Tacos are San Diego’s lingua franca. The invention of food wrapped in corn tortillas is ballparked at 1000 to 500 BC. The word probably comes from the Nahuatl “tlahco”—meaning “half” or “in the middle”—a food meant to be folded and carried. Portable foods always have a way of sticking around.
San Diego was part of Mexico until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, so tacos didn’t arrive; they remained. After the treaty, they receded into the kitchens of families who stayed behind.
By the early 1900s, US tacos had reached a sad state—mostly ground beef, cheddar cheese, and iceberg lettuce, because Mexican staples like cotija, cilantro, chiles, and freshly pressed tortillas weren’t in grocery stores. In San Diego, that started to change around 1930 in the abode of Petra and Natividad Estudillo, who lived on Logan Avenue in Barrio Logan, the heart of San Diego’s Chicano culture (it’s where many refugees from the Mexican Revolution settled). There, the couple created a teeny tienda, slinging homemade tortillas.
Behind the Estudillos’ counter, reportedly, you could see their living room, lined with furniture and tubs of fresh tortillas. You could tell sales (and tacos) were on the rise, because their décor got increasingly nicer. The couple opened Las Cuatro Milpas next door in 1933. It was the first Mexican restaurant in the city, a taco chapel for over 90 years. Around the same era, Ralph Pesquiera Sr. started pressing tortillas with his parents on India and Grape streets, later serving smaller, corn tortilla versions of flautas for defense workers during WWII. Credited with coining the term “taquito,” he opened El Indio in 1940.
The Bracero Program (1942–64) greatly contributed to taco culture, bringing over four million Mexican men to the US as guest workers, many in San Diego. The kitchens at bracero camps were filled with beans, tortillas, and chiles. The art of making fresh masa started to proliferate, and local grocery stores stocked dried chiles, salsas, and masa harina for their new client base.
San Diego’s taco culture quantum-leapt in 1964, when Roberto and Dolores Robledo, who’d previously owned a Golden Hill restaurant called La Lomita, opened a tortilla factory in San Ysidro. They quickly added a walk-up and drive-through window and called it Roberto’s—the city’s first “modern” taco shop and eventual legend. Two years earlier, up the road in Downey, Glen Bell had launched Taco Bell; by the time he sold it to PepsiCo in 1978, every American grocery store was selling “taco kits” with pre-fried shells, seasoning packets, and jars of salsa. Taco night became a middle-class ritual.
Surfers also deserve a taco nod. In 1983, SDSU student Ralph Rubio finally made good on the recipe gifted to him by a taquero on a San Felipe beach; he opened Rubio’s on Mission Bay Drive, launching the Baja fish taco into the national imagination (Rubio’s IPO hit NASDAQ in 1999).
Two government policies also helped further taco enlightenment. In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) legalized about 2.7 million immigrants, many in SoCal. Green cards and work permits meant access to leases, loans, and licenses. With that stability came confidence—and a wave of Mexican-owned small businesses. The late 1980s and ’90s saw the rise of family-run icons like Lolita’s, Rigoberto’s, and Cotixan. It’s no coincidence that two of San Diego’s proudest food inventions—the California burrito and carne asada fries (often credited to Lolita’s circa the late ’90s)—came onto the scene during this period.
This last point is an unsubstantiated connecting of dots. But Mexico’s a large country full of endless regional taco ideas (Oaxacan cheese, Sinaloan seafood, Texcoco barbacoa). And the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed in 1992, was probably what sprung that deep well of taco ideas. Corporations opened massive operations in border cities like Tijuana, drawing thousands of workers and tacos from every nook.
Which brings us to now. There are 1,700-ish taco shops across the county, and here’s the list of our favorites.
Courtesy of Tacotarian
San Diego’s Best Tacos
Gobernador Taco at Mariscos Mi Gusto Es
Chollas Creek
Located in the massive parking lot by an event center and a cannabis dispensary, Mi Gusto Es may just set the bar for the best gobernador (a Sinaloan-style shrimp taco with melted cheese and a flour tortilla—a wonderful thing). Loaded with sautéed peppers, it costs three bucks. Get the spicy shrimp. Always spicy.
Taco de Maciza at De Cabeza El Único
Chula Vista
Best cow-head joint in the county. It’s tip-to-tail taco eating (with carne asada and quesadillas as safety valves). Lots of taco shops will do lengua (tongue) and cabeza (head meat), but De Cabeza adds delicacies like buche (pork stomach), tripe, sweetbread, blood sausage, and chapulines (citrusy-salty grasshopper snacks). You can get a whole head for a group. It’s a bonus that De Cabeza looks designed by someone with a great record collection (and yet the tacos are still $3 apiece).
Tripa Taco at Tacos El Panson
City Heights
Tripe is a bit like a working man’s sweetbread or rancher calamari: intestines boiled into submission, then grilled or fried. The result is a sort of crispy-outside, tender-silky-inside alt-protein. Food texture ASMR. El Panson is the tripa specialist. Get the mixed taco with carnitas and tripe in thick, handmade tortillas.
Photo Credit: Valeria Plascencia
Octopus Taco at TJ Oyster Bar
Bonita & Chula Vista
Oh, those pulpo tacos. When the 2008 recession hit, the Jazo family lowered the price on their Baja-style fish tacos to 99 cents. A massive line of families gathered in the parking lot to commune and commiserate. People remember the food that brings joy to a joyless stretch. The prices have normalized now, and the tacos are worth every penny. Get the smoked tuna fries, too, and a tamarind margarita.
Costa Azul Taco at La Vecindad Neighborhood Tacos
Hillcrest
Three brothers run this arty taco spot, adorned with picnic tables and black-and-white photography and festive knicknacks and a laundry line of t-shirts hung below the high ceilings. Get the chile relleno taco and the “Costa Azul” (bacon-wrapped shrimp with avocado and chipotle aioli). Strong michelada game.
The OG Fish Taco at Kiko’s Place
Mission Valley & Downtown
This long-iconic mariscos food truck has been a fixture on a street corner in Mission Valley since 1983, but the owners also have a shop downtown. It’s all about the shrimp and fish tacos. The OG has lightly battered fish, cabbage, pico, and aioli, plus a gratis cup of consommé.
