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Everything SD NOVEMBER 29, 2023

San Diego Mag’s Top 10 Most-Read Articles in 2023

The very best articles coming out of our 75th year, as chosen by readers

San Diego Mag’s Top 10 Most-Read Articles in 2023
Photo Credit: Matt Furman

This year was a milestone for us. We celebrated our 75th birthday, introduced the inaugural Del Mar Wine + Food Festival, partied with readers at our SDM events, debuted a fully revamped website, and covered some of the best stories coming out of our very fine—and very newly minted “most-expensive city in the nation“—home. What an honor.

To celebrate all that 2023 has brought us, we’re taking a look back at some of your favorite stories by our editors and contributors. Here are SDM‘s top 10 most-read articles from this year:

Appetizer from San Diego Magazine Best Restaurants 2023 winner Callie featuring a baked appetizer topped with veggies
Photo Credit: Eric Wolfinger

1: San Diego’s Best Restaurants, 2023

We asked, you answered. And the votes poured in like good, crisp hard kombucha on a sunny San Diego day. Here’s the best of the best in the food world, according to you (and us).

Image from San Diego Magazine article focused on San Diego County Fair food featuring a cinnamon roll food truck owner
Courtesy of the San Diego County Fair

2: 10 Wild, Weird, Damn Good Eats at the SD County Fair

By Troy Johnson

Y’all are weird. And we like it. When we put out a list of the wildest foods to try at this year’s county fair, you grabbed your stretchy pants, coastered up the 5, and chowed down on Hot Cheeto sandwiches and mermaid floats like the youthful folks you are.

Image from San Diego Magazine article focused on the best liquor store sandwiches in San Diego

3: The Best Liquor Store Sandwiches in San Diego

By Emily Blackwood

Forget national chains and sub shops—you devoured our list of local markets with delis inside. From heroes to hoagies, San Diegans proved that they’re just as obsessed with sandwiches as everyone’s favorite pal, Joey Tribbiani.

Image from San Diego Magazine article focused on the renovated Lafayette Hotel in North Park
Photo Credit: Jared Cross

4: The LaFayette Hotel San Diego Reopens Following $31M Renovation

By Jared Cross

Since it was one of the most anticipated openings of the year, we weren’t surprised that this SD icon’s rebirth caught our reader’s attention. Zebra prints, ostentatious furnishings, and velvet everything—The LaFayette returned under Consortium Holdings as an amusement park for the eyes.

Photo Credit: Johanna Siring

5: The Newly Renovated Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel Opens Its Doors

By Mara Altman

This year, Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel made its debut with a huge facelift and a fascinating story that started with a group of friends who wanted to purchase the property and ended up with an entire town instead. It’s a must-read.

Three-Star Michelin chef's new burger restaurant called Tanner's Prime Burgers
Courtesy of Tanner’s Prime Burgers

6: Three-Star Michelin Chef Opens New Burger Joint in San Diego

By Troy Johnson

We love a good burger. So when we heard that Brandon Rodgers of The French Laundry was joining up with Brandt Beef to open Tanner’s Prime Burgers, we were eager to break the news. And you ate it up, too!

The best breweries in San Diego featuring an interior shot of Pure Project
Courtesy of Pure Project

7: 15 of San Diego’s Best Breweries

By Beth Demmon

Honestly, no notes. This one was an obvious choice for a city that loves its craft brews. Beer guru Beth Demmon picked her favorite breweries in San Diego, and you took note. Sharpen your pitchforks—it’s a “best of” list.

Image from San Diego Spa Guide 2023 featuring a large man with a full boy scrub, cocktail, and towel on his head
Photo Credit: Stacey Keck

8: San Diego Mag’s Ultimate Spa Guide, 2023

SDM Staff

One of our most-read pieces each year is always our spa guide. It’s hard assignment for us staffers—we head into the city to check out the newest, best, and most interesting treatments in the spa world, just for you, our readers. Your very own ahhh guide, if you will.

