Controversy over a plan to replace curbside parking with bike lanes may be hurtling toward its dramatic conclusion in North Park. In June, the city of San Diego plans to remake the busiest 2.4-mile stretch of the neighborhood—30th Street from Juniper Street to Adams Avenue—by adding protected bikeways. It will forever change the look and feel of North Park’s popular restaurant row, give or take a few pandemic dining parklets.
The new, seven-foot-wide bikeways will run along both sides of the street, replacing more than 450 curbside spaces. Thanks to a yearslong fight to preserve them, nearly 100 parking spaces will remain, but inside the bike lanes as so-called “floating spaces,” like those installed downtown over the past two years. There will be new street signs, unfamiliar green and white stripes on the pavement to show where bikeways intersect with crosswalks or driveways, and other visual vocabulary we’ll all have to learn.
North Park is far from the only stretch of road being outfitted with bike lanes. San Diego’s Bicycle Master Plan of 2013 called for more than a thousand miles of cycling infrastructure to be implemented by 2030, and the city says it has completed over 400 miles so far. Protected bikeways, which add concrete or visual barriers between cyclists and cars, have been added to J Street in East Village and to Harbor Drive near the airport. They’re almost completed along Fourth and Fifth Avenues through Bankers Hill. The list goes on, and is quickly getting longer. Adding bikeways to urban neighborhoods takes years of committee meetings, community outreach, and redesign, and many years of behind-the-scenes effort are just now starting to pay off.
30th Street presents a bigger challenge than most, leading to tough decisions about what stays and what goes. As a bikeway planner from SANDAG puts it, “Some of these city streets are really old, and there’s only so much room curb to curb.”
For example, the eight tenths of a mile between Juniper and Upas Streets has no center lane, so adding bikeways leaves behind zero parking spaces. The lack of back alleys between Upas and University Avenue means some segments of the center lane must be retained as commercial loading zones. Yet other sections must be cut to make room for ADA parking, passenger loading, parcel deliveries, and more.
Bike lanes 2
Logistical Hurdles
The plan has no shortage of detractors, the most visible being the Save 30th Street Parking organization. Speaking for the group is longtime resident Pat Sexton, who has worked with fellow North Parkers to oppose the bikeway plan since learning of the proposal in 2016.
Sexton stresses that she and most of the organization are pro bikeway, they just don’t believe it should carve up the neighborhood’s busy commercial center—they prefer the lanes be installed two blocks west, on Utah Street, for starters. They’re sure most in the community don’t want what the city is selling.
“I think there’s a lot of things that the city hasn’t thought about,” Sexton says. “Where are trash cans going to go, for pickup? In the bike lane or in the traffic lane? What would happen if the center lane is gone, and there’s a traffic jam, and a fire truck is on its way?”
Along with a litany of logistical hurdles, Sexton and Save 30th allege the loss in parking will create undue inconvenience for 30th Street residents with cars, and hurt business for restaurants and retailers that have already been struggling. The group’s attorney, Craig A. Sherman, says they’ve tried twice to stop the project in court and have been denied, and are trying to get a new hearing to block the project’s estimated June start date.
“The bike lobby is so powerful in San Diego right now,” Sherman says. “They put together a proposal, and it gets built.”
But the city will have to start some sort of resurfacing in June. Its road crews have already been busy tearing up 30th Street to replace degraded water pipelines. Once they finish, there won’t be a better time to add bikeways.
But this timeline also puts the project at odds with the state of outdoor dining—30th Street is currently loaded with curbside parklets that have sprung up in response to public health restrictions. City permits for those parklets don’t expire until August.
If there’s one issue where bikeway advocates and local business groups agree, it’s that the pandemic parklets should be considered before the final bikeway plan is built. North Park Main Street and biking advocacy group Bike SD has even made an eleventh-hour plea to the mayor to modify or pause the project while outdoor dining is sorted out.
As it currently stands, restaurants would have to disassemble their parklets, then rebuild them once the road is resurfaced and bikeways installed. Bike lanes would be temporarily routed around each parklet, detouring cyclists into a vehicular traffic lane, creating a dangerous tangle of liability and risk.
Some avid cyclists question the safety of protected bike lanes altogether, such as Serge Issakov. An avid rider going back decades, Issakov sits on the boards of several biking organizations, including the California Association of Bicycling Organizations, and he serves on the city’s Mobility Board.
He’s also involved with the Facebook group Encinitas: PLEASE Restore Safety In Cardiff. The 980-member group, many of them recreational cyclists, has been lobbying the city of Encinitas to redesign a protected bikeway installed last year along South Coast Highway 101 in Cardiff.
The highway was a popular route among recreational riders long before a physical barrier was installed to make them feel safer, and Issakov blames that feeling for a steep rise in bike accidents since—24 and counting. “It’s unsafe to think and feel that way,” he says, alleging that protected bikeways can create a false sense of security. Instead, he advocates bike safety education and awareness to reduce accidents, insisting, “When you don’t have that ‘protection’ making bikers feel safe, they’re more likely to pay attention.”
