La Mesa Stories
It's been decades since El Cajon banished new bars from its downtown — now it wants to bring them back. Faced with a night life that's been nodding off for …
“There’s a lot going on in ‘Take Five’ that you miss until you try to play it,” saxophonist and teacher Dave Good tells me. He’s speaking of the jazz standard …
Everybody has to start somewhere, in music as well as anything else. Eli-Mac, from La Mesa by way of the Philippines and Hawai’i, got going with the King of Rock …
Missiongathering San DiegoContact: 8693 La Mesa Blvd., La Mesa 619-354-3993 www.missiongatheringsd.orgDenomination: Disciples of ChristMembership: 85 (Attendance: 30-40)Pastor: Braeden StorkersenAge: 30Born: Fullerton Formation: Antioch Bible College, Temecula; Meadville Lombard Theological School, …
La Mesa Stories
Video:GONZO: TV themes take the stage at The Jazz Lounge“I opened this club, so I can do what I want,” says Leonard Patton from the stage at The Jazz Lounge. He’s flanked by pianist Aimee Nolte …
Video:Vons. The Grossmont Center Food Court. Heading up Lowell Street2003 – near present, La Mesa, California.You’re walkin’ down the streetIgnoring everyone you meetDon’t ignore me – Suitcase ManMy second marriage and first business spiraled into …
Recently, axe and machete wielders have been terrifying San Diegans—a change from last year's swords. Some neighbors are capturing videos on their Ring, Blink, and phone cameras and posting scary videos on social media to …
Video:COVER: San Diego 19-year-old tries ketamine for eating problemNineteen-year-old Sara looks like the ‘70s supermodel Twiggy minus the bob cut. Her blonde hair is long and wavy and falls halfway down her back. She has …
Rain tends to be welcomed in San Diego. It’s a desert! There’s a drought! The reservoirs are low! Soon we’ll be rationing! But then recent storms in San Diego flooded both homes and businesses. Not …
Video:Shawarma Guys goes from Yelp #1 to Hot & New in La MesaOn the television screen behind the counter, Guy Fieri bites into a wagyu beef egg roll. Seated at my table, I respond by …
Video:FEAST!: Oodles brings The Nood Bar’s noodle fetish eastWhat’s your favorite type of noodle? If you’re not sure, here’s where you can go to find out: La Mesa, home to the newly opened Oodles By …
Before New Year's Eve, Joy Boe's black-colored Retrospec Beaumont bike was stolen from her yard in Hillcrest."It has Pee Wee Herman stickers on it and a Pee Wee-inspired lion ornament on the front handlebars," she …
When my ribs plate arrives, it doesn’t look all that different from the average BBQ order. There’s a metal serving tray, lined with butcher paper, and there are smoked ribs in a glistening coat of …
’Tis already the season. And already, I’ve been eating way too much gunge! Need less fat, more fruit, veggies, nuts, twigs. A fresh taste in my mouth.And yet I’ve got that hungry hollow feeling as …
Having to give up a pet to find housing is one reason many people stay on the street. El Cajon is looking to remove that barrier, city officials said in a meeting last week."A lot …
Re-Animated Records, in the heart of La Mesa’s bustling downtown “village,” is a monster of a record store — in more ways than one. It’s named after the Lovecraftian horror comedy Re-Animator, which is about …
It has been ten years since a food truck hit the road with a small yet memorable menu of made-from-scratch sausages. In the time since, Mastiff Sausage Company has gone on quite a roll (pun …
The bar at the corner of 30th Street and Adams Avenue is named Polite Provisions. The outfit that runs it, Consortium Holdings, bills it as “an ode to the extinct neighborhood institution that is the …
As I recall, it was around the middle of the last decade when I first encountered pickleball. My friend Andy Cox and I were nearing the end of a game of tennis at Collier Park …
When I was a younger man, I wrote up the Chevy Chase apartments, situated on the border between La Mesa and Spring Valley, as ideal bachelor digs. Unfancy, freeway close, but more importantly, bumping up …
“Dustin wanted to turn my parents’ dining room into a music room,” says Jen Lothspeich, widow of Dustin Lothspeich, who died unexpectedly of natural causes in his La Mesa home on March 23. “On more …
When I arrived in La Mesa nearly 25 years ago, the odd, triangular lot at the end of the main drag was occupied by a sleepy restaurant with a sleepy name: Village Garden Restaurant & …
When vocalist Leonard Patton decided to launch a jazz venue in the midst of the pandemic — and in La Mesa, of all places — many wondered if he had lost his mind. But when …
Nothing like a little sea moss in the system before the battle kicks off. Sixty-three-year-old Miss Sherry Elie, owner and organizer of the CRS (Cut it, Roll it, Smoke it) San Diego Rap Battle League, …
December Nights Balboa Park Join your fellow citizens on December 2 and 3 for the City of San Diego’s largest free holiday festival in beautiful Balboa Park. The family friendly event brings San Diegans together …
For many attendees, the annual Island Vibe Music Festival at Downtown’s Spanish Landing on August 13 radiated a hearty homeland vibe from the get-go. For others, the evocation of the islands was enough, and by …
Performing Hawaiian slack key guitar music takes dedication, focus, respect, and of course, only the best Hawaiian shirt patterns. “I really like our white-and-red rayon and beach-green shirts with outrigger canoes,” enthuses Kamaka Mullen, co-founder …
