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Darrell Issa is no longer running the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. But is it too late for Issa, the richest member of Congress and a champion of open government, to learn to get out of his own way?
To anyone paying only casual attention to Congress, Representative Darrell Issa, Republican from Vista, has been a Congressional terrier to the Obama Administration’s postal courier, dogging the President from the moment Issa became chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in 2010. Issa has spent four years holding hearings on everything from an IRS training fiesta at Disneyland to an attack at the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans died. But while his committee could have delivered the kind of partisan red meat the Republican base craved, he developed a reputation for brash behavior and dramatic remarks that overshadowed his own hearings, blunting the impact of the revelations he was delivering. His term as chairman ended in December, and, by some reports, Congressional leadership was happy to see him go.
But when he isn’t chastising the executive branch and making headlines, another Issa emerges, a forceful advocate for government transparency, capable of working with Democrats and negotiating with the administration to pass open government legislation and whistleblower protections. In May, President Barack Obama signed the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, a law that will expose federal spending in an online database, allowing Americans to know, for the first time, exactly how the federal government spends its money. Amid one of the least legislatively active Congresses of the last 60 years, Issa has advanced bills that will improve protections for whistleblowers, expand the Freedom of Information Act, and increase access for inspectors general. For a man who characterizes himself as ideologically close to the libertarian Cato Institute, and who said, “Congress has passed enough laws,” Issa is an impressive legislator.
An entire wall of Issa’s Capitol Hill office is dedicated to framed certificates of patents he has received, a legacy of his past in the electronics business. He is the richest member of Congress, having made his fortune selling car alarms to major automakers. Outside of politics, he may be best known as the recorded voice of Viper car alarms that orders would-be car thieves to “Please step away from the car.”
He launched himself into politics in 1998 when he ran in the Republican primary for California Senator. That bid was torpedoed by allegations of a shadowy past including an arrest, an indictment, and insinuations that he burned down one of his businesses for the insurance money. In 1999 he helped fund the recall of Governor Gray Davis. In 2000, he easily won election to Congress representing parts of San Diego, Orange, and Riverside counties. He has served seven terms in Congress and has never won by less than a double-digit spread.
When he arrived, he expected to serve on committees related to his business, like Energy and Commerce. “It never occurred to me to get on Government Oversight,” Issa says.
In 2003, retired Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the chairman at the time, recruited Issa to the committee. That year, Republicans held both the House of Representatives and the White House. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were already under way, and President George W. Bush’s popularity was surging. Issa believes the committee did some good oversight, but he also conceded there were plenty of stones left unturned in deference to a same-party president.
“There’s legitimate criticism, because in the two years Henry Waxman [D-Calif.] was chairman during the Bush administration [2007–09], time and time again he came up with areas we hadn’t pushed on that had merit,” Issa says. “The ground was pretty fertile. You had six years in which it wasn’t as aggressive as it could have been, and I think we all have to learn from that.”
In 2009, Obama took office and Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., now retired, took over chairmanship.
“He didn’t have an aggressive bone in his body,” Issa says. “And we didn’t do anything.”
He planned to change all that.
“The Oversight Committee exists to secure two fundamental principles,” Issa intones from the dais at the start of every hearing. “First, Americans have a right to know that the money Washington takes from them is well spent. And second, Americans deserve an efficient, effective government that works for them. Our duty on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is to protect these rights.”
The Other Darrell Issa
Rep. Issa opens a new Orange County office in Dana Point, September 3, 2013 | © All rights reserved by Congressman Darrell Issa
Rep. Issa opens a new Orange County office in Dana Point, September 3, 2013 | © All rights reserved by Congressman Darrell Issa
Issa began reciting this Law & Order-esque litany when he took over the chairmanship after the Republican wave election of 2010 as a way to give the committee direction. While other Congressional committees have oversight and budgetary authority over particular executive branch agencies, the Oversight Committee can issue subpoenas and launch investigations into nearly any subject, restricted only by the energy of its chairman and a willingness to fight turf battles with other committees. This broad mandate usually means that when different parties control the House and the presidency, the committee chairman is expected by his party leadership to score points on the administration.
In his time as chairman, Issa held 128 hearings (though he held more in the lame-duck session that started after Election Day). Of those, he dedicated 30 to government waste, while 14 were dedicated to the Affordable Care Act; 13 to the EPA; seven to the Fast & Furious scandal, in which the Justice Department allowed criminals to buy guns in the hopes of tracking them; 11 to the IRS; four to Benghazi; and three to Solyndra, a failed solar company backed by federal loan guarantees. Issa does not lack for aggressive bones.
Issa’s staff members point out the successes: Hearings on a sweetheart loan program for important personages led to an ethics investigation into loans received by four members of the House (three Republicans, one Democrat); the hearings on Fast & Furious led to a (largely partisan) House vote censuring Attorney General Eric Holder, the first censure against a sitting member of the cabinet. Revelations of partying by the IRS revealed no fraud, but motivated the IRS to cut spending on training by 80 percent, an inspector general report said. And hearings on whether the IRS office in Cincinnati targeted Tea Party groups for further scrutiny led to the resignation of Lois Lerner, an IRS official responsible for exempt organizations.
Yet for all the sound and fury, a common critique of Issa from the D.C. political class is that he hasn’t wounded the President in a significant way, or that he has taken the focus off the issues and turned it to himself.
“Issa tends to get in the way of issues that could really energize the base,” says Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
In February 2012, as Obama labored toward re-election amidst a struggling economy and weak poll numbers, Issa seized an opportunity to galvanize the Republican base with a hearing on whether Obamacare mandates related to birth control infringed on religious liberty. Of 11 witnesses called by the committee, nine were men, including the first panel heard. The move helped the Democrats paint Republicans as anti-woman.
“I’m sure he’d like to have that one back. That was bad optics,” says Davis, the former committee chairman.
