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The owners of Tajima bring Japanese small plates to Little Italy
That’s a hell of a tree. That’s the first thing you notice about Cloak & Petal, the new Japanese small-plates restaurant opened in Little Italy (1953 India Street, formerly home to Entrada). The project is a collaboration between Isamu Morikizono (owner/chef of the hugely successful Tajima ramen joints) and Cesar Vallin (Prospect Bar, The Rooftop La Jolla). With open windows to the street revealing the center bar that boasts two huge, flowering cherry blossom trees inspired by hanami (the welcoming of spring in Japan), it’s going to be hard for passersby to pass by. The 7,500 square-foot space includes glass brick and subway tiles, graffiti art, and Japanese etiquette posters to cement the underground (with a tree) vibe.
In the kitchen is exec chef TJ, who spent time in Japan during his 21 years cooking. Designed to be a “social dining experience,” which is the de facto restaurant model these days, the collection of small-plates is impressive. There are 30 small plates (that’s a ton) on the opening menu, including yuzu salad, jidori chicken karaage (fried chicken) with togarashi (spicy chili) aioli, pork belly kakuni (braised meat), spicy salmon battera (Osaka style sashimi), elk sashini, surf and turf pate (ankimo and foie gras), wagyu rolls, spicy tuna baguette, and abalone bata yaki (butter sauce).
They’ll also be doing sushi, sashimi, and nigiri, plus craft cocktails like the “Japananah” (sansho spice-infused gin, violets, clove, Caribbean spice, citrus, coconut, banana, and cardamom) and “Japanese to English” (a Japanese Manhattan with sesame-infused Iwai Japanese whiskey, amaro, and Italian Torino). Craft beers , wine , and sake are also part of the menu.
It’s a beautiful space. Opens this weekend. Please enjoy a first look at Cloak & Petal in the gallery below.
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
First Look: Cloak & Petal
Offering everything from smashburgers to sundaes, the latest food hall from Tiger Hospitality opens its doors this weekend
Omakase and fixed-price menus are one way hospitality businesses are addressing our collective food decision-making fatigue. But on the opposite end of the spectrum, some restaurateurs are offering a bonanza of totally unrelated options for people ordering on a whim. Why not pair a lobster grilled cheese sandwich, açaí bowl, and ridiculously loaded hot dog?
Starting June 27, diners can satisfy their spur-of-the-moment appetites at Global Fork in Little Italy, the latest food hall from Southern California-based Tiger Hospitality.
Six different food concepts will be featured in the 4,685-square-foot, indoor-outdoor space along the Piazza della Famiglia promenade. The space’s inaugural lineup includes a mix of Tiger Hospitality-owned concepts (Cosmos Burger, La Vida, Lobster Lab, and Prik Ki Nu Thai) and outside operators (Seattle-based Moto Pizza and Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream). The space next door, Good Enough Cocktail Club, is another Tiger-backed brand, operated by the team behind Same Same and Amor y Magia in Carlsbad.
Cosmos Burger serves smashburgers stacked with classic toppings, while Lobster Lab focuses on seafood favorites including lobster rolls, shrimp rolls, and lobster mac n’ cheese. Prik Ki Nu Thai adds Thai street food to the mix, with traditional noodle, rice, and stir-fry dishes. And for those looking for something on the lighter side, La Vida offers things like smoothies, salads, and wraps.

Moto Pizza focuses on Detroit-style square pizza with Filipino influences and, despite the name, is not affiliated with Mr. Moto Pizza. Handel’s, which began in Ohio in 1945, will offer dozens of flavors ranging from staples like chocolate and vanilla to rotating specialties packed with candies, cookies, and other mix-ins. (Handel’s already has a number of locations across San Diego, with a La Mesa store coming later this year.)
Some of these vendors already operate at Miramar Food Hall, the other Tiger-owned food hall in San Clemente. And some of them will also appear in Station8, the next food hall slated to open in UC San Diego’s Theatre District Living and Learning Neighborhood later this fall. But if you ask me, reviving the space that housed the Little Italy Food Hall before its closure last February is a far better outcome than leaving empty suites smack in the middle of an area saturated with fantastic food options. Plus, where else can you order a slice of beef adobo pizza alongside squares of caviar toast and a banana split?
Global Fork opens June 27 at 550 W. Date Street, Suite B, in Little Italy. Initial operating hours are from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week, but vendor hours may differ.

