Martin San Roman has cooked for princes, presidents, and now, uh, me. How come? Serendipity. Always believe in it. Specially this time of year. So I’m in Chinatown, wandering down 3rd, thinking I may as well hoof it to 12th …
Coronado: Avenue Liquor's BLT...in Chaldean?
Talking food where they speak as Jesus spoke
Passing Avenue Liquor last night. Decided to stop in and get the BLT, right here on Coronado's main street, where the median's perfect fir trees are lit up for a mile like, well, Christmas trees. But every time I pass …
Farmers' Market: your own personal fisherman
John Ford sends his Alaska salmon direct to his San Diego farmers' market fish stall
How many times can you say you know the actual guy who caught your actual salmon? I can tell you exactly who got this wild Alaska salmon Carla and I are eating. It was the "Salmon Slinger," aka John Ford, …
Gumbo with the Wizard of Oz
Ed returns to the counter of the Unknown Gumbo King to try the Real Thang
So guess what? I did come back (See “The Sixth Avenue handwarmer,” below). http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/16/37028/ I'm here at the Sixth Avenue Bistro (1165 6th Avenue, downtown, 619-239-4194). Same stool, same bar, but this time next to Shane and Karen on the …
The Sixth Avenue handwarmer
Napoleon and nachos on Sixth Avenue: Handwarming, belly-filling
Me? Napoleon? I swear. Strangest things happen at the trolley stop at 5th and B. Tonight I’m just standing, doing the usual thing of hurry up and wait. But through the cold, that cozy-lookin’ place at 6th and B calls …
It’s a Proper pity
"Time, gentlemen please!" for Proper Gastro Pub
Sad to say ta-rra: Proper Gastro Pub (right in the Ballpark park area at 795 J Street, at 8th, 619-255-7520). Walked past the other day and the big arched cream stone and brick portico with “Simon Levi Company” etched into …
Kiwi invasion!
First PB, then downtown, then OB, now Little Italy: Kiwi-style pubs are taking over, mate
Something great is happening to that rambling old house across from the Firehouse Museum at Cedar and Columbia in Little Italy. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/11/36838/ It’s already well-known. Dede Alpert had her offices here... http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/11/36841/ ...Lori Saldaña had her offices here too. It’s …
Toma Sol: Seekey's a find
Literary cafe spawns writers (and sustainable panini) on West Washington
Was almost tempted. A Starbucks, shining out from the second level of the new Von’s on West Washington. So glad I didn’t. Because a block further up I hit this booky nook of a coffee-panini place with some kind of …
Blind Burro: Busy being born
Latest in good-time cluster expanding again at 7th and J
"We've been working on this ten weeks," says Pat Gallaher, the foreman. "I'd give it another ten days we should be good to go." http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/07/36646/ Pat This is a few days ago. He's talking from a little crane inside this …
Snail Pizza? Si!
On a moonlit night in TJ, Baja Med delivers a whole 'nother gastronomic world
Snail pizza? I check the menu again. Oh yes. There it is under “Pizza Baja Med.” “Escargots,” $12 for the chico (“small”) size. I’m here, nine at night, sitting in a converted warehouse. OK, not really converted. The big ol' …
Breakfast? Honey-Do!
At Honey's in Encinitas you can do healthy and wicked at the same time
Up here in the land of nuts and twigs and Swami surf breaks, you kind of expect to combine good-for-you and good-to-taste in every menu item. So I hive into Honey’s Bistro (632 South Coast highway 101, Encinitas (760-942-5433). http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/05/36497/ …
The Case of the Naughty Constable
Mysterious sausages invade East Village!
What do a Naughty Constable, Juicy Scandal, Flagrant Seeds, and Tasty Treason have in common? They’re all crazy-interesting sausages you can have in the sausage board ($9)... http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/dec/05/36466/ ...at The Village 631 coffee and wine bar (it used to be …
Night Del: Skating, snacking magic
The Christmas ice rink at the Hotel Del has hot toddies and snacks. Worth the Del premium?
There's no getting around it: Night skating on the oceanfront in Coronado is magic. The rink, the screams, the laughs, the holiday music, the shushing of the skates, -and your hands around a mug of hot chocolate at the edge, …