If this is vegan brunch, I might bid a pretty unemotional farewell to bacon some day. If this is the vegan scene, it’s drastically more awesome than haters would like to believe. For years, I’ve considered veganism a very good thing and reflexively generalized vegans as smug, sanctimonious blowhards.
To be fair, the badgering went both ways. Vegans (some, not all) accused omnivores of being murderers driven only by our own gluttony, environmental nihilists ushering in doomsday with every callous bite. Omnivores (some, not all) in turn belittled vegans as sickly looking crusaders, just another wacky religious sect, the Scientologists of food. Eventually, I assumed we’d get to a less judgmental middle ground. Someone would give San Diego an exciting vegan restaurant and bar that was less a territorial pissing and more of a come-all plant party.
Kindred in South Park is that place. It’s a restaurant for any human, really, who likes cool things. I’ve been a fan for years. I hadn’t, however, ventured in with their late morning crowd and seen the full evolution. Now that the food is catching up with (or caught up with) the cocktails, Kindred is a force.
Their breakfast strudels are some intoxicating carbs. Our favorite is the savory shaved seitan with tapioca mozzarella and pickled peppers. It’s spicy, meaty, cheesy, bready. The cinnamon and brown sugar strudel with candied pecans and coconut syrup is flaky on the outside, pure molten, thick, and gooey cinnamon roll inside. The pancakes with bruléed bananas, bourbon butterscotch, and whipped coconut cream aren’t good for your waist size, but they are good for your soul. Their hash is also very good, with fried potatoes, black beans, smoked coconut (vegan bacon), soy curls, maitake mushrooms, charred kale, jicama salsa, and Creole aioli.
The vibe has always been modern art. It’s the massive shiny-black demon head that lords over the main dining area. What an elegant, imposing beast. It’s the ornate pink wallpaper that appears cute and grandmotherly until a closer inspection reveals illicit scenery. It’s the gothic windows and the two-top tables that look like desks pulled from pagan Sunday school, or sidecars for Wiccan motorcycles. It’s the sludgy heavy metal on the speakers offset by the flood of fresh, natural light pouring in.
Previously, plant-based restaurants had a reputation as antiseptic prayer rooms for self-serious wellness people. Kindred owner Kory Stetina decided not to do that, and enlisted art-restaurant makers Consortium Holdings (Morning Glory, Born & Raised) to build a noisier temple for more entertaining urges.
In doing so, he positioned Kindred to be the Casbah or CBGB of vegan food and drink.
There’s a good chance some of those people secretly cheeseburger in the dark. But even if they’re pretending to be plant-based, that means the lifestyle is now an aspiration, a status badge for an entire age demo.
If your eyes are open, you know it’s at least partially real. Meatless Mondays have been growing in number for years. Serena Williams and Tom Brady are vegan. So are Ellen Degeneres, Bill Clinton, Joaquin Phoenix, Paul McCartney—just lots of famous people. Plant-based meat companies like Impossible and Beyond are booming. Some of the world’s top chefs have plant-based menus (at French Laundry, we preferred the plant-based menu) or even entire restaurants (like ABCV from Jean-Georges in New York).
In San Diego, Kindred is the weird and fuzzy center of the movement. It’s not a trap meant to get omnivores drunk on Prohibition cocktails and guilt them into declaring legumes the one true god. At least from an outsider’s perspective, there doesn’t seem to be any agenda aside from being an exciting restaurant. And it’s pulling this off.
Kindred’s vision of the future isn’t the only one, but it is one of them. And their brunch is excellent whether you’re omnivore, vegan, or merely ambivalent and hungry.
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.
The Perfect Order:Vulture Martini | Potato Pavé | Crab Cake
Kory Stetina is a long way from learning what vegan food was through a pamphlet at punk-rock shows in his teens. He stands in his dream restaurant, Vulture, wearing a non-sportsy sports coat. He’s married with a child. There’s a very non-punk potato pavé on the monogrammed plate, the servers are in tux-adjacent attire, and this whole building in University Heights has been turned into a plant-based funhouse with formidable, obsessive style.
Photo Credit: James Tran Visitors stroll through the white-and-bright diner Dreamboat before stepping into Vulture’s moody bar.