Baja Taco at Tacotarian
North Park
San Diego is one of the most stringently anti-chain cities in the US, but even NIMBY food grumps love this plant-based, Vegas-born concept. It’s a taco house of seitan, Beyond beef, Gardein chicken, jackfruit, potatoes, and beans. Get the Baja taco: beer-battered avocado with cilantro-lime dressing, slaw, guac, pico, and chili mayo. Parking sucks, but a glorious horchata waits inside, so hunt and peck with your Prius.
Photo Credit: Jorge Fernandez
Quesataco a Mano at Ed Fernandez Restaurant Birrieria
Nestor
Every morning, a hungry crowd gathers in the parking lot of a building in an alley that looks designed for tax accounting. In the mid-2000s, the Fernandez brothers borrowed a friend’s food truck and parked it here, selling their mom’s recipe for birria. They owe mom flowers and maybe a car. Absolutely won the birria wars. Jorge Fernandez has turned it into a birriapalooza: birria chilaquiles, a torta ahogada soaked in broth (San Diego’s version of a French dip), birria ramen.
Baja Taco at The Taco Stand
Multiple Locations
Here’s why there’s always a line at this place: Chef Enrique Olveras’ Mexico City restaurant Pujol has been named one of the best on the planet by almost every serious food entity. And for 10 years, his right-hand chef was Pancho Ibáñez—who’s now the culinary director for Showa Hospitality, which owns The Taco Stand. So, the second-in-charge chef from the world’s greatest restaurant is overseeing the marinade for those al pastor tacos and recipe-developing the chipotle sauce for those beer-battered fish tacos.
Started in 1972, this Tijuana icon is one of the first transplants from taco city to also conquer San Diego (it got here in 1998). The key is the trompo—adobada stacked on a vertical spit, slowly turning so that the fat constantly bastes the meat, like shawarma (the style is often credited to Lebanese immigrants in Puebla, Mexico). The adobada is TEG’s legend, but the lengua (beef tongue) is lowkey better.
Adobada Taco at TJ Tacos
Escondido
The star is adobada—pork shoulder marinated in chiles, garlic, onion, cumin, and a touch of citrus until the meat is tender and as red as a New Mexico national park. Lines here are divided by meat, and TJ Tacos doesn’t serve chicken. It’s often compared to Tacos El Gordo (it was created by a former TEG manager and chef ). Get that adobada, and use the addictive, radioactive-green avocado sauce.
Photo Credit: @veetography
Garlic Butter Cajun Shrimp Taco at Wet Tacos
Logan Heights
Getting into the “give a damn how it got to the plate” side of eating, Wet Tacos uses certified 100 percent grassfed halal beef for its birria in the Logan Heights/Grant Hill area. Try the garlic butter shrimp tacos and surf-and-turf birriadillas, too. The food truck sets up shop at The Soap Factory, which is one of the most compelling creative spaces in the city.
Carne Asada Taco at La Perla
Multiple Locations
At the location in Point Loma, it feels like someone fully enclosed a front patio as a shaded taco hut near a fishing village. The reason why La Perla’s burritos are revered is that carne asada, and it’s equally good in taco form.
Taco Especial at Oscars Mexican Seafood
Pacific Beach
When Juan Bernardo Montes de Oca launched Oscars in 2011, smoked fish was more of a fancy-pants restaurant thing. By bringing it to the affordable taco gentry, the Tijuana native struck a cord and lines snaked around the corner. Get the taco especial with smoked fish, shrimp, and scallops—the holy trinity of mariscos.
Birria de Chivo Taco at Birriera Y Menuderia Guadalajara
Multiple Locations
Birria is a war story. When the Spanish colonized Mexico in the 1500s, they brought goats. Goats can survive many apocalypses, eat pretty much anything, and reproduce at a Philip Rivers rate. This gang of goats decimated locals’ crops. So, what do you do when you find a Spanish pest eating your family’s food? You slow-cook that bleaty twerp in delicious herbs and spices and create a national food treasure. That’s why many consider chivo (goat) to be the OB (original birria). Birrieria Y Menuderia Guadalajara is one of the few in the city to do it, and it’s gamey and delicious.
Photo Credit: Adam Martinez
De Espada Taco at Fish Guts
Barrio Logan
San-Diego-born-and-raised Pablo Becker had helped his cousin (famed Mexican chef Richard Sandoval) open Michelin-y restaurants across the country. During a hard personal stretch, he decamped to Chicago and spent five head-down years as a cook, falling in love with the line. He came home to open this fish taco joint in Barrio Logan using sustainable, local fish. He helms the plancha daily, and his blackened swordfish-belly taco with jalapeño slaw and spicy aioli is one of the city’s best.
El Viejón Taco at El Viejón Seafood
Multiple Locations
El Viejón is what happens when two locals—Luis and Angelica Gonzalez—learn the biz (they own Lupe’s Mexican Eatery and Holy Paleta) and stitch all their best notes for a fully baked concept. El Viejón is their fast-casual mariscos concept in Convoy, Otay Ranch, and Mira Mesa. The namesake taco is a thick-ish, browned flour tortilla packed like a clown car with smoked tuna, shrimp, octopus, cabbage, cilantro, fried onions, and crema. The red sauce here is a religion-starter.
Carne Asada Taco at Papasotes
North Park
San Diegans rave about this spot next to Belching Beaver Brewery’s tasting room in North Park. Get the carne asada or the shrimp taco. There are also bacon-wrapped hot dogs, nachos, and baked potatoes with taco fixings (carne asada, pollo, adobada, the classics).
This Oceanside spot from Davin and Jessica Waite is a mission (fully plant-based; aiming not just for zero-waste but regenerative). Nobility’s great, but hard to eat. Luckily, Davin’s a hell of a chef (he also owns Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub). For his riff on Baja fish tacos, he cooks local carrots til they’re just tender; blanches them in seaweed dashi; beer-batters them with tempura; and tops them with a lime-pepper slaw, yum-yum sauce, and housemade taco sauce.
Taco de Birria at Mariscos y Birrieria El Prieto
Multiple Locations
After my month-long search for San Diego’s best birria, this taco truck in a Chula Vista parking lot topped my list. Run by food truck impresario Jorge Vargas (who owns TJ-style birria de res joint Don Vargas Birriera y Mariscos in CV, too), it also serves tripe, mulitas, and arrachera (marinated skirt steak). Pony up to the self-serve pot of consommé while you wait.