In March, Issa became the center of attention when he abruptly adjourned a hearing on the IRS targeting scandal. Lois Lerner, the IRS official, opted to take the Fifth Amendment in the midst of questioning by Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee. Issa abruptly rose and adjourned the hearing, ordering staff to turn off the audio. The visual impression of a tall white man silencing an older black man was not lost on the Congressional Black Caucus. It demanded that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, strip Issa of his chairmanship and require Issa to publicly apologize.
“Mr. Issa is a disgrace and should not be allowed to continue in a leadership role,” Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, chair of the caucus, wrote in a letter to Boehner.
Issa did apologize to Cummings, and the House never took up the censure. Cummings would later offer his own retort in the form of a minority report accusing Issa of using the same tactics as those used by Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
When asked to describe his present relationship with Issa, Cummings, who had once had a productive legislative relationship with Issa, issued a statement more notable for what it didn’t say: “The Oversight Committee has tremendous potential to improve the everyday lives of Americans, and I sincerely hope that whoever holds the chairman’s gavel—Republican or Democrat—will work on a bipartisan basis to develop constructive reforms.”
The mistakes and distractions have led some observers to think Republican leadership was growing frustrated with Issa. Last spring and summer, stories from Politico, Roll Call, and Breitbart.com all reported friction between Issa and House leadership, though none contained direct quotes offering an outright criticism.
“I’ve spoken to leadership staff; they’re frustrated with him,” Ornstein says.
In May, Speaker Boehner announced there would be a special committee to investigate the deaths of Americans at Benghazi on September 11, 2012, adding fuel to the idea that Issa had lost the confidence of top Republican leaders. On November 21, the House Select Committee on Intelligence produced a report saying, in essence, there was no “there there.” It cleared CIA officers working in Libya of any wrongdoing and said their “actions saved lives.” A spokesman for the Select Committee on Benghazi said the committee would review the report.
A common critique of Issa is that he has taken the focus off the issues and turned it to himself.
Issa says he has a solid relationship with House leadership, calling Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., a dear friend. He said the move on Benghazi was simply the resolution of a turf battle between himself and other committee chairmen who wanted control of the hearings. He cast the move as a victory for his view that Benghazi had been an administrative failure.
“The select committee ultimately is a huge win for a determination that there really is a there there,” Issa says.
In November, as Congress prepared to go back into session after five weeks spent running for office, Issa managed to get back in the headlines twice just days before he ran one of his last Oversight hearings as chairman of the committee.
At a November 6 book party for former reporter Sharyl Attkisson, Issa said his committee relied on driven journalists to get word of the committee’s investigations out to the larger public. Without them, his committee “is a desert island.”
“When an administration says ‘no,’ it’s no different than when Andrew Jackson marched Indians down the Trail of Tears, to their death,” Issa says, according to reports in Politico and Bloomberg Politics. “The fact is, the government will obey the administration’s orders, if there isn’t somebody to say ‘Hold it, stop!’”
The titters and outrage from that gaffe had hardly diminished before Issa again became the center of attention, thanks to a social media stunt gone awry. Issa, or whichever staffer runs his Twitter account, offered to retweet pictures of family members who served in the military in honor of Veterans Day, according to the Daily Dot. The bait proved too sweet for trolls to resist, and Issa’s account soon retweeted images of Heinrich Himmler, described as “my late grandfather,” and Lee Harvey Oswald, described as “Uncle Lee,” among other
villains of history.
Issa’s then-upcoming hearing on abuse of telework by officials at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had become an afterthought.
Hudson Hollister, now the executive director of the nonprofit Data Transparency Coalition, had just resigned his job at the Securities and Exchange Commission on the day in 2009 that he marched into Issa’s office, resume in hand, to ask for a new gig. At the SEC, he’d been laboring to persuade his superiors to standardize and digitize their data collection activities to improve transparency, but to little avail. He told Issa he thought the whole government should make its information available online. Issa hired him.
“We wanted to move the government from documents to data,” Hollister says.
While switched-off microphones and accusations of sexism and government fraud make for the kind of melodrama that attracts attention from the press and the public, they are also the kind of white noise that tends to fade over the long history of Presidential–Congressional relations. Issa’s most lasting legacy will likely be shepherding through Congress laws intended to improve government oversight.
Hollister knew Issa had a technical background that might make him receptive to a digitization pitch. Issa knew computers. He said he learned to program both COBOL and FORTRAN, and in an interview he tossed off a programming joke about “Do Loops.” He realized the potential of digitizing government spending data after witnessing the success of Recovery.gov, a website that tracked spending from the stimulus appropriated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The Other Darrell Issa
Haircut in the Senate Barber Shop on April 24, 2013 | © All rights reserved by Congressman Darrell Issa
After taking over the Oversight Committee, Issa had a platform from which to push the issue. In consultation with now-ousted Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. (“A dear friend, I miss him”), Issa proposed a bill that would standardize and digitize all government documents. But with Democrats in control of both the Senate and the presidency, he would need collaborators to get it done.
To help the bill in the Senate, he linked up with Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner, a fellow former businessman and the wealthiest man in the upper chamber, and he later pulled in Republican Rob Portman from Ohio. The heaviest opposition, though, came from the White House Office of Management and Budget, which until this bill, was one of the few organizations that actually possessed spending data.
“There was a lot of palace intrigue within the Administration in the years-long fight over the DATA Act—not ideological, not Republican versus Democrat—but deeply entrenched figures in the White House’s Office of Management and Budget and other places that had been there before the Obama Administration and will be there after they leave,” Issa says.
Moving the bill would require numerous modifications, including lowering its sights from all government documents to just its spending, but in May President Obama signed the DATA Act into law.