Despite the earmarks of midcentury continental formalism, five out of 10 people in here wear arcane t-shirts. Word got out early on that Vulture was a fine-dining experience, and while there’s a tableside Caesar and velvet curtains and soft, artful furniture, that was never the intent. Stetina had to do some PR legwork to pop the “special occasion” balloon that floated over the project—another collaboration between himself and Arsalun Tafazoli of CH Projects—and it seems to be working.
One of the t-shirt people I recognize: Justin Pearson of The Locust and Three One G Records. A thoughtful and progressive punk force in SD, he’s seated at a corner table with individuals who look like they’ve at least dabbled in if not dedicated their lives to graphic design and can casually play a theremin near a rare fern. Vulture captures that same dinner-party-for-creative-people mood that the Middletown bar Starlite first brought to the city.
Photo Credit: James Tran Every upholstery in Vulture is tufted, every bust underlit for drama, every detail obsessively detailed.
It’s a place for grown-up punks, for ideas and ideals.
(Obtrusive but important note about punk rock and plant eaters: The rather genuine punk music of the 1970s and ’80s that eventually birthed Green Day and Nirvana and even, I guess, My Chemical Romance emerged from a philosophical and creative instinct to challenge status quos, which often meant expressing unpopular and political opinions in an excessively loud and urgent manner—pretty much exactly what Simon & Garfunkel were doing but far more invigorating and annoying. There were plenty of bands who got big because they had great hair and a good producer; there were other bands who got cult-famous based on the holy-wow way they expressed uncomfortable ideas, making people question the way they lived. Eating only plants was a part of this live-different worldview, and, like any good movement, it got co-opted by the tad too righteous, moral, and shame-mongery. It should be said that Stetina made his name in San Diego by being a philosophical vegan who’s un-mongery.)
Photo Credit: James Tran The Vulture martini, the result of a year of tinkering—a near-frozen booze concerto of three different gins and four vermouths.
To get to Vulture, you enter through Dreamboat, a well-lit, bright, Mr. Clean-ish, ’60s-era, plant-based, romantically American diner that’s all white and chrome and charm—poodle-skirt notions and connoisseur coffee and smoked potato latkes and Impossible burgers and baked goods and milkshakes and cocktails. Seating occupancy: one-and-a-half people on Ozempic (fine, it’s 10).
In the back corner of this tiny diner is an antique host stand. The host takes you through a velvet curtain, down the short hall, and through a door, until you enter into, what?
Photo Credit: James Tran Bedecked in red velvet, Vulture was five years in the making.
Some will call it a speakeasy, but it’s really just a fun surprise restaurant (“speakeasies” do still exist, but they’re not on OpenTable, and almost everyone with a project they call a “speakeasy” will, on their most honest days, admit it’s not a speakeasy).
You’ll step into cavernous, amber-glow, lava-lamp darkness. So, the first experience Vulture offers all of us is temporary blindness, followed by the opportunity to behold the shockingly slow ability of human eyes to adjust to radical shifts in light. The music is on point, a mix of obscure indie tracks and guilty-pleasure soft-rock bangers. Thanks to listening bars, restaurants have become the stereo-system showrooms of America. Remember that guy in high school who one day showed up with box speakers in his trunk and a $6,000 head unit, an amp, subwoofers, and EQs, and his car sounded like Dr. Dre’s and Rick Rubin’s place of business? That guy is restaurants.
Photo Credit: Arlene Ibarra The “crab” cake, made with hearts of palm.
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 it comes to zero waste, Origins Grocer owner Maria Herrera believes progress is better than perfection. She doesn’t even like the term zero waste—it sounds like an impossible goal, doesn’t it? But since opening Origins last year, her vision has been to help educate people how to take steps, even baby ones, to reduce their impact on the earth.
“What we’re trying to do is really just give people an option to shop with less waste and more intention,” Herrera explains. Origins sources close to 1,000 different products like locally roasted coffee, eggs from a farm in Ramona, all sorts of spices, herbs, nuts, seeds, grains, beauty items, and much more, all in minimal to no packaging to massively reduce waste and support local producers at the same time. It’s a one-stop shop for the most part, and it’s worked better than she dreamed. So well, in fact, she’s opening a second location at 2361 30th Street on Friday, September 12 (in time for Taste of South Park the next day).
Herrera wasn’t actively looking to expand quite so soon after launching the business. “I was approached by somebody in the neighborhood,” she says, so she started looking around. Even though the two locations are only two miles apart, South Park has comparatively fewer* grocery options for the hyperlocal community. When the former Plum Pottery building came up for lease, she saw an opportunity to both plug into the neighborhood and expand her vision of Origins.
Since the space in South Park is much larger than the North Park suite, she’ll have room to add more retail, more fresh and refrigerated goods, a few bistro tables for onsite consumption, and what Herrera calls a “community table” for workshops, group dinners, and various classes. “We’re always looking for local makers and creators in the food space, but also it doesn’t have to be food… if people want to reach out, please do, because we’re looking for opportunities to collaborate.”
Courtesy of Origins Grocer
Along with reducing waste, community and collaboration are keystones of Origins. Any opportunity for people to learn, connect, and create together is a golden one, and one Herrera hopes people keep responding well to. And hey, if you can help save the earth at the same time, so much the better.
Origins Grocer soft opens on Friday, September 12 at 2361 30th Street in South Park, and will host an official grand opening party later this fall. Its first location at 2855 El Cajon Boulevard, Suite 4 in North Park is currently open Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
*Yes, I am aware there is a Target and a Food Bowl in South Park. I said fewer, not none!
Courtesy of El Cajon Oktoberfest
San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events
Yes, It’s September. That Means Oktoberfest Time.
Contrary to popular belief, Oktoberfest almost always kicks off in September (and is my favorite event of the year). There are a few events you should have on your radar, though—I’m looking at you, El Cajon Oktoberfest, as well as the yodeling competition at Original 40—but the first one of the season runs from September 19 through 28 at Liberty Public Market. Craftoberfest features rotating brewery specials, live entertainment, games, specials, and all sorts of goodies to get into the Oktoberfest spirit. Remember: Oktoberfest season is a marathon, not a sprint. Good luck, and prost!
Pepino is still in the works, but it looks like it’s getting a lot closer to opening in La Jolla. You know what that means… it’s collab time! On Saturday, September 6, Pepino is popping over to Le Coq for a brunch takeover from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Get a sneak peek at the menu, enjoy cocktails, and come early—it’s first come, first served.
When I consulted my Magic 8 ball about upcoming restaurant openings in San Diego, its response was clear: “Outlook good.” And I’ve got to hand it to the mysterious forces this time—the outlook does look good. We’ve got Johnny Rad’z Pizza from pro skater Mike McGill coming to Encinitas, Tacos El Franc is opening its second San Diego location in Gaslamp this month, Round1 Bowling & Arcade prepping two more sites (Escondido and Mission Valley), Japanese cream puff legend Beard Papa’s is opening soon on Convoy, and Con Azucar Cafe just opened at 531 F Street last weekend. It’s a delicious bonanza! My list of places to visit keeps getting longer…
Listen Now: The Latest in San Diego’s Food and Drink Scene
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.
It can be hard to shake the specter of an icon. Just ask Brian Jensen, who is opening Bock later this month in the former Hamilton’s Tavern space in South Park.
“We’re trying to make our own path and respect that Hamilton’s was great… [but] we’re not trying to recreate it,” promises Jensen. Hamilton’s helped revolutionize San Diego’s craft beer scene during its 14 years in business, before unceremoniously shuttering in 2020 in the wake of a costly fire.
Jensen hopes to highlight the good part of the history, and leverage his experience owning all six Bottlecraft locations and Vino Carta in Little Italy. Of course, running a restaurant isn’t quite the same as operating retail locations, but he doesn’t see that as a problem. “It feels really natural,” he says. Plus, that space and that neighborhood felt particularly poised to support a genuine craft beer bar that he knew he could deliver.
It’s a risky move—beer bars aren’t exactly thriving—but he knew if anyone could pull off a space dedicated to beer rather than a mix of wine and cocktails, he could. (Yes, there will be some wines as well, but really, it’s going to be about the beer.)