Listen Now: The Latest in San Diego’s Food and Drink Scene
Have breaking news, exciting scoops, or great stories about new San Diego restaurants or the city’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].
Beth Demmon is an award-winning writer and podcaster whose work regularly appears in national outlets and San Diego Magazine. Her first book, The Beer Lover's Guide to Cider, is now available. Find out more on bethdemmon.com.
As a wave of endings hit San Diego’s food and drink scene, we survey the damage and remain hopeful for an upturn in the industry
I know every day can’t be a Best Restaurants issue or badass food festival. But damn, it’s been a bleak week for San Diego food and drink (and it’s only Wednesday). Let’s start with Comedor Nishi, which closed this week without any warning. This La Jolla eatery had all the markings of The Next Big Thing when it opened last July. Two superstar chefs hailing from Mexico City destination restaurants Pujol and Máximo? Check. Totally drool-worthy wall of Instagram pics? Check. A menu of absolute breakfast bangers like a torta de cochinita pibil and cured salmon tostada? Check.
But even big names, a solid menu, and impeccable service aren’t surefire defenses against the powers that be. Just look at the James Beard Award-nominated Roma Norte, which closed in August after a year.
Monday may very well be remembered as one of San Diego’s worst restaurant industry days since the pandemic. At least three other hospitality ventures shuttered that same day, also without notice—Camino Riviera in Little Italy, Casa de Freds in Old Town, and Black Plague Brewing in Oceanside and Escondido.
Fred’s in particular struck me by surprise—it’s been around for 25 years. I’m unashamedly a huge fan of its patio and ridiculously giant margaritas. For such a longstanding figure to go so gently (not to mention suddenly) into that good night without even a whiff of warning ahead of time feels especially disheartening. “Like many small businesses, we’ve faced challenges that became insurmountable, including rising operational costs and a substantial decline in tourism,” stated its Instagram post.
Tourism, San Diego’s economic bread and butter, has been down since coronavirus shutdowns in 2020, and Old Town is ground-zero for visitors. If anywhere is going to get hit hard by a decline in travelers, it’s there. So I guess it’s less surprise, more sadness.
Black Plague has yet to make a public statement about its closure, which was first reported by San Diego Beer News. But again, huge bummer. Its gothic brewery branding was equal parts unique and macabre, and its beer more than held its own in a sea of world-class craft breweries. It stuck it out for an admirable eight years, and I doff my cap to them.
Camino Riviera acknowledged its sudden closure only after its final day of service, which was Sunday, September 28. According to owner and restaurateur Matt Spencer, the decision came following repeated noise complaints to the city from an anonymous neighbor.
“Over the course of several years, we invested heavily to address these concerns: installing a new roof, implementing sound mitigation strategies, hiring a sound engineer, reconfiguring indoor and outdoor operations multiple times, and building new seating areas,” said Spencer in a statement. “Despite these efforts, we found it impossible to operate the way we had been operating those years prior and we simply couldn’t afford to hang on.”
And these were just the closures on Melancholy Monday.
In September alone, Flap Your Jacks, Red House Pizza, Blackmarket Bakery, Copper Top Coffee & Donuts, and Woodstock’s Pizza in Pacific Beach all closed their doors forever.
Running a restaurant is hard and expensive. It always has been and it sure as hell isn’t getting any easier. In San Diego, rent prices are up, tourism is down, diet trends like Ozempic-use is potentially making a dent in some markets, and new business models are popping up specifically to maximize marketing efforts and rent costs. It’s a jungle out there, and sometimes even the strong, savvy, or skilled don’t survive. So what can we do?
Eat out when you can. Pick up a little something at your corner shop. Maybe get that avocado toast. Sometimes, businesses close due to a landlord issue or noise complaint and there’s just not a whole lot the average Josephine can do about that. But if you love something, shout it from the rooftops. Or in this scenario, on Yelp.
Listen Now: The Latest in San Diego’s Food and Drink Scene
Have breaking news, exciting scoops, or great stories about new San Diego restaurants or the city’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].
Beth Demmon is an award-winning writer and podcaster whose work regularly appears in national outlets and San Diego Magazine. Her first book, The Beer Lover's Guide to Cider, is now available. Find out more on bethdemmon.com.
Through Good Enough, Mike Mayaudon and Shawn Seaman want to bring approachable bar culture to Little Italy
Is it me, or is it virtually impossible to spend less than $50 eating out nowadays? No shade to operators just trying to keep their margins high enough to pay workers and stay in business, but my wallet is definitely feeling the burn.
That’s far from a universal truth, of course. You’ve just gotta look. Plenty of places are leaning into budget-friendly specials (Herb & Sea’s “Happy Meal” comes to mind—a smash burger with fries, three oysters, and a glass of sparkling wine will set you back a very reasonable $20). Bars are responding in kind, adding ultra-premium items for high rollers as well as classic basics that keep prices in single digits, or at least close to it.
That’s precisely what Mike Mayaudon and Shawn Seaman hope to do when they open Good Enough in Little Italy. For $14, guests can get a signature house cocktail, most of which will be twists on traditional drinks. You may already be familiar with some of the drinks from the pair’s other venture, Same Same in Carlsbad—like the Sioux City Old Fashioned with bourbon, a root beer reduction, R&D cherry apple bitters, Angostura bitters, and absinthe.
“I think there’s a void that we can fill there, in terms of something that’s just really approachable,” says Mayaudon. “Shawn and I have both worked in really nice higher-end places and then dive bars… we’re kind of blending a mix of the two.”

