Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Serious San Diego table grapes Foodies

I only want to attract people who are just as “serious” about grapes as I am

Hipsters love a good table-grape pun.
Hipsters love a good table-grape pun.

Hi Hipster:

Having grown table grapes in San Diego since the 1980s, and having rejected all the boring ones, I now have some forty-odd vines producing exquisite fruit. I have, of course, diligently combed over nineteenth-century viticultural manuals for old-fashioned viticultural techniques, identified the best heirloom varieties, and then carefully grown the fruit in stapled paper bags so the clusters remain perfect without spray. I am now thinking about a harvest event for a small handful of serious San Diego Foodies. Although I always say, “Friends don’t let friends eat grapes flown in from Chile,” most people are happy with the cold, flavorless, seedless grapes, bitter with pest-spray, that they find in supermarkets, and I’m OK with that. Also, there is some danger I might bust out reciting Dionysic poetry in Greek or Latin, and who needs that crap in their life? On the other hand, I have put in an enormous (and pointless) amount of labor over the past few decades to acquire and grow these vines, so, naturally, I only want to attract people who are just as “serious” about grapes as I am. If I put on a free event, and hordes of people come tromping through the gates, feeding their faces on free grapes by the handful, without taking the time to savor each unique variety as expressed on that particular site in that particular year, building an appreciation of San Diego’s different table-grape terroirs, and developing a real San Diego grape connoisseurship as I intend, that would be . . .well, unhip! My question, then, is, “How do I promote this event so that NOBODY comes?” I mean, if it were, like, four to five people standing around chatting about grapes, that would be fine, really.

Sponsored
Sponsored

— Mark M.

You, sir, have the trappings of a true hipster enthusiast. Bravo. Whether your interests tend toward obscure grapes nobody’s ever heard of before, a Phillip K. Dick-only book club, or knitting little sweaters for cats with alopecia, you’d face the same hipster conundrum at any planned get-together: how to bring in the right group of fellow hipsters? Cast your net too broadly, and the next thing you know, you’ve got mainstream wannabes descending on your party like they’re trying to post the year’s first Snapchat story about getting a pumpkin spice latte at the neighborhood Starbucks. What exclusivity? OTOH, if too few people show up, well, then you kind of look like the no-friends weirdo who’s always inviting colleagues to a monthly Pink Flamingos viewing party, complete with themed potluck, and wondering why nobody ever comes. Too niche.

Because I’m quite positive that you, like any self-respecting hipster enthusiast, are already either besties or frenemies with every other similarly situated enthusiast in the area, Dr. Hipster’s prescription for this delicate condition is to insert a suppository of two parts rumor and one part hint into the metaphorical keister of the relevant local hipster community. That is to say, tell the three people you know wouldn’t miss it for the world. Routinely administer the tincture of time (usually, about six to eight months is good), and, when your heralded (in certain circles) event comes to pass, all the right people will magically be in the know through the miracle of scene gossip. As for everyone else, well, if they need to ask, they probably wouldn’t have been invited in the first place.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Eating dinner while little kids mock-mosh at Golden Island

“The tot absorbs the punk rock shot with the skill of experience”
Hipsters love a good table-grape pun.
Hipsters love a good table-grape pun.

Hi Hipster:

Having grown table grapes in San Diego since the 1980s, and having rejected all the boring ones, I now have some forty-odd vines producing exquisite fruit. I have, of course, diligently combed over nineteenth-century viticultural manuals for old-fashioned viticultural techniques, identified the best heirloom varieties, and then carefully grown the fruit in stapled paper bags so the clusters remain perfect without spray. I am now thinking about a harvest event for a small handful of serious San Diego Foodies. Although I always say, “Friends don’t let friends eat grapes flown in from Chile,” most people are happy with the cold, flavorless, seedless grapes, bitter with pest-spray, that they find in supermarkets, and I’m OK with that. Also, there is some danger I might bust out reciting Dionysic poetry in Greek or Latin, and who needs that crap in their life? On the other hand, I have put in an enormous (and pointless) amount of labor over the past few decades to acquire and grow these vines, so, naturally, I only want to attract people who are just as “serious” about grapes as I am. If I put on a free event, and hordes of people come tromping through the gates, feeding their faces on free grapes by the handful, without taking the time to savor each unique variety as expressed on that particular site in that particular year, building an appreciation of San Diego’s different table-grape terroirs, and developing a real San Diego grape connoisseurship as I intend, that would be . . .well, unhip! My question, then, is, “How do I promote this event so that NOBODY comes?” I mean, if it were, like, four to five people standing around chatting about grapes, that would be fine, really.

Sponsored
Sponsored

— Mark M.

You, sir, have the trappings of a true hipster enthusiast. Bravo. Whether your interests tend toward obscure grapes nobody’s ever heard of before, a Phillip K. Dick-only book club, or knitting little sweaters for cats with alopecia, you’d face the same hipster conundrum at any planned get-together: how to bring in the right group of fellow hipsters? Cast your net too broadly, and the next thing you know, you’ve got mainstream wannabes descending on your party like they’re trying to post the year’s first Snapchat story about getting a pumpkin spice latte at the neighborhood Starbucks. What exclusivity? OTOH, if too few people show up, well, then you kind of look like the no-friends weirdo who’s always inviting colleagues to a monthly Pink Flamingos viewing party, complete with themed potluck, and wondering why nobody ever comes. Too niche.

Because I’m quite positive that you, like any self-respecting hipster enthusiast, are already either besties or frenemies with every other similarly situated enthusiast in the area, Dr. Hipster’s prescription for this delicate condition is to insert a suppository of two parts rumor and one part hint into the metaphorical keister of the relevant local hipster community. That is to say, tell the three people you know wouldn’t miss it for the world. Routinely administer the tincture of time (usually, about six to eight months is good), and, when your heralded (in certain circles) event comes to pass, all the right people will magically be in the know through the miracle of scene gossip. As for everyone else, well, if they need to ask, they probably wouldn’t have been invited in the first place.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Dim Sum Tour, Warwick’s Holiday Open House

Events November 24-November 27, 2024
Next Article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
Comments
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Nov. 7, 2019
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader