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Food critic Troy Johnson shares his favorite spots for visitors and locals heading to the city center this July
Over 18 years of eating through the city as a food writer—a profession that feels like it needs an “ahem” attached to it—I’ve kept a list of the dishes and drinks and places that floored me. The ones I yammer on about to strangers, or share with people I love who don’t owe me money. For Comic-Con, I picked through that list to share 50 of my favorites within striking distance of the comic core: Gaslamp, Barrio Logan, Little Italy, Mission Hills, Coronado (one simple ferry ride away), Golden Hill, and a wild place in North Park. Remember, even if you just ate and you’re a little full, the week is about role playing. Role play still being hungry.
Here are the best restaurants, and what to order, near downtown San Diego.
Callie will bring home San Diego’s next Michelin star, or I will lose all faith in the system. The fermented and pickled carrots with dukkah. The Aleppo chicken. The everything. Chef Travis Swikard is on another level.
1195 Island Ave, East Village
This place is so charming it hurts. If an alpaca were a restaurant. Like you’re dining in an ADU built for someone who is loved. Wolf in the Woods is a passion project for Johnny Rivera (Hash House A Go Go) and chef Carmine Lopez, and you can feel that passion. It snuggles you with Spanish wine. The sweet corn and piñon soup might be the best bowl of hot liquid in the city.
1920 Fort Stockton Dr Suite C, Mission Hills
This is where you want to go for a Vietnamese-centric but pan-Asian exploration of fish sauce. Get the beef tartare, the whole fried rockfish in ginger sweet-and-sour sauce, and the congee with wild mushrooms.
2469 Broadway, Golden Hill
It’s the view from the top and edge of our world—a glass box of emotion, 40 floors up, looking down on all that water and sunset. Pick a cocktail, any cocktail.
1 Market Pl, Embarcadero
Mister A’s started as a Scorsese-type place where people enjoyed the fruits of some gray-area capitalism with a holy **** view of the entire urban core. Wave at planes as they land at eye-level and the sun sets over the watery cliff in the distance. Two years ago, longtime owner Bertrand Hug handed the reins to longtime GM (and damn good human) Ryan Thorsen. He’s breathed new life into the place with some key renovations. It’s a bucket worthy of the list. The duck with huckleberry gastrique is chef Stephane Voitzwinkler’s specialty.
2550 Fifth Ave 12th floor, Bankers Hill
An F.-Scott-Fitzgerald-meets-Busta-Rhymes steakhouse from the weirdos of CH Projects. A magic room that feels both alive and haunted. Bone marrow’s a pretty fantastic fat, but it needs flavor. B&R serves it with Burgundy escargot on toasted bread, and the garlic is fantastic.
1909 India St, Little Italy
A hell of a patio in Old Town, run by Pietro Busalacchi, one of the better drinks people in San Diego. The elote is fantastic—half a corn cob grilled; soaked in veggie broth; and seasoned with mayo, melted butter, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, a touch of sugar, garlic and onion powder, Cotija cheese, and chives. Every drink here is good.
2836 Juan St, Old Town
There are three main names when it comes to the best Japanese Wagyu. Most people who love the melting beef know two of them (Kobe and Matsusaka). The third type is omi gyu, the original Wagyu that was served to shoguns 400-plus years ago. Compared to the other two, it’s still got that high fat content that makes the Wagyu magic, but it’s lighter, more delicate, cleaner tasting. And Cowboy Star—the beloved local steakhouse run by chef/partner Victor Jimenez—is the only place I know of in San Diego that serves it. You’re not coming to Comic-Con looking for small experiences.
640 Tenth Ave, East Village
Yes, there are designer-ier tacos. But this family’s been serving homemade tacos with fried-before-your-eyes tortillas since the dawn of time. Cash only.
1857 Logan Ave, Barrio Logan
There’s a massive Godzilla made of sticky notes (that doesn’t sound very impressive written out, but it’s kind of dazzling). There’s Ronald McDonald, arm outstretched, inviting friends and lawsuits. And J + Tony’s has the best damn Negronis and streetside Adirondack sunbathing area. This is where CH Projects dreams.
631 Ninth Ave, East Village
While everyone was trying to cast vegan food in ultra-pure white halos and rooms with hemp furniture and virtue signals, longtime vegan and metal fan Kory Stetina went and built a vegan restaurant that felt like sin. The absolute best spot.
1503 30th St, South Park
Of course, you should get the lumpia—the traditional one, and then whatever creative concoction they’re filling it with that day. But the humble mother-and-son Filipino restaurant in an old house (the duo are pure joy, and they finished second on The Great Food Truck Race) serves a 12-ounce boneless ribeye with caramelized onions in calamansi soy for dinner that knocks socks.
2219 Logan Ave, Barrio Logan
Fort Oak turned an old Ford dealership into one of the best restaurants in SD, piling firewood where the old Furlaines used to be. Brad Wise and his team sit over the burning embers and smoke and char various things into submission. Get the roasted carrots with smoked yogurt.
1011 Fort Stockton Dr, Mission Hills
Group restaurants don’t often get better as they grow—scaling an operation usually means quality dips or even tanks. Not so with San Diego’s family-run Mexican empire Puesto. The last time I had this taco, I had to recognize that it’s one of the best in the city. It’s made with an organic corn tortilla, crispy melted cheese, slices of filet, avocado, and spicy pistachio-serrano salsa.
789 W Harbor Dr Unit 155, Seaport Village
Kinme is my sushi restaurant of the year. A 10-seat omakase-only spot in Bankers Hill from the people who’ve long run one of the most beloved (and high-quality) sushi spots (Azuki Sushi). Kinme’s gonna be booked, but Azuki’s a couple doors down.