The reopening of Gilly's House of Cocktails under new ownership in North Park
Courtesy of Gilly’s House of Cocktails

9: Incoming: Gilly’s House of Cocktails

By Troy Johnson

When a beloved SD institution goes through a change in ownership, you watch, listen, and pray that it doesn’t lose its heart and soul. The brains behind some of San Diego’s top cocktail bars ushered in a new era for Gilly’s Cocktails recently, promising to keep it nearly the same—save for a few modern touches.

The best family-friendly restaurants in the city featuring an image of milkshakes at Corvette Diner
Courtesy of Corvette Diner

10: 20 Top Family-Friendly Restaurants in San Diego

By Beth Demmon

Topping out our top 10 list is a guide for families dining out. From thoughtful kid’s menus to toys and games, these eateries around town are parent- and kid-approved.

Nicolle Monico is an award-winning writer and the director of creative projects, digital editor for San Diego Magazine with more than 16 years of experience in media including Outside Run, JustLuxe and The San Francisco Chronicle.

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Arts & Culture MARCH 11, 2024

Vote for the Best of San Diego 2024 Reader’s Choice Awards

Nominate and vote for the Best of San Diego people's choice awards this year

Best of San Diego, marketing toolkit

Click Here to Vote

Unleash your local loves and insider favorites once again in 2024, Powered by You! It’s time to nominate and vote for San Diego Magazine’s Best of San Diego Reader’s Choice Award. The winners will be revealed in the upcoming Best of San Diego issue this July and showcased on our website.

Your nomination and vote play a crucial role in giving your favorite businesses the recognition and bragging rights they deserve for the year ahead. So go ahead, show some love to your cherished local spots.

As a token of our appreciation, every vote enters you for a chance to win 2 tickets to The Best of San Diego Party on Friday, August 2, 2024.

How to Win

A business, place, or person must be nominated at least once to appear on the voting ballot. Once the voting period concludes, the business, place, or person with the most votes within their respective category will be selected as the Reader’s Choice category winner.

When submitting your nomination, please provide as many details about the business as possible, including its name, address, website, and phone number. Businesses and individuals that cannot be verified will not be eligible for voting.

Deadlines for Nominations and Voting

Nominations: March 11 – 24, 2024
Voting: March 25 – April 14, 2024

Best Of San Diego
Everything SD FEBRUARY 7, 2024

Best of San Diego Reader’s Choice 2024 Marketing Toolkit

This is your chance to gather support from your biggest fans and followers with our marketing toolkit for the Best of San Diego awards

2024 Best of San Diego Magazine Reader's Picks Marketing Toolkit

Connect with your biggest fans and followers and win one (or many) prestigious Best of San Diego Reader’s Choice Awards.

This is your chance to gather support from your biggest fans and followers to nominate and vote for your business. You know that you’re the obvious choice (and we agree), so we’ve put together this marketing toolkit to help you promote your business and win.

The winners will be announced in San Diego Magazine‘s Best of San Diego issue this July and posted online. And let’s not forget, bragging rights all year!

If you’re looking to amplify your marketing efforts, email our team at [email protected]. We’ll help you further your message with our most engaged readers.

How to Win

  1. Secure at least one nomination for your business from March 11 – 24, 2024.
  2. Start Promoting: Invite your biggest fans and followers to vote for your business from March 25 – April 14, 2024.
  3. The nominee with the most votes will win “Reader’s Choice” in their respective category.

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Add a logo to your email or website

Best of San Diego Reader's Poll 2024 Marketing Toolkit, website email assets

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Customizable Instagram Story

  • Click here to go to Canva (free to join):
  • Important: Please “Duplicate” the design. Do not edit the template.
  • In your duplicated copy, add your photos and text within the app.
  • Don’t forget a tap-to-vote link in your story: www.SDMag.com/Bestof24

Instagram Post

Best of San Diego Reader's Poll 2024 Marketing Toolkit, Instagram post assets

Customizable Instagram Post

  • Click here to go to Canva (free to join):
  • Important: Please “Duplicate” the design. Do not edit the template.
  • In your duplicated copy, add your photos and text within the app.
  • Don’t forget a tap-to-vote link in your story: www.SDMag.com/Bestof24
Best Of San Diego
Everything SD DECEMBER 27, 2023

