San Diego Craft Beer & Cocktail Showcase at El Dorado
Downtown cocktail lounge hosts 12 breweries, 6 cocktail bars, and music for an indoor/outdoor
Craft drinks are all the rage these days, and to celebrate America’s Finest City’s finest beverages, prominent craft cocktail lounge (suspenders and all) El Dorado will be hosting the San Diego Craft Beer & Cocktail Showcase on Saturday, August 3. …
Hora Feliz in Logan Heights
Chiquibaby’s has tostilocos, cerveza, serious company, Mexican-style
“Have one.” It’s Luciano. He’s sitting with a bucketful of Dos Equis. I’ve just sat up at the bar. He’s at the next table, under the peg board scattered with pictures of past parties here. He’s already opening a bottle …
Pomegranate gets everything right
University Heights Russian restaurant has great food and sets the gold standard for warm and friendly service.
Pomegranate Russian Georgian Restaurant’s long history has been spotted with ups, downs, rave reviews, and weird moves. There was the time the restaurant (2312 El Cajon Blvd, 619-298-4007) stopped taking credit cards, favoring an ATM in the dining room to …
North Park: The pub that makes its own mustard
The Ritual looks Goth from the outside but is all green inside
Can French fries be a delicious meal on their own? When they come with habanero hot sauce made from, uh, carrots, and home-made mustard, yes. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/27/48242/ I’m sitting up to the counter here at Ritual Tavern with the sun streaming …
Piacere Mio open in South Park
New cafe on Fern Street presses up some wicked panini.
The cafe at 1947 Fern Street (across the street from South Park Abbey) got a slick, Italian makeover six weeks back and reopened as Piacere Mio, Italian for “my pleasure.” http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/27/48217/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/27/48218/ Formerly, the space housed a different coffee shop, …
Sudden closure of 25Forty Bistro and Bakehouse
Bad business relationships at one of Old Town's coolest restaurants caused unexpected and immediate shutdown.
After working 90 hours a week for four years, Mark Pelliccia feels like he has nothing to show for it. After years of toil at 25Forty Bistro and Bakehouse, he claims he was close to clearing the restaurant’s debts and …
Ice creams morph into smoothies in Coronado!
Power outage has MooTime on a short leash
Leroy Mossel stands watching his profits drain away. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/26/48196/ "The longer this goes on, the cheaper they'll get." He's talking about his ice creams. (They're made every night on the island. Start at $3.99 a scoop.) http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/26/48197/ "Pretty soon, you …
The Works Pizza
Mission Valley pizza place isn't fancy, but the slices are good and the beer is cold.
I’ve been wanting to get to The Works Pizza (5608 Mission Center Road, 619-296-1400), but it was like being on a wild goose chase. There has got to be a smarter way to give mall stores addresses. The Works is …
South Park's Buona Forchetta: See and be scene!
At last: A real sidewalk terrazza in 'Diego
On February 13th this year, Ian Pike reviewed Buona Forchetta (3001 Beech Street, South Park, 619-381-4844), and got into the sacred issues of what authentic pizza should be. That’s always been a total mystery to me. But in this case …
Barbecue 81 and American Voodoo set to open
July should be a good month for University Heights, with two restaurants coming after prolonged construction periods.
I don’t always cover restaurant openings, mostly because the hype machine doesn’t need my help to keep on rolling. For two places under construction in University Heights, however, I am genuinely excited. July should be a tasty month in UH! …
Donut Bar: Comfort food central?
This time, success! But is success excess?
“Oh my. Oh wow. You’re okay, Bedford, but this is the real thing.” Carla’s working her way through most of the two donuts I got for us to share when I went back to Donut Bar, the new place at …
7th annual Caesar Salad Festival in Tijuana
As a follow-up to setting the Guinness record for the world's largest Caesar salad, about 20 restaurants will prepare the traditional dish at a free street festival.
Yesterday, the Reader's in-house appetite Ed Bedford posted a thorough history of the Caesar salad, which – to make it brief – was popularized in Tijuana by an Italian cook (he picked it up from his mother) at Caesar’s Restaurant …
Broke Girls Coffee Bar open in Normal Heights
Adams Avenue coffee shop has punk rock sensibilities and a love of tasty miniaturized pies.
A word to the wise: the name of Normal Height’s new “Broke Girls Coffee Bar” (3562 Adams Avenue, 619-546-8302) abbreviates to BGCB as a play on the former New York City nightclub (CBGB), not the fashion design group (BCBG)! I …
Collab Pop-Up Dinner: a foodie's homage to family-style Tijuana-Chinese street food
Chef Ernesto Jimenez MacFarland and collaborators explore new twists on the old ties between Chinese and Mexican cuisine.
With all the attention that the eclectic fusion fare known as Baja Med has been getting lately, it’s easy to overlook one of the most enduring (if not understated) culinary influences in Mexico: Chinese food. Chinese immigrants came to Northern …
Happy hour at Cafe 21
North Park restaurant excels with happy hour tapas deals.
It’s really a shame that I didn’t get to include Cafe 21’s “happiest hour” in the Reader happy hour issue. Either I didn’t know about it or the menu hadn’t been launched in time for the story--maybe a combination of …
Stanley Cup fever: cheers, chews, boos, booze
At downtown's Stout, $2 sliders and hockey finals have fans coming in droves
“YESS!” Andrea and Alli scream it out with the rest of the pub. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/18/47673/ They're backing Boston and the Bruins have just scored their first snazzy goal against the Chicago Blackhawks in game 3 of the playoffs for the Stanley …
Downtown donut: hole lotta gourmet going on
New place sells out so quick, you've got to get there by daylight, practically
“Sold out.” Whack? It’s written clear across the window of this new donut place I’ve run across on B Street downtown. Okay, it is in the afternoon. But not that late. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/17/47617/ I have to go in. “We usually run …
Brunch at Heights Tavern
Normal Heights bar opens for brunch. Neighborhood hipsters have not had to run for cover.
