Little Italy Stories
Hard times will soon shutter Rainwater’s on Kettner Boulevard, the fabled red-meat eatery. Over the years, politicos of all stripes dined gratis at the bistro, thanks to well-heeled special interests. February 2004 was typical. GOP …
“Fourteen years ago, when my wife and I were engaged,” said pastor Ben Brinkman, “we had the exact same experience at the exact same moment in a college chapel: God showed us having a church …
BALBOA PARK Another Perfect DayBy downtownphotoguy, June 26Today we were in Presidio Park in the morning and Balboa Park in the afternoon. We were shooting with a variety of lenses and techniques…. It seems everybody …
Starting on October 9, Little Italy venue Anthology will join forces with KPRI (102.1 FM) to broadcast a live, two-hour music show, Homegrown Fridays Live. Airing from 10 p.m. to midnight, additional concerts will take …
On Friday, August 14, Casbah staged a pop-punk triple bill featuring locals Revenge Club, Bay Area band the Lovemakers, and L.A. trio the Muffs. Revenge Club was a pleasant surprise. You never know how the …
Everything about Glass Door makes it a delightful, entertaining restaurant — except the food. On the fourth floor of a new hotel in Little Italy, it’s a long, narrow room with a bar on one …
You should have been at the barbecue held in Little Italy last Sunday. Picture it: moving up the street toward the house in a black jumpsuit was a blonde vision with perfect complexion and a …
Clunk! Man. Umberto Falcone’s kinda surprised I’ve tossed the bocce ball anywhere close to the jack. Call it beginner’s luck. Luck: Guess that’s how this whole sea-urchin thing started too. Though now that I think …
During District 2 councilmember Kevin Faulconer’s state of the district speech on April 27, he listed his accomplishments during the past three years. One of his proudest accomplishments so far has been banning alcohol from …
“Slow down, you move too fast. You’ve got to make the morning last...” Can’t help humming that Simon and Garfunkel ditty. Life’s pouring through my veins again. How not? It’s one of those crisp, sunny …
A 19-story, 143-apartment, and 9,618-square-foot retail proposal drew varied responses at the Centre City Advisory Committee pre-design subcommittee meeting on January 7, 2009. The development replaces a parking lot on the southwest corner of Beech …
One Who’s Out and Wants In A man walks into the lobby of a downtown sales office on Sixth Avenue and G Street on a Sunday morning, wheeling his young son in a stroller in …
If you've been looking to get your feet wet in the art world, today was the perfect opportunity. Around 3:45 this afternoon a water main burst just north of State and West Date Streets, causing …
We are a frazzled, worried country after seven years of every important decision being decided wrong by that "deciderator" and the awful gray eminences whispering in his ears. So do I dare to interpret the …
For author Marcel Proust, the taste of a madeleine, a beloved pastry of childhood, evoked nostalgic memories that subsequently unleashed thousands of pages of prose upon the literary public. Most of us don't get quite …
Anthology, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, December 21-23. 619-595-0300. $21 to $63. The trick of the jazz big-band ensemble is to sound as one, such that the individual instruments are indistinguishable. Not counting the soloists, the intention …
October 28 marked Citywalk Church's entrance into the practice of weekly Sunday worship. Prior to that, communal worship events had been monthly; the weekly gatherings were smaller and held in people's homes downtown. Church member …
At British Motors, 1305 Kettner Blvd., c. 1958. This Jaguar XK150 had 200 horsepower and could cruise all day at over 100 mph. In 1958, our local daily reported that California had more registered vehicles …
I received a voicemail about a party for Shay Davis, but I thought the guy said Gray Davis and that it would be a politician's dinner. Shay is an artist who moved here from Denver, …
I didn't have to travel far to the firefighter party in Little Italy's Firehouse Museum, but firefighters came from all over the U.S. and other countries to attend this party. I was told there were …
"Wanted: A good woman who can clean, sew, cook fish, dig worms, and owns a boat and motor.”
Po Pazzo What would make someone open another restaurant when he's already got three of them -- including two just down the street? In the case of Joe Busalacchi, owner of Po Pazzo on India …
My exposure to and subsequent interest in Amici Park was a by-product of waiting inordinate lengths of time for the #16. I began to refer to it as “the bus that never comes.”
