How Ian Anderson came to the Reader: While visiting the Reader web site a few years back, I noticed it was accepting public submissions of concert reviews. I can't remember what they paid, but it …

You spent last night drinking and clubbing, and now your best bet to escape a hangover is a dose of breakfast food and cocktails. At least that’s the thinking behind The Morning After, a new …

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 …

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 …

You’d have to ask the good people of San Marcos how much the arrival of North City has impacted their drinking and dining habits, but I can attest the manufactured neighborhood is trying its darnedest …

The poet Ezra Pound coined the word melopoiea as a way to describe how verses or even individual words may charged with musical properties, bringing their own sense of rhythm and melody to spoken language. …

At the end of February, Iron Fist Brewing Company announced a new list of beers for 2019, highlighting seasonal releases to be introduced in its tasting rooms every month. This might sound like routine, first-quarter …

There’s Mediterranean food in South Park, thanks to the arrival of the Shawarma Guys food truck. For the past month or so, it’s been parked six days per week outside The Bottle House liquor store. …

It didn’t have to be a cold and wet winter for me to seek out a pozeleria, but it hasn’t hurt to have the added motivation. In this case I first found myself driving through …

About 100 new breweries have opened in San Diego over the past five years, posing a significant challenge to any craft beer brand trying to distinguish itself. At least one has proven no slouch at …

When I heard a popular North Park restaurant was opening a location in East County, I imagined something in the La Mesa vicinity. Maybe El Cajon or Santee. Even when told Grand Ole BBQ would …

There’s a little strip mall in Sorrento Valley that’s mostly filled by ten or twelve little counter restaurants; a food court serving all the corporate campuses in the area. It sits about a block south …

Downtown El Cajon may not be the next, Next North Park, but if you look across the parking lot from the Ross Dress For Less, you will spot the city’s newest brewery. Creative Creature Brewing …

A new cookie shop turned up in Pacific Beach at the end of last year. Insomnia Cookies takes up little space on Garnet Avenue, just a hole in the wall about three blocks from Crystal …

It doesn’t look like a restaurant that’s about to close. Four parties have shown up at once during lunch rush, and the staff hustles to turn over red leather booths as they become available. But …

While I’ve been sitting here the past couple years trying to figure out which are my favorite tacos, the rest of the world has apparently become obsessed with Nashville hot chicken. The cayenne-spiced fried chicken …

San Diego’s newest craft spirit maker opened for business in early February, updating a vintage industrial space in East Village. In lieu of tasting room, Storyhouse Spirits offers an appealing bar and restaurant, with a …

It’s late Sunday morning, and there’s a mimosa in my hand, courtesy of Point Loma burger and cocktail spot, Royale. Serious cheeseburger fans will already be familiar with Royale, and its Pulp Fiction-referencing signature sandwich, …

The mixed veggies in my curry look right out of a can or freezer bag: identically chopped sections of green beans, cubes of diced carrot, and faded peas. Like the potato chunks, they’re all fairly …

When I ask the owner and chef why his fish and chips feature rockfish instead of cod, I appreciate the answer. It’s easy to get, locally. That would be Adrian, of Adrian’s Surf n’ Turf …

This past September, National City’s first homebrewing supply shop officially became National City’s first craft brewery. In a number of ways, Embarcadero Brewing and Supply feels like a time capsule out of San Diego craft …

Lunchtime on a Saturday, and a Reserved sign was placed before every seat at the sushi bar at Goody's Sushi & Grill. Sitting nearby, I watched as, all at once, customers trickled in to claim …

I found Duff’s Doggz in the southeast corner of the Carmel Mountain Home Depot parking lot. It’s a shack not even two parking spaces wide, and like most Chicago-style hot dog joints, it’s adorned with …

When the table next to us were told they couldn’t order rice, they decided to leave. “What kind of Chinese restaurant doesn’t serve rice?” they muttered on the way out. The short answer is: duh, …

Casual beer fans don’t often see it, but behind the scenes, the people making a brand’s beers may change often, as brewers bounce from one brewery job to another. For larger businesses with established beer …

I’d never heard of the croissant and muffin hybrid called a cruffin. It seems to be a response to the cronut craze that had online breakfast pastry fans astir back in 2013. But I suppose …