20 of the Best New Restaurants in San Diego 2023

From world-famous hot pot to a tiny fish shop, food critic Troy Johnson names his top new eateries of the year

20 of the Best New Restaurants in San Diego 2023
Photo Credit: James Tran

Logically, the restaurant scene should’ve been dead-silent this year. Food costs went berserk. Labor costs swelled. We all knew how to cook because we were marooned in our own homes for a few years. And yet San Diego’s food scene unveiled a few dozen more pretty fantastic restaurants in 2023. This is what I love about restaurants and the people behind them. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Sure, money is to be Danny Meier’d for the few and the lucky and the ulcered.

But financial analysts who are not sadistic would advise you to put your money into the stock market, into real estate, into off-brand Beanie Babies before putting it into the restaurant industry. That means all you’re left with are people who do it because they have to, or because the dream of creating a hospitable place that makes humans happy is just too compelling to ignore. 

Here are the new arrivals that won me over in 2023 and became part of my own personal hit list of the best new restaurants in San Diego.

Kinme in Banker's Hill was one of San Diego's best new restaurants in 2023.
Photo Credit: James Tran

Kinme

Omakase-only sushi spots took over the whole dang scene (omakase means you eat what chef deigns their best and most creative stuff that day, with no menu to choose from). Azuki in Bankers Hill has long been one of the city’s favorite sushi spots. It was never hype-trained. It just quietly, consistently snuck up on us all, probably because of owner Shihomi Borillo and chef Nao Ichimura’s obsession with the good-food movement.

Kinme is their tiny (900 square feet), 10-seat, omakase-only concept a block up the hill. It’s a mix of Edomae-style sushi and kaiseke, a seasonal, multi-course Japanese meal. The menu changes all the time, but it has included things like grilled corn with koji miso and tomatillo salt, A5 wagyu in ginger shoyu, and chawanmushi, plus Japanese whiskys, rare sake, and top-notch tea to finish.

Fish Guts was one of the best San Diego restaurant openings in 2023.
Courtesy of Fish Guts

Fish Guts

A hell of a fish-taco-and-sammy shop. San Diego born and raised, Pablo Becker helped open some of the bigger Mexican restaurants in the country with his cousin, famed Mexican chef Richard Sandoval. He needed a break, so he moved to Chicago for five years and became a line cook. He was offered management roles, refused. Head down, cooking. Five years.

Fish Guts is his return home, a small-but-mighty corner spot in Barrio Logan. It serves sandwiches during the day, tacos at night, using almost all sustainable fish from local boats. Get the blackened whitefish with the jalapeño-cabbage slaw, the mushroom taco, or the fantastic Negra Modelo beer–battered lunch sammy with Mexican tartar sauce.

Best New San Diego restaurant opening in 2023 Make Cafe in North Park featuring a brunch spread featuring french toast, veggies, and an espresso drink with flowers in the background
Photo Credit: Cole Novak

MAKE Projects

MAKE Projects is one of the city’s most inspiring food nonprofits, helping low-income refugees and immigrant women learn farming, cooking, and catering skills and earn a living as they acclimate to their new life in the US.

During the weekends, the women cook and sell specialties from their native countries—East African mandazi (they’re like beignets), halloumi with farm veggies, pancakes with Cambodian orange syrup, Afghan chicken tacos with Haitian pikliz—made with ingredients from their urban farm. Now they have a permanent home in North Park.

Lia's Lumpia was one of San Diego's best new restaurants in 2023.

Lia’s Lumpia

I could hang on this back porch all day, joy-shoveling lumpia with a couple beers. Chef Spencer Hunter’s grandma owned one of the first Filipino restaurants in San Diego decades ago and was famed for her hand-rolled lumpia (being lazy, but real close to accurate, let’s call it the egg roll of the Philippines).