He suspects that’s what happened to a local research scientist who died last year after being struck by a car turning at a Leucadia intersection, where his bike emerged from a protected bikeway. Issakov worries the same potential exists in the 30th Street plan, where parked cars and buffers will reduce awareness between drivers and riders heading into busy cross traffic. “We’re sending them to a potentially dangerous conflict point,” he says.
Opposition to the project has been well publicized, and while the possibility of a judicial injunction or executive action may yet delay North Park’s controversial bikeways, there appears to be too much momentum to outright stop them from happening.
That’s because, beyond the Bicycle Master Plan, protected bikeways satisfy an overlapping set of policy benchmarks—such as the city planning department’s Complete Communities initiative, which recommends bikeways to link all communities to public transit, regardless of economic status. Or San Diego’s Vision Zero goal of “zero traffic related fatalities and severe injuries by 2025.” The city’s Climate Action Plan states that, for its goals to be met, 18 percent of central San Diego’s commuters should be on bikes by 2035.
The Road Ahead
City officials are bound to these long-term policy commitments, which are meant to guide the city toward a more sustainable, safe, and equitable future. “Equity in the sense of who’s able to use the street?” asks Chris Olsen, a former policy analyst for the city who serves as a board member of Bike SD. “Is it just affluent able-bodied people who wear spandex and can afford an expensive bike?”
Almost specifically, he argues, it’s not. The planners and cycling activists pushing for protected bikeways try to dispel the perception that they’re being built solely for the subculture of enthusiasts already bold enough to ride their bikes across the city. They’re focused more on attracting those of us who might ride more if we didn’t think we had to compete with cars for road space. Whether trading parking spaces for bike lanes kills North Park or saves it will depend on how many casual riders, families, and even seniors take the city up on its offer to bike more through town on a regular basis.
“Building biking infrastructure for people who already bike is important,” Olsen says, “but building bike infrastructure for those people who will take it up—that’s where you move the needle.”
SANDAG numbers suggest that needle has started to move, particularly during the pandemic. Its data shows bicycle traffic through spring and summer 2020 was up by 42 percent compared to 2019.
Which is exactly the trend Andy Hanshaw expects to see looking forward. The Mobility Board member and executive director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition has been working tirelessly in support of this kind of bike policy for ten years. With patience, he vows, the people of North Park will eventually see how beneficial a strong bikeway network will be: to businesses, to residents, to everyone. “These bikeways that take a long time, they’re being built for future generations,” he says. “For future generations that will choose to live car-free.”
Ian Anderson is a freelance writer based in San Diego. Find his work at anderson-stories.com
Bike lanes 1
Everything SD
JULY 22, 2026
There’s a New SPF for Men Called 4-Skin (Yes, Really!)
Why a well-known San Diego restaurateur launched a skincare brand with a name you can’t unhear
In Mexico for a wedding, a friend got a tourist-level sunburn. One of San Diego’s top restaurateurs—Arturo Kassel, founder of Catania and Gravity Heights—was on hand. He made a joke about how basic sunscreen literacy seems to be a male-pattern blindness.
“I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to start a men’s sunscreen brand, and I’m going to call it 4-Skin—because men are dicks and they need to cover up,’” he explains. “We spent the whole weekend thinking of puns and innuendos for this hypothetical brand we were never actually going to launch.”
The joke refused to die. Days later, one of the Mexico-wedding friends—a top marketer in the city—called Kassel and said the highly intentional dude humor might have a couple top notes of genius. So Kassel did a little digging into men and very basic skincare/sunscreen usage. Turns out, 1 in 29 are at risk of developing melanoma compared to 1 in 40 women.
“I was shocked to learn that only about one in 10 men actively use sunscreen, and that’s at the beach, on the golf course, or at the pool, when you’re going to get fried,” he says. “Daily use is essentially nonexistent.” During the process, Kassel became part of the story.
“My dermatologist called and told me I had basal cell carcinoma,” he says. “At that point, it went from being a business to a very personal mission. I became determined to move the needle when it comes to men’s apathy toward sunscreen.” And so—hundreds of hours later, including a still-going crash course on launching a CPG brand—a local restaurateur launched a jarringly named sunscreen and moisturizer for men. Broad spectrum, high-quality, SPF 50, lightweight, goes on clear, all the things. The daily-use morning routine version is called Morning Rub. Of course it is.
Kassel reached out to his friend Troy Johnson—San Diego Magazine co-owner and co-founder of Here We Are Studios,—to collaborate on creating two commercials for the brand. They launched July weekend. Friends went down to the beach to talk to strangers about their 4-Skin. Awkward, funny, and if all goes to plan: making men rethink their relationship to the blazing ouchie star in the sky.
“4-Skin is funny as a brand, but there’s nothing funny about skin cancer,” says Kassel. “That’s the one-two punch: we got your attention, maybe we made you laugh. And now we can tell you something that might extend your life.”
For this special-edition podcast from Here We Are Studios, Troy and Arturo sit down and tell the entire story of how a joke became a brand with a serious mission.
