On Wednesday, December 18, Tijuana craft brewer Cerveceria Insurgente resumed making beer in its Zona Rio brewery for the first time since October 5, when municipal authorities abruptly closed the property, reportedly at the behest …
A thousand years ago, when Cambodia’s Angkor empire extended across what is now Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, its infantry brandished long, piked staffs, sometimes from the back of an elephant. That’s the reference being made …
A feather in Tijuana’s culinary cap since it opened in 2013, farm to table restaurant Verde y Crema closed the doors of its site near the Club Campestre de Tijuana golf course in mid-2018, offering …
Dog on the leash, we were only passing by the little, below the sidewalk café in East Village, with its garden patio and a nifty white bench with a built-in, pop-up center table. A chalkboard …
A December 5 grand opening of Pacific Coast Spirits has officially made the city of Oceanside home to an urban distillery. For the past two years, the craft spirits producer has been transforming the 12,000-square-foot …
For a restaurant in City Heights, FireBirds Chicken has come up a lot in local foodie conversations over the past three weeks; especially surprising because that’s about how long the place has been open. There’s …
By the end of this story, chances are you’ll forget I’m talking about gluten free food. That’s exclusively what Duck Foot Brewing serves at its East Village restaurant and taproom, where even the beer has …
I heard about a place that uses chicken parmesan as a pizza topping. Lucky I did, because Sisters Pizza operates in a part of Hillcrest I don’t normally go looking for restaurants. It’s a stretch …
Rain. Wind. Cold. Our long summer has finally given way to what passes for winter (for the time being), which has proven the perfect time to visit a new restaurant built around a fondness for …
How did a suburban Chicago nanobrewery wind up buying San Diego’s famous billion dollar craft beer icon? That’s the question that crashed the website of Kings & Convicts Brewing when news broke Tuesday the little …
A Pacific Beach restaurant called Latin Chef closed earlier this year, following a good thirteen in business. I never visited the Peruvian and Brazilian eatery, but it sounds like I missed out — it was …
I recently wrote about how a certain global fast food chain has brought meatless versions of its burgers to the San Diego market, but a more exciting development may be the growth of a 100-percent …
Already the county’s southeasternmost brewery, Novo Brazil Brewing has opened a second location somehow even farther southeast. And it’s not small. The roughly 14-thousand-square-foot brewery and restaurant occupies a corner spot at the upscale Otay …
I don’t know whether San Diego has gone through some sort of culinary looking glass, but we seem to have entered an era where Little Italy is flush with great non-Italian restaurants, while every other …
Pierogi, sambusa, calzone, pupusa: the world has come up with a lot of cool sounding words to describe what the English would call a pasty, and what we here in America might rather mundanely call …
The “Where’s the beef?” commercials of the 1980s popularized the common joke that fast food restaurants skimp on beef in their burgers. Less amusing have been ongoing stories of fast food chains adding food additives …
For several years, the opportunity to sit in a barn drinking hard cider made from locally grown apples has been a charming draw to the little mountain town of Julian. When Julian Ciderworks abruptly announced …
It was a Sunday morning, and following a sunny hour at the Grape Street dog park, I decided a cold brew coffee sounded refreshing (this happens a lot). Conveniently, Seven Seas Roasting Company has its …
A Feeling of Hope in Rancho Bernardo How do I even begin to tell you about the incredible turnaround my neighborhood has taken? I will start here. Hi, my name is Mychal McMahon. I am …
There are two types of diners in the world: those who would absolutely never, under any conditions, order food prepared in the back of a liquor store; and those who will pull over their car …
A little over a year ago, a new San Diego-focused alcohol distributor announced its launch. Scout Distribution boasted a small portfolio of known and emerging local brands including Abnormal Beer, Bivouac Cider, and Juneshine hard …
A lot of new information has come to light since I learned there is a Swedish bakery in Poway. For example, did you know there’s a distinctly Swedish baking tradition? Somehow, in my case, this …
When I grab a seat at the counter, the first question I’m asked is whether I’d like any parmesan to snack on. The correct answer to that question is always yes. It’s especially so when …
From downtown San Diego, the drive to Mexicali took a little over two hours, most of it traveling east. Past the Cuyamacas, past the Jacumba hot springs, past the Desert View Tower and its surrounding …