Kinme – 2505 Fifth Ave, Bankers Hill | Azuki Sushi – 2321 Fifth Ave, Bankers Hill
Pablo Becker’s fish shop. Pablo was born and raised here, and he traveled across the world opening restaurants for his cousin, famed Mexican chef Richard Sandoval. He opened his own in San Diego, and lost it about six years ago. Lowest point of his life. So he went to Chicago and spent five years as a line cook, then came back to open this. They’ve got tacos, yeah, but it’s 90 percent sustainable seafood from fishermen down the street, cooked to order. Get the De Espada, blackened swordfish with jalapeño slaw and spicy aioli.
2222 Logan Ave, Barrio Logan
There’s an instinct to call it a hidden gem because it’s tucked behind a railroad on a little condo street. But The Lion’s Share is a local legend. A dark hobbit hole of world-class cocktails and a hell of a chef in Dante Romero (ex-Wormwood) for a menu that revolves around indie food animals (frog, bison, venison, liver, elk, boar). The tempura-battered frog legs with fried garlic in a chili sauce are yes.
629 Kettner Blvd, Embarcadero
All due respect for Italian tradition and the entire Emilia-Romagna people, but this is the best damn chef version of two latchkey kid classics: Tostino’s pizza rolls and Hot Pockets. Go to Juniper & Ivy (one of the city’s best). Sit at the bar at exactly 5 p.m. This is its new concept—a bar lounge area called Juni with five-star chef snacks, priced like inflation hasn’t been invented yet. The gnocco frito is the famed Italian puffed fry bread that chef Alex Penkin stuffs with a mousse of goat cheese-ricotta-nduja (Calabria’s addictive, spreadable pork sausage), tops with a paper-thin, spicy Calabrese salami, adds a little lemon zest, light Parmesan snow, and then the kicker–EVOO spiced with oregano and peppers for that pizza-joint perfume.
2228 Kettner Blvd, Little Italy
This year’s “Bar of the Year” for our 2025 Best Restaurants issue. Two of the city’s top drinksmen got a dark, cozy room of their own: the former beverage director for three-star Michelin The Restaurant at Meadowood (Beau DuBois) and a guy (Derek Cram) whose track record went from NYC’s famed Momofuku and PDT (Please Don’t Tell). The Tamarind Old Fashioned show off how extreme they calibrate what goes into your mouth: Buffalo Trace bourbon, Mars Iwai Japanese whisky, tamarind justino (tamarind blended with Buffalo Trace, then centrifuged to clarify), touch of cane sugar, two types of bitters, and exactly six drops of Lagavulin 16-Year Single Malt Scotch.
789 W Harbor Dr Unit 155, Seaport Village
This dish is why I could go vegetarian, but never vegan. Because cheese and cream are capable of unsurmountable joys. Chef Mario Cassineri soaks porcini mushrooms in milk for 24 hours to make the base for a mornay sauce. It’s solidified into a custard-like texture, given a pecorino butter crust, baked to order, and then—delicious, in a nihilistic way—placed in a small pool of gorgonzola cheese fonduta with a single mint leaf up top (which makes it a salad in creative circles).
2233 Logan Ave, Barrio Logan
You gotta see it—if you can get in, that is. It’s one of the greatest hotels in the country, an orgy of designs and patterns and vignettes with a bowling alley, a pool, a ridiculously dark gothic restaurant, and a 24-hour diner that sells a billion patty melts every week.
2223 El Cajon Blvd, North Park
San Diego chef JoJo Ruiz got a James Beard nod for being one of the most sustainable seafood chefs in the country. There are two things you should get here: The king salmon sashimi with white truffle honey ponzu, chili garlic, and Japanese rice crackers, and the whole grilled snapper with Thai Basil, fermented chili, garlic butter sauce, and bread.
435 Fifth Ave, Gaslamp Quarter
A grab-and-go spot for those who’re tired of pizza, burgers, and fried chicken sammies. The döner (lathered in all the sauces) is great for a walk-and-chew. But I’m starting to prefer just ordering the lamb kebab meat with saffron rice and then mixing all the sauces in there. You won’t smell right for days, but happiness has a cost.
630 Ninth Ave, East Village
Italian brothers moved here a decade ago and opened this little trattoria. The brown butter ravioli are always dangerous, but it was one of the first Italian restaurants in California to have an all-vegan menu.
1845 India St, Little Italy
Chef Tara Monsod and her staff are apexing Filipino food right now (it’s her roots, but not the only part of Asia she explores here). A heavy-curtained, big-dollar spot with soft surfaces that make insider trading secrets disappear. Order pretty much anything, but especially the short rib kare kare with green beans, eggplant, peanut sauce, and bagoong oil.
969 Pacific Hwy, Embarcadero
Gnocchi has been on the menu here since day one, because if you took it off, the people would revolt. Oxtail is the MSG of the butcher shop.
2210 Kettner Blvd, Little Italy
Sit in the back—it’s a massive shaded patio with more laidback barnyard chill than the average Little Italy spot. Pali’s a family-run winery out of Lompoc (Pinot land) specializing in low-intervention and natural wines. Get the smoked burrata with sun gold vinegar, sorrel, and salsa macha.
2130 India St, Little Italy
The epicenter of all things brunch in Little Italy. Yes, they’re worth the wait. Ask your server if the bartender has any special syrups to put on ’em (the team has been known to send out a ramekin of coconut syrup that is incredible).