Bock will be a 21+ German-focused neighborhood pub with around 65 seats spread over multiple booths, with around 15 of those seats along the bar. Biersal is behind the food program, with items like a Bavarian soft pretzels, cheese and charcuterie plates, bratwurst, schnitzel, potato salad and more. “We’re not going to go full German, like playing polka all the time and making our staff wear lederhosen,” Jensen jokes.
He does plan to emphasize Old World-style beers over 30 taps, though, like classic English styles such as bitters and brown ales; Belgian styles like dubbels and tripels; and of course; German hefeweizens, dunkels, and bocks (obviously). Around half of the taps will serve a rotating variety of what he calls more “New World” style beers. “Whatever the brewers come up with next—it might be smoothies, hazies, IPAs… we want to offer that as well, to stay part of that conversation,” he explains.
Courtesy of Bock
It’s taken far longer than he anticipated to open—around four years, to be precise—but Jensen has seen both the local craft beer scene and the surrounding area evolve over that time. “People are just drinking differently than they used to 10 years ago,” he says. “People are looking for experiences for sure, but they’re also bringing back some nostalgia when it comes to what we think bars are like.” He points to the proliferation of cocktail-centric bars and hyper-immersive dining experiences now commonplace in San Diego. “That’s great, it’s just not for me.”
Now at the cusp of finally opening, Jensen says he’s bullish on the future of the local neighborhood beer bars. “We want to bring that atmosphere, but do it in a new way, do it our way,” he says. “[We’re] meant to be here in South Park.”
Bock is slated to open this March at 1521 30th Street in South Park.
Courtesy of Russian River Brewing Company
San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events
A (Russian) River Runs Through It
It’s finally February in San Diego, which usually means our most inconsistent weather, Museum Month, and a variety of Russian River Brewing events around town. The renowned Sonoma County brewery commands huge lines and frantic texts whenever their most famous triple IPA Pliny the Younger hits taps, but there are plenty of places with public events for the pre-planning type.
O’Brien’s Pub is always top of Russian River’s distro list, and they’ll host their annual Russian River tap takeover on select dates this month (as well as at their sister businesses West Coast Smoke & Tap House in La Mesa, The Pub at Lake Cuyamaca, and San Diego Brewing Company in Mission Gorge.) Pizza Port Solana Beach will have their own showcase on February 13. Even without Toronado’s legendary Pliny days, there are plenty of chances to get your uber-hop on.
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.
Entrepreneurs typically launch businesses because they’re passionate about a product or service, not because they want to manage its finances. While working to carve out a niche in their respective industries and drive their companies forward, many business owners find themselves bogged down by day-to-day accounting. Their existing accounting tools don’t provide the necessary visibility or insight, and they don’t have the time or resources to hire additional staff or a chief financial officer. That’s where NOW CFO comes in.
For more than 20 years, NOW CFO has been pairing businesses across the country with experienced accounting and finance professionals. Its outsourced model allows clients to customize solutions that match their individual needs, size, and financial challenges, whether that’s fractional or interim support, project-based services, or full-time placement.
NOW CFO’s clients range from startups preparing for rapid growth to established companies that need additional financial leadership without the commitment or expense of building an in-house team. However, many of these companies don’t fully understand their needs until they experience a “trigger” event: preparing for an acquisition or capital raise, navigating a first-time audit, or another period of transition. With a team of over 300 consultants nationwide, NOW CFO can start quickly and match the right expert to the right business.
“It’s important for companies to have financial visibility, and we can help them avoid a lot of the potholes that companies often run into,” says Mariah Block, a partner at NOW CFO’s San Diego branch. “Roughly half of our clients have an in-house finance person or department, and we’re resourced for more bandwidth when they need an extra set of hands at the staff or senior accountant level, or the controller or CFO level. Some clients use this a few hours a month and others use multiple people close to full-time. Our model is solution-based and customizable. We’re like a faucet you can turn on and off.”
With NOW CFO, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Solutions are based on the client’s individual goals, challenges, needs, and budget, meaning a client never pays for more than they need. Whether it’s a few hours of executive-level guidance or a full accounting team to support daily operations, NOW CFO meets businesses where they are and grows alongside them.
