left Wired magazine to run a drone company here in San Diego.
That’s right—the editor-in-chief of a big, glossy Condé Nast title gave up his chiefhood to move here and build a business with our very own 26-year-old robotics hobbyist, Jordi Muñoz. Visit 3drobotics.com to learn more about their genius, direct-to-consumer (yes, we said consumer) drones.
Jason Russell and Oprah
sail boat
Guilain GRENIER
3 because we have the best sailors in the world!
Qualifying rounds are this month and three San Diego Yacht Clubbers are already in the new Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, representing the best skippers on the planet.
4 Because our big publically traded companies aren’t run by a bunch of suits. They’re run by people who run.
Last year, 247 Active Network employees in Sorrento Valley raised more than $43,000 (via various runs and triathlons) for local charities like Challenged Athletes Foundation—and they probably burned about ten gazillion calories while doing it.
5 Because every fifth-grader in THIS TOWN is carrying a school-issued iPad.
Well, sort of. The SD Unified School District bought 20,000 iPads last year, and we’re betting we’ll produce an entire future generation of Jordi Muñozes (see #1).
6 Because, thanks to CalPac and Ted Vallas, you no longer have to drive 35 miles south to go 300 miles northeast.
Vallas will launch his new airline with four spiffy planes that fly direct from our own North County airport, McClellan-Palomar, to Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose, Sac-town, and soon Cabo.
27 Reasons to Love SD Now
8 Because in a zip code where the high school graduation rate is 54 percent, Gompers Academy’s class of 2012 had a 100 percent graduation rate.
And furthermore: 100 percent of those graduates applied and were accepted to two- or four-year colleges.
9 Because we love our beaches enough to upgrade the sand quality.
SANDAG just finished dredging up sand through a huge tube from the bottom of the bay, treating it, and then moving it to area beaches to replenish the sand stash.
10 Because we run like someone’s chasing us, and we like it.
We’ve got 5Ks for fans of zombies, mud, paint, lasers, dogs, cancer survivors, beer, ’80s flashbacks, and turkeys. So what are you waiting for? Lace up those Nikes and giddyup.
running
11 Because our startups get more coin than startups in other cities.
While the rest of the nation’s cities have declined in venture capital funds year after year, we
just keep raising. (Hey, $958 million in the first three quarters of 2012 can’t be wrong.)
shipment of bananas
13 Because we don’t just stand up for the the wrongly incarcerated, we walk 600 miles.
On April 27, 2013, Justin Brooks of the California Innocence Project is staging a march from San Diego to Sacramento to ask the governor for clemency for some of the group’s clients. One such client, Edward Contreras, convicted of first-degree felony murder, has served 15 years so far (sentenced to life without parole), but is stuck behind bars because, even though a witness admitted to lying to police, the judge won’t reverse the decision.
14 Because, like it or not, we are the yoga capital of America.
Whether it’s Vanity Fair citing Encinitas as one of the birthplaces of Ashtanga Yoga in the West, or Encinitas schools making waves for teaching yoga to elementary students, hey, at least we’ve got people breathing.
15 Because our reality stars are not tragic. They’re HOT.
16 Because it doesn’t take a pro sports team to give us champions.
After coming from behind a 21-o lead, the Madison High School football team rallied for 31 points to beat Kentfield’s Marin Catholic and claim the first state championship football title in the history of the entire San Diego Unified School District. Go Warhawks! And after just five years in existence, the Tijuana Xolos (adopted by thousands who watched in San Diego) won Mexico’s national fútbol title.
27 Reasons to Love SD Now
17 Because on a two-block stretch in North Park, you can get a haircut, learn karate, cash a check, repair your radiator, drink craft brews, party with drag queens, pray with a bishop, pawn some jewelry, attend a children’s musical, and buy flowers for the lead in that musical.