550 W Date St Suite #C, Little Italy
Gloopy lobster rolls are a leading cause of not liking lobster rolls. Ironside treats its knuckle meat with respect, lightly tossing in brown butter mayo, crispy shallots, and chives. One of the best in the city.
1654 India St, Little Italy
In all of us, there is a part that loves fried chicken in a bucket and there is a part that loves caviar. Old jeans and silk. United these warring factions of yourself with this platter at the place that kicked off Little Italy’s craft cocktail scene. A Champagne bucket is brimmed with craggy fried poultry, served with pickled beech mushrooms, fermented cucumbers, broccoli slaw, sauces, and trout roe, creme fraiche. Upgrade to caviar. It’s like KFC of the Colonel had some silver polish and Negronis on his breath.
675 W Beech St, Little Italy
Beshock Ramen owner Ayaka Ito has three sister concepts a block away: Asa, an Asian bakery, Bar Kamon, and Sushi Gaga, an omakase-only sushi experience hidden behind a clandestine door among the breads. Gaga’s the real deal, with chef Shinnosuke Otsuka having worked at Michelins in Osaka. Ten seats only, 2-3 hours, 12 or so courses, starting with zensai (apps), warm dishes like sukiyaki (hot pot) and chuwanmashi (mind blowing egg custard), nigiri, sushi, maybe some ramen. Changes all the time. Find the door and trust.
634 14th St #110, East Village
Few things on the planet get you even the most dance-averse ass moving as live Latin music. Almost 40 years now, Cafe Sevilla has been the open-late spot for it in San Diego with tapas and sangrias. When a restaurant that long, you get a great mix of musicians, longtime regulars, newbies, rituals, traditions. Order the Sangria Royal (traditional red sangria with Licor 43 and orange brandy) and get the spicy octopus ceviche with mango and habañero. Let loose.
353 Fifth Ave, Gaslamp Quarter
Welcome to San Diego, where chilaquiles are our “all-American breakfast” (due respect to the burrito). The reigning champs of chilaquiles (call them “breakfast nachos” if you’d like to have a strongly-worded internet exchange with purists) are the brother and sister Paulia and Cesar Chaidez who own Cocina 35. Close your eyes and point, they’re all pretty great, though the La Bomba especially with creamy habañero salsa, cochinita pibil and pickled onions. There are few locations near city center, but take the ferry over to its Coronado location, rent some bikes, and toodle around our idyllic Smallville beach island with its wide, smooth streets and the smell of successful IPOs.
1201 1st St, Coronado
This is what happens when a kid grows up on home-cooked Korean food from his parents and San Diego’s taco shop culture in the streets. Chef-owner Jiwoo Choi’s octopus is a perfect expression of that hybrid—charred-and-tender, over a pretty killer gochujang crema. The dessert here is a rare taste of a South Korean street-food staple, hotteak—a dead-delicious sweet pancake made with wheat flour, makgeolli (Korean rice wine), brown sugar, demerara, and cinnamon. It’s a warm, gooey-centered cake with vanilla ice cream and berry compote.
100 Park Plz #161, East Village
STK is the steakhouse that slid into America’s DMs 21 years ago and took its sweet-ass time to make it here but that’s OK. It’s here now and brought its DJs and nightlife feels to the big-night-out carnivore experience. Obviously get the prime cuts (order all the sauces), but also the spicy yellowtail crispy rice is a fantastic riff on the raw-and-fried standard, served with unagi sauce.
600 F St, Gaslamp Quarter
Sushi Maru is my “Sushi of the Year.” For years, Tsuyoshi “Maru” Maruyama was the chef behind the counter at the top sushi spot in downtown (Taka). After leaving to take care of family in Japan for a while, he returned to open this 20-seat, 20-course, omakase-only experience last year. Fantastic, tiny, Jiro Dreams-minimalist, the fish on the plate, the chef, and the company you brought the only place you need to put your attention.
1345 Third Ave, Downtown
Meze is what happens when Greek food meets the well-lit sins of nightclub life. If you’re choosing Greek food and you don’t choose lamb, grandmas in Crete weep. Don’t make grandmas cry. Chef Aleko Achtipes’ chops are a star here, mostly because they obey all the spiritual laws of chops and lean heavy on the lemon sauce. While you’re there, keep in mind a watermelon feta salad never ruined a summer, either.
345 Sixth Ave, Gaslamp Quarter
Unless you’re one of those weirdos who only eat gazpachos and smoothies in the summer, BeShock is one of the best ramen shops in the city. Its spicy miso, especially. Sad that the U.S. market first experienced miso as the watery commercial afterthoughts in sushi soups; but now the good miso has arrived at places like BeShock. Also be sure to try its sake—owner Ayaka Ito is a sake master (essentially a top sommelier, but of sake) and her junmais are unmatched.
1288 Market St, Gaslamp Quarter
Didn’t expect this one. Nason’s Beer Hall is a sports bar with roll-up walls to watch the Gaslamp’s uniquely human parade strut and fumble. But it just went under the hood of its food menu and it paid off, in a real sinful way. My wife’ll tell you the star is the Wagyu beef corn dog with miso mustard. Wives are often correct. But the birria grilled cheese really picks the lock on the storage closet of endorphins inside of me: a layer of cheese griddled brown and crispy on the outside of the bread, gooey layer inside, tufts of birria, pickled onions, and a pepper-heavy consommé to dunk. Due respect to the French Dip. This is the San Diego Dip. And it’s better.