San Diego has always worshipped at the altar of good skin. Equal parts surf town, biotech hub, and wellness capital, it’s a city where lunch breaks become beach walks and sunscreen sits beside car keys by the front door. The products that get used here earn their place. With 266 sunny days a year and one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the country, we take skincare seriously. Dr. Bronner’s has been making soap in North County since the 1960s. Sun Bum was born in Encinitas and is now on shelves in over 70 countries. The tradition runs deep.
“Living in San Diego means your skin is exposed to sun almost every day of the year,” says Sue Zhang, M.D., a San Diego physician specializing in aesthetic medicine. “The products that tend to succeed here are the ones that can keep up with daily life, UV exposure, sweat, and movement, while still supporting long-term skin health.”
From a mineral powder that solves the sunscreen-over-makeup problem to an acorn oil serum rooted in Indigenous plant medicine, the local San Diego shelf is more diverse, and comprehensive, than most of us realize.
Courtesy of Kopari
Kopari
Sun Shield Body Glow SPF
A hydrating gel-oil hybrid that applies like a body treatment and leaves skin with a sheen that reads as healthy rather than oily. La Jolla–founded Kopari built its reputation on cold-pressed coconut oil sourced from family farms in the Philippines, and the Sun Shield Body Glow SPF is exactly that in summer form: coverage that doubles as skincare.
4-Skin
Morning Rub
The name is intentional. The founder got a basal cell carcinoma diagnosis that his dermatologist caught—she’s now his business partner. The question he couldn’t shake was why the skincare industry hadn’t yet figured out how to talk to men, and 4-Skin is the answer: a premium sunscreen and skincare line built around the kind of blunt, self-aware humor that gets guys to pay attention. Men’s skincare has needed this for a long time, and the formulas are serious enough to deliver.
Courtesy of Coola
Coola
Classic Face Sunscreen SPF 50
Carlsbad-based Coola was formulating organic SPF before “clean sunscreen” was a marketing category, and the Classic Face Sunscreen is the brand’s thesis: protection that disappears into skin and layers cleanly under makeup. Sheer and lightly hydrating, it makes sunscreen easy to reapply before an afternoon walk at Torrey Pines.
Saffron and Sage
Glow Finishing Oil
Squalane, argan, jojoba, and CoQ10: a short ingredient list that does a lot. The Glow Finishing Oil from Mission Hills wellness sanctuary Saffron and Sage is plant-based, scientifically grounded, and formulated to absorb rather than sit on the skin. The brand started as an integrative health practice where acupuncture, naturopathic care, and functional medicine share a roof, and the skincare line runs on the same philosophy.
Courtesy of Alastin
Alastin
Restorative Skin Complex with TriHex+
The Restorative Skin Complex is powered by TriHex+, a patented peptide blend developed by Carlsbad-based Alastin’s team of SkinMedica veterans. It promises to clear out damaged collagen and elastin while supporting new production, the kind of gradual improvement that makes a product hard to quit.
Beldi is a multi-functional cleansing tradition rooted in Moroccan hammam culture, dating back over 12 centuries. Alia Jouj is the brand’s flagship product, and San Diego–based founder Dr. Mia Chae Reddy built a brand around it. Alia Jouj uses 100 percent organic, cold-pressed argan oil and the same ancient saponification method to produce a honey-thick liquid cleanser that softens skin without stripping it.
Courtesy of N8iV Beauty
N8iV Beauty
Móyla Moon Polish
Acorn oil has been used by California’s Indigenous communities as plant medicine for generations. Ruth-Ann Thorn, an enrolled member of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, built N8iV around it as the first Native American–owned skincare brand to reach the national mainstream. The Móyla Moon Polish, named for the Luiseño word for moon, is an exfoliant centered on acorn oil Thorn gathers herself each year from the La Jolla reservation. Find it at the Gaslamp Quarter store Thorn owns at the historic Yuma Building.
Courtesy of Colorescience
Colorescience
Sunforgettable Total Protection Brush-On Shield SPF 50
This product solved the reapplication problem. As a brush applicator, this mineral SPF goes over makeup without disturbing it, which is why it has been on derm-office retail shelves in Carlsbad and beyond for over two decades. The tinted version doubles as foundation.
Courtesy of Tubby Todd
Tubby Todd
All Over Ointment
This steroid-free, petroleum-free eczema treatment was built specifically for babies and toddlers (although grown-ups can use it, too). It’s centered on FDA-approved 1 percent colloidal oatmeal with a base of sunflower seed oil, beeswax, and jojoba. The “linoleic-acid-rich sunflower oil is helpful for atopic, eczema-prone skin that is often deficient in that fatty acid,” says Dr. Zhang. Gentle enough for newborns, safe for daily use, and tested by both pediatricians and dermatologists.
Korej
The Mandelic Night Serum
The Mandelic Night Serum pairs mandelic acid, an AHA derived from almonds and gentler than glycolic acid on sensitive skin, with lactic acid, niacinamide, and urea to brighten, smooth texture, and reduce breakouts overnight. Fragrance-free, vegan, cruelty-free. The brand name is the initials of the founder’s five daughters, pronounced like courage. Dr. Zhang also says she “really value[s] [the founder’s] mission to create pregnancy-safe skincare products that are both effective and wallet-friendly.”