“We pride ourselves on providing our clients with the right resources at the right rate and being able to evolve as their needs evolve,” says Block.
And clients appreciate on-demand access to cost-effective support designed to improve performance and profitability.
Luxury car storage service Auto Concierge has partnered with NOW CFO to support growth over the past year. The arrangement began with a staff accountant who covered a leave of absence, but as the client’s needs changed, they also added a controller role. This allowed Auto Concierge to put effective processes in place and navigate operational challenges. Lori Church, Auto Concierge’s chief operating officer, says NOW CFO has been an “outstanding resource” and a “true strategic partner.”
“From the controller to the bookkeeper, every professional they’ve placed has brought a high level of expertise, responsiveness, and professionalism to our organization. Their team took the time to understand our business of high-profile clients and needs, adapted quickly to our fast-paced environment, and became a trusted extension of our team,” she says. “As Auto Concierge continues to grow, having a reliable financial partner like NOW CFO has allowed us to strengthen our financial and business operations while remaining focused on delivering exceptional service to our clients.”
The triangular building one block west of North Park’s iconic water tower has been a revolving door of restaurants for years. Its most recent tenants, The Village, caused a stir during the pandemic by defying stay-at-home orders. Before that, Anthem Vegan held on for about a year, preceded by Lil B’s Urban Eatery (whose space-age gaudiness I actually loved). Johnny R’s Family Restaurant mesmerized passersby with its rotating sign before my time.
The TL;DR is that El Cajon Boulevard has a long history of feeding hungry crowds of vegans, carnivores, and everyone in between.
Soon, it’ll host a partnership a long time in the making, when local vegan concept Donna Jean joins similarly plant-based Evolution Fast Food on Thursday, February 13 for the next chapter of both the space and the businesses.
When Donna Jean first got word they had to vacate their Bankers Hill location they’d occupied since 2017, it led to a bit of a scramble to find a new spot, says director of operations Leslie Funabashi. “Rent has increased dramatically in San Diego,” she says. It was pure chance they heard about the former Village location becoming available, even before it was listed online. “It was just kind of a lucky break, and it all ended up working out.”
Evolution Fast Food faced a similar involuntary eviction notice after 15 years in Hillcrest, but with one shared owner already operating both businesses, it made sense to join forces. Evolution opened in the North Park location this past December, and Donna Jean got their keys to the shared space just this week. Despite the tight timeline, Funabashi says they’ll be open for Valentine’s Day, one of their busiest holidays.
Because of both pent-up demand and the popularity of Valentine’s Day, she says Donna Jean is aiming to open for to-go orders by this weekend. However, with some accelerated construction projects like a new patio and pizza oven installation, she’s not 100 percent sure and urges guests to double-check their Instagram page to confirm.
“If we do end up opening to-go, that will be all over my social media,” she promises. But reservations for both Valentine’s Day and the rest of February are now open on Donna Jean’s website. “I recommend that, because I already have a huge amount of requests,” she warns.
Funabashi says they anticipate greater success than the space’s predecessors, thanks in part to both the symbiotic relationship between the two businesses as well as the building’s size. It proved to be a hindrance for a single business, but “there’s a huge kitchen space in this restaurant, like it was already almost made for two concepts to exist together,” she explains. Donna Jean will command most of the indoor seats for onsite dining, while Evolution’s more grab-and-go style will have a few counter seats as well as their own small patio.
Besides the venue, much will stay the same. Donna Jean’s hours are still lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday, weekend brunch, dinner on Monday, and closed Tuesdays. (There’s a chance it’ll open for lunch on Mondays eventually, but Funabashi says that’s a future maybe.) While they’ve been closed, the group took the opportunity to evaluate how to best serve their customers in both San Diego and Los Angeles.
“We’ve made some changes to our pricing to be more affordable for people,” she says, emphasizing that this doesn’t mean relaxing their quality standards. Steps like making their own carrot cashew instead of buying it and adding new pasta options to the menu will allow Donna Jean to remain an everyday option for people, not just for special occasions—or just for vegans. “We want to be able to be accessible to as many people as possible,” she says. “We’re looking forward to being a part of such a vibrant neighborhood.”