Buche Taco at Tijuanzo
Hillcrest & Little Italy
Antonio and Claudia Esquivel began slinging guacamole-loaded tacos from a cart in the Playas de Tijuana. That extra guac—and a killer carne asada—started a mania. Now their daughters Karime and Aria Esquivel are annexing the US with their taco power. If gluttony strikes, ask for carne asada served fantasma-style (an off-menu order; the “tortilla” is griddled cheese). And try the buche taco—a Mexican delicacy, it’s slow-cooked pork stomach that’s fatty, tender, juicy.
Do Your Own Thing at Super Cocina
Normal Heights
First, let’s be clear: This is not a taco shop. This is a cocina económica—soups and stewed meats in Normal Heights; some of the best, most affordable, down-home Mexican food in the county. Super Cocina serves one official taco, and it’s good. Even better is to get a combo plate with corn tortillas and improv a taco.
Photo Credit: Mandie Geller
Filet Mignon Taco at Puesto
Multiple Locations
How a hair stylist became a taco king: Mexico City hometowner Luisteen González was hustling—hairdresser by day, taco caterer at night. While creating a French curl for a salon client, he had a taco idea: What if you crisped and browned cheese just like a French curl, and stuffed it with a taco payload?
The result—like a crispy cheese crepe filled with marinated meats—was predictably delicious. Five brothers and cousins (the Adlers and the Lombrozos) tapped him to open Puesto, which has evolved into a higher-end Mexican food empire and brewery. Naysayers will tell you Puesto’s too big to be good, but that smacks more of little-guys-do-it-better posturing than actual taste.
Puesto invested huge in culinary talent: New executive chef Raul Casillas comes from Michelin-starred Mexican spot Valle, and the beverage director’s last gig was running a place with three stars. Few humans can deny the mightiness of that filet mignon taco: crispy cheese, medium-rare steak, avocado, and a killer pistachio-serrano salsa on non-GMO blue corn tortillas.
Tacos de Birria at Cocina de Barrio
Multiple Locations
This is modern sit-down Mexican, where Jose Flores’ lamb birria and consommé is one of the best in the city. Throw that in a blue corn tortilla with salsa macha and pickled onions? It costs more, and it’s worth it.
Portobello Taco at City Tacos
Multiple Locations
No shade to the hallowed taco meats, but the best options at City Tacos—started by Mexico City native Gerry Torres and former Underbelly chef Tony Guan (who has since moved on)—are the planty ones. The deep-fried chile relleno taco—with tons of Oaxaca and cotija cheese inside a güero chile—eats like taco fondue. But the showstopper is the grilled portobello taco: melted asadero cheese (like a tangier, Mexican mozzarella), corn, black beans, pasilla chiles (smoky, fruity), arugula, onion, and tomato with cilantro-serrano aioli.
Chili Garlic Shrimp Tacos at Quixote
North Park
At the LaFayette Hotel’s signature mausoleum Mexican restaurant, chef José Cepeda (who cut his teeth under Josh Gil at Mírame in LA) layers a fresh tortilla with crispy cheese, spicy garlic shrimp, salsa macha, and chicory.
Courtesy Haggo’s Organic Taco
Costeau Taco at Haggo’s Organic Taco
Encinitas
You probably don’t need a health degree to realize food ethically ranched and organically farmed is better than food with drugs and bug spray on it. Haggo’s in Leucadia uses free-range chicken, grass-fed beef, organic everything, no seed oils, gluten-free batter. Om tacos for the Vuori in us all. Get the Costeau, a GF fish taco with locally caught fish (usually halibut), cumin-lime crema, and mango salsa.
Shrimp & Octopus Taco at Ferchaladas Birria & Mariscos
Barrio Logan
Barrio Logan’s got a high bar for mariscos, and Ferchaladas clears it. A graffiti art marquee, picnic tables, and music as energetic as the lunch crowd. The big, share-with-friends show is the “Hija de Su [Expletive] Madre” tostada with shrimp, octopus, and fish in ceviche sauce and cilantro aioli. For a smaller sample, get the shrimp and octopus taco, with the tortilla dipped in crimson consommé. Add all the sauces (cilantro and chipotle aiolis, serrano, and guajillo). Cash or Venmo only.
“The fish tacos [are on] regular rotation. It’s by my house, and the combo of the salsa with the spicy red onions always hits.” –Tara Monsod, Chef & Owner, Le Coq & Animae
Mesa Agricola
Escondido
“Unique yet authentic, great ingredients, all about the craft. Love the classic cochinita pibil … and the bistecca arranchera.” –Travis Swikard, Chef & Owner, Callie
“The taco de suadero is the perfect balance of fat and meat.” –Pablo Becker, Chef & Owner, Fish Guts
Carnitas Las Michoacanas
Rolando & Chula Vista
“The best taco isn’t on the menu. It’s the one the restaurant gifts you while you wait. In a time when nothing comes free, this little gesture feels like a throwback to the kind of Mexican hospitality that feeds the heart and belly—like how your abuelita hands you a taquito to tide you over because she knows you just can’t wait. And, oh, those carnitas.” –Claudia Sandoval MasterChef Winner
Tacos El Gordo
Multiple Locations
“Consistency is everything for me, and I don’t think another place does it better. I have been going there for 15-plus years now, and it’s a win every time. The salsas are flavorful, each in their own way, and each taco is crafted with its own garnish.” –Brad Wise, Chef & Owner, Trust Restaurant Group
Cantina Mayahuel
North Park
“The carnitas are second to none for pure, unadulterated, and reliable satisfaction. Hit me with that, a side of those fine chopped serranos, and maybe one of the million mezcals [on the menu] and leave me be.” –Ryan Thorsen, Owner, Mister A’s
Craft Coast Brewery & Taco Stand
Oceanside
“Made-to-order tortilla with your taco. My go-tos are the birria and carne asada. Bonus: It’s a brewery, and nothing pairs better with tacos than a Mexican Coca Cola or [Craft Coast’s] beers.” –Roberto Alcocer, Executive Chef, Valle
Tacos El Panson
City Heights
“A hole-in-the-wall that does amazing street tacos at an affordable price. Great home-cooked rice and beans, and three tacos and a soda is, like, 13 bucks.” –David Sim, Executive Chef, Kingfisher
Lola 55
East Village
“The mesquite-grilled chicken taco with chicharrón, cucumber, coconut rice, and peanut salsa macha. I love the texture and flavor, and peanut macha is my favorite.” –Deborah Scott, Executive Chef & Partner, Cohn Restaurant Group
Ed Fernandez Restaurant Birrieria
Nestor
“Tequila plus Ed Fernandez’ quesabirria taco equals no hangover. You just cannot go wrong at this family-run joint.” –Jon Sloan, Culinary Director, Juniper and Ivy & The Crack Shack
Las Cuatro Milpas
Barrio Logan
“The crispy tacos, specifically the chicken. [The kitchen] uses fresh, housemade corn tortillas; does a flash-fry; and stuffs them with chicken guisado (boiled chicken cooked with onions, garlic, and tomatoes). They remind me of my childhood days growing up in Tijuana.” –Frank Vizcarra, Owner, Lola 55
Antojitos La Sabrosona
Rotating Pop-Up
“It’s an absolutely authentic and delicious family affair with a constantly rotating menu. A family from Hacienda de Cabajas missed food from home and are emulating [their hometown] in their pop-up with everything from the food to the music and décor.” –Charleen Sandoval, Executive Chef, Born and Raised
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.