Ingrid Yang, M.D., J.D. is a hospital-based physician in San Diego, CA, certified yoga therapist, and longevity specialist. She loves *double hearts* San Diego and spends her days helping people fully engage in long, healthy lives through evidence-based lifestyle medicine. Her books include Adaptive Yoga, Zen Mindfulness, and Hatha Yoga Asanas. When she’s not leading international wellness retreats, she is chasing sunsets, handstanding in nature, or geeking out over mitochondria.
Growing up in Carlsbad, I never quite understood why people vacationed there. What, so you want to check out the field where I have soccer practice? Pay my orthodontist a visit? Carlsbad just felt like a town by the beach, no better or worse than any other in the country. It took going to college out of state for me to actually understand just how rare a place like Carlsbad is.
Thanksgiving break my freshman year, my first time coming home after three months in the Midwest, my shoulders dropped. I rolled down the windows and drove to lifeguard tower 37—the hangout magnet for Carlsbad’s youths (and, in the summer, tourists)—and the smells of the ocean woke me right up like smelling salts do. I finally got it.
Carlsbad isn’t just a stopover town on your way to something better. It is the destination. Travel + Leisure named Carlsbad one of the top 50 places around the world to travel in 2026. From the whole globe, the travel magazine picked my home. Sure, we’ve got the Flower Fields and Legoland—but now it’s the smaller ships and indier dreams that are giving it street-level character.
It’s not just Carlsbad, either. People have talked about the “North County bubble” for decades—a force field that prevents its residents from traveling south of the 56. It’s often used derogatorily, and it’s a fairly accurate burn.
For decades, living up in North County meant giving up on culture, or at least culture within close proximity. But now, the main expansion of San Diego culture is happening up north. Central San Diego restaurants have started taking notice and are expanding into the area—spurred no doubt by Oceanside’s food boom and the Jeune et Jolie–Campfire–Wildland–Lilo constellation in Carlsbad. City Heights burger joint Key & Cleaver opened a new spot in Oceanside; the owners of Parc Bistro-Brasserie in Bankers Hill opened Parc Lounge in Rancho Santa Fe. Possibly the strongest market indicator is that Sam Fox—one of the most successful restaurateurs west of the Rockies—has started focusing on North County for his concepts. In 2025, he opened both The Henry in Carlsbad and Culinary Dropout in Del Mar.
For the ultimate insider guide, we found a handful of inspiring people who live and create and truly know six North County neighborhoods—San Marcos, Escondido, Oceanside, Leucadia, Rancho Santa Fe, and Vista—and asked them how they’d spend a dream day out and about in their town.
Courtesy of North City Farmers Market
San Marcos
San Marcos is in full renaissance mode. The biggest story is that the grand North City vision is starting to peek through the scaffolding. It’s essentially the North County Downtown that’s been written in the tea leaves and discussed whenever someone gets stuck in traffic at the 5/805 merge: a 200-acre, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use face-changer that’s slated for 2,600 homes, 350,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 250 hotel rooms, and about a million square feet of offices and labs. Its most recent manifestation is 222 North City—a 12-story residential tower with over 450 residences, rooftop garden, pool cabanas, art installations, and almost 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail (Necessity Coffee, Buona Forchetta, Draft Republic, Milonga Empanadas, and a grocery store anchor on its way).
Which means Restaurant Row is no longer burdened with being the primary caregiver for the hungry or the socially inclined. Patricia Prado-Olmos has watched the city morph during her nearly three-decade tenure at CSUSM, having spent the past six years as the school’s chief community engagement officer. She also just announced her forthcoming retirement at the end of the 2026–2027 school year, so she’ll have even more time to haunt local haunts.
Meet the Local: Patricia Prado-Olmos
Those in the know call the university “Cal State StairMaster” from the Sisyphean amount of stairs on the hillside campus. So, any day at or around CSUSM should start with a homestyle carbo-load (biscuits and gravy) from Mama Kat’s.
“There’s something about this breakfast spot that immediately puts me in a good mood,” she says. Mama Kat’s is also known for its pie (strawberry-rhubarb), which is breakfast if you change your perspective.
After a few hours on campus—with a break to pet the university’s official therapy goldendoodle, Frank, who helps ease finals tremors or apprehension of on-campus stairs—Prado-Olmos will wander into North City, just steps away. She says the almond croissant and coffee at Christophe Rull Patisserie rival Parisian cafés: “It feels like the kind of place you’d stumble across in a much bigger city.”
Rull, a Michelin-trained pastry chef who’s done stints on Netflix (Bake Squad) and Food Network (Super Mega Cakes, Halloween Wars), opened his patisserie last fall. The hype hasn’t cooled off yet: Get there early because the crowds do.
Emma Veidt is an editor at San Diego Magazine. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Missouri School of Journalism. She loves running, hiking, and rock climbing, but really, she mostly loves encounters with the street cats around North Park.
Renewable energy companies building hundreds of power plants. Biotech startups using artificial intelligence to create personalized medicine for children with rare diseases. Hospitality companies quietly powering thousands of local events. Consumer brands growing from beach-town startups into national businesses. These are the kinds of companies driving San Diego’s economy today, and the businesses recognized at this year’s San Diego Business Impact Awards offer a snapshot of where the region is headed.