The Heights Tavern (3377 Adams Avenue, 619-501-3455) has has made a solid bid to stick around and become a part of Normal Heights. At first, the rabble roused themselves over the presence of a second True North opening Uptown. For …
Bad service in San Diego
The standard for service in San Diego is lower than it should be and diners need to stand up for themselves.
Since I started reviewing restaurants for the Reader, the only thing I’ve received hate mail over has been my tendency to call out bad servers and poor service. I’ve gone so far as to say that the standards for service …
Please come to San Diego, Iron Press.
Orange County waffle sandwich restaurant is doing it right, so why not come to San Diego?
So, I was in Costa Mesa last weekend and I just happened to notice the Iron Press (3321 Hyland Ave, 714-426-8088). Installed in a bourgeois, OC mall and surrounded by corporate offices on all sides, it’s not like the restaurant …
Country invades City (Heights)! Nate's Garden Grill
Here you never eat alone. You're surrounded by trees, chickens, turkeys, goats, horse, future salads, and raving locovores.
Walking – again. This time up Home Avenue. Seeking out the holy grail of locovore cooking. That’s what I’ve been told, anyway. Also that this place’s happy hour – four to six – has real deals with flatbreads and a …
San Diego House Coffee and Tea Shop
Anybody who likes flavored coffee would do well to make a trip to Old Town.
In some ways, Old Town is a weird, quasi-Mexican Disneyland soaked in overpriced and underpowered margaritas. We go around it at all costs, leaving the curios historicity to the tourists. But Old Town doesn’t totally suck! Harney Sushi is OK …
Thai Island: Leaping shrimp!
Tom Yum Kung means yummy shrimp in a soup that should bristle with both kinds of heat
I’m always in search of the Perfect Tom Yum Kung. Last I had of this spicy sour lemony soup was at Bahn Thai up on Park, near Adams. Pretty zippy and hot, that one. Of course my favorite is the …
Toma Sol reborn as wine bar
Mission Hills cafe gets a makeover, adds some booze into the mix, and changes for the better.
Talk about reinventing yourself: Toma Sol Cafe up and decided to forego the coffee shop lifestyle and transform into a wine bar! Newly minted “Toma Sol Tavern” (301 W. Washington Street, 619-291-1159) is a substantial change from the old business. …
San Diego's Top 6 Ethiopian Restaurants
The final tally of Ethiopian restaurants following one, hungry writer's attempt to eat at them all.
If I learned one thing from Tour de Cheesesteak, it’s that people demand a reckoning. It’s a tough thing to give out. Every restaurant has its strengths and weaknesses, and deciding which of those makes one place “better” than another …
Chula Vista: Skins + artichokes = dinner
Happy hour at the BullsEye Bar can get messy
“Try one,” says my bar buddy. He shoves the chalice with half a dozen shrimp curled around its rim. A ketchup bowl sits on the bed of ice inside, along with the slice of lemon. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jun/07/47008/ I do. The little …
Ethiopia, San Diego, Part Six: Awash Restaurant
Stop six of the Ethiopian project is in Talmadge at a second restaurant named Awash, nicer than the first.
Silly me, thinking there was only one Ethiopian restaurant named “Awash!” Turns out there is another, much further out El Cajon Boulevard, at number 4997, to be exact, right next to the Last Call bar, where they serve discount shots …
Barrio Logan: Phish followers' fab elixir
Roxy's Rockin' Grill does juices, feeds Phish fans
Oh no. Passing along National Avenue. Come to the big orange barn where they have the San Diego Public Market. This is before ten in the morning. But it's like "Honey I Shrunk the Market." Only one of the two …
Ethiopia, San Diego, Part Five: Asmara
Back to City Heights for another tasty Eritrean/Ethiopian dinner in an ugly bunker of a building.
After Tour de Cheesesteak, a mere five days of consecutive Ethiopian food is nothing. Nothing, I say! I could do this forever. With a spring in my step, I set out for City Heights and Asmara Restaurant (4155 University Avenue, …
First Look: Magnolia Tap & Kitchen
Southern comfort installed in former Bare Back space downtown
Chris Reid knew he wanted his own bar and restaurant. He considered a number of potential locations, but when the spot downtown near the corner of Sixth Avenue and E Street opened up, that was that. It would be his…and …
Cowboy Star: Tender is the bite
East Village choice: An $82 steak, or happy hour?
It stands opposite the Grocery Outlet, that new cheap-cheap grocery chain on Market Street that sells discontinued stock at cut prices so you really can buy cheap eats. But don’t expect that here at Cowboy Star and Butcher Shop (640 …
Ethiopia, San Diego, Part Four: Muzita
A trip to University Heights' upscale Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurant of note offers sharp contrasts with other restaurants featured in this tour.
Muzita Abyssinian Bistro (4651 Park Boulevard, 619-546-7900) in University Heights isn’t an Ethiopian restaurant per se. It’s more Eritrean. Eritrea borders Ethiopia and the two countries share much in the way of culture and cuisine. For hundreds of years, the …