When Rigo Munoz opened a weekends-only taco stand on Market Street in 2018, at first, he was just hoping to sell his tacos to however many customers he could. That low-key, word of mouth approach worked well for a couple years. Very well.
“Then, the line started,” he laughs. He began to double his sales week after week, until an influencer from Tijuana paid them an undercover visit in 2024. Munoz was hanging out in his backyard the next Monday when his phone started pinging and ringing off the hook. “So I go onto my social media and there, lo and beyond, the video already had 10,000, 12,000 views in like, less than an hour,” he says. The next day, there was a line of customers waiting for him before he opened at 5 p.m. The Chula Tacos revolution sparked there.
Now, he’s ready to open his third location on August 1 at 4994 Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach. It wasn’t an easy or straightforward path—the city shut down his original location citing too much noise and traffic. But Munoz was looking ahead, already in talks with a restaurateur to take over his space at 1719 Palm Avenue in the Nestor neighborhood of southeast San Diego. From the time he got shut down to getting the keys of his first brick-and-mortar was less than two days.
The second location in Chula Vista caught fire on Valentine’s Day and is slated to reopen later this fall (689 H Street). Munoz says he also plans to open a fourth location somewhere between the Ocean Beach and Morena Boulevard areas, but has aspirations for more.
“I’d like to become the In-N-Out of tacos,” he says. He’s actively looking for places that could support either a drive-thru or the typical fast-casual taqueria style, but no matter what, he’s going to keep his menu simple.
Each location has the same menu, except labio, which are ox lips, and beef intestines. They’re top-sellers at Palm Avenue, but might not translate as well to the OB crowd, he says. But guests can still get their fix of vampiro tacos, tacos de trompo, and from-scratch horchata and jamaica.
Chula Tacos is best known for its kekas (pronounced keh-kuhs), which are extra-large quesadillas stuffed with your choice of meat. “It’s a hefty thing,” Munoz promises. It’s such a trademark that he filed for a patent, which is still pending.
Building a taco empire has been a long time coming. Munoz first started making tacos at age 12, and has operated a number of cafes, delis, and other businesses on both sides of the border ever since. “We’re a family business,” he says. He’s been trying to hit that mother lode for years—and all it took was one video to light the fuse.
The newest location of Chula Tacos opens August 1 at 4994 Newport Avenue, Suite A in Ocean Beach. Hours of operation are 11 a.m. to midnight daily. (Opening date subject to change.)
Courtesy of Oceanside Sustainable Food Festival
San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events
Beth’s Bites
Everyone (clap) watches (clap, clap) women’s sports! (Thunderous applause!) San Diego’s first women’s sports bar, One of Us, opened this week in the former URBN Pizza space in North Park. I stopped by the preview and can confirm the Big Ass Fan is still there, but now there are tons of TVs lining the walls ready to broadcast women’s soccer, basketball, volleyball, and all the other sports events you could ever dream of. (And yes, they’ll be showing the men’s World Cup on Sunday, because I guess people watch men’s sports, too.)
Rolando’s ears must have been burning, because a month after interviewing chef Coral Strong of the now-closed Garden Kitchen, Campus Burgers announced plans to turn the formerly hyperlocal farm-to-table restaurant into a spot for affordable smashburgers. I’m sure the local college kids will appreciate the $1.99 smashburger special—although let’s face it, in today’s expensive times, everyone is ready for a wallet-friendly outing.
A few months ago, I gave Navore Market’s farm-to-front door delivery service a try and as a longtime former CSA subscriber, I have to admit it felt nice to leave the produce purchasing to the pros. But as of July 12, you can now head to Navore’s second community pickup hub at Mission Valley YMCA (5505 Friars Road) every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Having a centralized drop-off point makes it easy for farmers, and buyers don’t have to commit to a subscription—sounds like a farm-to-table win to me.
Keeping on with the farm-to-table news, the 4th annual Oceanside Sustainable Food Festival is scheduled for July 25 in downtown Oceanside, bringing 50-plus vendors together for a day of global food and drink, artisan products, home goods, live music, and more. The event usually draws in a couple thousand people, so might I suggest arriving close to the 11 a.m. kickoff for the best chance at maximizing your nom?
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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.
There’s a place in heaven for a steakhouse that remakes chicken nuggets but uses Jidori instead of whatever glum bird is proffered in the children’s section. And then they top it with caviar. That, plus an editor with an obsession-level ranking of chai in Carlsbad, and a whole fish from one of San Diego’s OG top chefs who has mercifully returned to the kitchen. These are the very best things we’ve found from another month of eating professionally in San Diego. Go get some.
Stake Chophouse & Bar
Caviar Chicken Nugget
One of my favorite experiences at Stake in Coronado is that—if the patio is chilly enough to warrant heaters—they’ll surround you with towers of flame. Paired with the retaining wall of heat against the glass railing overlooking Orange Avenue, there is so much surrounding fire that it feels like dining in a much nicer version of the Elmo meme, in which the nasally puppet’s whole world has amusingly arsoned.
