la boheme looking good

when i look into la boheme's courtyard areas from 30th st., they remind me of a hotel i stayed in in rome last year. we walked by the complex today and i was impressed with what an impact it makes on the surrounding area - it's a huge complex. given what sits on the corner in this shot, it's too bad la boheme couldn't have swallowed up the whole end of the block. but you need to keep some of the seedy character of north park too i suppose.

old world cafe in north park

the old world deli moved recently from 8th and island downtown to 30th st. in north park, just north of university. it's directly across from the new la boheme complex, which looks great.

the deli/cafe serves breakfast and lunch, but when we got there around noon they said they were only doing lunch. so we each had a north park sandwich, which is a huge stack of turkey with bacon and avocado, on sourdough. very tasty. the interior has some old world touches, and reminded me of restaurants in europe. with the very european la boheme across the street, and apertivo next door, this rapidly gentrifying part of 30th feels just like a little piece of europe transported to north park.

listpic, craigslist and condos

listpic is a new resource for viewing all of the images on craigslist. while it can be used for more... stimulating purposes, we'll keep it clean here and show its use as a downtown real estate tool. just go to the link i provided, type in "downtown", and you'll get a thumbnail pic list of all the condos available in downtown san diego on craigslist. pretty neat. when you're done just replace that "rfs" in the link with "m4m", you deserve it.

bayfront chargers stadium?

in national city no less. voiceofsandiego.com has a summary.

if they can squeeze it in there, it would probably make a great site. and national city could sure use the boost it would give to the city. whether the maritime industry jobs it would wipe out could be moved to another location is an important question. still, having a harborfront stadium sure would provide some nice backdrops on tv - and the camera crews wouldn't even need to send the blimp out to the ocean to get overhead shots of the water like they do now when games are played well inland at qualcomm.

u.s. grant hotel opening soon

one month until the u.s. grant hotel re-opens after being bought by the sycuan indian tribe, $52 million in renovations, and branded a luxury starwood hotel. this is a great building and a big part of san diego history.

there's a personal connection here too - my partner's boss bought the place back in the 80's and dumped $80 million to remodel it. it was a huge failure and he lost his shirt. but he basically saved the hotel at the time. anyway, it will be fun to check this place out when it opens... but at $330 a night, all i'll be seeing is the lobby.

universal to open next summer

universal, the new lounge/restaurant on univesity ave. in hillcrest, is set to open next summer. the rendering above doesn't show much, but i like the emphasis on the outdoors that the owners mentioned. according to the article, construction could begin in 3 months.

richard walker's pancake house

went downtown to watch the padres clinch a playoff spot on the big screen tv at petco park. nice day to sit on the lawn there and enjoy the game with a bunch of padres fans. before the game we went to richard walker's, pancake house chain from out of illinois, apparently. while it's a bit away from the hubbub of the gaslamp quarter, the place was full, and we eventually nabbed a table on the partly-shaded patio. the pancakes looked delicious, especially our friends' chocolate pancakes. i can't do dairy so i had an omelette, which was fairly flavorless. of course without egg yolks and cheese that's not a big surprise. nevertheless, this is a nice addition to what has been a somewhat-limited breakfast dining selection downtown.