Hosted July 23 by San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and JPMorganChase, the second annual awards event honored four local companies for innovation, growth, and economic impact. More than 100 nominations from San Diego’s middle-market businesses were reviewed by a 10-person judging committee, with winners selected across four categories: startup, early-stage innovator, rising star, and established heavyweight.
Two-time honoree Jimbo Someck, founder of Jimbo’s organic grocery stores, also joined the event for a fireside chat on buying local, supporting emerging brands, and giving back to the community.
“San Diego’s strength comes from its makers and builders—the resilient people who endure great risks and overcome obstacles to build and scale a company,” says Aaron Ryan, San Diego Region Manager and Middle Market Banking at JPMorganChase & Co. “These awards aren’t just recognition; they spotlight the talent, grit, and innovation shaping our region’s future. By celebrating those who create and build, we foster connections and fuel the growth that keeps San Diego thriving.”
Matt Furman Photography
Building the Infrastructure Behind Clean Energy
Heavyweight honoree SOLV Energy has grown alongside the country’s rapid investment in renewable power. “It’s an exciting time for SOLV Energy as we are experiencing significant growth,” says CEO George Hershman. “The business has doubled over the last year and has almost double-digit growth since its inception.”
The Rancho Bernardo-based company designs, builds, operates, and maintains utility-scale solar and energy storage facilities. Since its founding in 2008, SOLV Energy has built more than 500 power plants.
Growth has translated directly into hiring. About 200 employees work from the company’s local headquarters, including roughly 20 interns. “Our intern program is a big part of the way that we grow our workforce,” Hershman says. “Last year, 43 percent of our interns became full-time employees. We believe San Diego is a great community to build and grow a high-tech infrastructure and technology company because of the incredible workforce—the ability to attract top talent and draw from world-class universities.”
Developing Medicine One Patient at a Time
Startup honoree La Jolla Labs is tackling one of medicine’s biggest challenges by developing personalized RNA therapeutics for patients with rare diseases—many of them children with neurological disorders like ALS. Using proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, the biotech company develops treatments tailored to each patient’s specific genetic mutation.
CEO Tamar Grossman says the recognition reflects how far the company has come despite limited resources. “We’re honored to be recognized for our ability to change and save patients’ lives and turn our lean startup into a clinical company with very minimal resources,” she says.
Grossman credits San Diego’s concentration of research institutions—including UC San Diego, the Salk Institute, and Scripps Research—with creating a pipeline of talent and collaboration. “San Diego is one of the world-leading centers for technology, genomics, and RNA therapeutics,” she says. “We have over 30 RNA therapeutics companies here, and we support each other and help with anything related to drug discovery.”
She says that collaborative spirit extends beyond formal partnerships. “You can walk around Torrey Pines, go into a café, and find colleagues from the industry and have an ad hoc conversation,” Grossman says. “That’s something very unique to San Diego.”
While Snake Oil Venue Company may not be a household name, chances are many San Diegans have attended one of its events. The early-stage innovator honoree has expanded from beverage catering and mixology consulting into venue management, operating Julep Venue in Mission Hills, Bramble Bay Venue in Imperial Beach, Vesper Venue, the Chapel at Liberty Station, and five outdoor venues throughout Liberty Station—more than 500,000 square feet of event space altogether.
“We do a lot of launch parties for corporations and new products,” says CEO Mike Esposito. “I really like working on the entrepreneur side of things, where new businesses are entering the San Diego market and looking to make a splash.”
Snake Oil has executed more than 16,000 events, employed more than 1,000 people, and partnered with more than 900 local vendors, including caterers, florists, photographers, entertainers, and other hospitality businesses. The company also works with many of San Diego’s nonprofits, museums, and cultural institutions. “We get to celebrate people’s most important moments,” Esposito says. “Whether that’s a wedding, celebration of life, or quinceañera, we’re fortunate to be involved in the community in so many different ways.”
Matt Furman Photography
Growing a Beach-Town Brand into a National Business
Rising star honoree ALOHA Collection is proof that a simple idea can grow into a thriving company. Founded by two roommates who wanted a better way to carry wet swimsuits after a day at the beach, the lifestyle brand has grown into a business while maintaining strong year-over-year growth.
Now headquartered in Carlsbad, ALOHA Collection employs more than 100 people and operates its California flagship store in Encinitas, which is slated for a remodel. With roots in Hawaii, the company is known for its lightweight, splash-proof travel bags that have become a familiar sight on beaches in San Diego and beyond.
“‘Aloha’ is part of our name, but it’s also how we move through the world,” says CEO Lynna Barnard. “It’s how we show up for people, the way we travel, the way we give back.” Since day one, the company has maintained a 5 percent giveback to Hawaii conservation efforts, contributing millions of dollars over the years.
“I think what’s so inspiring about ALOHA Collection, and the founders in particular, is when you dream big, those dreams can come true when you work hard and trust in the universe,” Barnard says. “It’s inspiring to be a role model for other people wanting to start businesses from humble beginnings. Start small and watch it grow.”