Three things you have to get here: first, the Wagyu popcorn (kernels popped in melted Wagyu beef fat, salted with paprika); second, the Snake River Farms Wagyu skirt steak (its Gold grade means incredibly high marble), one of the best steaks in the city; third, the Jidori chicken nuggets with herbed crème fraîche, pickle, and a perm of caviar. A childhood food, deliciously adulted. —Troy Johnson
Flying Pig Pub & Kitchen
Tri-Tip Sando
It’s been 15 years since married folk Aaron and Roddy Browning opened Flying Pig Pub & Kitchen in a hidden south Oceanside hovel—using vinyl records as placemats, the decor an assortment of welded metal weirdities. One thing has always remained: Pork is their native tongue.
This sandwich pries open long-dormant pleasure receptors in most alive human bodies. Brandt Beef tri-tip is rubbed with its “Pig Spice” (hint: good paprika and celery seed do wonders), sleeps for 24 hours, then is seared and rested for an hour—sliced and seared again, placed on a mini baguette wet with fresh chimichurri and smoked tomato aioli, then topped with melted aged provolone, grilled peppers, onions, and gremolata (parsley, garlic, lemon zest). Order two, or be prepared to fight. —Troy Johnson
Valentina
Pan Tomaquet
Pintxos are Basque-country bar snacks, finger foods for Real Sociedad games. The appropriate utensils are a couple of fingers and a toothpick. But Valentina’s in Leucadia are done with just enough culinary school ambition (not too much, fuss has no place in pintxos) from exec chef Enrique Ñol, who worked at the estimable Wrench & Rodent.
Its tomaquet (tomato bread) could be underestimated as a stacked pile of quality ingredients, but it’s undeniably great—toasted pan de cristal (light, airy, Catalan “glass bread”) dressed with tomato, garlic, salt, EVOO, and a layer of one of the world’s greatest meats: Cinco Jotas Iberian jamón. Eat it with a minor winefall of porrón, and ask for Todd—a certified sommelier and one of the most knowledgeable food minds in the local scene. —Troy Johnson
Ironside Fish & Oyster
Whole Fish
Get the whole fish. Doesn’t matter the catch, just trust that chef Jason McLeod’s got you. When CH Projects opened Ironside in Little Italy in 2014, the restaurant group took over the old Farkas furniture store and turned it into a replica of an ocean liner, tapping McLeod (a chef who’d earned two Michelin stars in Chicago) to oversee its menus.
It quickly became a San Diego staple for seafood. After leaving for a few years to help concept and launch some big-name restaurants in Vegas, McLeod is back again getting his hands dirty in the kitchen. And his fish? They come in fresh from local fishermen who he’s established relationships with over the years. So yeah, get the whole damn thing. —Nicolle Monico
Steady State Roasting
Indian Summer
I have a running spreadsheet of chai rankings in Carlsbad. The chai that stays on the highest shelf? Steady State’s gingery, nutmeggy Indian Summer with an almond milk base and fresh nutmeg shavings on top. Juiced ginger gives the drink deeper, warmer notes, but not so much spice that your throat closes on the first sip.
Too often, coffee shops advertise authentic chai, then uncork that carton of sugar-bomb concentrate from an artisanal wholesaler called Costco. This is the real deal; it’s mildly sweet, a little more spicy, and in my opinion, best served hot. If I could order a keg of it, I would. (Can I?) —Emma Veidt
After 10 years of rooftop dining and brewing award-winning beers, OB Brewery is for sale. A local fixture on Newport Avenue, OB Brewery owner Mike Tajran is ready to retire and hand over the reins. “It’s got so much potential,” he says, pointing to the accolades the brewpub has collected throughout the last decade (it’s more than a few).
At the 2017 Great American Beer Festival, OB’s Hidden Gem Dunkelweizen won silver in the German-Style Wheat Ale category, followed by a World Beer Cup silver medal as a South German-Style Dunkel Weizen in 2026. In 2018, GABF named OB Brewery Small Brewpub of the Year, brewer Jim Millea earned Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year, and the B. Right On pale ale nabbed a gold medal in the American-Style Pale Ale category. The Elevator Red IPA also took bronze that year at the San Diego International Beer Festival, and earlier this year, they won gold for Couple’s Therapy chili beer and silver for Rauch Me smoked beer at San Diego County Fair Craft Brew Competition.
It’s a solid foundation for the right buyer, he says—someone with brewing and business chops ready for a turnkey operation in a favorable location a block from the beach on Ocean Beach’s busiest street. (And while he’s letting go of the brewpub business, he’s also open to selling the building as part of the deal.)
Originally from Iraq, Tajran’s family ran restaurants in Baghdad, but “they were decimated by Saddam Hussein,” he explains. Once in the United States, he launched Giant New York Pizza at 5050 Newport Avenue in 1984, which eventually became Newport Pizza & Ale House. Newport Pizza felt long ahead of its time, proudly proclaiming they served “no crap on tap” years before the craft beer craze caught fire in San Diego.
Courtesy of OB Brewery
When the building’s owners passed away and their son cut his lease short in 2020, Tajran says he was disappointed, but he had a nagging feeling that would happen eventually—which is why he already purchased 5041 Newport Avenue back in 2009 and opened Ocean Beach Brewery in 2016.
“For 42 years, I have been in this location in this area, the same block,” he says with pride. Ocean Beach has gone through some changes since 1984 (the OB farmers market launched in 1992, Starbucks came in 2001 and left in 2022, ADUs crept in, and the iconic OB Pier closed in 2023), but Tajran says the heart of the beachside town has remained the same.
So has most of his staff. Millea has been brewing since day one, and longtime manager Megan Schuster has worked for Tajran for 19 years, first at Newport, then at OB Brewery. Most of the employees are locals, and Tajran says he doesn’t plan on closing the business until he finds the right buyer to carry on the baton.
The property itself comes with some unique features for the area—three stories with a rooftop deck and ocean views from every level. And if you’re wondering if those uninterrupted views will remain that way, Tajran assures me they will. Part of his original building purchase included language that prohibits the three buildings between him and the ocean from building up. He also leases space next door, which would allow a new owner to expand brewing capacity with more tanks and fermenters.
“I just wanted to make sure this goes in good hands,” he says. He and his wife both hope to retire soon in order to spend time with their children. But he’ll make sure his other baby is taken care of first.
“I love Ocean Beach,” he says. “I can say nothing but thank you, OB.”
OB Breweryis still open at 5041 Newport Avenue. Hours are Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Interested parties should contact Next Wave Commercial.