North Park
Big Front Door open-face turkey sandwich
Erin Jackson
21 Because we have goals.
While we may have our issues, we keep trying to overcome them. On our to-do list:
Spay or neuter 5,000 animals by June! —Dr. Gary Weitzman, prez and CEO of the San Diego Humane Society
End homelessness. —Mayor Bob Filner
Make SD a world-class bike city. —Samantha Ollinger, executive director and board president of BikeSD
Become known for great American theater. —Barry Edelstein, Old Globe artistic director
Develop the first mixed-use block, anchored by a major technology and design company, of a 93-acre cluster known as the I.D.E.A. District (Innovation-Design-Education-Arts) in East Village. —David Malmuth and Peter Garcia
Get Balboa Park in shape by 2015. —Todd Gloria, San Diego City Council President (District 3)
Find and fix six major water quality problems in San Diego. —San Diego Coastkeeper’s Waterkeeper Jill Witkowski
Make 201 affordable housing units a reality in National City. —Environmental Health Coalition policy advocate Carolina Martinez
Ensure the city approves the Community Plan Update for Barrio Logan so that children can breathe clean air. —Environmental Health Coalition Campaign director Georgette Gomez
Break another Bike to Work Day record by getting 12,000 people cycling to work on May 17. —San Diego County Bicycle Coalition executive director Andy Hanshaw
Become the healthiest state by 2022. —“Let’s Get Healthy California” Task Force
19 Because we’re inventive.
In 2010, our city logged 231 patent applications per 100,000 residents!
20 Because we throw our Zoo animals flippin’ birthday parties.
If we were lions, we would want to live in San Diego. The folks at the Zoo threw 9-year-old Izu a birthday bash fit for the king of the jungle. Cake. Decorations. A press release. Maybe it was that $9 million anonymous donation? Whatever it is, we’re happy to report that with lavish parties like this, the world-famous San Diego Zoo is living up to its rep and making us more than just a dog-friendly city. We’re lion-friendly, too.
zoo animals
22 Because we really are the “hoppiest place on earth.”
Beer bottling
There are more craft breweries in the United States now than ever in our history; the craft brewing industry is growing at a rate of more than 10 percent per year, while traditional beer sales are falling. Everyone from Time magazine to The New York Times has named San Diego as the cultural heart of
. Not to mention, San Diego brewers won six Gold medals at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival and another 16 medals, including six Gold, at the 2012 World Beer Cup.
San Diego muras
27 Reasons to Love SD Now
25 Because we’re helping to make space tourism a reality.
Physician-scientists Ravi Komatireddy and Paddy Barrett at the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla are working with NASA to prepare future tourists for space. Since the 500 travelers who’ve signed up for Virgin Galactic suborbital flights probably won’t be quite as fit as real astronauts, Komatireddy and Barrett are making sure that the Average Joe’s meds and pacemakers will work in zero gravity. And because of these tests, they’ll pave the way for the space tourism industry to hit $1 billion in 2021.
26 Because Interstate 8 now looks like a video game, with its huge multicolor decals on the westbound lanes headed for the Interstate 5 interchange.
Tourists, if you’re going to the beach, stay left, for Pete’s sake! The rest of us are trying to get to work downtown.
27 Because we attract some of the most creative talent in the country.
ÂPeople using cross streets in conversation (“1100 Fifth Avenue between B and C streets” or “On Via de la Valle at El Camino Real” would help, big time).
ÂBetter, cheaper taxi service.
A return of the Barneys Co-Op at Fashion Valley, plus a Zara at Westfield UTC. And a Miu Miu store (anywhere!).
ÂRe-legalizing alcoholic beverages at the beach.
More mom-friendly public places, like the women’s lounges at Nordstrom.
I spent time in a hot dog stand on the edge of San Diego Bay, looking out a window that mattered. Mattered to a kid whose mom taught him to fish on this pier. They’d turn on a little transistor radio, find a signal through the static, stare at the water, and talk life and his dad. Dennis Borlek’s dad was out there, somewhere, commanding a naval submarine through god knows what. When his dad would dock in Point Loma weeks or months later, Borlek biked down the street along Shelter Island to see him and steal back stolen moments.
Later, Borlek helped midwife the craft beer scene, managing seminal spots like Small Bar and Liar’s Club. Wondering what to do with the rest of his life, he went back to that pier and saw a for-lease sign on the bait and tackle shop. He tore through the public library and spent the whole night learning how to write a business plan (he had no clue). A couple days later he found himself at the intimidating end of a massive conference table, pitching his dream to the very official Port of San Diego executives.