The DATA Act does not stand alone among Issa’s legislative achievements. Issa views whistleblowers, people deep in the operations of a business or federal bureaucracy who spot wrongdoing, as an essential element of transparency. He guided through Congress the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012, a bill that expanded protections for federal talebearers, particularly those in the national security or intelligence communities.
In 2013, Issa attached an amendment to a House operations appropriation bill that would require the chamber to publish bulk data on the legislative process in an easily accessible format, a long-held desire of open government groups. He later withdrew the amendment, but House leadership changed operations and began publishing the data.
“My view is that to eliminate the big problems in government in the way of waste and fraud and abuse of power is to give the most federal transparency to the entire world,” Issa says.
Hollister would later leave Issa’s employ to start his own nonprofit explicitly to provide outside pressure for the DATA Act’s passage and implementation. While many congressional staffers leave government for high-paying private sector jobs, Hollister and two others of Issa’s recent staff have founded nonprofits dedicated to government transparency.
Republicans limit their members to six years as senior representative on any given committee. Issa spent two years as the Ranking Member of the Oversight Committee, and then four years as its chairman. He expects to hold a senior role on the Judiciary committee, but it’s not clear what the future is for his Congressional career. When Cantor lost his primary election earlier this year, Issa was not part of the conversation for the newly freed-up leadership roles.
Now that his time running the committee has ended, Issa is less focused on what he did or did not accomplish than he is on finishing the work he started: Implementation of the DATA Act and getting the Senate to pass a reform to government information technology spending and improvements to the Freedom of Information Act, among others.
His passion for opening up government remains.
“Every generation has to have people who do the job that I’ve been honored to do,” he says. “The moment government can sweep things under the rug, the first thing they sweep under the rug is a waste of your money; eventually what they’re sweeping under the rug is an NSA project that’s controlling everything, including elections.”
He adds later: “Since our founding, unnecessary secrets have caused the American people to be cheated by their government, out of their liberty and out of their money. That is the transparency that is most important to me.”
The Other Darrell Issa
PARTNER CONTENT
Darrell Issa, October 9, 2013, Washington, D.C. | © All rights reserved by Congressman Darrell Issa
Discover eateries, outings, and shops within this inland North County community
Just south of Lake Hodges near 4S Ranch and Poway, Rancho Bernardo is a suburban community that blends residential neighborhoods with industrial pockets, elevated by a decidedly diverse food scene.
Over 60 years ago, this North County neighborhood was once part of a family ranch. Since that time, big tech companies have taken up residence here, including Amazon, Sony Electronics, Oura Ring, HP, Teradata, and ASML. Rancho Bernardo Inn serves as a community hub, with locals frequently meeting at the hotel’s restaurants, golf course, and spa.
Whether it’s work or a round of golf that brings you to Rancho Bernardo, we’ve taken care of the agenda planning with our guide to the area’s best restaurants, activities, and shops.
Sample ingredients plucked straight from Rancho Bernardo Inn’s onsite garden and served at their signature restaurant Avant. One of the neighborhood’s most upscale dining options, they serve a French-inspired menu with nods to California, including many seafood options. Don’t miss their more casual sister restaurant Veranda for al fresco dining.
17550 Bernardo Oaks Drive
Wood-fired pizzas and handmade pastas are standouts at The Kitchen, Bernardo Winery’s counter-service restaurant specializing in Sicilian flavors. Charcuterie boards and bruschetta make for great starters or snacks while wine tasting.
13330 Paseo Del Verano Norte
Fast-casual and family-owned eatery Bushfire Kitchen recently opened a location in Rancho Bernardo, serving sandwiches, bowls, salads, burgers, protein plates, and housemade empanadas. Bushfire prepares comfort food with healthy ingredients, and offers plenty of vegetarian and vegan options.
11962 Bernardo Plaza Drive, Suite 110
Some might call The Cork & Craft an overachiever. This gastropub has an in-house craft brewery and winery: Abnormal Beer and Wine. The more, the merrier. Their sushi menu is definitely worth exploring, but don’t miss other specialties like garlic noodles, chicken wings, and pork belly.
16990 Via Tazon
You don’t have to leave Rancho Bernardo to get a white tablecloth steakhouse experience. Carvers Steaks & Chops has prime rib (their best seller), filet, ribeye, porterhouse, New York strip, and other cuts, served alongside crab-stuffed mushrooms, wedge salad, French onion soup, potato skins, and other steakhouse specialties.
1940 Bernardo Plaza Drive
This no-frills Burmese restaurant is known for its traditional tea leaf salad that’s topped with sesame and sunflower seeds, garlic chips, peanuts, tomatoes, jalapeños, fried yellow beans, and fermented green tea leaf dressing. Tucked into a nondescript strip mall, Burma Place is a great takeout option when you want to eat garlic noodles, fried rice, chicken curry, and samosas from the comfort of your couch.
16719 Bernardo Center Drive, Suite A
Find authentic Vietnamese cuisine at Phở Ca Dao, including favorites like phở noodle soup, vermicelli noodles, broken rice dishes, and spring rolls. One of eight locations throughout San Diego, this family-owned chain uses robot servers for food delivery.
11808 Rancho Bernardo Road, Suite 100
It’s all about the sauce at fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant The Kebab Shop. Smothering your chicken shawarma, gyro, or falafels in garlic yogurt, cilantro jalapeno, fire chili, and dill yogurt sauce is practically a rite of passage. The hardest part is deciding whether to order a wrap, bowl, or salad.
11980 Bernardo Plaza Drive
Get a taste of South Asian flavors at Casa Lahori, a Pakistani restaurant noted for its grilled meat kabobs. Other best-selling dishes include beef nihari, chicken biryani, and shahi paneer— best enjoyed with naan bread.