Along the same vein of iconic businesses, Tribute Pizza is celebrating 10 years in North Park this week with different events every night. Good luck getting a reservation if you haven’t already, but you can still take part in the silent auction on behalf of Feeding San Diego. Owner Matt Lyons’ goal is to raise $100,000 for the nonprofit and is offering some pretty sweet stuff to do so—think a full weekend buyout of Tribute, a private event with Lyons and chef Travis Swikard of Callie and Fleurette, a year of access to a VIP hotline for reservations, and even more. Time is ticking away on your chance to bid, so be sure to make your best offer before time runs out.
La Corriente continues its expansion across San Diego with lucky number three coming to Oceanside. Located next to Tanner’s Prime Burgers and PopUp Bagels, a restaurant rep says that at the rate the restaurant is opening new spaces, it wouldn’t be wild to see a few more pop up along the coast in the future.
Kitchens for Good has big plans on the horizon, including their sprawling new Culinary Impact Center coming to Bankers Hill next year. Now, it should be a bit easier to accomplish their (many) goals with the help of a $50,000 grant from the Jacques Pépin Foundation. Kitchens for Good is one of four awardees this year and will receive the funds over the next two years, allowing them to launch their Market Cafe initiative in the new center and continue their mission of hospitality training programs and ending food insecurity across the city. It’s a pretty awesome award, given by a pretty awesome group to another pretty awesome group, so it’s just mega-awesome all the way around.
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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.
Implementing a farm-to-table model hardly deserves acknowledgement these days. It’s not a stretch. It’s not innovative. “It’s the bare f**king minimum,” says Herb & Sea‘s executive chef Aidan Owens.
When I arrive at the Encinitas restaurant, I’m ready to talk sustainability, farm-to-table stuff, with Owens. “Did you see the chin on that?” he says of the extra big jiggly chin on the sheephead that just arrived with the day’s fresh catch. I did. It was Jay Leno adjacent.
I learn quickly that he somehow oozes both charm and stone-cold honesty. Maybe he could construct a new dish with chin goo, like he did when he had a bunch of tuna scraps and voila’d it into a smooth and crowd-pleasing ‘nduja. “I want to know what’s in there,” he says.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
The instinct to look closer, to dig into what others might discard, says a lot about the chef’s approach. I guide him back to our topic, but he has something else on his mind. “We’re overcomplicating food—what happened to just cooking good food and having fun with it?”
Owens grew up on a farm in Byron Bay, Australia, where sustainability wasn’t a concept you chat about so much as a way of life. Think dirt roads, backyard chickens, pulling vegetables straight from the ground, and a mother who believed that if you couldn’t pronounce the ingredients on a package, you shouldn’t eat what was inside.
Food wasn’t precious or performative. Making it was what you did because you were hungry and that’s still what inspires Owens today. “I like to cook good food because I like to eat good food,” he says.
His approach to sustainability at Herb & Sea began so naturally that it felt just like instinct. “I was just like, ‘Let’s order food from the people who live and work here,’” he says.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
And why wouldn’t he when lives in San Diego? Cities all over the world vie for our goods. Our tuna is sent overseas. Our spiny lobsters hit dinner plates in China and Japan. Not to mention California’s producing a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruits and nuts.
“Why would we outsource when it’s all here?” Owens asks.
Sustainability, in this context, is about cooking what exists in abundance, nearby, right now. “I love the local fish here. It’s f**king delicious and San Diego citrus, I mean, it is so f**ing good,” he says.
Instead of importing ingredients, Owens also looks for nearby alternatives. “You can find really cool things in the local waters,” he says, pointing out that stingray cheeks taste similar to scallops.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
Whatever he finds in that sheephead chin might just be the next substitute for marrow. But to make this work, it means getting diners amped up about the slightly unfamiliar.
Tasting menus, where diners are completely in his hands, become an opportunity to gently push boundaries. “I’ll serve mackerel, because people think they hate it,” Owens says, noting that the abundant local fish can have some fishiness. “But when it’s fresh, it’s arguably one of the best fish in the ocean.”
He also tweaks the language on the menu so people might feel more compelled to give dishes a try without preconceived notions. He might use “lengua” instead of “tongue.” “Whelk” instead of “snail.” When he puts “stingray throat” on the menu, he disarmingly calls it “skate.”
To reduce waste, scraps aren’t always discarded but rather turned into something new. Sometimes they’re smoked, cured or fermented. Apples going bad turn into apple ponzu. Lemons turn to marmalade, which stretches their usefulness far beyond peak season. “And it’s super tasty on our pizza,” he says.
What makes the food even richer, is the relationships he’s built with farmers. Though it didn’t always feel natural, Owens sought personal connection first. He recalls approaching a fisherman at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market. “I was awkward,” he says. “I went up to him and said, ‘I like your fish.’”
Owen’s is now so close to his suppliers—like fishermen Ryan Sebo and Joe Daly—that he gets texted pictures of fresh catches right as they flop on the boat. The messages always ask if he wants first dibs. “I say yes to a lot of fish,” Owens says, noting that Herb & Sea can go through 2,000 pounds of seafood a week.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
The next evolution of sustainability, in his view, will be chefs working directly with producers such as his alliance with Sebo, cutting out middlemen and purveyors where possible. “It will put more money in the pockets of the people doing the work,” he says.
It will mean that chefs can’t just know their local farmers and producers, but they’ll choose to work with the ones who have the best practices. Dining and sustainability will become much less about the final plate. “It will be more about the impact that plate has on the Earth,” he says.
Ultimately, he believes sustainability doesn’t need to be loud. It doesn’t need hashtags. It just needs to be honest.
“We aren’t saving lives. We’re feeding people good food,” he says.
And yet, in feeding people well—simply, thoughtfully, responsibly—something meaningful happens. Guests leave satisfied. Ingredients are respected. Local ecosystems are supported and food returns to what it has always been at its core: nourishment, pleasure, and a quiet reflection of the place it comes from.
San Diego has lost a number of ambitious concepts lately—Vulture and Dreamboat in University Heights, Wildflour Delicatessen in Liberty Station, Deckman’s in North Park, Matsu in Oceanside. All have different reasons for closing (some outgrew their space, some overshot their costs), but none of them suffered for quality. Ditto for the next casualty. On July 19, Cellar Hand in Hillcrest will close its doors.