Courtesy of Olivewood Gardens
San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events
Support Olivewood Gardens’ Mission At The Seedling Soireé
Olivewood Gardens, the nearly eight-acre garden and interactive learning center in the heart of National City, is one of those incredible resources that (I personally feel) not enough people know about. If you’re interested in learning about their mission or supporting their efforts to change the city’s relationship with food and nature, their annual Seedling Soireé on Saturday, May 31 is a great time to pony up. Join chefs, gardeners, farmers, and other local experts for a night of drinking, dining, and bidding on items during their fundraising auction. Can’t make the event? Pop by their weekly produce stand on Thursday mornings to pick up fresh produce at whatever price you can afford.
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.
Wake up. Coffee is calling, and waffles and eggs await. Each month, we shout out the places where we stuff our faces, and, this April, we’re focusing on the monarch of meals, the emperor of eats, the sultan of spreads: brunch. Hope you’re hungry. It’s time to go get some.
Shroomed + Chia Bowl
Trilogy Sanctuary
Caffeine keeps me alive, but the decaf “shroomed” infusion at this vegan La Jolla rooftop yoga café may resurrect me. With reishe, cordyceps, chaga, and cacao, it proved a comforting combination of mushroom soup meets hot chocolate, paired with a chia pudding bowl— fresh and crafted with love. Admittedly I only got one bite because my toddler inhaled it, so… two stamps of approval, I guess. –MH
Benedictos Veggie
Eme Restaurante
Next time you venture down the Baja peninsula, stop by Eme Restaurante. Perched on the Ensenada hillside, this trendy, pet-friendly nook features an espresso bar, cold-pressed juices, and an endless menu that warrants repeat visits. Their veggie Benedict—a melody of poached eggs, mushrooms, spinach, and feta, perched on a toasted English muffin and bathed in a zesty poblano sauce—justifies hours spent in border gridlock. –CN
The Calexxxican
The Naked Cafe
Proof that chilaquiles by any other name would taste as delicious. The Naked Cafe’s Calexxxican “meditation bowl” piles egg whites, plant-based chorizo, feta, black beans, avo, sour cream, and salsa over crispy tortilla chips. It’s not the healthiest thing at this Carlsbad hideaway for organic eats, but, hey, brunch is for sins. This just happens to be a lesser one. –AR
Pink Rose Waffles
Pink Rose Cafe
If Barbie decorated her dream house during a particularly manic episode, you’d get this La Mesa mecca of made-for-the-’gram photo ops. Think pink everything—from the neon sign to the wall of plastic flowers to the food and drinks. Even the receipts. The pink rose waffles are heavily rose-water-flavored, soft, chewy and, honestly, kinda good. Paint me pink and call me Ken. I’m moving in. –MH
Madeleine Omelet
Cafe Madeleine
I stumbled upon French restaurant Cafe Madeleine while meeting a friend for brunch in North Park. Decorated in art-nouveau style and featuring quaint sidewalk tables with umbrellas, you really do get a Parisian feel while visiting. Try the Madeleine omelet, made with mushrooms, brie, truffle oil, and breakfast potatoes, or the savory-sweet French onion soup, which can be made gluten-free. –NM
Croissant Breakfast Sandwich
Stratford Court Cafe
The breakfast sandwich: so simple, yet so easy to mess up. Key players: cheddar cheese, zingy-fatty sauce, fluffy eggs. In my opinion, all other components are arbitrary, a croissant is a plus. Del Mar’s Stratford Court aces the test; the charming cottage setting with plentiful sunny tables and endless coffee are extra credit. –SL
Courtesy of Atelier Manna
Manna Porridge
Atelier Manna
If you take one thing from our food critic’s review, know that the porridge at Manna must not be missed. Need a hug, but no human takers? Consider your Sunday-morning oxytocin needs covered. Mixed mushrooms, egg yolk, and seared scallop snuggle in a duvet of creamy, earthy buckwheat. Miso adds depth and balance. It’s divine, and I’m pining for my next embrace. –SL
Blue Whale Brekky Bowl
Blue Whale
Trying to find seating for Saturday morning brunch at La Jolla’s Blue Whale was a daunting task. After puppy-guarding a table with a passion only a helicopter mom could muster, I was rewarded with the Brekky Bowl. If the rabbit food–looking greens garner a side-eye from your hangover, I recommend crafting a DIY avocado toast with the other ingredients to ensure satisfaction. Bacon and hash browns, you were perfect. –AP