11975 Bernardo Plaza Drive
Grill your own meat on the tabletop at Kangnam Korean BBQ, an interactive, all-you-can-eat experience that’s well-suited for large groups. Marinated beef bulgogi, grilled galbi short ribs, and spicy pork are served alongside traditional banchan dishes like kimchi, japchae glass noodles, and flavorful stews. Weekday lunch specials provide a nice discount on these filling meals.
11828 Rancho Bernardo Road, Suite 117–119
Dig in to your favorite curries and kebabs at Curry & More Indian Bistro. Most entrees are served with a choice of two side dishes, including basmati rice, potatoes with cumin, daal, naan, or mixed greens. Help offset the spice with one of their sweet mango or strawberry lassi drinks.
11808 Rancho Bernardo Road, Suite 123
Kai Oliver-Kurtin is a San Diego-based writer who covers travel, dining, events, and culture. Her writing has been published in USA Today, Condé Nast Traveler, Fodor's Travel, Marie Claire, and HuffPost, among others.
From San Diego’s coastline to Los Angeles stadium and fan zones across the region, here’s how to experience soccer’s biggest event
When three nations and 16 cities come together to host the FIFA World Cup 2026, the scale stops feeling like a tournament and starts feeling like geography. A continent becomes the stage as borders soften into corridors. And Southern California—shaped by migration, sport, entertainment, and constant movement—sits inside that landscape with all eyes on it.
San Diego and Los Angeles have always felt connected. Hop on the Pacific Surfliner, and the trip unfolds in one continuous stretch of coastline, passing beach towns, neighborhoods, and city centers.
Traveling from San Diego, everything still feels slightly suspended as the Pacific Surfliner follows the coast north with ocean on one side and a slow suburban blur on the other. San Diego stays in exhale. Los Angeles is already building toward something louder.
This summer, Los Angeles will host eight matches of the FIFA World Cup at Los Angeles Stadium, including the US Men’s National Team opener on June 11, while the region stretches into 39 days of programming across stadiums, parks, transit hubs, beaches, and neighborhoods. Instead of one massive fan hub, Los Angeles is embracing a citywide celebration, with fan zones spread across its entirety.
But this pattern has been rehearsed here for decades. In 1994, Southern California became one of the defining stages of the World Cup, when matches at the Rose Bowl placed global attention on the region and turned local stadiums into international landmarks, confirming its ability to hold the world at scale.
What distinguishes Southern California is not just infrastructure, but cultural permeability. Fashion, music, film, art, and sport constantly overlap here, creating an environment where identity is flexible and always in motion. From the Venice boardwalk, where skate culture shaped modern street style, to global soccer stars rubbing shoulders with Hollywood celebs, to authentic Spanish cuisine moving up and down the I-5 corridor, everything circulates.
The World Cup is not introducing anything new here, it’s showing up for the summer and showing out, revealing what this city has always known about itself. What follows is a look at the fan zones and how Los Angeles turns itself into a city-wide stage for the tournament, one neighborhood at a time.
As the heart of Los Angeles, Union Station is an official Fan Zone June 25-28 during the World Cup, but in practice it never really stops being one.
It is the city’s circulation point, its meeting ground, its pressure valve. Commuters, travelers, match-day crowds, and everyday Angelenos all move through the same space, and everything mixes, overlaps, and scales in real time. In a way, this is where the World Cup stops arriving in Los Angeles and starts moving through it.
The Pacific Surfliner from San Diego to Los Angeles makes that shift feel almost too easy. No stress or gridlock anxiety, just a straight line up the coastline with ocean on one side and everything slowly becoming more built on the other. It’s one of the rare ways into LA that doesn’t feel like arrival as friction. You can sit with a laptop, watch the Pacific drift past, grab coffee from the café car, and let the city come to you in pieces.
That’s the beauty of arriving at Union Station. Instead of feeling like you’re on the edge of the city, you’re immediately surrounded by it. And, inside, the station already reads like a World Cup nerve center: banners, movement, multilingual energy, the sense that something global is about to funnel through this exact point. The Heart of the City Fan Zone only sharpens that feeling, with simultaneous match screens, DJ sets, meet and greets, and immersive activations built around marquee games like USA vs. Türkiye.
From there, the city splits outward.
ROW DTLA feels like the first exhale after arrival. A converted industrial campus turned creative district where restaurants, retail, and open-air courtyards form a self-contained ecosystem. If you’re looking for the perfect first meal in LA, make it lunch at Pizzeria Bianco. The thin-crust pizza is reason enough to go, but the space leaves just as much of an impression.
What I liked most about ROW DTLA is how quickly it resets you after the train. One minute you are stepping off at Union Station, and the next you are in a space that feels like its own version of LA, a city inside a city with some of the most curated shopping I’ve ever seen.
Bodega hides itself behind a convenience-store front, a sneaker and streetwear space disguised as something ordinary, like LA refusing to make anything feel too obvious. The whole campus moves like that, part retail, part gallery, part neighborhood you are only temporarily inside.
Isabella Dallas is a freelance writer for San Diego Magazine and the Arts and Culture Editor at The Daily Aztec in her final year at San Diego State University. She previously worked as an editorial intern for SDM, but when she’s not writing, you can find her trying the best coffee spots in SD, devouring the latest rom-coms, and indulging in anything and everything pop culture.
We rounded up the city’s best events, activities, and restaurants to celebrate Dad on June 21
Father’s Day is often the overlooked summer holiday that doesn’t quite get the extravagant brunch treatment or overflowing bouquets that Mother’s Day does. Sure, there’s the annual pair of socks, Padres hat you’re convinced he doesn’t already own, beer subscriptions, phone case doubling as a wallet, plus the classic “Best Dad” keepsakes. But this year, let’s flip the narrative with events, activities, and specials made with Dad in mind.
Whether he wants a quiet dinner, a big screen full of San Diego sports and wings, or a weekend that somehow includes NASCAR, a jazz festival, and a Broadway reimagining, there is something for every dad. Here’s your guide to a memorable Father’s Day in San Diego.
