As far as healthy lunch and snack takeout options, San Diego’s downtown was sorely lacking. Actually, the options seemed downright abysmal. In the few months I worked at San Diego Magazine last spring (filling in for an editor on maternity leave), I was always at a loss for those times I didn’t pack a lunch. Do I try the overpriced salads or bear with something heavy like Pad Thai? There weren’t any sandwich places that checked the healthy and tasty boxes, and Jimbo’s seemed like too far of a walk. What’s a hungry worker bee to do?
Thankfully a few months ago the East Village welcomed Sol Cal Cafe, a vegan market and cafe with an in-house naturopathic doctor. (You know you live in Southern California when…this combo doesn’t faze you at all.) The brainchild of an integrative nutritionist and a former NFL player, the cafe serves juices, smoothies, acai bowls, blended coffee drinks, food, and cookies. Yes, the prices can seem steep—$9 smoothies and $11 salads—but keep in mind the quality of ingredients. Everything on the menu is concocted in-house and made with organic, local, GMO-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, and unrefined ingredients.
I loved the lettuce tacos for a light meal, the kale salad is quite sizable, and more than a few of my friends recommend the quinoa chili. And I’ll be back to the glossy case of macarons, almond cookies, and raspberry crumble bars. Check it out:
There are so many coffee shops cropping up in San Diego. Heartwork Coffee Bar is new to the Mission Hills neighborhood and serves local roasts by Dark Horse and James Coffee Co. Double snaps for vegan donuts by Papa G’s. The one above is a French toast flavor.
When you think San Diego, there’s a good chance that the upscale beach community of La Jolla is what comes to mind. A cobalt coastline, impressive bluffs, well-manicured green space, chi-chi boutiques, and real estate porn as far as the eye can see—this is La Jolla on the surface. There’s also a longstanding seafood hole-in-the-wall, a contemporary art museum, my favorite French toast of all time, and a series of murals dotted throughout La Jolla Village.
For all my picks, check out my Neighborhood Guide in the latest issue of San Diego Magazine.
Coming from the East Coast, where summers are humid and rainy season is no joke, I still sometimes find it surprising that I landed in this desert city of San Diego. The coast and beaches certainly help me forget that, but drive a little east, where most of the harder hiking trails are located, and you’re in legitimate cacti country. That also means dry, dusty hikes that—I’ll be honest—I’m not incredibly fond of.
But that’s why it was such a pleasant surprise to find the lush and verdant scenery at Los Penasquitos (“Little Cliffs”) Canyon Preserve, situated between Ranchos Penasquitos and Sorrento Hills. Sometimes the greens were so bright that it was almost like someone cranked up the saturation levels. And minus a few times when you see houses or the highway, you feel secluded à la Cheryl Strayed hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in Wild. OK, Los Penasquitos is a totally flat course, so not at all on par with the difficulty of Cheryl’s journey, but that same palpable feeling of being away from it all is there.
The nearly 4,000-acre preserve includes more than 10 miles of trails—a mix of shaded and non-shaded areas—that accommodate hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians, as well as a historic adobe ranch house and event space for weddings. Along the trails you’ll find sycamores, cacti, and even bobcats and coyotes, one of which I spotted the first time I walked this trail.
The most popular route is a six-mile loop that brings you to the waterfall—it’s pretty, but “waterfall” is a generous term—at Lopez Canyon before either rounding back the way you came or completing the loop, which involves crossing the creek to get to the other side. Since the trail is all walking and can get a wee bit monotonous, we definitely wanted to cross the creek and finish the loop on the opposite side of the trail. It takes some delicate hopping-over-stones footwork but is very much doable. Eaman even did it while holding Teddy by the leash! You’ll see people stop at the canyon to sun on the rocks, take pictures, picnic, or even read a book. And more than a few dogs will eagerly pull toward the water desperately wanting a quick dip in the cold water.
Tired, sore, and fueled with enough Vitamin D for a good month, you’ll likely want copious Mexican food after. At least that’s how we felt.
Now that I work for myself, the holidays is usually the only time of the year I feel like I’m actually on vacation; everyone else is so out of pocket, that I’m forced to be, too. I thought it’d be filled with more work, but the time ended up being a really fulfilling San Diego staycation.
For better or worse, Eaman and I tend to put a Type A spin on fun, and so we had a to-do list of fun things to do over the holidays, and we covered pretty much everything. Movies, hikes, beach (like Windansea Beach, above) coffee, pumpkin cream cheese cupcakes, time with my girlfriends, Christmas light-gawking—I couldn’t have asked for a more fun two weeks. A couple days ago, we were actually a little, dare I say, bored because we had ticked off all the to-do’s and realized that each day had been so gratifying that, how could we top it? Clearly, a good problem to have.
San Diego’s East Village is where all the magic is happening. It’s where cool food ventures and innovative public projects meet, and it’s where I go if I want a dose of real city living. And the restaurants by CH Projects, the team behind Polite Provisions, Underbelly and many other uber-cool venues, is where I go when I want a dose of city eating.
This June CH opened the stylish East Village deli, Rare Form, followed by Fairweather, a rooftop bar with a penchant for tropical drinks two months later. The former is a dim, library-like space with banker’s lamps, Baroque-style paintings and religious undertones; my mind is still processing how or why those elements go together. That said, the sandwiches are well-made—the namesake Rare Form sandwich is a gigantic pastrami-filled ode to New York—and the fries are dynamite. They also make fresh lemonade, and though I can tell the ingredients are natural, it was neither here nor there. Out of everything we chowed down, the soft pretzel and dipping sauces were tops.
I liked Rare Form, sure. But I love Fairweather. I love the blue and white tiles on the front bar, the view atop Petco Park, the cozy banquettes, the Shazam-worthy salsa playlist, the intimate atmosphere and the bartenders, who hand you a menu and then throw in that they can actually make anything you want. Local cocktail king Anthony Schmidt gave Eaman a tropical play on a negroni, and for me, the best mocktail I’ve ever had. It was mixed with their house-made passionfruit syrup, and when I asked him about the recipe, it was refreshing to hear how much thought he put into a non-alcoholic drink. Let me tell you, that’s a rare thing.
Gift guides can go one of two ways: 1. They can be beautiful but totally unattainable with ludicrous prices or 2. They can be well-edited with every budget in mind. I’d like to think mine is of the latter bunch. So here are 10 giftables for her, him, the kids and the home, all from San Diego small businesses!
We hosted a Friendsgiving on Thanksgiving with three friends who also stayed in town for the holiday weekend, and it was just perfect. We each contributed a few sides, we all went in on a prepared turkey from Bristol Farms and there was even some Cards Against Humanity action in between. Our apartment may be small-ish, but its open layout makes it a great place to entertain. It’s a good thing, too, because I really, really, really love playing hostess. Those gold spray-painted leaf place cards made the dinner feel just a little extra special. And that green arrangement in the background? i literally plucked some leafy branches from the bushes by our apartment. Et voila!