Spencer went to college for sustainable hospitality and cooked in huts in South America, then came home to work through some top-notch kitchens (Searsucker, Waters Fine Foods + Catering). He and his mom, Benelia Santos-Hunter, started doing lumpia pop-ups at festivals, including Coachella. They went on Great Food Truck Race, nearly and probably should’ve won (a contestable second place), and found a permanent spot in Barrio Logan in an old house filled with pop-culture and Filipino cultural knicknacks.

It’s a total work in progress, design-wise. This is two family members ad-hoc’ing a dream, and I like that. Spencer will do seasonal riffs (ramen lumpia, Thanksgiving lumpia), but get “Lola’s Lumpia,” stuffed with a mix of beef and pork marinated in oyster sauce and various things. And don’t miss their ube-coffee ice cream with white chocolate shavings. 

El Sueño Mexican restaurant and bar in Old Town San Diego featuring three cocktails at a bar
Courtesy of Old Town San Diego

El Sueño

Troy Johnson

About Troy Johnson

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.

Studio S JULY 7, 2026

Xplosion Box: A Customized Keepsake Your Loved Ones Won’t Forget

A customized memory-filled explosion gift box is a creative way to show someone you care

Xplosion Box: A Customized Keepsake Your Loved Ones Won’t Forget
Hero image – Birthday Explosion Gift Box

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. asion has passed.

Partner Content
Arts & Culture DECEMBER 18, 2023

The New Americans Museum Explores SD’s Rap Roots

Fifty years after the birth of hip-hop, a new retrospective showcases the genre's local beginnings

The New Americans Museum Explores SD’s Rap Roots
Photo Credit: Michael Brunker

Mario “OG” Lopez walks me through a maze of display cases: tapes, old photos, vintage DJ equipment. It’s all part of the New Americans Museum’s Beyond the Elements exhibition—a San Diego hip-hop retrospective and passion project he curated.

“There are four elements in hip-hop, and the vision of the exhibit was to go ‘beyond the elements’ and embrace the multicultural roots that are a huge part of hip-hop,” he says.

Through airbrushed jackets, throwback posters, and VHS footage, those four elements—deejaying, emceeing, graffiti art, and breakdancing—mix together at the Liberty Station showcase, telling the story of rap’s local beginnings.

“These are my friends,” Lopez says. “I’ve always wanted to show the art.” It’s a short answer to a long question about inspiration and ideas, about what goes into putting something like this together.

Grafitti art and embroidered denim jackets found Beyond the Elements San Diego Hip Hop history exhibit at the New Americans Museum
Photo Credit: Michael Brunker

As we continue through, he points out a face. “There’s Zodak,” he says, gesturing toward a framed, black-and-white Tribal ad featuring the legendary local graffiti artist holding a name plate. Highlighting his own work (he’s a graphic designer), Lopez motions to the cover of Aztec Tribe’s cassette single Diego Town. The artifacts are a dense tapestry, a timeline four decades long of rappers, breakdancers, DJs, and painters, spread across two rooms.

It would be easy to recognize the players if this were New York or LA, but rap stars aren’t traditionally plucked from around these parts. There’s talent, for sure; however, most of it has had little influence outside of SD. That’s to say that this is a self-contained history, based on a homegrown ecosystem held together by storytellers, smooth talkers, and colorful personalities.

There’s no defining sound or even a single approach. Aztec Tribe carved out a lane as Chicano rap pioneers in the early ’90s, while San Ysidro’s Legion Of Doom (LOD)—who are featured prominently throughout the exhibition—worked their tag-team, Run-D.M.C-like chemistry into a formula that repped South Bay.

And while the vocalists were manipulating rhymes, local dancers were adopting the movements and body contortions of hip-hop’s B-boy element: a choreographed set of ticks, spasms, and spins that, in our neck of the woods, was part West Coast pop lockin’, part East Coast footwork. They’re represented, too, in the exhibit.