570 J St, Gaslamp Quarter
The Del is our Statue of Liberty, our Hearst Castle. The iconic, historic thing. And with the original blueprints and an in-house historian, it just finished one of the largest restoration projects of a hotel ever done in the U.S. Six years, $550 million. Gotta see it. The hotel sanded the ornate wood down to the studs, restained it the same deep hue it was when it opened in 1888. Among its renovations are its famed porch, a new lobby, stained glass that was there when it opened, and recovered art that had been lost along the way. And, Nobu just opened overlooking the lawn which overlooks the sand which overlooks the water which overlooks thoughts of Hawaii out there somewhere. Sure, most of the food world has been there, eaten that. But at a recent tasting, dear god, that miso black cod still tastes like it could start the legend of chef Nobu Matsuhisa all over again. Get the spicy tuna crispy rice and the Matsuhisa Martini (vodka, sake, ginger).
1500 Orange Ave, Coronado
Little Frenchie is a charming as heck sidewalk French bistro. For the cassoulet, exec chef Matt Sramek cures duck legs overnight, slow cooks it in its own fat, and sears it for a crispy bite. The restaurant makes stock from the leftover bones, then uses that to simmer the white beans with pork belly, Toulouse sausage, thyme, and citrus. Its topped with breadcrumbs (made from leftover baguettes) and persillade (an herby-acid legend with garlic and cornichons and parsley).
1166 Orange Ave, Coronado
Pendry is one of the most solid restaurant options in downtown hotel/resort world. Provisional is its all-day joint with huge, airy, central train station vibes and chef Brandon Sloan. His team’s squid ink fettuccini with sungold sauce is excellent, as is the yellowtail crudo with pickled fennel, sungolds, citrus vinaigrette, green onion, and chile oil.
425 Fifth Ave, Gaslamp Quarter
The fried chicken sandwich wars in San Diego were hard-fought. Everyone with access to a sack of flour and an Instgram account was scrapping for some of that fried chicken power. Crack Shack won—no surprise. It’s in the parking lot of one of the top restaurants in the city (Juniper & Ivy), designed by its exec chef Jon Sloan. It serves Jidori chicken, properly brined with sauces scratch-made daily (sriracha thousand island, ranch, kimchi bbq, Baja hot sauce, etc.). The Croque is fried Jidori breast, bacon, fried egg, cheddar, miso-maple butter and brioche. Breakfast is served all day.
2266 Kettner Blvd, Little Italy
Sam Fox is the Danny Meyer of the West, or maybe at this point, Danny Meyer is the Sam Fox of the East. Either way, both have been wildly successful because no matter how many restaurants they build (and it’s a shit ton), they’re consistently good. At The Henry in Coronado, the dish is those potstickers. Dumplings made fresh daily, stuffed with braised short rib, swimming in aged soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, garlic, ginger, scallions.
1031 Orange Ave, Coronado
The classic hotel, stately and grand. Ghosts of mock turtle soup and diamond heists. The bar has always been a star, where some of the city’s top drinks people have started citywide trends (the first barrel-aged cocktail) and taken on wildly ambitious projects (making its own chartreuse, etc.). So it makes sense that head drinksman Rex Yuasa’s favorite creation is a glass-based adaptation of Verdi’s most famous opera. The spirit is Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto (bergamot liqueur), with chianti (Verdi’s favorite drink) and hard apple cider. He even drowns a flower to represent the opera’s tragic lead, Violetta. Get front row seats.
326 Broadway, Gaslamp Quarter
Coming to San Diego and not getting a fish taco is some real disrespecting-ancestors behavior. You wouldn’t go pizza-sober in the Bronx. And Lola55 is the place for them downtown. A Michelin Bib joint. Its crispy Baja-style battered fish taco gets a remoulade, a killer chorizo vinaigrette, and pickled serranos.
1290 F St, East Village
A stone’s throw away from Balboa Park, Cucina Urbana, serves up Italian in style. From house-made pastas and wood-fired pizzas to a bountiful antipasti spread that would make any Italian grandmother proud, the menu delivers on every craving. Pair your meal with one of 200+ global wine labels, thanks to Cucina’s status as one of Southern California’s first restaurant-wine shop hybrids. Don’t miss the rigatoni Bolognese or classic margherita and pepperoni pies’
TNT’s the call for pizza in downtown. It does just about everything right. TNT uses the sauce made by famed James Beard pizzaiola Chris Bianco (who uses organic California tomatoes) and ferments its dough for four-ish days. The restaurant can also make anything vegan, veg, gluten-free, or create around whatever food thing haunts or hurts. The Detroit style—rectangle-thick, crispy frico of cheese on the outside and chewy dough on the inside, a real loaf of pizza—has pinched fennel sausage, roasted peppers, onion, and pepperoncinis. It’s fantastic. (People also adore the pickle pizza; I’m just not those people and I feel somehow culturally less relevant due to this).
550 14th St #116, Gaslamp Quarter
A husband and wife from Paris run this real-deal French bakery with a fantastic almond croissant. Parfait Paris made its name with macarons, and it hasn’t crimped ingredients or quality (in fact, it went the opposite way and signed a pastry chef who worked at a Michelin star place and baked for the royal family).
PARTNER CONTENT
555 G St, Gaslamp Quarter
Just a 10-minute stroll from the Convention Center, brings the cuisine of Cuba to the. Voted San Diego’s Best Caribbean Restaurant of 2025, it’s a prohibition-era hideaway serving Cuban classics and rum-soaked cocktails. Grab empanadas or ropa vieja to-go, and if it’s Wednesday through Sunday, follow the sound of spilling onto the street. You might just dance your way to dinner.
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.
