Every year, when we open up voting for Best of San Diego (BOSD), we’re never quite sure what we’ll get. A thousand opinions on where to obtain your haircut, your morning açai bowl, or your sense of inner peace. Heated debates over the best karaoke bars and surf breaks. A heartfelt defense of the neighborhood bookstore with the cat who sits on the register.
The result is this issue, the annual guide to the city from locals’ eyes. But every year, when we step back and take a look at it all, it always tells a bigger story.
It’s a portrait of who we are, what we value, and how we show up. We’re a city of shop owners who know your kid’s name, of bartenders whose vibe should be listed as an ingredient in that drink because you know it so well by now. It’s that sidewalk with two initials carved into it. Each place and person in this issue is a snapshot in time, a declaration of commitment.
In highlighting what’s “best,” we’re not just spotlighting individual talent. We’re tracing the invisible threads between us. Because when you vote for your favorite place, you’re really voting for the way it makes you feel. Known. Welcomed. Inspired. A little more like you belong.
Maybe BOSD isn’t just a collection of things we love about this city. Maybe it’s the act of showing up. Of bringing people together. Just peruse the tales of how some of our readers met their best friends—on dance floors, at the beach, at San Diego State, in their own childhood neighborhood. These places are more than coordinates on a map. They’re the backdrop of what brings meaning to our lives: human connection.
That’s what any great city does. It creates spaces—physical, emotional, philosophical—where people can find their people. Where a shared laugh in a museum lobby or a nod on a canyon trail or a collective exhale in a yoga class reminds us we’re not on our own here.
There’s something powerful in that.
San Diego Magazine is the great hall of stories. Because a culture is built on two things: good people with worthy ideas and stories about those people and ideas. So, yes, this issue is about winners. But it’s also about belonging. To neighborhoods. To traditions. To innovation and reinvention. And most of all, to each other. We tell these stories so that they’ll live, and we live to tell these stories.
In a world that moves fast and asks a lot of us, the people and places that make us feel connected are worth celebrating. They anchor us. They give us reason to linger. To talk to strangers. To toast for no reason other than the fact that it’s Tuesday and we’re here.
I’d like to also raise a glass to the record-breaking number of businesses who made this issue possible. Your belief in this city and in the value and power of these pages is the reason we’re still here. Thank you for trusting us. For investing in local storytelling. For believing that community is worth building and supporting. This issue is not only a guide to San Diego’s favorite places—it’s a testament to the thriving ecosystem of local businesses and bold entrepreneurs who continue to shape our home.
The city is a lot of things. It’s sunny, sure. It’s laidback, mostly. It’s passionate about its hiking trails. It’s a city full of friction and momentum and grit and grace. A city that contains multitudes. But more than anything, it’s yours.
Thanks for being part of it. Thanks for being weird and wonderful and wildly opinionated about your favorite dance studio, doula, and dog walker. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Cheers to a city that keeps choosing connection, even when sometimes it’s easier not to. We’re glad you’re here.