Jump To: Activities | Bars & Drinks | Dining Specials
Nothing says “Happy Father’s Day” like the sound of engines ripping across Naval Base Coronado. NASCAR is turning this into a historic race weekend that feels less like a casual outing and more like a full-scale San Diego moment people will be talking about long after June is over. This is the first time a NASCAR Cup Series race has ever taken place on an active military base, which instantly puts it in “you had to be there” territory.
It’s fast, loud, and very on-brand for a Father’s Day where Dad suddenly becomes an expert on tire strategy, pit stops, and track positions. The bar might be set unreasonably high for every Father’s Day that follows, but that’s a next-year problem, right?
Price: Tickets available on Ticketmaster
Dates: June 19–21 | Weekend Schedule
Address: Naval Base Coronado
At Humphreys, Father’s Day gets a little more sophisticated. Roger Friend and an all-star lineup of jazz musicians bring decades of international experience to the bay, where dads can lean into their musical side with head nods and shoe taps. It’s smooth, layered, and exactly the amount of jazz you didn’t realize your playlists were missing.
Price: Tickets available on Ticketmaster
Time: 6 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Address: 241 Shelter Island Drive, San Diego
Belmont Park is rolling out a Father’s Day lineup that basically turns Mission Beach into a living garage scene, with a free car show featuring everything from polished 1960s Camaros to classic Bel Airs and lowriders. If he has a ride of his own, vintage car owners can join the lineup for $35 per vehicle. After the chrome tour, it’s straight into a Mission Beach classic: boardwalk strolls, fish tacos on the sand, and rides at Belmont Park.
Price: Free to attend | Register vehicle here
Time: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Address: Belmont Park, 3146 Mission Boulevard, San Diego
I think it’s an unspoken rule that dads love Bob Dylan. Mine is already figuring out how he’s getting to San Diego for this. But this isn’t just a Father’s Day activity, it’s a cultural event that happens to land on Father’s Day weekend and immediately becomes the plan. Bob Dylan at The Rady Shell means you’ll be surrounded by city lights sparkling across the harbor, legacy music, and at least one moment where Dad leans over and whispers, “You know, this guy wrote everything.” And honestly? He’s not wrong.
Price: Tickets available on Ticketmaster
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Address: 222 Marina Park Way, San Diego
The San Diego County Fair returns with fried everything, questionable decisions, rides that definitely looked safer in the 2000s, and Dad’s very confident plan to “just walk around for an hour” that somehow turns into an entire day. It’s also the biggest, longest-running community event in San Diego County, running Wednesday, June 10 through Sunday, July 5, with a “Once Upon a Fair” theme. It basically becomes part of the Father’s Day season whether you planned it or not. So, consider this your annual reminder that “happily ever after” can, in fact, involve Cajun honey dogs, cinnamon rolls, a Ferris wheel you swore you wouldn’t go on, and Dad somehow knowing exactly which booth has the best Spam wonton tacos.
Price: Tickets available here: website
Date & Time: June 10 – July 5 (closed Mondays & Tuesdays) | 11 a.m.
Address: 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar
Isabella Dallas is a freelance writer for San Diego Magazine and the Arts and Culture Editor at The Daily Aztec in her final year at San Diego State University. She previously worked as an editorial intern for SDM, but when she’s not writing, you can find her trying the best coffee spots in SD, devouring the latest rom-coms, and indulging in anything and everything pop culture.
The annual event honors middle market companies creating jobs, scaling up, and investing in the region
San Diego is known for its startup culture and innovation economy, but what happens when the company moves beyond its early-stage years? The San Diego Business Impact Awards aim to answer that question, spotlighting the middle market businesses helping drive the region’s economy.
Hosted by San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and JPMorganChase, the second annual awards celebration takes place on Thursday, July 23, from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Scripps Research Auditorium. More than 200 executives, entrepreneurs, and business leaders are expected to attend the networking and cocktail event honoring some of San Diego County’s fastest-growing companies.
Businesses headquartered in San Diego County that have operated for at least two years are encouraged to submit their nomination by Thursday, June 18 at 4 p.m. Companies across industries—from technology and life sciences to tourism and consumer products, as well as pre-revenue startups—are eligible for recognition.
For EDC President and CEO Mark Cafferty, the event is as much about building connections as celebrating success. “We’ve had a longtime partnership with JPMorganChase; their work aligns with our efforts to support underserved communities and drive talent development,” says Cafferty. “And the networking was invaluable last year. I’m still in touch with people I met at last year’s awards.”
EDC is an independently-funded nonprofit that works directly with San Diego companies to help them grow the local economy, make the region as a whole more competitive, and attract and retain top-tier talent with quality jobs. Through EDC, companies can get help starting or expanding their business with support for things like site selection, permit navigation, and regulatory guidance, plus connections to local resources and potential business collaborators.
The San Diego Business Impact Awards began as an idea with one of EDC’s longtime strategic partners, JPMorganChase. The two organizations share a commitment to San Diego and are dedicated to bolstering middle market businesses.
“We’re blessed with a robust innovation economy and startup community,” says Aaron Ryan, San Diego Region Manager for JPMorgan’s Commercial and Investment Bank and vice chair of the firm’s’ San Diego Market Leadership Team. “But one of the segments of the business community we felt was overlooked was emerging middle market companies—the businesses that are no longer small but not yet large.”
Ryan says supporting those companies is critical as they scale and decide where to invest, hire, and grow.
San Diego’s high cost of living remains one of the region’s biggest business challenges, making talent recruitment and retention increasingly competitive. But local leaders point to the region’s quality of life, climate, and collaborative business community as advantages that continue to attract employers and workers.