Of course, operating in Little Italy doesn’t come cheap. The pair promises to offer plenty of premium items as well to accommodate all budgets. “We were even talking about, jokingly, putting on a baller menu,” laughs Seaman. “We might even do, like, $150 Manhattan or something.” But, Mayaudon adds, if you want to follow up a $30 Old Fashioned with a cheap beer and shot, they’re more than happy to oblige.
They’re not cutting corners on the drinks or food, which will feature Spanish-style tapas and pintxos like an off-menu Basque cheesecake limited to eight slices a day. Nor will the sound system be the typical bar speakers plugged into someone’s Spotify playlist. Vintage 1975 Cornwall speakers will provide an “old, warm sound,” promises Seaman. It’s not a listening bar, per se, but hi-fi vibes are definitely on the menu with lots of records and local art completing the space’s aesthetic.
From September 2 through December 5, Good Enough will feature bar takeovers for two-week stints with brands like Fernet-Branca, WhistlePig, and more. But overall, Seaman says they just want to be a place that’s approachable, affordable, and a good hangout spot. “It’s been wonky times, and everyone just keeps jacking their prices up,” he says. “We’ve got your back in these wonky times.”
Good Enough soft opens on Friday, August 22 in the former Basta space. Hours will be from 5 p.m. to midnight daily.

At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, September 12 at the Sheraton San Diego Resort, Rumorosa is throwing a four-course wine pairing with Clos Benoit. The Valle de Guadalupe–based winery specializes in “food wine,” meaning it’s specifically designed to pair with meals, and by the look of the menu, they know how to do it. The La Paloma White kicks things off with a shrimp ceviche, followed by sea bass with a rosé, Mexican-style birria osso bucco with a 2020 red, and of course everyone’s favorite chocolate cake with another red vintage. Tickets to the 21+ event are available now.

Listen Now: The Latest in San Diego’s Food and Drink Scene
Have breaking news, exciting scoops, or great stories about new San Diego restaurants or the city’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].
Beth Demmon is an award-winning writer and podcaster whose work regularly appears in national outlets and San Diego Magazine. Her first book, The Beer Lover's Guide to Cider, is now available. Find out more on bethdemmon.com.
A customized memory-filled explosion gift box is a creative way to show someone you care
Finding a gift that feels truly personal can be surprisingly difficult. In a sea of generic options — flowers, gift cards, candles, and the like — Xplosion Box offers something more lasting: a customized keepsake built around the photos, messages, and memories that matter most.
Founded by Southern California entrepreneur Jay Vijay, Xplosion Box LLC creates fully customized explosion gift boxes that arrive professionally designed, printed, assembled, and ready to gift. Each box opens layer by layer to reveal personal photos, heartfelt messages, pull-out albums, origami-style photo pockets, and hidden notes, turning a simple gift into an emotional reveal.

The brand was built for people who want to give something meaningful without spending hours printing photos, cutting paper, folding cardstock, or assembling a DIY project. Customers simply choose a box, upload their favorite photos, add personal messages, and the Xplosion Box team transforms those details into a polished keepsake that feels thoughtful, personal, and beautifully made.
Xplosion Box offers personalized gift boxes for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, proposals, bridesmaid gifts, long-distance relationships, and thoughtful “just because” moments.