For a week, I’d been eating too much of the American garbage diet: fast food, hot dogs, fried chicken, and many sides of fries. Hearty fare, fit for a Midwest winter freeze perhaps, but far …

Published by St. James's Gate Brewery, maker of Guinness Irish stouts, the Guinness Book of World Records was conceived as a reference book for people debating facts in a pub. In other words, to settle …

As of February 2, Karl Strauss Brewing Company has officially been open for business for 30 years. Karl Strauss Old Columbia Brewery and Grill opened on that date in 1989, serving three house beers: Amber …

Turkey or roast beef. How often do I find myself in this position? I’m visiting The Wild Thyme Table, a newish deli counter in between the train station and the courthouse downtown. There’s a lengthy …

Last weekend brought good tidings for fans of saucy seafood sandwiches in the downtown area, namely me: Supernatural Sandwiches held its grand opening in Little Italy. When I first got hooked on Supernatural, it was …

I’ve been missing out on Filipino baked goods. And considering Valerio’s City Bakery has been making them in National City since 1979, I’ve been missing out for a good forty years. During that time, the …

Fun fact: the State Department has still been issuing passports during the federal government’s partial shutdown. For this, I am grateful. My renewed documents arrived this week, prompting the return of a favorite hobby: studying …

About 55 miles separate the communities of Solana Beach and Julian, but it’s the four thousand feet in elevation that set them apart. One's a beach town, appealing to ocean-lovers and well-heeled shoppers; the other, …

Few meals will ever top the experience of going omakase at a top tier sushi bar. By literal translation, omakase implores the diner to “trust the chef,” and there’s rarely a better argument for doing …

Every time on of my friends travels to Cuba, I start craving the stewed beef dish, ropa vieja. The pictures they share on Facebook never have anything to do with food: it's mostly cars, beaches, …

Some places are just doomed to fail. Specifically this one place in East Village, right across the street from Petco Park. It seems like every time I walk by, there's a new restaurant at 317 …

I was driving past Big Front Door the other day when it hit me: that's not where Big Front Door should be. But it's really close. Two months ago, the six-year-old sandwich shop moved one …

Modern Times Beer has arguably become San Diego beer's most compelling success story. At the time it opened, in 2013, with design-savvy beer cans, a bartop made from paperback books, and a gigantic Michael Jackson …

No offense to all the people in Arizona who got snowed on, but where it really got cold this week was San Diego. It’s been the kind of Southern California winter where your nose is …

A portmanteau is a new word created from combining parts of two separate words, the way we get brunch from mashing together breakfast and lunch. We use some portmanteaus without realizing it, such as bodacious …

The financial fallout of Green Flash Owner of the West Coast IPA trademark, and the first modern San Diego brewery to distribute to all fifty states, Green Flash Brewing Company spent several years in expansion …

To our credit or to our chagrin, San Diego has been the breeding ground for at least a couple of successful fast food chains: most notably Jack in the Box and Rubio’s Coastal Grill. Not …

The value of Mexican food in San Diego keeps rising. I don’t mean the cost, because the costs at all our restaurants have been going up alongside property values, energy costs, and minimum wage hikes …

Two years ago, we were driving through a dark evening storm, heading into the Westfield UTC with seats reserved for a new Star Wars movie at the Arclight Cinema. Entrance to the mall parking lot …

“The beer is just good! That’s why I come back all the time.” So says a guy to my left, loud enough the whole tasting room can here. A few of us nod along. He’s …

In the parking lot in front of the Rainbow Farms Supermarket (4727 Federal Blvd., Chollas Creek) sit a grill and smoker, a back of mesquite charcoal, and flag sign reading: “Pollos Estilo Acapulco.” Chicken, Acapulco …

It’s a coffee roaster right across the street from a Starbucks. Too many apostrophes and a forgettable name will forever doom it to misspelled branding (including on at least one of its own signs). Furthermore, …

If you’re a San Diego beer fan visiting breweries this winter, you may notice the same beer keep showing up on tasting room menus: Resilience Butte County Proud IPA. Your eyes do not deceive you. …

Hopefully, I’m not alone in confusing San Diego’s collection of ranch communities. We have Bressi Ranch, Scripps Ranch, and Carmel Mountain Ranch, plus lesser knowns Black Mountain Ranch and Fairbanks Ranch. Most are suburban enclaves …