Solunto Baking Company 1643 India Street, Little Italy 619-233-3506 The doors open at 7 a.m., but the genuine Italian bakers are at their craft an hour before that. By 6:30 the sidewalk area outside the …
Corner of Beech and India Streets, Little Italy Until this fountain was built, the only outdoor seating on India Street was at the cafés. Now, passersby can sit on the two-foot rim of this fountain …
Gargoyle Gallery & Café 1845 India Street, Little Italy 619-234-1344 Moroccan decor with Turkish pillows, exotic lamps, tiles, inside fountain, and sunlit courtyard. This place may be in Little Italy, but it has captured North …
Boomerang for Modern 2040 India Street, Little Italy www.boomerangformodern.com 619-239-2040 Remember falling-leaf chairs? Surfboard coffee tables? Blue-and-white cushioned stackable chrome chairs? Right now it's the young who are buying this stuff again -- for the …
Date & IndiaFriday night Tight-jeaned girl pays attendant, strolls sideways, spots her pal. Redhead descends from SUV, looks back to lock (beep-beep), and long-legs a diagonal to Princess Pub’s pint-swilling lads, who posture by stools …
Assenti's Pasta 2004 India Street, Little Italy 619-239-5117 Fresh pasta offers a richer flavor, so forget the boxed stuff and head for Assenti's. Sure, they've got plain pasta, and the plain pasta is superb. But …
Fir Street Between India and Columbia, Little Italy These brightly painted homes, circa 1900 to 1930, now enjoy a new identity, housing shops as diverse and colorful as the paint adorning them. On the corner, …
Solar Electric Inc. 5555 Santa Fe Street, Suite D, Pacific Beach 858-581-0051 www.solarelectricinc.com or contact: Utility Consumer Action Network (UCAN) 1717 Kettner Boulevard, Little Italy 619-696-6966 www.ucan.org What's a desperate SDG&E addict to do? The …
The Waterfront 2044 Kettner, Little Italy 619-232-9656 The "Mary minions" often salt their red elixir with a bit of elitism. Every club claims to have its own secret ingredient, which usually turns out to be …
Caffe Italia 1704 India Street, Little Italy 619-234-6767 There's something about Little Italy on a Sunday morning. All the faithful pour out of Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic church into the sunshine and make …
"I'm horrified," says Quigley. "They're really not learning, I don't think, from the idea of making something that's unique to Little Italy. They're doing it in the most superficial way possible, which is stylistic.”
Squidco 1730 Kettner Boulevard, Little Italy (619) 238-0909 One thousand three hundred and seventy-six pounds, to be exact -- and there's a 1294-pounder, to boot. You wouldn't believe the size of the aquarium this fishing-supply …
Pete's Quality Meats 17421/2 India Street, Little Italy (619) 234-1684 Sicily used to be known as the "Breadbasket of Europe." They exported grains all over the Mediterranean. Then came countless invasions, poverty, until their only …
Mona Lisa 2061 India Street, Little Italy (619) 239-5367 This market and deli, owned and operated by the Brunetto family for 26 years, is small but full of culinary gems. The delicase shows off mozzarella …
Gelato Vero Caffe 3753 India Street, Little Italy (619) 295-9269 Gelato Vero Caffe's gelato (Italian ice cream) is denser, creamier, and tastier than all-American ice cream. Even "gourmet" ice creams don't come close to the …
Urban Tribal Dance Company Gargoyle Gallery 1845 India Street (at Fir), Little Italy (619) 234-1344 Exotic and hypnotic, the Urban Tribal Dance Company dresses in folkloric costumes of full skirts and pantaloons, turbans, scads of …
Vince's Barber Shop 2030 India Street, Little Italy (619) 239-0966 Vincenzo Bruno moved to San Diego from Sicily in 1946 and has cut enough hair to send his children to college, see them become successful, …
Bruschi invested in mines in Baja California, a ranch in Otay Mesa, and an interest in the Hotel L’Europe on Fifth Avenue and H Street. When the Ginocchio Company opened its store, in 1876, Bruschi managed it.
“Bump,” “The Bomp,” “El Bompo,” “The Bump,” “Bompy,” “The Cigar.” Nobody who knew Frank Bompensiero called him by those names. “If you were a friend or family member,” said Bompensiero’s daughter Mary Ann, “you called …
“During World War II,” a retired San Diego policeman told me, “the hoods in the downtown bars made plenty of money. Don’t let anybody fool you. The reason they made more money than anyone else …
Frank Bompensiero’s daughter Mary Ann is talking. She stops and wipes away a tear with the back of her hand. Her father was gunned down execution-style in February, 1977, in a Pacific Beach alley. Mary …
Frank Bompensiero jumped off a freight train in San Diego in the early 1920s. He was 16 or 17 or perhaps even 18 years old. He was five feet, six inches tall. He had hazel …
Why is Roman Catholic priest Rudolph Kos, a.k.a. Rudy Edward, a.k.a. Father Rudy, whom a Dallas jury found liable for sexually abusing 11 boys, able to live without supervision near an elementary school in downtown's …