“In order to support thriving households, there has to be enough high-quality jobs for people to be able to afford to live here,” Cafferty says. “Once a company grows and excels past that middle market point in their growth cycle, they become much more likely to pay higher wages and compete globally.”
Both Cafferty and Ryan proudly tout the unique collaboration that exists among San Diego County businesses. Bringing together top universities producing high-quality talent, cutting-edge research institutions, a robust military and defense presence, leading ocean science and environmental organizations, and a binational, cross-border identity creates a distinct business ecosystem that defines and strengthens the San Diego region.
Last year’s San Diego Business Impact Awards celebrated nearly 60 honorees from 49 industries, representing a total of 8,232 jobs across eight sectors, including: software and technology, healthcare and life sciences, consumer goods, professional services, finance, construction and manufacturing, defense, and hospitality and tourism. On average, honoree companies doubled their revenues over the previous year, employed more than 145 San Diegans each, and offered an average annual compensation of $192,415.
Top honorees included defense contractor Innoflight, environmental consulting firm Bancroft Construction Services, life sciences startup Element Biosciences, defense technology contractor GALT Aerospace, organic grocery store chain Jimbo’s, and biopharmaceutical company LENZ Therapeutics. During the event, Innoflight Founder and CEO Jeff Janicik held a fireside chat offering his insights on investing in the community and embracing San Diego culture.
This year, organizers hope to continue highlighting the middle market players driving economic impact across the region. Nominations are now open through June 18 at 4 p.m. Get your tickets to the San Diego Business Impact Awards celebration to enjoy drinks by Snake Oil Cocktail Co., light bites, live music, and networking.
Food writer Beth Demmon names local bites we love—both at the high and low ends of our budgets
We love a mega-fancy tasting menu, but let’s be honest—we’re not all blessed with unlimited Wagyu funds. So we picked some of the breakout dishes of the last year (or couple of years) from the best chefs in the city, reverse-engineered their chief charms (salty, smoky, caramelized?) in the test lab of our mouths, and found some budget-friendly alternatives that hit some of the same notes with an everyday price tag.
Where do delicately plucked marigold blossoms adorn Deer Isle scallops, or ingredients like fermented raspberry precede roasted coffee oil, shiro miso caramel, or bronze fennel in a parade of hit-after-hit dishes? Lilo in Carlsbad, of course. San Diego’s newest Michelin star changes its menu with the seasons, but one stalwart dish has kept tongues wagging since opening day last April: the caviar ice cream. A boat-shaped sliver of orgeat ice cream, smoked celery root bushi, and freshly pressed almond oil are topped with a generous heap of caviar. It’s a dish so good and defining that chef Eric Bost will tire of talking about it for a very long time.
Price: $265 for the tasting menu (before tax, tip, and drinks)
There’s a reason Stella Jean’s s’mores ice cream is part of the local scoop shop’s “always available” menu. Made with fire-roasted marshmallows and coconut ash ice cream mixed with dark chocolate-covered graham crackers and mini marshmallows, its strangely ashen hue dabbled with flecks of tawny brown is a far cry from the wildly vibrant ube and pandesal toffee flavor seemingly made for Instagram reels. But it’s a sensation in your mouth—smoky, toasty, torched, creamy, marshmallowy, coconutty, ashy, and bitter from the dark chocolate. Pro tip: If you really want to DIY Lilo’s ultra-luxe treat, bring your own caviar.
Price: $6.25 for a single scoop
There’s no question what comes first at Lucien. It’s the egg. Chef and co-owner Elijah Arizmendi’s 12-course tasting menu begins with welcome bites under the calamansi tree before moving inside to start the Journey (the actual name of this section of the menu). The first step is one of the most astounding—a perfectly intact, upright, ochre-hued eggshell containing his take on Japanese chawanmushi (egg custard), topped with a dollop of caviar. The accompanying ingredients have ranged from sweet corn and huitlacoche to banana and buckwheat, but each one has precisely demonstrated Arizmendi’s commitment to French technique with California experimentation and global influence.
Price: $260 for the chef’s tasting menu (before tax, tip, and drinks)
The biggest difference (besides price) is that while Lucien’s dish changes with the season, Sushi Ota is comfortably predictable. A San Diego staple since 1990, the legendary Sushi Ota has been one of those if you know, you know joints that locals try to keep off the radar. (It hasn’t worked at all.) Known for ultra-fresh fish and ultra-traditional service, the small Pacific Beach restaurant also serves Japanese comfort foods like udon noodle soup alongside sashimi, nigiri, and rolls. But it’s the savory steamed egg custard, called chawanmushi, that really gives you the warm and fuzzies. Add a side of salmon roe (ikura) for a few bucks more, and this dupe is about as good as it gets.
Price: $12 for chawanmushi, $11 for ikura
Enough ink—and tears, I’m sure—has been spilled over Chick & Hawk’s long and arduous journey to opening its doors. But now that the Encinitas eatery is in full swing, chef Andrew Bachelier’s tightly curated menu of fried chicken sandwiches, fries, and bowls command lines of hungry locals and skate-culture loyalists. The Birdman, the signature hot chicken sandwich named for partner and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, is piled with cabbage slaw and pickles and slathered with a tangy kimchi comeback sauce on a soft brioche bun. Although this Nashville meets California meets Mississippi meets Korea sando doesn’t command a triple-digit price tag, the fact that it’s nearly a $20 chicken sandwich (sans side) has been a topic of conversation. Bachelier—who worked at Addison before opening Jeune et Jolie, then launched SDM’s 2024 “Best New Restaurant,” Atelier Manna—and his team earned that price tag.
