“Can we have waffles for breakfast?” For months during the school year, these were the first words my half-asleep brain heard every weekday morning. Not good morning. Not how did you sleep? Just “Can we …

As the crow flies, the unincorporated community of Crest is more than two and a half miles from the nearest freeway. In actual driving terms, it’s closer to four. And not flat miles, either, but …

For five years, Susan McMillion and partner James Farnsworth have quietly been making and serving some of the city’s best kombucha out of their small shop, Bootstrap Kombucha. Operating on an industrial stretch of Pacific …

A Hillcrest favorite, Amarin Thai, closed last fall, after holding down its Richmond Street location for more than 22 years. Longtime fans of the restaurant may be pleased to learn that Thai food is officially …

The marketing cachet of Japanese-bred cattle seems to be rising. At least, I find myself writing about wagyu a lot more than I used to, as local restaurants and butcher shops embrace the notoriously marbled …

To follow through on their plan to open a brewery, Daren Rudy and Alex Kim were prepared to move to Reno, Nevada. “It’s a growing population, annually,” explains Kim, “and also a growing craft beer …

Breakdance with Olympic prospects Kearny Mesa/Old Town Breakdancing will be an official sport at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and local b-girls and b-boys have been practicing breakdance maneuvers in hopes of repping Team USA. …

How’s this one for timing? Shannon Nault and Bobby Kokinda signed the lease for their first food-service business at the beginning of March, 2020. Let’s just say they wound up taking more time than they’d …

If not for the flat screen TVs and masked servers, walking into Bully’s East would feel like entering a time capsule. At the center of the dimly lit restaurant stands a grand mahogany bar, from …

Okay, so my go-to chili cheese fries spot wound up closing due to last year’s shutdown. Obviously, that’s a bigger bummer for the owners and staff of the departed Sister Ray’s restaurant than it is …

San Diego is about to get a first of its kind taproom dedicated to hard yerba mate. Actually, tap “room” is inaccurate. The bar being launched by Kové Hard Yerba Mate is being built entirely …

If there’s one thing I knew for certain heading into Burgeon Beer Company’s new downtown tasting room, it’s that the beer would be fantastic. That’s been the case with Burgeon beers, pretty much across the …

There is no shortage of good Mexican restaurants scattered among the 40 miles between my home and Chicken Lisa’s, but we press on. We think we’re getting close when we start to spot Escondido freeway …

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 …

Tickets are now on sale for a new downtown San Diego beer festival. This wouldn't have raised an eyebrow two years ago. It would have been unthinkable this time last year. But this year, as …

It was the first time I stepped onto the campus of the Town and Country since its 2020 renovation. As I remember it from my last pass through a couple years ago, the Mission Valley …

“These stories are not mine and I do not vouch for their accuracy.” That was the all-caps message in the Instagram bio of East Coast craft brewer Brienne Allan, as she used the platform to share …

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 …

Here’s a surprising add to the list of things I never expected to do: agree to pay $18 for a cheeseburger, in Imperial Beach. Moments later, another: add a $10 side of fries. And, no, …

Could lightning in a bottle strike twice in the same strip mall? Back in late 2017, a small group, led by brother and sister Vinnie and Carol Pavan, co-founded Babe Kombucha. The craft kombucha maker …

Masks on, because I’m pretty sure this is what the CDC was talking about when it said vaccinated people could uncover in public spaces, except in crowded settings. It’s Saturday afternoon, and Liberty Station is …

In the Gaslamp, Fifth Avenue is still closed to traffic five evenings a week, including most of the day Saturday and Sunday. This has been happening since August, part of a bid to keep restaurants …

Now, some of you kids may be too young to remember, but there was a time when haze wasn’t the dominant characteristic of IPAs made in San Diego. See, this used to be a West …

On the approach to Jamul, Campo Road wends between tree and scrub-colored hill slopes, blithely rising and falling among rugged peaks and large clusters of boulders. Though fewer than 20 miles from the densest center …

This is a story I meant to write over a year ago, before I owned any masks. That’s roughly the time Tabu Shabu opened up in the North Park property that was the long, long …