They gave it to the San Diego kid. Not sure if they ever imagined Fathom Bistro—the tiniest, mightiest craft beer and hot dog stand, filled with spear guns, ocean monster figures, and seafaring oddities—would still be there 13 years later, let alone be a local’s favorite. It’s the most San Diego place in the world. Borlek taught himself to make kimchi and puts it on his Explodo Dog. His friend Kevin, who played with him in a punk band, dresses as a pirate and works the door on weekends. Has done so for years.
And when Borlek stares out the window, he can see the sub base and the memories of his dad.
Courtesy of Wayfarer Bread
Later, a few beach towns over, I sat in an employee break area—a shaded back-alley alcove with grape vines that serves as an escape garden for the crew. The place used to be a taco shop. Owner Crystal White points to a window of a single bedroom behind the dough-mixing part of the kitchen. She lived there when she started, often finding herself on the roof at midnight, staring at a broken compressor, trying to will it into working.
A blue-collar kid who fell in love with bread, she moved to San Diego with a business plan and zero cash. Banks don’t loan money to bread dreamers. Fate, kismet, and door-knocking found her enough investors. In the weeks leading up to opening that dream—perfect croissants, kouign-amanns, sandwiches, pizzas, baguettes fermented with wild La Jolla yeasts—she was outside hammering and painting. Locals would pause to ask what she was putting into the spot. “A bakery!” she’d reply.
“Oh, we don’t need one of those,” they’d say. Eight years later, White has moved out of the bedroom, and Wayfarer Bread is one of the best bakeries in the land. I ask if she’ll ever open another location. “I grew up dirt poor,” she says. “This has surpassed even my wildest dreams. This is enough. Please make sure you mention Emma Koehler, K-O-E-H-L-E-R, my kitchen manager. She deserves the credit now.”
These are the people and the stories behind “Best Restaurants.” This issue is dedicated to them, the culture they’ve gritted into being. On the surface, the annual tradition—naming a list of “winners,” my favorite places and my honest answers to “who has the best taco/pizza/Thai…”—is a good-natured competition among friends. But the deeper point is that it’s a way to highlight hundreds of places that have risked it all to build a little magic across the city. Sure, some owners were born in the stars and used that dust to make more stars. But many or most restaurants started with a scrappy go-getter or two. And now those places are filled with dozens or hundreds of people who love the work, show up day in and day out, for years. People like Koehler and the ones we feature in our story, “Behind the Line”.
So please use this list as a beachhead. Try these places, email me ([email protected]) to say “thanks” or “you truly messed up.” Eat, drink, commune, say hello, get to know the stories of the people making your favorite food. Make your own list, and share it with us.
(Note: Fathom didn’t win anything, probably because there’s no category for “Best Hot Dog Craft Beer Stand on a Pier with a Pirate,” which is a shortcoming on our part. So I put him here because he should be a part of any conversation about best San Diego things.)
Troy Johnson is the magazine’s award-winning food writer and humorist, and a long-standing expert on Food Network. His work has been featured on NatGeo, Travel Channel, NPR, and in Food Matters, a textbook of the best American food writing.
Your cup of coffee shows up exactly how you like it. The fully booked restaurant suddenly has a table. The last-minute, once-in-a-lifetime experience somehow comes together without a hitch. In the world of hospitality at top resorts, there’s an iceberg of scrupulous planning for each guest.
A concierge is in charge of that iceberg. There’s even an award for the best in the world: the Les Clefs d’Or Young Leader Award. It’s a months-long, multi-stage process with interviews, tests, and international competition, culminating at a global congress. Each member country only gets one nominee. Representing the US this year? Simona Marciulaityte from San Diego.
As Chef Concierge at Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa—a Relais & Châteaux retreat with Forbes Five-Star and AAA Five Diamond, a highly accoladed place with commiserate expectations—Marciulaityte is equal parts doer, fixer, and project manager for guests’ sometimes wild travel dreams.