Telefèric Barcelona will open its first San Diego location early this summer
Westfield UTC mall is adding yet another “first” to the ever-growing roster of restaurants. The first US location for China’s stir-fry sensation Chef Fei is on the way later this year, Japan already reinvented crispy rice pioneer Katsuya by opening the first Katsuya Ko, and now, it’s Spain’s turn—Telefèric Barcelona opens early this summer.
The family-owned, Barcelona-based tapas joint first opened in the US 10 years ago in Walnut Creek, California, but co-founder and CEO Xavi Padrosa says they’ve had their eye on San Diego for years. Westfield UTC “just clicked,” he says, pointing to the burgeoning collection of world-class eateries already within the mall’s walls. Plus, La Jolla’s breezy vibe echoes Spain’s easygoing tapas culture.
The indoor/outdoor space spans 5,526-square-feet, with seating for 150 inside, 60 on the patio, and 16 more at the bar. Xavi’s sister and co-owner Maria Padrosa designed the Mediterranean-inspired space as a contemporary take on coastal Catalonia, using imported furniture and materials from Spain like hand-glazed tiles and wood accents. And if all the dining spaces are planets, the center of the suite’s universe is the bar.
Padrosa points to signature favorites like patatas bravas (fried potatoes drizzled with a spicy red sauce and house aioli), jamón ibérico de bellota (Spanish ham from free-range pigs raised on acorns, cured for 38 months and sliced to order), gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimp), pulpo Telefèric (octopus with potato purée and pimentón XO, a spicy Spanish/Cantonese fusion sauce), and croquetas (a popular fried tapas dish coated in breadcrumbs and made with béchamel mixed with fillings like jamón or king crab.
There are a very small handful of legit paella spots in San Diego (Costa Brava in Pacific Beach and Cafe Sevilla in Gaslamp Quarter come to mind), so I’m personally looking forward to giving Telefèric’s a go—especially the squid ink paella negra, which is perhaps the most goth paella of all. Every location also offers different weekend specials, La Jolla’s being seafood-driven and meant to pair with beverage director Alex Serena’s drinks. There are over a hundred Spanish wines, Spanish-inspired cocktails, sangria, and of course, plenty of twists on the iconic gin and tonic. The restaurant will also have a gourmet market called The Merkat with imported Spanish sundries.
With more US locations in the works (Newport Beach will open soon after La Jolla), Padrosa says the company hopes to open more across California, but are open to anywhere in the country that feels right. “We don’t know exactly what new cities will appear on our map in the coming years,” he says. But in true Catalan fashion, anywhere they go should be ready for big plates of hearty Spanish cuisine.
Telefèric Barcelona La Jolla opens early summer 2026 in Westfield UTC. Opening hours will be Monday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Most of the time, you have to be 18 years old to change your name. In Arcana’s case, it was about a month. The immersive speakeasy behind Archive in Encinitas updated their moniker to Animga (a play on “enigma”) earlier this month, after what one can only assume was an upset letter from a similarly-named business. However, partner Paula Vrakas promises that the concept remains the same—mystery, cocktails, and a forthcoming bottle locker membership club. Since the only constant is change, Anigma is off to a good start!
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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.
From San Diego’s coastline to Los Angeles stadium and fan zones across the region, here’s how to experience soccer’s biggest event
When three nations and 16 cities come together to host the FIFA World Cup 2026, the scale stops feeling like a tournament and starts feeling like geography. A continent becomes the stage as borders soften into corridors. And Southern California—shaped by migration, sport, entertainment, and constant movement—sits inside that landscape with all eyes on it.
San Diego and Los Angeles have always felt connected. Hop on the Pacific Surfliner, and the trip unfolds in one continuous stretch of coastline, passing beach towns, neighborhoods, and city centers.
Traveling from San Diego, everything still feels slightly suspended as the Pacific Surfliner follows the coast north with ocean on one side and a slow suburban blur on the other. San Diego stays in exhale. Los Angeles is already building toward something louder.
This summer, Los Angeles will host eight matches of the FIFA World Cup at Los Angeles Stadium, including the US Men’s National Team opener on June 11, while the region stretches into 39 days of programming across stadiums, parks, transit hubs, beaches, and neighborhoods. Instead of one massive fan hub, Los Angeles is embracing a citywide celebration, with fan zones spread across its entirety.
But this pattern has been rehearsed here for decades. In 1994, Southern California became one of the defining stages of the World Cup, when matches at the Rose Bowl placed global attention on the region and turned local stadiums into international landmarks, confirming its ability to hold the world at scale.
What distinguishes Southern California is not just infrastructure, but cultural permeability. Fashion, music, film, art, and sport constantly overlap here, creating an environment where identity is flexible and always in motion. From the Venice boardwalk, where skate culture shaped modern street style, to global soccer stars rubbing shoulders with Hollywood celebs, to authentic Spanish cuisine moving up and down the I-5 corridor, everything circulates.
The World Cup is not introducing anything new here, it’s showing up for the summer and showing out, revealing what this city has always known about itself. What follows is a look at the fan zones and how Los Angeles turns itself into a city-wide stage for the tournament, one neighborhood at a time.
As the heart of Los Angeles, Union Station is an official Fan Zone June 25-28 during the World Cup, but in practice it never really stops being one.
It is the city’s circulation point, its meeting ground, its pressure valve. Commuters, travelers, match-day crowds, and everyday Angelenos all move through the same space, and everything mixes, overlaps, and scales in real time. In a way, this is where the World Cup stops arriving in Los Angeles and starts moving through it.