Skyline Church Contact: 11330 Campo Rd, La Mesa 619-660-5000 www.skylinechurch.org Membership: 5,225 Pastor: Jeremy McGarity Age: 51 Born: San Diego Formation: Christian Heritage College (now San Diego Christian College); Azusa Pacific University-Haggard Graduate School of …
For a moment, the two big ice cream scoops of rice resemble eyes looking back at me, and I imagine my plate lunch sort of looks like a smiley face emoji. I must really be …
As Lakeside fades in my rearview and Ramona’s foothills loom in before me, I inhale my surroundings. Despite 20 years of living in San Diego, my Midwestern heart has yet to normalize the Western movie …
In the Middle East of San Diego County, there lies a kind of marijuana Mecca, a place to which pot pilgrims may peregrinate on a high hajj in their quest to elevate themselves — not …
Considering it’s shaped like a sauce pan, we rarely see a cooking tradition attributed to Oklahoma. Yet, sure enough, when I google the term “onion burger,” all results credit the Sooner State. I might never …
Crosspointe Life Church Contact: 8809 La Mesa Blvd, La Mesa 619.464.3077 www.crosspointelife.org Membership: 160 Pastor: Craig Osborne (Co-pastor with wife, Renee Osborne) Age: 45 Born: Alberta, Canada Formation: Northwest Bible College (now Vanguard College), Alberta …
Dem-on-Dem race gets expensive Serious special interest money continues to pour into the Democrat-on-Democrat 80th District special election race to replace resigned Assembly Democrat Lorena Gonzalez on April 5. Georgette Gomez, an ex-member of the …
The city of La Mesa is planning to turn a 2.84-acre lot on the northwest corner of Waite Drive and Murray Hill Road (just north of Highway 94 near Massachusetts Avenue) into a new community …
Only 19 days into 2022, I managed both to contract Omicron and have my car stolen. When I attempted to pinpoint the origin of my terrible car-ma, the only thing I could come up with …
The Reader’s editorial staff was gratified and frequently delighted by the response we got to our writing contest: 347 non-fiction stories, 31 pieces of fiction, and no less than 199 poems. It’s good to know …
La Mesa goes live : “My mom was on welfare,” says Dean Velasco, who was raised in a La Mesa household with little money. “We had government cheese, and when we ran out of that, …
It’s been a couple years since the alt-weekly San Diego CityBeat and its blend of local news, irreverent columns, and cultural coverage went silent. The paper disappeared after a cascade of events, starting when Times …
If there’s a fine line between tradition and cliché, no action straddles it better than ordering Chinese take-out on December 25th. Noodles, dumplings, mistletoe — all swirl together in whichever part of the brain nostalgia …
If you’ve happened to cruise Lake Murray Boulevard on a regular basis in the past couple years, it might be easy to presume that ten-year-old eatery The Vine Cottage didn’t make it through the pandemic. …
The past couple years have brought plenty of changes to Split Bakehouse. When Vanessa Corrales launched the brand in 2018 with acclaimed pastry chef Kristianna Zabala, the idea was to offer a wholesale pastry menu …
It’s not a huge place by any means. The pandemic sidewalk parklet probably holds as many customers as the dining room, if not more. We’ve grabbed our seats out there, sunglasses on, to bask in …
Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church Contact: 10842 Fury Lane, La Mesa 619-670-7656 www.svlc.org Membership: 200 Pastor: Marcus Lohrmann Age: 33 Born: Walla Walla, WA Formation: Valparaiso University, IN; University of Chicago Divinity School; Lutheran …
For several years now, Narumi Sushi, at the Fletcher Hills end of La Mesa, has been a favorite of my family. We’ve gone there for birthdays, when out-of-town relatives visit — any occasion we decide …
In the last week, rallying between local tennis players and pickleball players moved outside countywide tennis courts, two of which share the Collier namesake. "At the Collier Park one in La Mesa off of Spring …
There aren’t too many exciting things that can be said about sandwich shops these days. Most of them carry one of two or three deli meat suppliers — usually Boar’s Head or Dietz & Watson …
Nicholas Friesen is a 38-year-old native San Diegan – he grew up in Southeast – who has been working in used record stores all his life. “I’ve got this 10,000-hour thing going for me,” he …
With any luck, my quest to try all of the best donut spots in San Diego will never end. But for a moment there, it looked like it might have, and in an unlikely spot. …
I’ve tried not to write about it, because I haven’t wanted to encourage readers to seek them out. But since December, despite state and local covid regulations restricting on-premise dining, hundreds of San Diego restaurants …
“Konnichiwa!” I love how all the crew in some Japanese eateries stop everything when customers arrive or leave and shout out “Konnichiwa!” Kind of “Hello!” “Good bye!” “Thank you!” “Good day!” I don’t know about …
From a diner’s perspective, one of the more amazing aspects of the past year has been that a handful of entrepreneurs have gone through with new restaurant openings. Most don’t have much choice in the …