Together, businesses like these form a cornerstone of San Diego’s economy—not only through the jobs and revenue they generate—but through the local workers they hire, vendors they support, and investments they make in the region. Their growth doesn’t happen in isolation; it ripples outward, strengthening the broader business community and the people who call San Diego home.
Rub some dirt on it. Walk it off. Be a man. The tropes and reasons for men ignoring their health and doing preventive care are many, reinforced by action heroes and generational norms. As a result, compared to American women, American men live an average of five years less, seek healthcare treatment half as often, and die by suicide nearly four times more often.
Many national campaigns have tried to change this. This year’s “Relax Your Tight End” ad from Novartis during the Super Bowl—in which NFL legends advocated for early prostate cancer screenings—was a high-profile example. Meanwhile, in San Diego, Evan Miller seems to have figured it out.
Miller founded Gameday Men’s Health in 2018 as a small clinic in Carlsbad. The idea was to create a space men would actually want to spend time in. So he built Gameday to feel more like a sports bar or a man cave—snacks, sports on oversized, high-def flat screens in the waiting room. He personalized the care for each client, made the experience more casual, and, above all, efficient. If the wait for payoff is too long, Miller says, men won’t show up for their health.
“We need to feel better quick,” he says. “So that’s where the real hook with Gameday is: It’s fast; it works quick.”
The idea has worked. Big time.
Gameday now has 430 locations spread across 46 US states and parts of Canada, with hundreds more set to open over the next three years.
Prior to Gameday, Miller—who has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology—ran Akua Mind Body, an addiction treatment center in Newport Beach. After selling the center, Miller says he searched for a new way to help his community.
He drew from his behavioral health training and dispiriting past experiences with “sketchy” men’s clinics, albeit with a slightly different concept at first.
Courtesy of Gameday Men’s Health
“My original idea for Gameday, funny enough, was men’s group therapy,” Miller says. “I wanted to put it in this ‘man cave’ environment because I knew guys wouldn’t show up otherwise.”
Initially envisioned as safe spaces to encourage men to open up emotionally, Miller pivoted to a more clinical approach with an athletic design that personally appealed to him. Soon, it evolved into a one-stop shop of compounded medication treatments for weight loss plans, hair loss treatments, anti-aging injections, sexual wellness strategies, and testosterone replacement therapy. The hotly debated trend of peptides—mini amino acid proteins that the FDA has yet to approve—has become a popular feature.
New patients undergo in-clinic assessments for testosterone and prostate levels with the goal of producing test results in just a quarter of an hour. “Our philosophy with our treatments is we only do what the research supports,” Miller says.
An Orange County native, Miller found Carlsbad to be a natural headquarters. He found a much bigger market in coastal North County of men seeking a boost—both in their marriages and their overall livelihoods. The pandemic proved to be a watershed moment, with front-yard gyms and outdoor, highly visible exercise sparking a wave of self-care. According to Cleveland Clinic, after the pandemic, about 20 percent of men started to exercise more and eat healthier, with a quarter of men reporting they scheduled more sleep and spent more time with family.
“When Covid happened, [suddenly] everyone looked in the mirror and was like, ‘I need to take care of my health; I have to do everything possible to get in shape,’” Miller says.
Two years after Gameday first began, Miller opened a second clinic in Temecula, followed by locations in Laguna Beach and Newport. Demand kept coming, so they started franchising in 2023. They sold 1,000 licenses in the first year. By 2025, they had over 400 clinics across the country.
When asked about the rapid growth, Miller cites the feedback he received along the way: “People were so excited about men’s health, cash-pay medicine, and not having to wait for insurance. They understood the model. It was for guys; it felt like ESPN meets healthcare.”
Now Miller says Gameday is starting to map out a global expansion—to Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Since the company first cultivated a following, Miller says there have been persistent questions about whether Gameday would ever expand its focus to include women. Their answer: Her Way.
“We only offer a very narrow menu, almost like In-N-Out Burger, because we stay in our lane, we do it really, really well, and we gain trust that way,” Miller says. “So we created the Her Way model to do the same thing for women [that] we’ve done with men.”
Her Way Health & Hormones launched in 2024 in clinics with more neutral and calming décor. With locations in Carlsbad and Mission Valley, it will officially start franchising this summer. Miller seems incapable of thinking small and expects around 1,000 Her Way locations to open nationwide within a few years.
Ryan Hardison is a freelance arts and entertainment writer and recent graduate of San Diego State. When he's not staring at his laptop, he's likely eating an adobada burrito or getting sunburnt at the beach.
Summertime in San Diego may bring about blue skies and sun-drenched days, but it doesn’t stop there. There’s also the top-notch concerts, tasting events and wallet-friendly fixtures that make this season feel extra special. Fans of contemporary and classical music can check out performances by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the Beach Boys and Kool & The Gang at The Rady Shell or the annual Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra Festival in La Jolla. Local gourmands can sign up for a spot at our Omakase Open, indulge in cold desserts at Scoop San Diego or journey across a two-mile stretch of good eats during the Taste of Adams Avenue. As for free events, there’s a new edition of San Diego Made: LIVE at San Diego Made Factory, the Pride Party at Museum of Us and the return of the Ocean Beach Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off.