Customers can choose from flexible customization options starting at $27. The Mini Surprise Box includes 10 photos, three message cards, and one hidden secret note, while the Mega Surprise Box offers a fuller keepsake experience with 40 photos, three message cards, and one hidden secret note.
What sets Xplosion Box apart is its high level of customization combined with convenience. Filled with personal photos, custom text, decorative details, and layered surprises, each box gives customers the freedom to create a gift that feels one-of-a-kind — without having to make it themselves.
At its core, Xplosion Box helps people turn favorite photos, stories, and words into something tangible: a keepsake that can be opened, revisited, and remembered long after the occasion has passed.
The LA-founded brand and popular sushi joint will set up shop in Little Italy at 2100 Kettner
San Diego has no shortage of great sushi. Sushi Ota is the icon. Kinme Omakase oozes exclusivity (and quality). Hidden Fish brought omakase-only dining to the city. Soichi has a Michelin star for Pete’s sake, and Sushi Tadokoro is undeniably great. There’s Sushi Gaga and Hane and Shino and Maru and Wrench & Rodent and Kaito. Hotel del Coronado just got a Nobu.
But this top-notch scene comes with a cost, literally. Sushi tends to either get saved for a special occasion or, on the opposite side of the spectrum, picked up from a cold case at your local grocery store accompanied with a requisite blob of radioactive-green horseradish. (Let’s be honest, we’ve all done it.) Few places can balance general affordability with high quality.

But that’s what Sugarfish has done pretty successfully in Los Angeles, Orange County, and New York over the past 17 years. And it’s what they say they’ll bring to San Diego when they open next spring in Little Italy—at 2100 Kettner, the LEED-certified, six-story, mixed-use building that currently houses Postino WineCafe, Slice House by Tony Gemignani, and the HQ for the city’s pro soccer team, San Diego FC.
In 2008, the partners—chef Kazunori Nozawa (whose restaurant Sushi Nozawa had been a star in Studio City for decades), Jerry Greenberg, Tom Nozawa (Kazunori’s son, also a chef), Lele Massimini, Cameron Broumand, and Clement Mok—opened the first Sugarfish in Marina del Rey. Over 17 years, they’ve cautiously expanded to 10 more locations in LA and five in New York City (with one more on the way). Massimini says the slow growth was intentional.
“Our goal is always to deliver the best bite of sushi to every guest when they come to Sugarfish,” he explains. “When we were sure that we could deliver that in San Diego, that’s when we pulled the trigger.”

And the local bounty makes sense. Chefs in Japan will often source fish from San Diego and Baja, says Tom Nozawa: “Really good stuff comes out of the San Diego waters.”
One of the Sugarfish signatures is their approach to rice—made with a proprietary rice vinegar recipe and served warm and loosely packed, which contrasts nicely against the cool fish. But don’t look for funky fusion sauces or rolls. “We’re sticking with our roots… serving simple, great sushi,” says Nozawa.
And the price is right—the cheapest lunch special on the Los Angeles menus runs $32 for edamame, tuna sashimi, two pieces of albacore sushi, two pieces of salmon sushi, a toro hand roll, one piece of Japanese yellowtail sushi, one piece of hirame sushi, and a blue and dungeness crab hand roll. The most expensive lunch option—called “Don’t Think. Just Eat. Trust Me”—tops out at $60 for a sashimi course, seven orders of nigiri, and two hand rolls. Everything is preselected on the Trust Me menu, but what it lacks in adventurous exploration, the team says they make up for in cost and consistency. Of course, you can always order à la carte. Might I recommend the pink lobster nigiri from New Zealand?