I spotted the photo in a friend’s Twitter feed, and almost scrolled past. Another photo of a San Diego-rolled burrito, nothing new about that, right? But then the word lumpia caught my eye, and I …

Even if you’re a devoted San Diego beer fan, it wouldn’t be totally surprising if you were under the impression Align Brewing had closed its doors for good. Back in the spring of 2019, word …

After ten minutes waiting for the line in front of me to grow shorter, it occurs to me there are two distinct types of patient people. The first kind has what it takes to show …

Tuétano is the Spanish word for marrow, and bone marrow has a lot to do with the success of the San Ysidro taco shop, Tuetano Taqueria. Since opening in 2018, it’s been written about in …

There’s a conspicuous cocoa flavor running through the green mint ice cream, it’s nearly as rich as the chocolate chips scattered throughout. But behind the frozen dessert’s sweetness lurks the tonic burn of alcohol. Because …

It used to be a Grab & Go Subs shop, conveniently located between the freeway and the airport, making it easy to pick up sandwiches on your way to catch a flight. Now it’s a …

“How many times have I driven past this place?” I muttered to myself. Too many to count. A better question might be, “How long have I been missing out?” The answer to that, I now …

What I considered a failure of April weather, my wife took for an opportunity to visit a tried and true staple for lunch. So with gray clouds firmly fixed over a cool, windy City Heights, …

One Season Brewing Co., San Diego’s newest nanobrewery, is now pouring — inside a small Grantville coffee roaster shop that sells bikes, skateboards, and house-made kombucha. About the only thing that could make the place …

“Try our smoked ribeye,” read the small, hand-painted sandwich board sign on the sidewalk out front. And if there’s any hand-painted sentiment more likely to win my attention, I can’t think of it. Which isn’t …

Count me among the many thousands of young transplants who, upon first arriving in San Diego, took a look around the city, and all it has to offer, and decided to settle first in Ocean …

Taylor Fields started small in 2018, parking her compact Nostalgia Coffee trailer at weekly outdoor markets and corporate campuses, to sell coffee by the cup. The former CPA says she “decided to leave the audit …

I’d gotten word about a spot in Chula Vista where food trucks gather daily outside a third-party DMV registration shop. And, sure enough, one day I found myself just a couple blocks away from the …

What I learned this week is that soup dumplings will get me out of the house. For months, I’ve been eating mostly at home, opting for take-out and a little bit of outdoor dining. But, …

Professional sports have returned to San Diego, and beer and spirit sponsorships have returned with them. Although we’re all accustomed to seeing “tastes great, less filling” ads during televised games, and light beer logos on …

They didn’t know it at the time, but Alexandra Garcia and Jorge Santillan were about to start a ghost kitchen. Garcia had lost her cooking job to the pandemic. She wanted to open her own …

A couple of youngsters I know were on spring break and asked if they could go out for a special treat. Muffins. Granted, I haven’t been a kid for quite a while now, but I …

Whichever cuisine they serve, planned restaurants that went ahead and opened after the pandemic started deserve a special kind of acclaim. The business is notoriously tough under normal circumstances — well publicized studies contend as …

Right about now, I’m supposed to be indoor dining somewhere and reporting how great it feels that we’re trending back toward normalcy. But not so fast! Yes, restaurant owners and their bottom lines may be …

San Diego’s wine industry had its best year ever in 2019, $46.2 million in gross sales marked a nearly 13 percent increase over 2018. Then came 2020. A year of pandemic closings and service restrictions …

Birria must be rising in popularity around San Diego, because it’s gotten easier, not harder, to find the stewed meat dish during the pandemic. Mainly, we’re talking about Tijuana-style beef birria (Jalisco, the Mexican state …

A pandemic has tested our collective love/hate relationships with delivery apps — enough at times to warrant government intervention. But before we all decide (or decide not to) return to indoor dining this spring, I …

Back in 2016, the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians established a 15-barrel craft brewery on its reservation near Valley Center. Called SR76 Beerworks, the brewery and tasting room operated alongside the Rincon Harrah’s casino. The …

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 know indoor dining is supposed to be back, but some outdoor dining options are just too good to give up. Like one I recently checked out in Normal Heights. I’d driven by Ska Bar …