The Pacific Surfliner from San Diego to Los Angeles makes that shift feel almost too easy. No stress or gridlock anxiety, just a straight line up the coastline with ocean on one side and everything slowly becoming more built on the other. It’s one of the rare ways into LA that doesn’t feel like arrival as friction. You can sit with a laptop, watch the Pacific drift past, grab coffee from the café car, and let the city come to you in pieces.
That’s the beauty of arriving at Union Station. Instead of feeling like you’re on the edge of the city, you’re immediately surrounded by it. And, inside, the station already reads like a World Cup nerve center: banners, movement, multilingual energy, the sense that something global is about to funnel through this exact point. The Heart of the City Fan Zone only sharpens that feeling, with simultaneous match screens, DJ sets, meet and greets, and immersive activations built around marquee games like USA vs. Türkiye.
From there, the city splits outward.
ROW DTLA feels like the first exhale after arrival. A converted industrial campus turned creative district where restaurants, retail, and open-air courtyards form a self-contained ecosystem. If you’re looking for the perfect first meal in LA, make it lunch at Pizzeria Bianco. The thin-crust pizza is reason enough to go, but the space leaves just as much of an impression.
What I liked most about ROW DTLA is how quickly it resets you after the train. One minute you are stepping off at Union Station, and the next you are in a space that feels like its own version of LA, a city inside a city with some of the most curated shopping I’ve ever seen.
Bodega hides itself behind a convenience-store front, a sneaker and streetwear space disguised as something ordinary, like LA refusing to make anything feel too obvious. The whole campus moves like that, part retail, part gallery, part neighborhood you are only temporarily inside.
Isabella Dallas is a freelance writer for San Diego Magazine and the Arts and Culture Editor at The Daily Aztec in her final year at San Diego State University. She previously worked as an editorial intern for SDM, but when she’s not writing, you can find her trying the best coffee spots in SD, devouring the latest rom-coms, and indulging in anything and everything pop culture.
Talking farm to table, fraud-to-table, and the feasibility of the movement with the beloved restaurateur who saw it all
Garden Kitchen was special. During its seven-year run on a quiet street in Rolando, even the farmiest-to-table devotees were pointing to chef-owner Coral Strong and slow-clapping. When a dramatic rent-hike forced her to close in 2022, Strong wasn’t sure what to do next.
Farm-to-table wasn’t new by any means—chef Alice Waters spawned the movement at her pioneering restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley in the early ‘70s, and many San Diego chefs did it right. But by the mid-2000s, the idea had been so co-opted by the mainstream that the meaning was almost completely lost.
“In the beginning, I used to get very honestly angry and upset when I would go to other restaurants that were claiming they were farm-to-table, but knowing some of the chefs or prep cooks inside [telling me] ‘Oh no, that comes from Restaurant Depot,’” she says.
Food critic Troy Johnson’s cover story in 2015 documented the fraud, titled “Farm to Fable.” At Garden Kitchen, Strong only used produce and meat sourced from local San Diego farms—an honorable, if not arduous endeavor.
Strong grew up in Cardiff before her parents moved the family to Costa Rica in 1989. They’d bounce between the two countries for months at a time, but when they lived in a motel by the beach while building their own house, she witnessed an incredibly tight-knit food culture. “As a Latin American country, everyone kind of cooks together,” she says. Everyone chopped, prepped, prepared, and served as a unit. “[That] definitely shaped my adolescence as to how I thought about food and the community of food.”
When her father, a commercial fisherman, brought the family back to San Diego, Strong leaned into an entrepreneurial streak, moving from coffee to accounting and eventually bartending to pay the bills. But food remained a passion, especially after she met her future husband, who was working at a farm and ranch in Escondido.
“We were just always disappointed with the vegetables out at restaurants and were like, ‘Why can’t they just make vegetables taste good?” she wondered. She realized that despite having more small farms than any other county in the country, most restaurants in San Diego simply weren’t using local ingredients.
So she decided to do it herself.
Strong opened Garden Kitchen without any formal culinary training—just a commitment to getting the freshest vegetables, meat, fruits, and other produce onto people’s plates. Her first chef quit within a month, telling her it was impossible. “So I got in the kitchen one day and said, ‘I can do this, let’s figure it out.’ I taught myself how to cook.”
She already had connections with farmers, fishermen, and ranchers, and designed a different menu almost daily based on what she could get. “My farmers sometimes delivered in the middle of dinner service,” she laughs.
Garden Kitchen lasted until after the pandemic, but before the current economy cut into already razor-thin margins. Could Garden Kitchen exist today? She’s not sure.
“The biggest thing right now is just looking at the finances and how expensive it is,” says Strong. “Obviously, the cost of food is up right now, gas is crazy right now… it just crushes you.” Despite that, she believes that committing to the true farm-to-table ethos is as easy as one decides to make it.
“If you think it’s hard to order directly from your farmer, if you don’t understand the absolute pleasure in doing that and you’d rather order from a computer, then that’s your own difficulty,” she says. “People say they’re into it, but are they willing to make the effort like I am, to drive an hour to go get my meat, or drive 35 minutes to go to my farm to go pick it up? I don’t know.”
Today, Strong works as a private chef, hosts pop-ups, and offers catering services, all still using seasonally available ingredients from San Diego. And while she has no intentions of opening another restaurant, she says we might see even more of her in the future.
“I have a large property [in Valley Center], and let’s say that there will be more of my food to come,” she promises.
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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.
The 29-year-old culinary director at Herb & Sea is making seafood sexy (and approachable) again
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No buzzwords required.