Price: $18
It’s hard to beat Koreans at the chicken game. Korean fried wings are defined by a double-fry technique—first at a low temperature to ensure the chicken is cooked through, then at a high temperature to ensure the famed extra-crispy, ear-splittingly crunchrageous magic. At Cross Street, they follow a similar fusion ethos as Chick & Hawk, using inspiration from the American South as well as Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, and more, with flavors like “Seoul Spicy” or “Honey Butter” for whatever you’re feeling that day. Pair it with a cold beer to go full chimaek (a popular Korean combination of pairing fried chicken and beer). Now that’s a combo—and price tag—that’s hard to beat.
Price: $8.75 for five wings
PB&J. Captain & Tennille. Brad Wise and steak. Steak frites ranks among the iconic global duos. And when the holy union of prime cuts and twice-fried carbs comes from Wise and the meat-loving masters at Trust Restaurant Group, it’s a pretty safe bet. À L’ouest—the group’s newest fancy, but not fussy, drippy plant dreamscape of a French steakhouse on the prime corner of 30th and University in North Park—gives guests a choice: 12-ounce New York strip, 8-ounce filet mignon, or 8-ounce Wagyu hanger, topped with sauce au poivre (the classic French pan sauce—peppercorns, shallots, heavy cream, brandy) and served with a heaping pile of 24-hour salt-brined fries and a watercress salad. One bite acts as a transport to a Parisian brasserie, so if you think about the cost in terms of time-space travel, it’s a pretty great deal.
Price: starts at $48
To satisfy the same urge for meat and potatoes, feel at least moderately European while doing so, and save a couple quid, a trip to The Shakespeare in Mission Hills ticks all the boxes. The classic British shepherd’s pie arrives in a piping hot oval au gratin dish, smothered with a thick layer of mashed potatoes. Beneath it lies a hefty portion of marinated ground beef and vegetables in the pub’s secret sauce, and while there are a few choices of sides, the correct order is peas and “proper” chips (a.k.a. chunky, thick-cut fries versus the typically thinner American “French” fries). It’s more tickety-boo than très bien, but it’s immensely satisfying in any language.
Price: $22.95
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.
From dedicated line cooks to seasoned bartenders, these are the people making magic happen in city's top restaurants
Chefs have done gobs of thankless, lumbar-breaking work over years to land the role. Restaurateurs put their entire livelihoods on the line, microdosed sleep, took ultimate responsibility for every minor stress. They earned the spotlight they get. But ask one of them, and they almost always defer to a line cook who’s showed up for years, been deep in the thing, and whose absence would bring the kitchen to its knees. Or the bartender with a warmth that draws people whether they’re thirsty or not. Or the noble and spreadsheetable soul in charge of purchasing everything needed for the nightly show.
They call it the “heart of the house.”
Spotlight or not, these are the people who make a food culture hum at its daily core.
For this year’s “Best Restaurants” issue, we asked a handful of the top chefs and one restaurant owner—Tara Monsod (Animae/Le Coq), Jason McLeod (Ironside Fish & Oyster), Ananda Bareño (The Marine Room), Owen Beatty (A.R. Valentien), and Ryan Thorsen (Mister A’s)—who that person is for them.
These are the hearts of houses.
Roger Feria Krile is not only the guy you want to be friends with at work, but also the guy you want to hire: respectful, nose-to-the-grindstone, versatile. And he’ll drop off a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls at your house for the holidays. Born in Tijuana, Krile moved to the US with his mom and sister when he was in elementary school. He saw the sacrifices his mother made to give her children a better life, and he pushed himself to live up to that brighter future.
He came to cooking during the pandemic, asking himself, “What do I really love to do?” His answer: “Bake cakes for friends and break bread with people,” he says. That led to a culinary school degree and a stint in a Michelin-starred NYC kitchen, where he grew to “love and understand” fine dining. Now back in San Diego, Krile’s showing up at Animae in a major way. He does prep work three mornings a week and comes later in the day twice a week for dinner service. Most line cooks do one or the other, but he requested both tours of duty.
“Gotta get my reps, keep my skills sharp,” Krile says, “and I don’t want to miss the rush.” Prep work in the mornings helps him learn how Executive Chef Tara Monsod uses each ingredient to the fullest. Krile’s not just a line cook. One-quarter Filipino (and learning about his culinary heritage from mentor Monsod), he’s building his own Mexican-Filipino pop-up concept. Look for Sarsa—Filipino for salsa—where every dish is a play on words fusing Mexican and Philippine Spanish or Tagalog. He’s already R&D’d a breakfast sandwich, the tortantalong: a torta filled with a signature Filipino eggplant omelette called a tortang talong. Friends in the industry say it’s unexpectedly delicious.
“He shows up every day with a clear goal of one day opening his own restaurant, and that drive pushes him to go above and beyond,” says Monsod. “He is constantly learning, asking questions, and absorbing as much as possible, all while leading by example on the line.”
Ruben Martinez knows every bottle of wine at Mister A’s—not necessarily by taste (though he was on the tasting committee for years), but by where they are in storage and whether they need replenishment. Owner Ryan Thorsen wants the wine list at 100 percent available every night, and Martinez’s job is to make that a reality. He’s been keeping inventory on Mister A’s wines since the 1970s, back when he worked for founder John Alessio. And it’s not just vino: Martinez also procures the ingredients, arriving at 5 a.m. to meet delivery trucks, stock shelves, and alert chefs if anything’s amiss.
Then he hits the dining room for a once- or twice-over to find any imperfections. If a light is out, if the plumbing acts up, if something major happens after he leaves in the afternoon, he’ll fix it all. He’s the best guy to ask, anyway; he knows every inch of Mister A’s. “Before ‘Google it,’ there was ‘Call Ruben,’” Thorsen says.
Martinez started out in hospitality at 17 with his father at Hotel Del. “I thought it would be easy working with my dad,” he says. “But early on, he caught me fooling around with the boys and told me, ‘We’re here to make money for the company. If you’re not willing to work, get out of here.’” That set him straight and set the foundation for Martinez’s lifelong dependability.