Architect Robert Tsurimoto Kirsten of A-RTK is designing Sugarfish Little Italy in a similar vein to the restaurant’s other locations, but drawing inspiration from famed building designer, architect, and San Diegan Cliff May. May, known for his California Ranch homes and mid-century modern designs, created spaces that mixed indoors with outdoors, with lots of warm woods and open spaces. This location will seat 40 guests and emphasize cozy colors like greys and blues, but Massimini says they plan to keep the design on the minimalist side to ensure the sushi remains the showstopper.
“For us, design is supportive,” he says. “It’s not the centerpiece.”
Sugarfish doesn’t try to blow your mind with exotic sauces or unbelievably rare fish. But for predictable, high-quality sushi that’s painstakingly sourced and served and won’t set me back a Benjamin or two? Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
Sugarfish by Sushi Nozawa opens spring 2026 at 2100 Kettner Blvd., Suite 1100.
Beth Demmon is an award-winning writer and podcaster whose work regularly appears in national outlets and San Diego Magazine. Her first book, The Beer Lover's Guide to Cider, is now available. Find out more on bethdemmon.com.
The restaurant's new reimagined bar area features statement furniture, wines-by-the-sip machines, and its own five-star snacks
Every latchkey kid who survived a decade or so on Totino’s pizza rolls and Hot Pockets needs to head to Juniper & Ivy. One of the best restaurants in town just made a tiny, chef’s-pride version of the iconic suburbia snacks. Jim Gaffigan, your table’s ready.
They’re technically gnocco frito. But, for emotional reasons, pizza rolls and pockets.
It’s part of the restaurant’s new thing, Juni—a revamped bar and lounge area into its own kind of lounge and bistro, still perched above the main J&I show. An everyday, living room version of J&I for neighbors and tire-kickers, with statement furniture, wines-by-the-sip machines, and its own five-star snacks menu, priced like it’s the ’80s and inflation hasn’t been invented yet.
We’ll get to that below, and what I’d order, but first, a note about emo chairs.
There are chairs made from scratchy, colorful sweaters worn by someone who loved lots of things but nothing as much as Death Cab for Cutie. New banquettes near the window have such high backs that they create a whole other, sun-spilled room without having to put up a wall and curse contractors who treat deadlines like irrational wishes.
The high-tops overlooking the industrial–art house dining room are gone. In their place is one long, tufted lounge nook colored aquamarine, recalling the Miami drug scene we all romanticize, when everyone had khaki skin and abs and a thousand dollars of jungle pharma in their flowy pants pockets. Or it looks like a very soft Jordan almond, giving off more of a come-one, drape-all vibe.
Part of J&I’s wow has always been the unshy statement pieces. Like that giant, shiny graffiti pear lording in the middle, emitting subway-tunnel-to-table energy. Or the giant Lichtensteins of what appears to be a topaz-haired Katy Perry shedding a tear. Now, these Death Cab sweater chairs.
As for the menu (see below), start with those pizza rolls. Five whole bucks (three during “pre-shift,” 5 to 6 p.m., when it’s two dollars off every item). Apparently, owner Michael Rosen went to Italy and was Jabberwockied by gnocco frito, the famed puffed fry bread from Emilia-Romagna. He pestered chefs Jon Sloan and Alex Penkin to figure it out. And so they tinkered and tinkered and came to this, stuffing it with a mousse of goat cheese, ricotta, and nduja (Calabria’s addictive, spreadable pork sausage). It’s topped with a paper-thin, spicy Calabrese salami; a little lemon zest; light Parmesan snow; and the kicker: EVOO spiced with oregano and peppers for that pizza-joint perfume.

Why order a michelada and a ceviche when you can order a michelada ceviche? Chef de cuisine Penkin grew up in Chula Vista with its grade-A Mexican street food and salsa beers. This is his riff on that good life. Top-notch octopus and shrimp, tossed with stone fruit, baby heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and a gussied–up michelada sauce: Clamato, worcestershire, and—the key that gives it character and depth—guajillo pepper puree. Blue corn tortilla chips for the scoop.
Penkin’s been with J&I since the beginning (after a stint at Searsucker). The only break he took was to work on Colorado’s famed corn farm Olathe Sweet Corn. So this dish—a riff on the fried Italian risotto ball—mixes his Mexican street-food roots and his chef-on-farm quest. He chars some raw corn, sautées some more, and uses Parmesan and Cotija cheese as a binder, then makes a stock using the corn bones (where all that starch is) for depth. It’s served with chile-lime mayo, spicy salsa macha oil, pickled jalapeño, and Tajin.

Taster versions of a J&I classic. Wagyu beef; house burger sauce (animal style on chef ’roids); and, most importantly, onions caramelized in beef tallow. (Tallow is the MSG of the fat world.) Then there’s American cheese, pickles, and a sesame bun. They come two per order, which is about the amount of a regular burger.

This is pastry chef Amanda Santiago’s take on the premium ice cream truck item that your fancy kid friends would order on allowance day. Housemade waffles are folded and filled with pistachio ice cream, coated with milk chocolate and chopped pistachios, and served over chocolate crumble. Let it sit for a few, then eat it when it’s a little melty.
Juni is open now.
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.
Innovative treatment could offer cancer patients new options with fewer side effects
Chemotherapy and radiation have long been considered gold standards of cancer treatment, but they can cause severe side effects. A promising new approach called theranostics—a combination of “therapeutics” and “diagnostics”—could offer patients with certain types of metastatic cancers new hope. It’s a two-step process that uses a drug that binds to specific receptors on cancer cells. Advanced imaging detects this radioisotope, allowing doctors to then use a second radioisotope that binds to the cancer cells and destroys them. Click here to learn more about how specialists at Scripps Cancer Center are using theranostics.
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