July 2, 1984, copy of Newsweek magazine featuring a breakdancer spinning on his head with the text “BREAKING” in bold, white letters
Courtesy of X

A wall marked “80’s Breakdance Era” shows off hand-drawn flyers and pictures of teenagers frozen mid-routine, rocking on linoleum. Inside a glass square stands a July 2, 1984, copy of Newsweek magazine that reads “BREAKING” in bold, white letters. And resting near the top sits a black medallion from the Universal Zulu Nation, an international awareness group and official fraternity of hip-hop—a true mark of legitimacy. The pieces speak for themselves. The hometown B-boys were the real deal.

That’s how Lopez got his start: managing a group of breakers called the Floor Masters. “My mom’s house was kinda like the home base,” he says. They were unique on their block, but the culture reached beyond his ’hood. It wasn’t until he and his squad ventured past their side of town that any of them realized breakdancing was everywhere.

Shoes from a member of the Sherman Heights breakdancing crew, Floor Masters, at the Beyond the Elements Hip Hop exhibit at the New Americans Museum
Photo Credit: Michael Brunker

“We didn’t know that it was happening in other neighborhoods,” Lopez says. “So, when we would go and perform at Balboa Park or something and put out the hat to make money … then [we] had other crews coming and [trying] to battle.”

Just as hip-hop in NYC was a byproduct of its boroughs (even though it started in the Bronx), rap’s local vernacular differed depending on its enclave. Aztec Tribe was based in Spring Valley, while Mario and the Floor Masters grew up in Sherman Heights.

From the county’s eastern edge to its downtown hub, there’s an extensive history documented in Beyond The Elements. The exhibit captures our rich heritage, one that’s worth exploring. And, as a narrative, this isn’t a nostalgia exercise or a trip down memory lane. Instead, it’s a commemoration, a nod to the hometown trailblazers who helped mold local culture through sound, art, and dance with imagination and virtuosity. A powerful message as hip-hop celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Mario "The OG" Lopez and Zard One of Floor masters together at the Beyond the Elements Hip Hop history exhibit
Photo Credit: Michael Brunker

As my visit winds down, Lopez and I are joined by Zard One, an original member of the Floor Masters. We’re seated in the gallery space across the hall, and I notice his fingertips are stained with paint. Thoughtful and soft-spoken, he’s an artist and lifelong friend of Mario’s.

The docents are making their rounds, turning off lights and securing items. It’s a signal that I’ve overstayed my welcome. But, before I head out, I ask them both what they hope visitors take with them.

Lopez is first to answer. “We have tours coming in from different schools that are interested. It’s [about] educating the kids,” he says.

Just like hip-hop, the exhibit serves as a generational legacy. Each one teach one, as they say.

“It’s for the youth,” Zard One adds.

Arts & Culture DECEMBER 15, 2023

New $1M Grant Helps Local Art Historians Preserve the Past

Tucked away in Balboa Park, a team of unsung art heroes quietly maintains and restores works for future generations

New $1M Grant Helps Local Art Historians Preserve the Past
Photo Credit: Cole Novak

In a gallery space in Balboa Park’s Timken Museum, a group of kindergarteners stares, riveted, at a dirty cotton swab. Paintings conservator Alexis Miller is showing them how one cleans a masterpiece—very carefully, basically, and very slowly. The painting she’s working on is more than 90 inches tall and 75 inches wide.

It’s likely these kids’ first brush with conservation. But they’re learning about the potential career much earlier than most.

“There’s very little public info [about it],” says Bianca Garcia, an associate conservator of paintings at the Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC). She graduated from the University of Delaware’s conservation masters program, one of four in the US. “It’s not a traditional career path.”

An art conservator works at an easel with a paint brush, paints,  and several other paintings in the background
Photo Credit: Cole Novak

Founded in 1975, BACC is among just nine art conservation nonprofits in the United States and the only on the West Coast. They serve museums, arts institutions, and private collectors in California and surrounding states. In April of this year, they received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, which will allow them to further expand their work and help increase access to the field of conservation.