He moved to Mister A’s a couple years later, and after over five decades, he’s now the indispensable purchasing manager who worked with Alessio, Betrand Hug, and now Thorsen. Later this year, he’s planning on retiring—though he’s already offered to keep showing up a couple days a week and help out with Thorsen’s new project at Liberty Station.
Thorsen knows this man is a gem. “I don’t think we fully grasp what it will feel like without him,” he says. Last year, he threw Martinez a surprise birthday party in Mister A’s Blue Room, inviting Martinez’s family and a whole cast of coworkers going back to Alessio days. Martinez says he had to leave the room to hide his tears.
There’s an hour most people never see, when a restaurant’s technically awake but not yet accountable, and that’s where Patrick Mattoon lives. He’s been the foundation of Ironside’s prep team for the past five years, quietly guiding the day toward success. He and his team are the first in, and they turn on ovens, check deliveries, catch mistakes before they become problems, and fix everything without ceremony so the chefs and line cooks walk into a day that already works.
Mattoon organizes, but more importantly, he owns. There’s no job too small, no detail beneath notice. In a kitchen, bad prep’s the one thing you can’t fix later, no matter how talented of a chef is at the helm.
Five years in, Mattoon still approaches each day with the same care and intensity that he had on day one. He takes every task seriously and sees it through completely—the kind of consistent work that doesn’t draw attention but makes everything else possible. When the restaurant got a soft serve machine, a notorious maintenance nightmare, he taught himself how to clean and run it just to make sure it never broke, not for credit but because that’s just how he’s wired.
“He is a silent leader who has the respect of the entire team due to leading by example,” says Ironside chef Jason McLeod.
Through 23 years, three executive chefs, and a recent kitchen remodel, lead line cook Arturo Celestino is a constant at A.R. Valentien. He’s there at 6:30 a.m. five days a week—sometimes six—for the Lodge’s breakfast service. That means he’s up early prepping potatoes, slicing mushrooms, whisking pancake batter, and stirring sauces “always with a smile,” says Owen Beatty, the restaurant’s new chef de cuisine. “He’s a good leader.”
Celestino shows the younger guys how to make the eggs fluffy, so the omelettes are always perfect (don’t stop twirling the spatula!). He keeps his line in line when their spirits start to naturally droop during the morning shift home stretch when his crew just wants to get out of there. As the lead, he’s also the one chefs turn to when newbies need motivation.
His secret sauce: “mucho talking!” It keeps people happy, and it also helps the chefs retain talent in the kitchen.
Celestino learned to cook out of “necesidad,” he says. He cut his teeth on fine dining at Pacifica Del Mar at the Hyatt and moved to A.R. Valentien in 2003, just a few months after it opened in 2002.
“I’ve had good jefes,” Celestino says of the three executive chefs he’s known at A.R. Valentien: Jeff Jackson, Kelli Crosson, and now Michelin-starred Eric Sakai. Under Jackson—who’s known for pioneering farm-to-table dining in San Diego—Arturo learned to appreciate local ingredients.
“My favorite is basil,” he says, “added to tomato sauce with garlic, it’s mmm.” Fresh basil plays the supporting role in A.R. Valentien’s signature brunch plate, which is also Celestino’s top choice on the menu (to make and to eat), via the Bull’s Eyes: slow-roasted eggplant with sunny-side-up eggs, tomato sauce, and La Quercia prosciutto.
“I love my job,” Celestino says as he flashes that smile. “It’s not just a plate of food. It’s an experience.”
If you’ve been to The Marine Room, you’ve probably met bartender Tony Suarez. With his charming Cuban accent and dapper vest and tie, he makes it his business to regale guests coming and going—even while he’s pouring, mixing, shaking, polishing glasses, and taking orders.
“Over 90 percent of our guests are celebrating a special occasion,” he says. “So I keep up the celebration throughout their whole visit.” He’ll make you a sparkling toast and a customized cocktail, and on your way out, he’ll wish you a happy birthday (again) and invite you back for drinks on him.
“My goal is always to delight the guest,” he says. “I like to discover how you feel and lead you to what you would like to drink.” That spirit of experimentation has led to new signature cocktails, such as the Gerald—crafted for a neighbor who’s a regular—featuring housemade pomegranate puree and bourbon, or the I Drink of You with local Bebemos tequila, Gran Marnier, and Green Chartreuse. You won’t find this anywhere else.
“[Suarez] has mastered the art of the personalized guest experience,” says Marine Room’s Executive Chef Ananda Bareño. “He remembers the small details and favorite orders that make our regulars feel like family.”
Suarez’s tenure at the Marine Room started with a walk on the beach and a knock on the door. He was impressed by the beautiful location, and he asked if they were hiring. He immediately started as a server assistant—right before Valentine’s Day. The bartender took Suarez under his wing, and he took to the books to learn all about spirits.
He’s taken on the bartender role with wisdom and grace, offering a sympathetic ear, a pick-me-up, and a “human to human connection,” he says. Ten years into his career, the surroundings still inspire him as much as they did on day one.
“The Marine Room, the windows onto the ocean, [all] have a healing effect,” he says.
Leorah Gavidor won her first essay contest at age 5. She writes features, news, and non-fiction in San Diego.
Scripps study shows that some patients may be able to taper their dose and maintain results
While glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agents have been used to treat Type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years, their recent emergence as weight-loss wonder drugs marked a new frontier in medicine. But their effectiveness has left some patients wondering what to do once they’ve reached their goal. Stopping the medication could mean regaining some, if not all, of the weight. A Scripps Clinic internal medicine physician recently conducted a small study of whether GLP-1 patients who had reached their goal weight could maintain that weight by taking their regularly prescribed injection every other week instead of weekly. Spoiler alert: 30 of 34 patients did. Read more about the study here and what that may mean as pharmaceutical companies roll out oral GLP-1s.
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