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IanPike's avatar

Ian Pike

Ian Pike is a Reader contributor. See staff page for published articles.

Profile Activity Comments Votes

Barbecue 81 and American Voodoo set to open

Yup. That's the one. Not much to see so far and we're stuck in speculation land.
— June 21, 2013 12:15 p.m.

Donut Bar: Comfort food central?

You gotta ask yourself about stuff like this, is it 3X better than a donut from Golden?
— June 21, 2013 8:25 a.m.

Grant Hill: I’ll take my burgers stuffed

Also, this stuffed burger thing is classic midwestern comfort food. Ask the average Minesooooootan to tell you how great a "juicy loosey" is sometime. He'll prolly melt with glee.
— June 20, 2013 7:24 p.m.

Grant Hill: I’ll take my burgers stuffed

Urban Chicken was cool, but this place is way more rad. The burgers can be super good. That guy Mark was at Cafe Delano, the tapas place in Hillcrest that was open for all of two weeks before shuttering and remaining under construction *ad infinitum.* Guess the kitchen staff must have bailed.
— June 20, 2013 7:21 p.m.

Bad service in San Diego

There is some validity in arguing that paying people a "living wage" increases job satisfaction and performance and you're not the first to make it. Here in San Diego, I'd say that restaurant servers make *better* wages, on average, than servers in many other cities. In many states, restaurants can pay servers the better part of two dollars an hour, relying on customer tips to make up the difference between that sum and a living wage. In California, State labor laws mandate that servers earn at least minimum wage regardless of tips. In lots of places, senior servers earn above minimum wage *plus* any tips they earn on service. This generous pay scale means that the wage gap between back of the house and front of the house staff is even wider in San Diego than it is in other cities. Plus, restaurant owners have to deal with much steeper labor costs than their counterparts in cities with less restrictive labor laws. I'm not here to argue the merits (or lack thereof) of high hourly wages for servers, but I do think that it deflates the argument that servers are underpaid and therefore not motivated to excel.
— June 20, 2013 11:34 a.m.

Bad service in San Diego

Thank you very much.
— June 20, 2013 11:24 a.m.

Bad service in San Diego

Million-dollar-question, Yorque! There are so many small factors at work--everything from attitude to poor training--that this whole problem is endemic and overdetermined. For a lot of these restaurants, good food and poor service equates to a mediocre experience. Even if the food stayed merely good, adding excellent service to the mix would improve the experiences tremendously. An guy I know (who has been known to have great ideas) always says that "you can't make people like food." What he means is that even if you do your best to cook good food, a certain percentage of people just aren't going to like it because it's not to their taste. Those people can nevertheless have a good experience at a restaurant if they're made to feel welcome and graciously served.
— June 18, 2013 3:21 p.m.

Happy hour at Cafe 21

Identical! Get to it, Bedford. It's right up your alley. You won't have a problem eating an entire dinner's worth of good food at HH prices.
— June 18, 2013 2:58 p.m.

Bad service in San Diego

I get where you're coming from. You probably have this vision of me as the uptight food snob, a California version of the guy from *Ratatouille,* or maybe a kind wannabe Jeffrey Steingarten, but I'm quite the opposite. If anything, I'm overly nice. Where the stereotypical critic finds fault, I look for the "delight" in everything--probably a holdover from taking writing workshops and trying to help people tease the little bits of greatness out of their stories rather than eviscerating rough drafts to the point that souls are crushed and the writers never look at the story again with any love. Nevertheless, giving the benefit of the doubt to imperfection is very, very different from overlooking grossly negligent service!
— June 18, 2013 10:46 a.m.

Bad service in San Diego

I wouldn't say that our no worries attitude is *entirely* to blame, but I really do think it's a part of it, just taken to an extreme. As for URBN, the restau isn't defined by this one moment of terrible service, but it certainly doesn't help their cause. Their "buy a pitcher get a pizza" happy hour deal is one of the best buys in North Park. Paying full price for a meal there, on the other hand, risks running up a steep bill for some dismissive service.
— June 18, 2013 10:37 a.m.

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Chris Ahrens Ian Anderson Thomas K. Arnold Eric Bartl Don Bauder Ed Bedford Siobhan Braun Robert Bush Chad Deal Joe Deegan Barbarella Fokos Leorah Gavidor Dave Good Marty Graham Moss Gropen Andrew Hamlin Dorian Hargrove Garrett Harris Ken Harrison Patrick Henderson Tam Hoang Eve Kelly Dryw Keltz Eva Knott Thomas Larson Ken Leighton Matthew Lickona Mike Madriaga Bill Manson Scott Marks Bob McPhail Walter Mencken Joseph O'Brien Sheila Pell Ian Pike Matt Potter H.G. Reza Dave Rice Elizabeth Salaam Jay Allen Sanford Julie Stalmer DJ Stevens Matthew Suárez Amanda Tascher
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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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