Stop by the San Diego County Fair, rock out at the inaugural Field of Dreamz and visit Bikini Bottom via The Spongebob Musical
Charitable gatherings, downtown music festivals and theater premieres—of both the heartwarming and thought-provoking variety—are among San Diego’s standout events this weekend. You can’t spell fundraising without ‘fun,’ and both elements are central at Poway OnStage’s Taste of the Towne and the Switchfoot Bro-Am. Listeners of blues, reggae rock and silky smooth jazz can check out the East Village Blues Fest, Field of Dreamz and the San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival, respectively. As for the city’s thespian community, new shows include Cygnet Theatre’s production of Broadway favorite The Spongebob Musical and the world premiere of the OnWord Theatre show Marti Gobel’s Adult Storytime: A Caregiver’s Guide To The Blues.
Food & Drink | Concerts & Festivals | Theater & Art Exhibits | More Fun Things to Do
The tasteful appetizer to Switchfoot Bro-Am’s annual Beach Fest is the laid-back Benefit Party, returning this Thursday from 6-10 p.m. at Viasat. Guests will be treated to a curated dining menu, a performance by Switchfoot with special guests, and the chance to bid on live and silent auction items, including local excursions, apparel packages, and deluxe arts experiences. Individual ticket options include general admission ($300) and reserved seating ($450); the money raised will go towards youth-centered programming at six local nonprofits.
6155 El Camino Real, Carlsbad
Patrons of Poway OnStage are invited to Taste of Our Towne, the organization’s annual culinary fundraiser, this Saturday at 5 p.m. at Poway Center for the Performing Arts. The evening will begin with auctions, plus bites and libations from over a dozen local vendors before magician Chris Funk, aka The Wonderist, takes the stage for an interactive comedy show. General admission is $115 for Taste of Our Towne; proceeds from this event will benefit Poway OnStage’s Professional Performance Series and Arts in Education Initiative.
15498 Espola Road, Poway
Before (potentially) riding off into the sunset, British rocker Rod Stewart is strutting his stuff stateside with the unconventional voice and unquestionable verve that’s propelled his nearly six decade-long solo career. Though the “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” artist’s days on the road may be dwindling, that’s even more reason to give him his flowers in the present. Stewart’s upcoming show this Friday at 7:30 p.m. at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre will feature prolific singer-songwriter Richard Marx as the opening act. Tickets start at $40.
2050 Entertainment Circle, Chula Vista
Following Thursday’s Benefit Party, the 22nd annual Switchfoot Bro-Am will switch (get it?) from its fundraiser to a free day at Moonlight Beach for Saturday’s all-day Beach Fest. From 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. there will be surf competitions—including surf jousting—and from noon to 5 p.m., Sun Room, Telephone Friends, Kimiko, a handful of special guests and, of course, Switchfoot will perform for attendees. Additionally, throughout the day, there will be a variety of vendors and brand activations to explore. Admission is free with RSVP, while VIP pit tickets are $195.
400 B Street, Encinitas
As the mysterious saying goes, ‘If you build it, they will come,’ but instead of Iowa cornfields, this time the message is coming from inside SD’s home ballpark. This Saturday, Ocean Beach natives Slightly Stoopid will headline the first-ever Field of Dreamz Festival, and they’ve brought along a handful of ska, reggae and island-inspired rock acts for the ride. Doors will open at 3 p.m., and fans can see sets by Stephen Marley, Pepper, Sublime—whose first album with frontman Jakob Nowell drops Friday—and more. Ticket options include standard admission ($125), floor tickets ($188), plus All-Star VIP ($244) and Hall of Fame VIP ($610) passes.
100 Park Boulevard, Downtown
Ryan Hardison is a freelance arts and entertainment writer and recent graduate of San Diego State. When he's not staring at his laptop, he's likely eating an adobada burrito or getting sunburnt at the beach.
Food writer Beth Demmon names local bites we love—both at the high and low ends of our budgets
We love a mega-fancy tasting menu, but let’s be honest—we’re not all blessed with unlimited Wagyu funds. So we picked some of the breakout dishes of the last year (or couple of years) from the best chefs in the city, reverse-engineered their chief charms (salty, smoky, caramelized?) in the test lab of our mouths, and found some budget-friendly alternatives that hit some of the same notes with an everyday price tag.
Where do delicately plucked marigold blossoms adorn Deer Isle scallops, or ingredients like fermented raspberry precede roasted coffee oil, shiro miso caramel, or bronze fennel in a parade of hit-after-hit dishes? Lilo in Carlsbad, of course. San Diego’s newest Michelin star changes its menu with the seasons, but one stalwart dish has kept tongues wagging since opening day last April: the caviar ice cream. A boat-shaped sliver of orgeat ice cream, smoked celery root bushi, and freshly pressed almond oil are topped with a generous heap of caviar. It’s a dish so good and defining that chef Eric Bost will tire of talking about it for a very long time.
Price: $265 for the tasting menu (before tax, tip, and drinks)
There’s a reason Stella Jean’s s’mores ice cream is part of the local scoop shop’s “always available” menu. Made with fire-roasted marshmallows and coconut ash ice cream mixed with dark chocolate-covered graham crackers and mini marshmallows, its strangely ashen hue dabbled with flecks of tawny brown is a far cry from the wildly vibrant ube and pandesal toffee flavor seemingly made for Instagram reels. But it’s a sensation in your mouth—smoky, toasty, torched, creamy, marshmallowy, coconutty, ashy, and bitter from the dark chocolate. Pro tip: If you really want to DIY Lilo’s ultra-luxe treat, bring your own caviar.