Japanese omakase dining is an artform built on trust, in patrons allowing their chef to entirely curate their meal. That’s why, this Thursday from 6-9 p.m., San Diego Magazine is gathering the city’s finest sushi and omakase chefs to showcase their skills during the21-plus Omakase Open at JULEP. Guests can enjoy live music, all you can eat food and drink, plus the chance to converse with local culinary masterminds and decide on the night’s best bites, all while supporting the Convoy Pan Asian Cultural and Businesses Innovation District. General admission ($85) is full up, but join the waitlist in case more tickets become available.
1735 Hancock Street, Mission Hills
Taste of Adams Avenue
June 28
From University Heights to Kensington and the unique neighborhoods in between, Adams Avenue is home to a host of must-try flavors. During the 25th annual Taste of Adams Avenue, happening this Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., 45 spots along Adams Avenue will offer samples, with brunch-inspired bites, refreshing ales, world-class gelato on the menu. Attendees can make the most of their self-guided tasting tours by walking, biking or riding from end-to-end on a complimentary trolley. Tickets are $55 online and $65 the day of.
Adams Avenue
Scoop San Diego Ice Cream Festival
June 28
It’s a scientific fact (source: trust me) that a little sweet treat, like say ice cream, paletas or shaved ice, has the power to make any day instantly better. Meaning, it’s only right to treat yourself to a dessert-filled afternoon during the 8th annual Scoop San Diego Ice Cream Festival, where three dozen local vendors will serve up their finest specialties this Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. in North Park. General admission ($49) comes with 10 shareable two-ounce samples; all net proceeds will go towards Feeding San Diego.
30th Street & North Park Way, North Park
Concerts & Festivals in San Diego This Weekend
Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra Festival
Through June 27
Week two of the 38th Annual Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra Festival begins Tuesday (7 p.m.) with a performance of Mozart’s “Jenamy” and pieces by Lully and Strauss, followed by Mozart’s “Jupiter,” and works by with Schumann and Pärt on Thursday (7 p.m.), both at The Conrad; tickets range from $71 to $163 for each concert. The festival will then conclude Saturday (7 p.m.) with Mozart, Brahms and a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 at Epstein Family Amphitheater; tickets range from $26 to $263. And if that’s not enough Mozart for you, pianist Anton Nel will lead a prelude concert in the JAI prior to Tuesday and Thursday’s shows.
The Conrad: 7600 Fay Avenue, La Jolla | Epstein Family Amphitheater: 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla
Opening Weekend at The Rady Shell
June 26–28
A star-studded opening weekend is in store to kick off The Rady Shell’s summer season. On Friday (7:30 p.m.), Rafael Payare will conduct the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in an effusive Opening Night program featuring violin soloist Stefan Jackiw; tickets range from $57 to $124. The following night at 7:30 p.m., the orchestra will pair up with The Beach Boys, plus special guest John Stamos, for a rousing tribute to Pet Sounds; tickets range from $78 to $268. Then, on Sunday (7:30 p.m.), audiences can boogie their way to Monday with Kool & the Gang and hip-hop pioneers the Sugarhill Gang; tickets range from $68 to $152.
Ryan Hardison is a freelance arts and entertainment writer and recent graduate of San Diego State. When he's not staring at his laptop, he's likely eating an adobada burrito or getting sunburnt at the beach.
If you’re anything like us, it can be easy to get so caught up in taking care of everyone else, that your own needs get lost in the ether. But while this may be a cliché, that doesn’t make it any less true: You can’t give your best self to other people unless you’re taking care of yourself.
Sometimes, that looks like stopping in for your regular acupuncture or chiropractic appointment. Other days, it means giving your body the fresh, organic fuel it needs to truly feel and function at its best. And some other times still, it involves leaving your responsibilities behind for a weekend to pamper yourself at an incredible resort and spa.
Only you can decide what your truly need. We’re just here to help you find the best ways to get it.
Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa
Island living meets desert luxury at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells. When you step onto the 11-acre property, you’ll be surrounded by sweeping view of the Santa Rosa Mountains with olive trees and fragrant citrus groves decorating the grounds. In other words, everything about this relaxed but refined resort is primed to help you let go of the stress from home and enjoy easy sun-soaked days and gorgeous starry nights.
The rooms blend calming, woven textures with Tommy Bahama’s signature tropical prints and feature private lanais, making it easy unwind the moment you walk in the door. If you book one of the four Villa Suites, you’ll be treated to exclusive Tommy Bahama furniture and unique personal touches to further that feeling of instant ease.
At the award-winning Spa Rosa, the expert team will help reset and recharge your body and mind using methods and rituals inspired by the desert. The 12,000-square-foot retreat includes outdoor soaking pools, eucalyptus steam rooms, and outdoor cabanas, as well as massages, facials, and body masks—all aimed at creating a day dedicated to you. We’re particularly partial to the Day Long Escape, an indulgent all-day affair of CDBs soaks, renewing scrubs, life changing massages, and transformative facials.