Unlike the other closures, there’s actually a silver lining. The Perr family, who owns both Cellar Hand and Pali Wine Co., announced they will relocate Pali’s tasting room from Little Italy to take over the vacated Cellar Hand space.
Cellar Hand opened just over two years ago with a promise to source 100 percent of their produce locally. Ambitious, but admirable. Logan Kendall, the original executive chef, launched with a menu centered around lots of funky fermentation, tinned fish preserved in-house, a bevy of fun dips like labneh and whipped tahini, and a ridiculously fantastic pork chop from Thompson Heritage Farms. Wine Enthusiast named the 120-seat eatery one of the top 50 wine-focused restaurants in the country in 2025—not a shock, considering the mega wine chops behind the project.
Following Kendall’s tenure, chefs Ashley McBrady and then Sable-Tanya Wentwoord took over the reins, keeping things rolling with expanded brunch offerings, chef’s dinners, and all the usual accoutrements of a hyped spot. Before joining the Pali Wine/Cellar Hand team, Wentwoord worked and staged at multiple James Beard Award–recognized and Michelin-starred restaurants in Boulder, Colorado (Frasca Food and Wine); San Francisco, CA (Coi, Che Fico); Providence, Rhode Island (Persimmon); and Fredericksburg, Tex. (Southold Farm + Cellar). She will continue to head the food program at Pali Wine Co.
Bad luck or bad timing, the reasons behind closing Cellar Hand don’t really matter. But I, for one, will really miss that pork chop.
Photo Credit: Kimberly Motos
Still, Cellar Hand’s loss is Pali Wine Co.’s gain, or at least a small balm on the sting of closure. The tasting room in Little Italy opened 10 years ago, bringing its Central Coast wine and vibes to an area smack in the middle of a craft beer boom. When it came time to renew the lease, the Perrs say the landlord did the landlord-y thing and tried to nearly double the rent. (Tale as old as time—just ask Wildwood Flour.)
Rather than suffer a double-whammy, the Perr family instead decided to shift their focus (and finances) to the heart of their businesses: wine. And despite losing a very cool rooftop patio in one sizzling hot neighborhood, they are gaining a pretty prime spot in a different sizzling hot neighborhood with a not-too-shabby patio of its own accord. (One more silver lining: no more jet noise from the airport!)
By moving Pali Wine Co. to where Cellar Hand used to be, they could at least keep a toehold in San Diego, says Nick Perr, managing partner. His family has made wine in Santa Barbara county for over two decades, with 10 of those years in the San Diego market—an investment they refused to lose. “That’s why it’s impossible to separate our winery from our San Diego community,” he explains, adding that the new location will allow Pali Wine Co. to offer programming designed around the nearby Hillcrest farmers market.
Guests can expect the same wine selection, wine club perks, private tastings, and similar food offerings Pali Wine Co. offers in Little Italy to transfer to Hillcrest. And maybe, if we’re lucky, they’ll bring back the pork chop (please?)
“We are extremely proud of what we accomplished at Cellar Hand,” said Perr in a statement. “Running an independent restaurant with real values is hard, and we gave it everything we had.”
Cellar Hand will permanently close on July 19. Pali Wine Co. will cease operations at 2130 India Street on July 19 and will move to 1440 University Avenue.
Pali’s new location in Hillcrest will soft open on August 12 with a grand opening on August 22. Operating hours will be Wednesday through Friday, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 9 p.m. Happy hour will run Wednesday through Sunday (hours to be determined).
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.
How Scrojo Became One of Rock’s Most Prolific Poster Artists
The San Diego designer has created more than 3,000 concert posters over nearly 40 years for artists including the Rolling Stones and the Red Hot Chili Peppers
When he was in high school, he and his friends were trying to come up with the perfect name for their punk band that would encapsulate all their personas. Nicaragua. The Freds.
One of his friends said he was going to go by Jimmy Stacks and called it “the perfect rock and roll name.” Their names changed so much that Haskett erupted: “Fine, I’m f—ing Scrotum Joe, the true defender of the Open West.”
Their response: Wow, that’s a great name.
As a teenager, he drew chalkboards for Del Mar’s Pannikin coffee shop and would design T-shirts for surf/skate brand Life’s a Beach. He signed the shirts with his moniker, but even in punk rebellion, who wants a shirt with the words Scrotum Joe on it? “They just cut out the ‘t-u-m,’ and the next thing you know, a client referred to me as that, and it stuck,” he says.
Courtesy of Scrojo
Scrojo could have been part of a band as iconic as The Misfits—had he been able to learn the famously cumbersome bassline to The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie.” Becoming one of the most renowned concert poster designers—someone who quite literally designed the cover of Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion—is a pretty good Plan B.
“To my knowledge, he’s done more rock posters than anybody else alive,” says Dennis King, whose D. King Gallery in Berkeley, California, serves as one of the largest private rock poster collections in the world. “He’s the hardest-working guy in the poster business.”
King not only co-authored the sequel to music historian Paul Grushkin’s The Art of Rock, but he also handles distribution and sales for all of Scrojo’s work. That’s more than 3,000 different posters over nearly 40 years. (That’s over one poster each week. For four decades straight.)
For anything from boxing matches to rodeos, posters have long been used as promotional items. Toulouse-Lautrec’s famous lithographs advertised Moulin Rouge in the late 1800s. Around the same time, Hatch Show Print in Nashville was making handbills for the Grand Ole Opry.
“I propose this: Cave paintings are the first poster art,” Scrojo says.
Courtesy of Scrojo
Rock and roll posters took off in the 1960s, when the hippie counterculture era replaced conformity and suburbia. Artists like Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead used their vibrant, psychedelic prints as a form of rebellion from the mainstream. Posters were promotional, commemorative, collectible, and especially expressive.
If the name Scrojo is any indication, he doesn’t shy away from imagery that toes the line of being too provocative. He focused more on what inspired him instead of trying to be offensive for the sake of getting attention.
“Didn’t want to show it to my grandmother, but my parents were fine with it,” Scrojo says with a laugh.
“We’ve had to ask him to put a Band-Aid over a nipple every now and then,” says Chris Goldsmith, president of Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, where Scrojo started out and hundreds of his posters currently line the walls.
Scrojo spent six weeks at Otis College of Art and Design for a summer semester before drugs, alcohol, and a self-described lack of discipline prevented him from enrolling full time. Still, he taught himself concepts like text hierarchy and later found his niche at the Belly Up and in the surfing and skating world, working with brands like Quiksilver, Rip Curl, Scorpion Bay, and DGK.