Tiramisu Brioche French Toast
Matteo
The best-named restaurant in SD has one of the best treats in town. With espresso-dipped brioche, coffee cream, fresh fruit, and a big ball of mascarpone, this caffeinated toast is worth a trip to South Park all its own. Hanging at this buzzy brunch bastion is just a bonus. –MH
Churro Pie
My Vegan Pie
Made in a North Park home, the pies from MVP are vegan, gluten-free, and refined-sugar-free (dates provide sweetness). Our advice? Treat the cashew-based churro pie like a breakfast pastry. It tastes like a satisfying mix of oatmeal and Cinnamon Toast Crunch and won’t take you on one of those donut-induced glucose roller coasters. –NP
Croque Madame
Feast & Fairway
One of Coronado’s best kept secrets, Feast & Fairway brings the flavors of Breakfast Republic to the island, minus the typical morningfood hustle. The croque madame, a tower of eggs, ham, gruyere, and béchamel sauce atop thick slices of toasted brioche, provides delicious fuel for a long day at the links. –CN
If you’re anything like us, it can be easy to get so caught up in taking care of everyone else, that your own needs get lost in the ether. But while this may be a cliché, that doesn’t make it any less true: You can’t give your best self to other people unless you’re taking care of yourself.
Sometimes, that looks like stopping in for your regular acupuncture or chiropractic appointment. Other days, it means giving your body the fresh, organic fuel it needs to truly feel and function at its best. And some other times still, it involves leaving your responsibilities behind for a weekend to pamper yourself at an incredible resort and spa.
Only you can decide what your truly need. We’re just here to help you find the best ways to get it.
Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa
Island living meets desert luxury at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells. When you step onto the 11-acre property, you’ll be surrounded by sweeping view of the Santa Rosa Mountains with olive trees and fragrant citrus groves decorating the grounds. In other words, everything about this relaxed but refined resort is primed to help you let go of the stress from home and enjoy easy sun-soaked days and gorgeous starry nights.
The rooms blend calming, woven textures with Tommy Bahama’s signature tropical prints and feature private lanais, making it easy unwind the moment you walk in the door. If you book one of the four Villa Suites, you’ll be treated to exclusive Tommy Bahama furniture and unique personal touches to further that feeling of instant ease.
At the award-winning Spa Rosa, the expert team will help reset and recharge your body and mind using methods and rituals inspired by the desert. The 12,000-square-foot retreat includes outdoor soaking pools, eucalyptus steam rooms, and outdoor cabanas, as well as massages, facials, and body masks—all aimed at creating a day dedicated to you. We’re particularly partial to the Day Long Escape, an indulgent all-day affair of CDBs soaks, renewing scrubs, life changing massages, and transformative facials.
Following your treatment, continue the experience with a meal on the patio at Grapefruit Basil. We love the Hamachi Crudo, a light, citrus-forward dish featuring premium yellowtail, house-made ponzu, creamy avocado, and fresh seasonal garnishes.
Whether you’re strolling the gardens, relaxing beside its saltwater pools, or indulging in a restorative treatment, you’ll be able to escape in style and relax in luxury at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa.
Healcove Chiropractic
There’s no shortage of ways to stay active in San Diego—but if you really want to enjoy everything the city has to offer, you’ve got to make sure you’re giving your body its tune-ups. Enter: Healcove Chiropractic. The board-certified chiropractors and wellness professionals at Healcove are experts at addressing that stage where you’re not injured, exactly, but you’re not at 100%, either. Maybe you’re feeling a bit tense or stressed out. Or it could be that you’re not quite moving the way you want to. Sometimes, it’s just that the accumulation of days, weeks, or even years of daily strain is starting to take a toll. No matter what stage you find yourself at, the Healcove Chiropractic team can provide integrated, preventative care centered on long-term, science-backed approaches that ensure you can always stay active and live the life you want to live pain-free.
