Carlsbad news & stories
As I stare down at my plate, a pair of doughy eyes stare back at me. Steamed dough eyes, to be exact. Part of a steamed bun shaped and colored to look like a Holstein …
San Diego saw a hint of autumn weather over the weekend, opening a short window to enjoy the sorts of things we haven’t been able to enjoy during this endless summer of heat waves. Like …
Beach fire rings are a beloved beach tradition for families and youth groups to roast marshmallows and tell stories. Or are they an attractive nuisance drawing in transient drunks who fight and make late night …
The oceanfront estate at 5327 Carlsbad Boulevard is “a fresh, global take on Southern California style, pairing modern amenities with elegant touches.” So say listing materials retrieved from realtor.com. Built in 2006, the home hosts …
“Times are moving fast right now and we are adapting,” read the email from Pure Project. The Miramar-based brewery had originally reached out to let me know it would begin serving beers at its new …
On August 16, the power shut off in the Clairemont neighborhood west of the 805 freeway. “Our kids were doing online music tutorials,” said Steven S., “then ‘poof,’ the electricity went dead. The internet (modem) …
San Marcos City Manager Jack Griffin begins his annual June letter to the mayor and city council, “It is kind of my pleasure to submit the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Operations and Maintenance Budget.” That “kind …
A lobster roll counter near the beach. That’s what I found when I ventured outside last weekend, looking for a little sunshine. Sometime in late spring, Wicked Maine Lobster took over what was originally a …
A 48-lot housing project perched over an impaired lagoon has survived an appeal to the Coastal Commission. The "La Costa 48," to be built just west of I-5 along La Costa Ave in Encinitas, would …
The restaurant business, as Bette Davis once said about growing old, ain’t no place for sissies. The hours are long; the profit margins, razor-thin. Customers are notoriously fickle, and a few bad Yelp reviews can …
It’s the last outpost of agriculture in coastal North County, plainly visible from the freeway. A vast field of green just east of Interstate 5 and north of Cannon Road in the heart of Carlsbad, …
When Carlsbad beer brand Rouleur Brewing Company opened its doors in spring 2017, owner and brewer Rawley Macias shared three goals he wanted his business to meet by the end of its third year. And …
Andy Davis knew last year that a developer would be coming to demolish his popular downtown Carlsbad hang known by locals as the Cantina. The 20-year-old Mas Fina Cantina restaurant and bar on State Street, …
This story appeared first on March 20 in the print edition of the Reader. Author Eva Knott updated the story on May 29. In a ten-minute hearing on May 28, defendant Jay Alexander Terry, 37, …
Carlsbad’s Christopher Maddox aka the “Crisis Crooner” — Telematics Executive (whatever that means), husband, father, Elvis impersonator, civic booster, sculptor of online parody songs — watched the coronavirus creep through his Chinese business contacts; then …
The once bustling Wednesday afternoon Carlsbad Farmers Market has re-opened with a fraction of its former clientele. “We don’t know if or when we will ever get back to those [packed] days at the market,” …
In September Lhooq Books was told it had two months to pack up and get out of of Carlsbad’s downtown Village area. The Lhooq Books story does have a happy ending. But it’s not due …
It's everywhere, taking over like the weeds it's meant to kill. Now glyphosate, the bestselling weedbuster of all time, has become a pest. "Everybody in this room has glyphosate and other components in Roundup in …
A landowner of prime commercial property in Carlsbad’s Village district has given one of the oldest downtown businesses a 30-day eviction notice. Neighboring businesses are allegedly “terrified” that a similar fate may come to them. …
The Eastern Sierra town of Mammoth Lakes spends thousands of dollars each year subsidizing fares on several airlines, trying to get San Diegans to fly into the popular ski resort. However a new airline flying …
An episode of Nan Sterman’s “A Growing Passion” show on KPBS-TV mentioned the idea that unlike trees and grass, synthetic turf causes a “heat island effect.” She showed how one spread of ersatz lawn measured …
A popular Midwest brand of convenience stores and gas stations is quickly making a play into the competitive San Diego County market. Late last month, Speedway, headquartered in Ohio, acquired six stations in the area; …
I never went when it was a Pea Soup Andersen’s, though I’ve been around long enough to remember it. I never went when it was a TGI Fridays, for reasons I hope would be obvious. …
Based in Carlsbad, Americana band Murderers of Love features singer-songwriter and graphic designer Jaimie Muehlhausen, a one-time open mic host at Drowsy Maggie’s (which helped launch Steve Poltz and Jewel). His new five-song EP Motel …
“It used to be the Village by the Sea. But it’s not a village anymore when you can build buildings that are four stories tall…really five when you count the top deck.” DeeDee Trejo was …
An expected vote on a ban on natural gas in new buildings took a surprise turn last week, when the Encinitas Environmental Commission announced a change of plans. They would devote the meeting to public …