San Diego’s larger-than-you-think wine industry has emerged from the shadow of craft beer, and it’s primarily thanks to a growing national reputation among fans of natural wines. Among the local wine labels getting notice is …
As I approach what used to be a Starbucks on University Avenue, a corner unit of the historic North Park Theatre building, a sign written in large letters announces a welcome change: it’s now a …
To access Forbidden Cove, you’ll need a carved wooden idol that unlocks a secret doorway leading into a narrow hallway where your own mirror reflection echoes before and behind you into infinity. It’s a simple …
It’s not even two years since The Friendly dusted off an old pizza joint in North Park and started smashing patties for a legion of raving burger fans, but it feels like a lifetime when …
It can be fun to play tourist in your own city, but that doesn’t mean we’re obliged to eat Mexican food when visiting Old Town. While traipsing about the historical park the other day, rather …
Slowly but surely, San Diego’s mead industry is growing. The latest example: Meadiocrity Mead, a brand that, now a little over three years since contract brewing its first mead, has finally opened its own meadery …
Nobody’s knocking IPAs. The hoppy pale ale style that built San Diego’s beer reputation is alive and well. We have hundreds to choose from every single day. We are spoiled with IPA options.But sometimes, different …
Sunday brunch is a joy so great they named a fourth meal to honor it. Which is why Sunday brunch is sort of a nightmare event. Every-dang-body wants to meet for brunch about 11 am …
Perhaps it’s owing to the small size of Doner Mediterranean Grill, or to its Gaslamp location. Maybe it only has to do with the doner shop’s generic name. For whatever reasons, I’ve always ignored the …
A lot of different cultural cuisines offer curry. Countries on the Indian subcontinent alone are responsible for dozens of different types of curry. Southeast Asia developed a whole other curry lineage, led by Thailand, with …
Three years almost to the day after brewing its first beer in North Park, Eppig Brewing officially became a North County brewery this month, producing the first batch at its new brewhouse and headquarters in …
Several months back, I wrote enthusiastically about a plate of stuffed cabbage made by a local market vendor and caterer. One reader responded by recommending the same dish, made by La Mesa restaurant, The Village …
It feels like yesterday that low rider loving hot dog specialist Barrio Dogg first set up shop in a small Logan Avenue storefront fronted by a piece of ‘64 Impala. But not only has it …
As promised in March, premium San Diego-grown coffee beans were served for the first time by Bird Rock Coffee Roasters last weekend. The surprise is whose farm grew them: two-time Grammy-winning local musician Jason Mraz. …
I consider myself lucky. Though I’ve gone too many years without discovering the joy that is burnt ends, once I’d learned about this delicacy of BBQ brisket, only 30 minutes passed before I was trying …
We’re driving south on Broadway when we spot it: a simple, boxy storefront with a banner sign and cartoon graphic depicting a spiky haired toddler in an aloha shirt. Usually, when I’m in this part …
Every time I think my list of San Diego’s top five ramen spots is set, along comes a new one to shake things up. Artisan Noodle Tatsuki opened a few weeks back in the Gaslamp …
Appellate court turns back Hosking's fake cattle ranch Inhabitants of Julian who oppose the development of 1416 acres of local back country have a newfound victory to celebrate. An appellate court has reversed the decision …
Over the past couple of years, when I’ve asked local spirit startups where they produce their alcohol, I’ve quite often been met with the same answer: San Marcos. Specifically, at the small batch distillery home …
“It’s the best seabass in San Diego.” That’s what a server tells me, when I tell her I’m trying to choose between the grilled Chilean sea bass and the teriyaki black cod. Often, black cod …
Every year, when the Reader publishes a burger issue, a good chunk of San Diego’s population only seems to care about one thing: was Rocky’s Crown Pub included? This year, the Crown Point mainstay was …
Since Pure Project launched in early 2016, a significant part of its impact on local craft beer has been seen in its canned special release beers. Fans routinely line up for these limited batch releases, …
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 …
We are Naples. That’s what the name means of San Diego’s latest Italian restaurant operated by people from Italy, means. Siamo Napoli recently picked up where Il Postino left off in a large North Park …
There’s music and art all around me as I dig in to a pile of BBQ meats. Old soul and R&B album covers hang, framed on the walls, packed in alongside stylized paintings depicting scenes …
When Fruitcraft Fermentery and Distillery dropped anchor in Hillcrest two years ago, it primarily carried on the work of its original brand iteration, California Fruit Wine. That is, it fermented wine from virtually every type …