Anyone who’s lived in San Diego long enough can sense that Ocean Beach just runs on a different vibration. And after launching his sourdough bread business five years ago at the farmers market, David Moore couldn’t imagine going anywhere else to open Sourdough & Moore as a brick-and-mortar bakery with co-owner Emma Gibb.
“I’ve actually lived here for 25 years,” says Moore. “It’s our eclectic beach community.”
Like so many sourdough endeavors, theirs was born out of pandemic boredom. “I got real heavy into a lot of fermentation—kombucha, apple cider vinegar,” explains Moore, who had been working at the Omni San Diego Hotel for 20 years. After an injury kept him back at home longer than he expected, he figured he’d give selling his bread a real shot at the farmers market.
OB dug it.
Courtesy of Sourdough & Moore
“I had to kind of start making decisions—whether or not I was going to be working at the hotel a little more, or doing some baking,” he says. He added the Mission Valley farmers market to his rotation, expanded his repertoire to more breads and bagels, started selling his stuff at Olive Tree Marketplace, and eventually brought on Gibb.
Gibb had long been a hobbyist baker, working in the corporate world to pay the bills until one day, she couldn’t take it anymore. “I just wanted to bake,” she says.
She headed to the Mission Valley farmers market, and started peppering the vendors with questions. “That’s where I met Dave,” she says. He helped her establish a small pastry business and connected her with a few local restaurants to supply their desserts.
“When the opportunity came for Dave to get the actual storefront here, he asked if I wanted to be involved, and I definitely jumped at the chance,” she laughs. He’d been sharing space in a commissary kitchen in OB, growing big enough that the owners decided to sell it to him.
Courtesy of Sourdough & Moore
OB already has a couple of awesome bakeries: Azucar, Phatties Bake Shop, Desperado Bagels. But Moore thinks they have something unique to add to that—including the 100-year-old sourdough starter that’s the big bang of almost everything they make.
“I like to think it has some unique flavor,” he says. “It’s a key essential for the bagels, baguettes, focaccia, the bread, croissants…”
Gibb chimes in. “Anything that would require yeast is going to be sourdough. The only things that it’s not in are going to be, like cookies and brownies and like little cakes. ”
Bread loaves range from roasted rosemary garlic to jalapeño cheddar, caramelized onion and cinnamon raisin. For bagels, they’re making an asiago black pepper, roasted fennel and poppyseed, rosemary lemon, and of course everything. Once open, Moore wants to introduce pizza with sourdough crust, plus some breakfast and lunch sandwiches on (you guessed it) sourdough baguettes or focaccia.
On the pastry side, Gibb plans to keep people guessing with a rotating seasonal menu of different croissants, cinnamon rolls, danishes. But even things like chocolate chip cookies are never quite as simple as they appear to be. “I do a 50 percent chocolate chip ratio to dough, and they’re almost half a pound each,” she says. “All of the pastries are made with organic flour, local eggs [from Hilliker’s Ranch Fresh Eggs in Lakeside], and imported European chocolate.”
The storefront will be open Wednesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. to start. And they’re going to keep a booth at both the Mission Valley and Ocean Beach farmers markets.
“We’re really appreciative to this local San Diego community, the people of Ocean Beach,” says Gibb. Moore agrees. “They’re screaming for us to open.”
And if OBecians do one thing especially well, it’s staying loyal to locals.
Sourdough & Moore opens at 4853 Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach on Friday, November 14. On Sunday, November 2, the bakery is collaborating with another OB favorite, An’s Electronics Repair, for a one-day pop-up pre-order pairing with four different options from Sourdough & Moore with three gelatos and three jams from An’s.
Relic Bakery & Kitchen Is (Finally) Open In East Village
Anyone who’s ever opened a restaurant will tell you it never happens as fast as you think it’s going to. (Just ask the Chick & Hawk guys.) But Samantha Bird and Derek Hadden, the partners behind Relic Bakery & Kitchen, have made it to the finish line and officially opened the doors to their brand spankin’ new cafe at 845 15th Street. It’s been five years in the making, from baking in their apartment to hosting pop-ups to a wholesale business to a brick-and-mortar bakery. “We can’t be more excited to welcome you in,” says Bird.
Hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a rotating menu of seasonal items based on whatever they can get from local farms like JR Organics, Coleman Family Farms, Wong Farms, and more. Right now, Bird says current favorites include “the double pain au chocolate, the hazelnut cardamom bun, the lamb rillette, and the speck-cheese-jalapeño croissant.” Sounds like I’ll have to make a couple trips before the menu switches.
Courtesy of Taco Centro
Beth’s Bites
The only way a “buy two, get one free” deal could possibly get better is if it involves tacos. Taco Centro is doing just that this Saturday (Nov. 1) when it opens its newest location at 2171 Kettner Blvd. in Little Italy. The deal only runs from noon to 5 p.m., but with choices like grilled mahi mahi, decadent birria, or its signature: Taco Azul with a blue corn tortilla and grilled Angus steak.
San Diego Beer Week is almost upon us, and while it doesn’t “officially” begin until November 7 (and runs through November 16), Tom Ham’s Lighthouse kicks things off a little early with the 10th annual Brews, Views and Chews beer pairing event on Monday, November 3. Sip beers by the bay and pair 12 different local craft beers with 12 different handpicked restaurants like Bali Hai and East Village Brewing Company, Wildflour and 3 Punk Ales, Falafel Heights and Kairoa Brewing. It’s always an energetic (and amazingly picturesque) event, and for less than $65, you get unlimited bites and pours. Anything under $100 seems like a pretty great deal in these expensive times, if you ask me.
Anyone with even the slightest passing knowledge of contemporary culinary discourse knew about Anthony Bourdain, and those who knew him loved him. His passing in 2018 gutted the restaurant world, but San Diegans have a unique opportunity to hear from one of the people who knew him best. Zamir Gotta, Bourdain’s longtime fixer and travel partner from his television shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown, will be on hand on Sunday, November 9 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the San Diego Natural History Museum. He’ll be sharing stories and signing copies of his new book The Fixer and the Chef: My Life With and Without Anthony Bourdain alongside local author W. Scott Koenig, publisher of A Gringo in Mexico and author of Taco Megaregion: The Essential Guide to San Diego & Tijuana’s Best Tacos. Tickets are ultra-limited to only 40 seats, and all profits will go to Survivors of Suicide Loss San Diego.
If you aren’t hitting the streets to trick-or-treat this Halloween (hello to all you fellow parents out there), consider hitting Cloak & Petal in Little Italy instead. The sake and sushi bar is throwing a spookily-themed menu for one night only, with food specials like a Michael Myers roll (with salmon, tempura jalapeño, spicy tuna, cucumber, avocado, charred jalapeño sweet soy, wasabi tobiko, pesto aioli, and cilantro) and drink specials like The Drowned Soul (blanco tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, grilled pineapple syrup, activated charcoal, and black salt). It’s only available from 4 p.m. to close, so if you want a pretty epic place to people-watch this All Hallows’ Eve and munch on some pretty delicious sushi, this is going to be the place to post up.
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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.