His first concert poster was for North County band Borracho y Loco, of which Goldsmith was bass guitarist. Scrojo drew an abstract version of the Belly Up’s iconic shark with colorful calypso and tiki themes.
Early on, he would craft using a pencil, pen, non-reproduction blue pencil, X-Acto knife, rubber knife, and proportion scale to create each poster, and the finished product could take a week or even longer.
Courtesy of Scrojo
“I recommend every artist coming up to do that for like six weeks,” Scrojo says. “It forces you to think about every design decision as you’re going along.”
He has since mastered vector imagery through Adobe Illustrator to the point where, depending on the level of detail needed, he could finish two projects in a day. Still, he fills sketchbook after sketchbook to blueprint.
“I liked his line in particular, and he knows how to draw, which a lot of people don’t really know how to do these days,” King says.
Scrojo would research what each musician’s merchandise looks like to get a feel for each artist’s tone and voice. Once he has his central image in mind, he focuses on what and where to place the text.
He doesn’t have one specific style, ranging his talents from art deco to psychedelic and everything in between (and outside the lines). Want a pop surrealist comic book cartoon devil with splattered paint textures, halftone dot patterns, and pure chaos? Red Hot Chili Peppers, February 1986. Want a minimalist graphic portrait with bold strokes and graffiti text? P!nk, October 2023. Want a carnival sideshow style piece with a tasteful caricature of Jeff Bridges? The Big Lebowski, August 2011.
Scrojo calls himself a jack of all trades because he can create posters for all music genres. King calls him a chameleon for his ability to adapt his voice to new eras.
Courtesy of Scrojo
“The variety of his skillset makes it possible for us to put 50 of his posters on a wall next to each other and have it look compelling, not just a bunch of the same thing over and over,” Goldsmith says.
Some of Scrojo’s favorite posters are when he feels a personal connection to the artist or the album. He has a vivid memory as a child of being trapped in a closet filled with marijuana leaves while playing hide and seek and staring at Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” LP. “For whatever reason, as a kid, that sparked a desire to do graphic design,” Scrojo says.
Fast forward to February 2012, Cliff is performing at Belly Up. Scrojo decided to modify Cliff’s original album cover from rainbow gradient fills to classic reggae psychedelia while preserving Cliff’s striped pants and bold hat. Cliff’s manager called him and said they wanted to use it for the rest of their tour.
“We always get artists requesting that he does their posters,” Goldsmith says. “A lot of artists don’t want venues to go all rogue because they want to control how they’re being presented. With him, they’re like, ‘Let him go nuts.’”
Matt Eisenberg is an award-winning writer and photographer based in San Diego. A former ESPN editor, his work has also been published by CNN, Bleacher Report and the New York Daily News.
Torch Heroes: Why San Diego’s Most Trusted Businesses Win by Doing the Right Thing
In a world overflowing with shortcuts, marketing fluff, and “good enough,” there are still companies that choose a different answer. And in San Diego, there are plenty of them.
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In a world overflowing with shortcuts, marketing fluff, and “good enough,” there are still companies that choose a different answer.
Integrity guides how they show up every day. They make hard decisions, hold themselves accountable, and build trust the old-fashioned way, one action at a time. At the Better Business Bureau, we call these businesses Torch Heroes: leaders who demonstrate that ethical leadership strengthens businesses and drives long-term success.
And in San Diego, there are plenty of them.
Take House Collective Marketing Solutions, a Carlsbad-based digital agency that won the 2025 Torch Award for Ethics for its people-first approach to marketing. Instead of pushing flashy campaigns, the team often takes a step back to make sure clients’ foundations are strong before going big. Their philosophy? Truth over transaction builds partnerships that last.
Or look at Young Black & N’ Business, where integrity shows up through community action. When a local school lost art funding, founder Roosevelt Williams III and his team stepped in with workshops, mentorship, and hands-on support to help restore creative opportunity. That kind of engagement reflects ethical leadership rooted in real impact.
And in Vista, Lotus Sustainables carried its commitment to ethics all the way to the product line. After discovering defects in a shipment of eco-friendly products, the company issued full refunds and redesigned its offerings at its own expense, a choice that shaped its identity and reinforced to customers that ethics guide every decision.
In North County, Greenway Landscape Design & Build brings integrity into everyday service. When a client’s glass was damaged, likely not by their crew, owner Scott Lawn chose responsibility over blame and covered the repair personally. For Greenway, doing the right thing serves as a north star, guiding every interaction through transparent pricing, accountable partnerships, proactive communication, and follow-through long after the job is done.
Other honorees include At Your Home Familycare, whose leadership turned down a lucrative state contract during the pandemic to protect vulnerable clients and staff, and Bill Howe Family of Companies, where hiring practices, training, and service centers around shared values, every day, on every call.
What connects these diverse businesses, from marketing to nonprofit support to home services, isn’t size, industry, or revenue. It’s something deeper: a commitment to trust as a business strategy.
In San Diego’s competitive marketplace, that trust gives companies an edge. Clients invest in relationships. They refer friends. They stay loyal when others fade.
As one Torch Award winner puts it, integrity isn’t a section in the employee handbook. It’s the operating system of the company, the invisible code that determines every choice, every day.
And that’s exactly the point of the BBB Torch Awards for Ethics: to spotlight companies that dispel the myth that ethics and success are at odds. These businesses show that when leaders choose honesty, fairness, and accountability, especially when it’s hard, they build brands that matter.
At BBB, we see nominations come in from clients, employees, and business partners who have witnessed ethical leadership up close. These submissions aren’t polished promotions. They’re stories of moments when a company chose people over profit, clarity over confusion, and trust over convenience.
The nomination window for the 2026 Torch Awards for Ethics is open through March 31, 2026, and there are more Torch Heroes waiting to be recognized.
Who comes to mind in San Diego’s business community?
A vendor who always delivers — and always explains why.
A competitor who chooses the high road even when shortcuts tempt.
A team within your own company whose day-in, day-out choices reflect deep character.
And yes, businesses can nominate themselves. We encourage it. If you’ve built your business on principles rather than buzzwords, we want to hear your story.
Because in a world full of noise, integrity still deserves the spotlight, and San Diego is full of stories worth telling. Nominate your hero now.