“We see hospitality as theatre,” she explains. “There are a lot of moving parts, but when we arrive to the stage, it’s always with grace and a performance to create an incredible experience for the guests.”
That impossible-to-get reservation with custom cake and balloons at the table? She’s already texted three people. A guest calling on their way to the Zoo requesting a VIP-tour in 15 minutes? Booked in seven. The usual ‘Hey can you schedule me an appointment with Hermès to buy a $30K Birkin bag and plan my proposal in Italy’ request? Oddly specific, true story—and fully handled.
Courtesy of Rancho Valencia
“Great concierge work truly begins long before a guest ever steps on property,” Marciulaityte says. “Who is traveling, notes from prior visits, special occasions, and dining history help me understand the nature of the stay. For new guests, I read between the lines: the questions they ask, the pace they seem to want, the kinds of experiences they gravitate toward.
“Curation draws on something that can’t be replicated by a search engine. It’s years of genuine relationship-building with partners across San Diego and beyond.”
Nearly a decade ago, Marciulaityte was juggling life as a personal stylist at Nordstrom and hostess/server at Brian Malarkey’s Herringbone and Searsucker. After working an event for the San Diego Concierge Association, she had a moment of clarity: “I remember thinking, oh my god—this is exactly what I want to do.”
Being a part of Les Clefs d’Or grants entry to a global network of concierges who operate like a very discreet, very efficient hotline (“In service through friendship,” as their motto goes). When local super-chef Tara Monsoud was nominated for a James Beard, Marciulaityte worked with the SD Concierge Association and Le Coq to send flowers and photos to Chicago where the chef was staying.
“It’s not only guests—we hope to touch everyone with our concierge magic.”
Lili Kim is a content coordinator and writer for San Diego Magazine, with experience highlighting local businesses and communities. When not writing or shooting film, she is likely brewing her seventh cup of tea of the day or strolling along Sunset Cliffs.
At the top of a golf swing, the world settles into a hush. Anyone within 50 yards kindly shuts up in reverence. Steady heartbeats tuck inside the sound of the wind. Time stands still.
Or—panic sets in, a thousand warnings from coaches and YouTube tutorials prattle through your brainpan. You wonder if a good walk prepares to be ruined.
On descent, the club rearranges air particles as it slices on a perfect or unwise line toward an earth so green, it seems like AI. The iron face meets the ball, and the satisfying or unsettling thwack echoes across the fairway like a nonviolent gunshot or a cry for help. Breath catches, curse words load in the prefrontal cortex. Eyes squint to follow the hard-to-see projectile zip majestically through the air or bounce lamely along the ground like a failed hurdler.
Sometimes it goes a couple hundred yards in the right direction, other times a couple yards into uncaring swamps. Golf’s beautiful and hard as hell.
Mindfulness and stillness reign over speed and might—which goes against most basal American instincts regarding sport. Its quiet, serene mocking of our human abilities is what brings so many of us to the life-long process of sharpening the skill. Because who hasn’t stared at the most beautiful parks and lawns in the world and said, “How can I turn this into a game and win it?”
Luckily, San Diego has an abundance of courses to improve and curate self-doubt. The county is home to over 70 courses that attract the top golfers in the country. Some of the biggest names in the sport—Callaway, TaylorMade, Cobra, Titleist, Odyssey, Honma—are based here. Perfect weather never hurts. But San Diego golf courses also promise a smorgasbord of terrains: rocky canyons, hot deserts, and lush greens overlooking the expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
If you could take the 1,300-ish holes around San Diego and pick the very best ones to create your ultimate course, which would they be? We asked some of the top golf pros in the county to do just that. The result? San Diego’s Dream 18. Think fantasy football but for golf.
Just like any great course, our Dream 18 includes four par 3s, 10 par 4s, and four par 5s—everything from tricky dog legs and psychological tee shots to just pretty, pretty views. Once we had our list, we either asked the head golf pro what makes a hole so special, or other pros spoke on its behalf. Go ahead, tell us what we missed.
“One of the most iconic par 3s on the West Coast. The cliffside setting above the Pacific and the constant ocean breeze make it both beautiful and demanding.”