Following your treatment, continue the experience with a meal on the patio at Grapefruit Basil. We love the Hamachi Crudo, a light, citrus-forward dish featuring premium yellowtail, house-made ponzu, creamy avocado, and fresh seasonal garnishes.
Whether you’re strolling the gardens, relaxing beside its saltwater pools, or indulging in a restorative treatment, you’ll be able to escape in style and relax in luxury at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa.
Healcove Chiropractic
There’s no shortage of ways to stay active in San Diego—but if you really want to enjoy everything the city has to offer, you’ve got to make sure you’re giving your body its tune-ups. Enter: Healcove Chiropractic. The board-certified chiropractors and wellness professionals at Healcove are experts at addressing that stage where you’re not injured, exactly, but you’re not at 100%, either. Maybe you’re feeling a bit tense or stressed out. Or it could be that you’re not quite moving the way you want to. Sometimes, it’s just that the accumulation of days, weeks, or even years of daily strain is starting to take a toll. No matter what stage you find yourself at, the Healcove Chiropractic team can provide integrated, preventative care centered on long-term, science-backed approaches that ensure you can always stay active and live the life you want to live pain-free.
This starts by providing truly individualized care. Every patient can expect a thorough 60-minute consultation session that includes a posture and movement screening. This allows the team to develop a completely personalized plan. That plan might include chiropractic care, acupuncture, or massage therapy, as well as functional fitness training, vibration and sound therapy, and Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization, a clinical rehabilitation method that retrains the body’s stabilization systems. Whatever the team recommends, you can be sure that it’s tailored to meeting your body’s needs today and the future.
There’s a reason that San Diego Magazine named Healcove the “Best Chiropractor in San Diego”—don’t wait until you’re struggling with an injury to find out why. Book an appointment today for holistic, integrated care that helps ground and heal your body before it reaches a crisis point.
Juice Holler
West Coast wellness culture meets the community feel of Southern Appalachia at Juice Holler. Juice Holler’s menu consists of made-to-order smoothies and smoothie bowls, as well as grab-and-go cold-pressed juices, wellness shots, salads, and more. It operates from the blissfully simple premise that fueling up with food and drink that’s guilt-free and good your body should be simple, accessible, and, above all else, delicious. And if you haven’t yet made it out to the Encinitas café, which opened just this year, let us be the first to tell you: Juice Holler delivers on each and every of these fronts.
We love the Supercharger smoothie, a mood-lifting and body-fueling option made with banana, almond butter, blue spirulina, maca, grass-fed whey protein, raw cacao nibs, medjool dates, and coconut milk. We’re also partial to the Thrive Alive smoothie bowl, where avocado, mango, sea moss, spirulina, mint, coconut milk, and agave are mixed and topped with coconut, chia seeds, strawberry, mango, and chocolate drizzle. The wellness shots include the Detoxifier, a cleansing blend of kale, cucumber, lemon and spirulina, plus a shot specially designed to fight inflammation (named, fittingly, Anti-Inflammation). Probiotic overnight oats, lemon turmeric bars, and strawberry shortcake chia pudding are other standouts on the grab-and-go menu.
Much of the vibe feels beachy North County chic—think green tile with orange and pink accents, grounded with greenery and natural wood—but Juice Holler founder Kelly Sergott, a longtime Encinitas local, has also enfused the space with her Kentucky roots. In Appalachia, a holler is small valley between hills and mountains, where nature reigns, community is king, and nourishment comes right from the land. At Juice Holler, Sergott has created a holler for the busy modern times, using local ingredients to create a spot for people to come together and enjoy fresh, fast, feel-good fuel for their day.
Everwell Acupuncture
We’ve all had that experience with a medical professional where we’ve felt rushed, ignored, or misunderstood—and ultimately, like we didn’t get the answers that we needed. But at Everwell, the holistic acupuncture practice located in Solana Beach, the care team wants to transform your understanding of what healthcare can look like.
Patients at Everwell experience care rooted in intentional listening and radical empathy—and trust us, those aren’t just corporate buzzwords. This place actually puts those ideas into practice. You will always be given the time you need to tell your story— initial in-take appointments are two hours long—and you can rest assured that your story will be believed. Every single question and concern will be addressed by a dedicated practitioner who wants to find the specific solutions that work best for you, and you’ll receive care that’s aimed at healing the body, mind, and spirit.
Everwell’s highly trained, doctorate-level practitioners blend evidence-based acupuncture with the practice of classical Chinese medicine. (If you’ve never tried acupuncture before or aren’t sure if the team will be a fit, we’d highly recommended Everwell’s complimentary 20-minute consultations.) Research shows that by stimulating specific points on the body, acupuncture activates a natural healing response in the body, helping to restore balance, regulate the nervous system, and improve overall wellbeing. This allows the practice to address an incredibly wide range of conditions from chronic pain and autoimmune disorders to digestive issues, from stress and burnout to headaches migraines, fertility and postpartum struggles, hormonal imbalances, sleep concerns and more.
At Everwell, you can expect to feel heard, trusted, respected, and cared for. This is a space that doesn’t want to be just another healthcare provider you visit; it wants to provide patients with dedicated partner who will be there for their entire health journey.