This starts by providing truly individualized care. Every patient can expect a thorough 60-minute consultation session that includes a posture and movement screening. This allows the team to develop a completely personalized plan. That plan might include chiropractic care, acupuncture, or massage therapy, as well as functional fitness training, vibration and sound therapy, and Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization, a clinical rehabilitation method that retrains the body’s stabilization systems. Whatever the team recommends, you can be sure that it’s tailored to meeting your body’s needs today and the future.
There’s a reason that San Diego Magazine named Healcove the “Best Chiropractor in San Diego”—don’t wait until you’re struggling with an injury to find out why. Book an appointment today for holistic, integrated care that helps ground and heal your body before it reaches a crisis point.
Juice Holler
West Coast wellness culture meets the community feel of Southern Appalachia at Juice Holler. Juice Holler’s menu consists of made-to-order smoothies and smoothie bowls, as well as grab-and-go cold-pressed juices, wellness shots, salads, and more. It operates from the blissfully simple premise that fueling up with food and drink that’s guilt-free and good your body should be simple, accessible, and, above all else, delicious. And if you haven’t yet made it out to the Encinitas café, which opened just this year, let us be the first to tell you: Juice Holler delivers on each and every of these fronts.
We love the Supercharger smoothie, a mood-lifting and body-fueling option made with banana, almond butter, blue spirulina, maca, grass-fed whey protein, raw cacao nibs, medjool dates, and coconut milk. We’re also partial to the Thrive Alive smoothie bowl, where avocado, mango, sea moss, spirulina, mint, coconut milk, and agave are mixed and topped with coconut, chia seeds, strawberry, mango, and chocolate drizzle. The wellness shots include the Detoxifier, a cleansing blend of kale, cucumber, lemon and spirulina, plus a shot specially designed to fight inflammation (named, fittingly, Anti-Inflammation). Probiotic overnight oats, lemon turmeric bars, and strawberry shortcake chia pudding are other standouts on the grab-and-go menu.
Much of the vibe feels beachy North County chic—think green tile with orange and pink accents, grounded with greenery and natural wood—but Juice Holler founder Kelly Sergott, a longtime Encinitas local, has also enfused the space with her Kentucky roots. In Appalachia, a holler is small valley between hills and mountains, where nature reigns, community is king, and nourishment comes right from the land. At Juice Holler, Sergott has created a holler for the busy modern times, using local ingredients to create a spot for people to come together and enjoy fresh, fast, feel-good fuel for their day.
Everwell Acupuncture
We’ve all had that experience with a medical professional where we’ve felt rushed, ignored, or misunderstood—and ultimately, like we didn’t get the answers that we needed. But at Everwell, the holistic acupuncture practice located in Solana Beach, the care team wants to transform your understanding of what healthcare can look like.
Patients at Everwell experience care rooted in intentional listening and radical empathy—and trust us, those aren’t just corporate buzzwords. This place actually puts those ideas into practice. You will always be given the time you need to tell your story— initial in-take appointments are two hours long—and you can rest assured that your story will be believed. Every single question and concern will be addressed by a dedicated practitioner who wants to find the specific solutions that work best for you, and you’ll receive care that’s aimed at healing the body, mind, and spirit.
Everwell’s highly trained, doctorate-level practitioners blend evidence-based acupuncture with the practice of classical Chinese medicine. (If you’ve never tried acupuncture before or aren’t sure if the team will be a fit, we’d highly recommended Everwell’s complimentary 20-minute consultations.) Research shows that by stimulating specific points on the body, acupuncture activates a natural healing response in the body, helping to restore balance, regulate the nervous system, and improve overall wellbeing. This allows the practice to address an incredibly wide range of conditions from chronic pain and autoimmune disorders to digestive issues, from stress and burnout to headaches migraines, fertility and postpartum struggles, hormonal imbalances, sleep concerns and more.
At Everwell, you can expect to feel heard, trusted, respected, and cared for. This is a space that doesn’t want to be just another healthcare provider you visit; it wants to provide patients with dedicated partner who will be there for their entire health journey.