—Anthony Valverde, Director of Golf, The Crosby Club atRancho Santa Fe
“It’s a downhill par 3 over water with a great view from the tee down to the green. It’s surrounded by bunkers as well, so it almost feels like an island green even though it’s not. What’s really cool is once you drive to the next hole, if you look back on No. 14, it’s a great view as well. One of the signature holes [at Santaluz].”
“Hole 15 is widely considered one of the best and most memorable holes on the course. At about 250 yards, it’s a long downhill with multiple tiers and panoramic views into the valley. It looks intimidating at first, but there are lots of recovery contours and the green is fairly large.”
“While it’s beautiful with the backdrop of the Batiquitos Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean, this finishing hole demands both precision and nerve. The water guarding the right side and fairway bunkers ahead create a visually striking, strategic tee shot, while the expansive green rewards a confident, well-placed approach. If you can make a par on this hole, you’ve played it very well.”
“The 18th hole at Del Mar CC is a demanding par 4 with an elevated tee box. Water guards the right side of the green, and a player must hit a precise shot into this green.”
“It’s a difficult 428-yard par 4 playing into the predominant west wind. The hole is post-renovation and the vegetation was trimmed back, so now it exposes a penalty on the right. It’s uncomfy at the tee but a good challenge. Plus, it’s the No. 1 handicap for [all players].”
—Chris Lungo, Head Golf Pro, Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club
Lili Kim is a content coordinator and writer for San Diego Magazine, with experience highlighting local businesses and communities. When not writing or shooting film, she is likely brewing her seventh cup of tea of the day or strolling along Sunset Cliffs.
Implementing a farm-to-table model hardly deserves acknowledgement these days. It’s not a stretch. It’s not innovative. “It’s the bare f**king minimum,” says Herb & Sea‘s executive chef Aidan Owens.
When I arrive at the Encinitas restaurant, I’m ready to talk sustainability, farm-to-table stuff, with Owens. “Did you see the chin on that?” he says of the extra big jiggly chin on the sheephead that just arrived with the day’s fresh catch. I did. It was Jay Leno adjacent.
I learn quickly that he somehow oozes both charm and stone-cold honesty. Maybe he could construct a new dish with chin goo, like he did when he had a bunch of tuna scraps and voila’d it into a smooth and crowd-pleasing ‘nduja. “I want to know what’s in there,” he says.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
The instinct to look closer, to dig into what others might discard, says a lot about the chef’s approach. I guide him back to our topic, but he has something else on his mind. “We’re overcomplicating food—what happened to just cooking good food and having fun with it?”
Owens grew up on a farm in Byron Bay, Australia, where sustainability wasn’t a concept you chat about so much as a way of life. Think dirt roads, backyard chickens, pulling vegetables straight from the ground, and a mother who believed that if you couldn’t pronounce the ingredients on a package, you shouldn’t eat what was inside.
Food wasn’t precious or performative. Making it was what you did because you were hungry and that’s still what inspires Owens today. “I like to cook good food because I like to eat good food,” he says.
His approach to sustainability at Herb & Sea began so naturally that it felt just like instinct. “I was just like, ‘Let’s order food from the people who live and work here,’” he says.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
And why wouldn’t he when lives in San Diego? Cities all over the world vie for our goods. Our tuna is sent overseas. Our spiny lobsters hit dinner plates in China and Japan. Not to mention California’s producing a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruits and nuts.
“Why would we outsource when it’s all here?” Owens asks.
Sustainability, in this context, is about cooking what exists in abundance, nearby, right now. “I love the local fish here. It’s f**king delicious and San Diego citrus, I mean, it is so f**ing good,” he says.
Instead of importing ingredients, Owens also looks for nearby alternatives. “You can find really cool things in the local waters,” he says, pointing out that stingray cheeks taste similar to scallops.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
Whatever he finds in that sheephead chin might just be the next substitute for marrow. But to make this work, it means getting diners amped up about the slightly unfamiliar.