The center’s staff members (who have different specializations, helping to maintain paintings, textiles, and other objects for future generations) usually do their delicate work tucked away in BACC’s lab spaces in the San Diego History Center. But, through late 2023 and early 2024, their team of paintings conservators is freshening up François Boucher’s 1758 work Lovers in a Park onsite at the Timken, giving visitors the opportunity to see the process happen live.

A set of chemicals and powders used for restoring paintings at the Balboa Park Art Conservatory Center
Photo Credit: Cole Novak
Conservators use BACC’s vast collection of pigments to create perfect color matches when restoring works of art.

In the meantime, BACC is using a portion of the Mellon grant funds to update their offices. While the nature of the job will always demand a certain degree of insularity, the facelift will allow them to bring in more tours, teaching visitors about the conservation process.

A major—and perhaps particularly overlooked—aspect of the work is consulting with arts institutions to ensure that objects are being stored and displayed in the right conditions. Conservators assess light, humidity, and other environmental elements and suggest adjustments. “It’s similar to preventative care,” Garcia says.

Sometimes, though, individual pieces need more hands-on TLC. Each of the center’s projects begins with a proposal detailing a plan for analysis, cleaning, and restoration and the approximate associated costs. That proposal has to be approved by the object’s owner before the conservators can move forward, in part because some steps do have the potential (however slim) to damage the object. “We want people to understand that there’s some risk,” says Annabelle Camp, a textile conservator and BACC’s marketing and development associate. “And, also, we want to keep a record for future conservators and historians.”

Once stakeholders sign off on the plan, the fun begins. Conservators can assess the condition of a painting, for example, using different techniques to study its various layers: infrared reflectology, ultraviolet light, x-radiography.

A Balboa Park art conservator stands in front of a projection of X-ray scans showing how historic painting often have hidden details beneath layers
Photo Credit: Cole Novak

As sci-fi as it all sounds, Camp is the first to admit that some of their current technology is, by industry standards, kind of quaint. BACC’s senior technician, Erick Gude, still develops x-rays in an onsite dark room. A slice of the grant funds went toward a tech refresh. “If we have people coming here for apprenticeships and training, we want to train them on the most up-to-date tools,” Camp says.

That’s not to say, though, that their retro x-ray machine hasn’t served them well. In 1986, BACC analyzed a particularly strange painting from the San Diego Museum of Art’s collection, one that depicted the Biblical figure David staring at an empty space on the ground. An X-ray revealed the severed head of Goliath beside him, invisible to the naked eye.

“What probably happened was that a dealer decided it was too gory and painted over it,” Camp explains. “[Conservators at BACC] were able to remove that paint and reveal the original painting.”

Private office within the Balboa Art Conservatory featuring historical documents, artwork, and equipment used for restoring artwork
Photo Credit: Cole Novak

The team wouldn’t have been able to restore the 17th-century piece without vast interdisciplinary knowledge. Conservation is literally both an art and a science—in addition to having training in research and art history and the practical art skills required to fill in areas of paint loss, for instance, conservators must be careful chemists, understanding how paints, varnishes, and other materials interact and evolve over time.

“We want [the changes we make] to be reversible, so we have to know the material we’re working with, as well as the material we’re applying,” Camp says.

That’s the great irony of conservation: In order to help pieces last forever, conservators have to be comfortable with the idea of their own work being only an ephemeral moment in the object’s history. They maintain detailed files, daub on easily soluble paints, ensuring that, someday, the next conservator—maybe one of those 5-year-olds at the Timken—can wipe it all away and start again.

Amelia Rodriguez is a writer and journalist and winner of the San Diego Press Club's 2023 Rising Star Award and 2024 Best of Show Award, she’s also covered music, food, arts and culture, fashion, and design for Rolling Stone, Palm Springs Life, and other national and regional publications. After work, you can find her hunting down San Diego’s best pastries and maintaining her five-year Duolingo streak.

Partner Content JULY 10, 2026

Health & Wellness Summer 2026

It’s a Self-Care Summer. Because your best self is our favorite self.

Health & Wellness Summer 2026

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.

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1230 Columbia Street, Suite 800,

San Diego, CA