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 …
July 22, 2020
La Jolla Stories
San Diego restaurants try everything to get by
Stop the selfies at La Jolla Cove
It's sea lion pupping season at La Jolla Cove, right alongside beach re-openings and the human haul out – and social distancing isn't working too well. At least not between humans and pinnipeds. Ellen Shively, …
July 21, 2020
La Jolla – a shoreline and a mountain
What Windansea surfers said about Tom Wolfe Eight summers have drifted by since Tom Wolfe (author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) traveled to California to write a series on “The New Life Out There” …
July 20, 2020
Mexican pastries and Irish breakfasts – Sugar & Scribe's odd pairing
I’m sitting on the patio of La Jolla bakery and restaurant Sugar & Scribe, marveling at my “full Irish breakfast.” The $16 plate indeed goes the distance: two eggs, a thick slice of Irish bacon, …
June 12, 2020
San Diego skateboarders – bad boys of the lock-down
On May 28, Spring Valley resident Camille Cruz was one of 1.1 million-plus viewers that saw a Chula Vista-filmed skate video on TikTok. “My past self applauds the kids for sneaking into the [Aquatica] waterpark,” …
June 2, 2020
Closed to dining, some restaurants start selling groceries
Last night, I placed an order for delivery from the restaurant Tender Greens. Dinner was good, but what will help sustain me in the week to come was the grocery box I ordered. For $33, …
March 27, 2020
Bird Rock, city by the sea
Bird Rock is the Jan Brady of coastal San Diego. To the south capers playful, silly Pacific Beach. To the north stands La Jolla, elegant and proper. And though Bird Rock is officially one of …
March 4, 2020
Warwick's cancels American Dirt's Jeanine Cummins
Warwick's bookstore in La Jolla abruptly canceled an event featuring the author of novel American Dirt, which tells the fictional exodus of a Mexican mother to the United States after a narco-related shooting breaks out …
February 10, 2020
Union-Tribune columnist Diane Bell’s La Jolla Cove seacliff estate
The Seacliff Estate — that’s what listing materials from realtor.com call the 12,000-square-foot home found at 1369 Coast Walk in La Jolla — is billed as an “iconic gated Hamptons-style estate that has been meticulously …
November 21, 2019
Harry’s Coffee Bar: led by Harry Rudolph Jr. and the Brooklyn Dodgers
Rosemarie is heads-down in her book, Sex, Lies, and Serious Money, by “NYT #1 best-selling author” Stuart Woods. (“Reads like a remake of Family Jewels,” says the dust jacket). She can do what she wants …
ShayButter’s chunky sweaters make a statement for fall
On my most recent shopping trip to La Jolla last week, I spotted Kara, wearing an outfit that made me rejoice over the changing seasons. Whenever I hear the word “fall,” I immediately associate it …
October 10, 2019
The Wurst Nox in the food court
When last I saw the Currywurst Frankfurt food truck, it was doing its thing: serving finely minced pork and veal bratwurst smothered in ketchup and curry powder. The Berlin street food favorite is a natural …
September 24, 2019
The Melt wins over this grilled cheese troll
Big deal, it’s easy to make a grilled cheese sandwich. That’s what the troll on my shoulder reminds me whenever I encounter a grilled cheese restaurant. His words are more nefarious because they’re true. I’m …
August 27, 2019
VA mutes ventilator alarm, paralyzed patient dies
Sloppy supervision, a muted alarm, and lack of training led to the suffocation death of a severely paralyzed patient at San Diego's Veterans Administration hospital last year when an alarm failed to sound after a …
August 7, 2019
UCSD researchers use organs from aborted babies
Researchers from the UCSD School of Medicine are in the market for human organs that are "fresh" and "fetal," according to emails published by the Center for Medical Progress, a citizen journalist/medical ethics watchdog group …
June 5, 2019
Children’s pool ramp fight flares up
Pupping season at the Children’s Pool in La Jolla just ended and the pool area reopened to the public last week, just in time for the latest in the fight over human access to the …
May 24, 2019
Calif.-grown coffee at Bird Rock Roasters – $100/pound
Before the end of this year, local java fans could be paying a premium to drink coffee grown right here in San Diego. At a series of ticketed cuppings last weekend, Bird Rock Coffee Roasters …
Oh Bobboi, it’s gelato season
We’ve all waited patiently for sunny weather and daylight savings to return, and now that they have, we need to turn our attention back to ice cream. Rather, gelato. Bobboi Natural Gelato, if I’m being …
March 12, 2019
Two seals, one issue
The seawall at Casa Beach’s Children’s pool was built in 1931. The goal was to provide a safe, surf-free area for children to play in the ocean. Eighty-eight years later, the seawall is still providing …
February 5, 2019
Steel ball resurfaces again at Black’s Beach
On Sunday, a crew of lifeguards at Black’s Beach discovered that “the elusive steel ball” has resurfaced after a 2-year hiatus, this time washing up along the north end of the beach. “We haven’t seen …
January 29, 2019