Tasting menus, where diners are completely in his hands, become an opportunity to gently push boundaries. “I’ll serve mackerel, because people think they hate it,” Owens says, noting that the abundant local fish can have some fishiness. “But when it’s fresh, it’s arguably one of the best fish in the ocean.”
He also tweaks the language on the menu so people might feel more compelled to give dishes a try without preconceived notions. He might use “lengua” instead of “tongue.” “Whelk” instead of “snail.” When he puts “stingray throat” on the menu, he disarmingly calls it “skate.”
To reduce waste, scraps aren’t always discarded but rather turned into something new. Sometimes they’re smoked, cured or fermented. Apples going bad turn into apple ponzu. Lemons turn to marmalade, which stretches their usefulness far beyond peak season. “And it’s super tasty on our pizza,” he says.
What makes the food even richer, is the relationships he’s built with farmers. Though it didn’t always feel natural, Owens sought personal connection first. He recalls approaching a fisherman at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market. “I was awkward,” he says. “I went up to him and said, ‘I like your fish.’”
Owen’s is now so close to his suppliers—like fishermen Ryan Sebo and Joe Daly—that he gets texted pictures of fresh catches right as they flop on the boat. The messages always ask if he wants first dibs. “I say yes to a lot of fish,” Owens says, noting that Herb & Sea can go through 2,000 pounds of seafood a week.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
The next evolution of sustainability, in his view, will be chefs working directly with producers such as his alliance with Sebo, cutting out middlemen and purveyors where possible. “It will put more money in the pockets of the people doing the work,” he says.
It will mean that chefs can’t just know their local farmers and producers, but they’ll choose to work with the ones who have the best practices. Dining and sustainability will become much less about the final plate. “It will be more about the impact that plate has on the Earth,” he says.
Ultimately, he believes sustainability doesn’t need to be loud. It doesn’t need hashtags. It just needs to be honest.
“We aren’t saving lives. We’re feeding people good food,” he says.
And yet, in feeding people well—simply, thoughtfully, responsibly—something meaningful happens. Guests leave satisfied. Ingredients are respected. Local ecosystems are supported and food returns to what it has always been at its core: nourishment, pleasure, and a quiet reflection of the place it comes from.
There are many reasons an issue like this is a bad idea. Let’s focus on two.
First, AI can whip up something like this in a jiffy.
In 30 seconds, it can summon the data of the internet, scrape together the activities humans in a place called San Diego have publicly declared to have enjoyed, and spit out a biblical list of commonly recommended things. You want 20? Seven thousand? How many em-dashes? A lot?
Here’s why we do this anyway: AI can’t hear music.
Its throat doesn’t tighten with the rise of the symphony’s violins at Rady Shell. A song can’t remind them of their mom or a breakup. It can describe it using a data set of past descriptions of music, even rearrange those words in new ways. But AI can’t feel any of these things.
It never stood astounded beneath Salk Institute’s brutalist science castle and said, “This makes me feel so small and I like it.” It never felt the vibration of 20,000 Wave fans stomping and cheering in its chest, and the almost too-big emotion that massive energy creates when you feel it in person.
AI can describe an experience by corresponding words previously arranged around a human experience—but it can’t have an experience. It can list a place to visit, but it can’t process wonder. Only you and I can do that.
We have a basic set of analog tools that make us humans: sight, sound, smell, taste, feeling.
This issue was assembled using the wildly inefficient process of being humans in San Diego. To make this, we had to live here. We had to try things firsthand, over and over, learn the city’s nuances, adapt to its changes, experience its greatness and its meh-ness. We had to find parking, wait in line, pay too much, be impressed, be surprised, be disappointed, go back, and make judgment calls.
Then, as San Diego Magazine, we had to answer one question honestly: Would we recommend these things to a friend?
If the answer was yes, it made the list.
The second reason this issue was a bad idea is that 101 is not enough. San Diego isn’t a city you finish. It’s a place you keep discovering, revising, and arguing over. This list isn’t definitive. It is meant to be lived with, debated, dog-eared, and added to. It reflects the habits, quirks, guts, and glory that make this place feel like home.
So yes, on its face, this issue is a ridiculous idea.