Price: $6.25 for a single scoop
There’s no question what comes first at Lucien. It’s the egg. Chef and co-owner Elijah Arizmendi’s 12-course tasting menu begins with welcome bites under the calamansi tree before moving inside to start the Journey (the actual name of this section of the menu). The first step is one of the most astounding—a perfectly intact, upright, ochre-hued eggshell containing his take on Japanese chawanmushi (egg custard), topped with a dollop of caviar. The accompanying ingredients have ranged from sweet corn and huitlacoche to banana and buckwheat, but each one has precisely demonstrated Arizmendi’s commitment to French technique with California experimentation and global influence.
Price: $260 for the chef’s tasting menu (before tax, tip, and drinks)
The biggest difference (besides price) is that while Lucien’s dish changes with the season, Sushi Ota is comfortably predictable. A San Diego staple since 1990, the legendary Sushi Ota has been one of those if you know, you know joints that locals try to keep off the radar. (It hasn’t worked at all.) Known for ultra-fresh fish and ultra-traditional service, the small Pacific Beach restaurant also serves Japanese comfort foods like udon noodle soup alongside sashimi, nigiri, and rolls. But it’s the savory steamed egg custard, called chawanmushi, that really gives you the warm and fuzzies. Add a side of salmon roe (ikura) for a few bucks more, and this dupe is about as good as it gets.
Price: $12 for chawanmushi, $11 for ikura
Enough ink—and tears, I’m sure—has been spilled over Chick & Hawk’s long and arduous journey to opening its doors. But now that the Encinitas eatery is in full swing, chef Andrew Bachelier’s tightly curated menu of fried chicken sandwiches, fries, and bowls command lines of hungry locals and skate-culture loyalists. The Birdman, the signature hot chicken sandwich named for partner and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, is piled with cabbage slaw and pickles and slathered with a tangy kimchi comeback sauce on a soft brioche bun. Although this Nashville meets California meets Mississippi meets Korea sando doesn’t command a triple-digit price tag, the fact that it’s nearly a $20 chicken sandwich (sans side) has been a topic of conversation. Bachelier—who worked at Addison before opening Jeune et Jolie, then launched SDM’s 2024 “Best New Restaurant,” Atelier Manna—and his team earned that price tag.
Price: $18
It’s hard to beat Koreans at the chicken game. Korean fried wings are defined by a double-fry technique—first at a low temperature to ensure the chicken is cooked through, then at a high temperature to ensure the famed extra-crispy, ear-splittingly crunchrageous magic. At Cross Street, they follow a similar fusion ethos as Chick & Hawk, using inspiration from the American South as well as Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, and more, with flavors like “Seoul Spicy” or “Honey Butter” for whatever you’re feeling that day. Pair it with a cold beer to go full chimaek (a popular Korean combination of pairing fried chicken and beer). Now that’s a combo—and price tag—that’s hard to beat.
Price: $8.75 for five wings
PB&J. Captain & Tennille. Brad Wise and steak. Steak frites ranks among the iconic global duos. And when the holy union of prime cuts and twice-fried carbs comes from Wise and the meat-loving masters at Trust Restaurant Group, it’s a pretty safe bet. À L’ouest—the group’s newest fancy, but not fussy, drippy plant dreamscape of a French steakhouse on the prime corner of 30th and University in North Park—gives guests a choice: 12-ounce New York strip, 8-ounce filet mignon, or 8-ounce Wagyu hanger, topped with sauce au poivre (the classic French pan sauce—peppercorns, shallots, heavy cream, brandy) and served with a heaping pile of 24-hour salt-brined fries and a watercress salad. One bite acts as a transport to a Parisian brasserie, so if you think about the cost in terms of time-space travel, it’s a pretty great deal.
Price: starts at $48
To satisfy the same urge for meat and potatoes, feel at least moderately European while doing so, and save a couple quid, a trip to The Shakespeare in Mission Hills ticks all the boxes. The classic British shepherd’s pie arrives in a piping hot oval au gratin dish, smothered with a thick layer of mashed potatoes. Beneath it lies a hefty portion of marinated ground beef and vegetables in the pub’s secret sauce, and while there are a few choices of sides, the correct order is peas and “proper” chips (a.k.a. chunky, thick-cut fries versus the typically thinner American “French” fries). It’s more tickety-boo than très bien, but it’s immensely satisfying in any language.
Price: $22.95
Beth Demmon is an award-winning writer and podcaster whose work regularly appears in national outlets and San Diego Magazine. Her first book, The Beer Lover's Guide to Cider, is now available. Find out more on bethdemmon.com.
The 53rd Annual National Philanthropy Day Takes Place on November 21. Join us from 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at the new Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center!
Once yearly, AFP San Diego joins with others worldwide to celebrate National Philanthropy Day (NPD), a special day set aside to recognize the great contributions of donors and nonprofits that enrich of our community and the world. San Diego’s NPD is one of the largest and most successful in the U.S., attracting nearly 900 participants, including philanthropists, nonprofit leaders, CEOs, board members, development professionals, and business, community, and civic leaders.
Sponsorship proceeds from National Philanthropy Day are reinvested in education, training, scholarships, career development, and the advancement of fundraising professionals throughout San Diego. These resources and training provide fundraising professionals with the tools necessary to support our region’s diverse array of nonprofit organizations, which rely on charitable giving for close to half of their annual revenues.
The National Philanthropy Day Honorees are selected by the NPD Honorary Committee, a group of highly respected, diverse nonprofit and business leaders. Our 2025 Honorees include:
National Philanthropy Day San Diego provides an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of giving and to celebrate the selfless contributions of individuals and organizations across the region. We look forward to celebrating with you!
Sponsorship opportunities and individual tickets are available. Please visit www.afpsd.org for more information.