This beach hike extends from North Carlsbad Beach and Carlsbad State Beach to North Ponto Beach. Along the way, notice our natural beach ecology, especially the intertidal zone, its plants and wildlife, along with the …
Oscar-winning artist John Lamb is not happy how his “beach-billy” mural was painted over. “It looks like somebody scribbled over my art,” says Lamb about how a new mural replaced his hundred foot hand-painted art-piece …
Has an organized Democrat group become too petty for its own good? I was given a heads-up that the September 29 DEMCCO meeting (Democratic Club of Carlsbad Oceanside, self-billed as North County’s largest Dem group) …
Alexander Dafnis is up a tree. “This way?” he shouts down. “No. Now it’s tilting more,” says Alejandra, the gal looking up from the wood-decked courtyard. The camphor tree, originally from China, provides dappled shade, …
These trails take you to view-points overlooking one of the most historic landscapes in San Diego’s North County, as well as areas of rapid suburban development. You will also have close contact with remnants of …
Sean Christopher says his Lhooq (pronounced “look”) Books in Carlsbad is one of only about seven independent book stores left in the county. “I have the final hand-typed draft of the Pulp Fiction screenplay with …
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station may be retired, but to many area residents, it's a sleeping giant. In July, it stirred. That's when its operator, Southern California Edison, was allowed to resume loading spent nuclear …
Founded in 1883, the congregation of the St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Oceanside was torn apart ten years ago when the more liberal, establishment part of the church embraced female priests and gay bishops. The …
Coronado, one of the county's smallest cities, can't see how it will ever meet its share of the region's housing goals. Home to two large Navy bases, the land-locked, built-out, high-priced city was allocated 1,000 …
During a recent, beachy afternoon out by the Oceanside Pier, I walked a short distance to the colorful new Kilowatt Brewing Oceanside Taproom. Parched from the sunshine, and in need of refreshment, I bellied up …
Warning . . . Crime is coming to Leucadia. Robbery. Prostitution. And worse yet . . . an infestation of bed bugs. That’s according to a two-week-long protest by a construction union. Carpenters Local 619 …
Thousands of retail clerks in Southern California, workers for Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions, and Ralph’s grocery stores, overwhelmingly approved their union to organize a strike, if needed, in the near future. Their union’s contract with the …
At least eight businesses in Carlsbad’s downtown Village area have been told they must prepare to move out as their buildings make way for a sleek new restaurant/retail complex. In what seems to cement the …
My last trip to the East Coast, I found Charleston, South Carolina on the cusp of its soft shell crab season. The first night in town, a friend and I visited a highly regarded seafood …
It started in 1974 at the Bahne surfboard manufacturing shop on Westlake Drive in Encinitas, and quickly spread to a street known as Black Hill in La Costa. Within a few years, skateboarding was a …
Oceanside is on a spending binge. Thanks to an extra $11 million coming in this year from the Measure X sales tax increase approved in November, the city council voted to rebuild its downtown fire …
Carlsbad mainstay Tip Top Meats has been around more than half a century, and remains an incredible deal whether you’re there for the butcher, the market, or the authentic German restaurant. I stop in every …
“The Republican party asked me to run against [Congressman] Mike Levin in 2020,” says GOP-up-and-comer Christopher Rodriguez. The Hispanic father of six checks a lot of political boxes. He’s a Purple Heart-decorated, USMC Iraq War …
A judge ordered ex-NFL tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. to be held without bail, after new accusations that he inappropriately approached two more women in Carlsbad, while he was at liberty on $2 million bail …
In the last couple of weeks, the elusive “double rainbows” have been spotted throughout San Diego County. “It was surreal,” said Chris Mannerino, “On February 5, I saw it out of my new office and …
A Carlsbad man and his three kids skateboarded from the Oceanside Pier to the Ocean Beach Pier on December 30, making it his fifth pier-to-pier skate and his youngest boy's first. “It was a solid …
There is a section of Carlsbad Boulevard which crosses over the Batiquitos Lagoon, north of Ponte State Beach. Here, people “waterline”, walking suspended lengths of flat webbing above water. “We’ve had incidences when lifeguards come …
Charles Jack Seiler, 30, looked happy and smiled and nodded while a cop described his alleged rock-throwing activity, during a court hearing on December 11. Carlsbad police officer Michael Byrne said that on November 24, …
“There are two sides to every story.” This phrase has been following me around for several weeks. Maybe it’s the alternative facts-age replacement for that cliché of acceptance, “It is what it is.” Whatever the …
Cheryl Brandstrom of Escondido recently made her annual camping trip to South Carlsbad State Beach campground. She had campsite on the bluff, great weather, good fishing, and yet came away miffed. Prior to the summer, …
After a failed launch of California Pacific Airlines on November 1, due to a maintenance issue, the rescheduled maiden flights of a new Carlsbad-based airline took off on November 2. It’s been nine years in …