And that’s our job: to pay attention and chronicle the unruly, specific, deeply human, and slower business of being alive in San Diego.
As editors of a regional magazine, we often get asked: What are the best things to do in San Diego? While that answer often involves our favorite taco spot, a definitive ranking of each neighborhood with age-specific notes (head to PB if you’re under 25, grab drinks in Del Mar if you’re over 35), and which surf breaks are friendly to visitors, we figured it’s high time to memorialize our handpicked recs. Below are 101 very human, very local, non-AI, actually experienced, sometimes weird, oddly specific things to do in San Diego.
Torch Heroes: Why San Diego’s Most Trusted Businesses Win by Doing the Right Thing
In a world overflowing with shortcuts, marketing fluff, and “good enough,” there are still companies that choose a different answer. And in San Diego, there are plenty of them.
In a world overflowing with shortcuts, marketing fluff, and “good enough,” there are still companies that choose a different answer.
Integrity guides how they show up every day. They make hard decisions, hold themselves accountable, and build trust the old-fashioned way, one action at a time. At the Better Business Bureau, we call these businesses Torch Heroes: leaders who demonstrate that ethical leadership strengthens businesses and drives long-term success.
And in San Diego, there are plenty of them.
Take House Collective Marketing Solutions, a Carlsbad-based digital agency that won the 2025 Torch Award for Ethics for its people-first approach to marketing. Instead of pushing flashy campaigns, the team often takes a step back to make sure clients’ foundations are strong before going big. Their philosophy? Truth over transaction builds partnerships that last.
Or look at Young Black & N’ Business, where integrity shows up through community action. When a local school lost art funding, founder Roosevelt Williams III and his team stepped in with workshops, mentorship, and hands-on support to help restore creative opportunity. That kind of engagement reflects ethical leadership rooted in real impact.
And in Vista, Lotus Sustainables carried its commitment to ethics all the way to the product line. After discovering defects in a shipment of eco-friendly products, the company issued full refunds and redesigned its offerings at its own expense, a choice that shaped its identity and reinforced to customers that ethics guide every decision.
In North County, Greenway Landscape Design & Build brings integrity into everyday service. When a client’s glass was damaged, likely not by their crew, owner Scott Lawn chose responsibility over blame and covered the repair personally. For Greenway, doing the right thing serves as a north star, guiding every interaction through transparent pricing, accountable partnerships, proactive communication, and follow-through long after the job is done.
Other honorees include At Your Home Familycare, whose leadership turned down a lucrative state contract during the pandemic to protect vulnerable clients and staff, and Bill Howe Family of Companies, where hiring practices, training, and service centers around shared values, every day, on every call.
What connects these diverse businesses, from marketing to nonprofit support to home services, isn’t size, industry, or revenue. It’s something deeper: a commitment to trust as a business strategy.
In San Diego’s competitive marketplace, that trust gives companies an edge. Clients invest in relationships. They refer friends. They stay loyal when others fade.
As one Torch Award winner puts it, integrity isn’t a section in the employee handbook. It’s the operating system of the company, the invisible code that determines every choice, every day.
And that’s exactly the point of the BBB Torch Awards for Ethics: to spotlight companies that dispel the myth that ethics and success are at odds. These businesses show that when leaders choose honesty, fairness, and accountability, especially when it’s hard, they build brands that matter.
At BBB, we see nominations come in from clients, employees, and business partners who have witnessed ethical leadership up close. These submissions aren’t polished promotions. They’re stories of moments when a company chose people over profit, clarity over confusion, and trust over convenience.
The nomination window for the 2026 Torch Awards for Ethics is open through March 31, 2026, and there are more Torch Heroes waiting to be recognized.
Who comes to mind in San Diego’s business community?
A vendor who always delivers — and always explains why.
A competitor who chooses the high road even when shortcuts tempt.
A team within your own company whose day-in, day-out choices reflect deep character.
And yes, businesses can nominate themselves. We encourage it. If you’ve built your business on principles rather than buzzwords, we want to hear your story.
Because in a world full of noise, integrity still deserves the spotlight, and San Diego is full of stories worth telling. Nominate your hero now.
