taste of adams avenue

taste of adams avenue in kensington/normal heights is being held this sunday. new restaurants include:

Cantina Mayahuel located at 2934 Adams Avenue, Casa Adams at 3038 Adams Avenue, Kensington Vine located at 4191 Adams Avenue, Tino’s Mexican Restaurant found at 2736 Adams Avenue and the latest new addition Bleu Boheme to be opening soon at 4090 Adams Avenue.

i haven't been in the past (and will be at the red sox/padres game sunday), so i can't vouch for whether it's worth your $20/$25, but it does include the not-yet-open bleu boheme. incidentally, they've been out painting their formerly green (tomato) building gray the past few days.

beat scene

the street scene lineup landed with a big thud today, as people came to the realization that muse is actually headlining one night of the festival (i'm actually a fan, but muse as headliners?), no big hip hop names are in the lineup (thanks del mar, your new lily-white street scene hosts!), and g-love and special sauce are actually in the top half of the lineup list.

actually, spoon was not in the earlier listing i saw, and coupled with air and editors, there's a few good reasons to go. but not nearly enough for $120. in fact, the drop-off from coachella, which i unfortunately missed this year, is remarkable, given the mere $25/day price difference.

very disappointing, but not surprising...

north park news

...is a monthly newspaper found around the urban neighborhoods, and this month it's chock full of new restaurant tidbits about the area. they don't appear to have a website, so i'll relay some of the more interesting articles. however, the rest of this post will be entirely in italics, in honor of last month's all-italics issue (apparently someone was baked at the print shop again...)

first off, there's a big article on the commonwealth cafe and the creative methods the owner used to raise funds for it - he posted fliers saying he was looking for funds to open the cafe. part of the reason for the delay in opening (january was the original target date) was due to the owner and primary investor employing their own elbow grease to create the space. apparently they're not open just yet, but it was encouraging to see that vegan options will be on the menu.

urban solace is a new restaurant coming to 30th (in the old north park deli spot) promising "new american comfort food rivaling downtown dining but at neighborhood prices".

last few times i've driven down 30th north of university i've noticed sicilian thing. north park news says it's brought to you by one of the folks at bronx pizza in hillcrest. by the way, the most recent review at that yelp link mentions a brooklyn pizzeria down in mission gorge, which is quite good. and he says "f the yankees", something i happen to say every day.

apertivo is expanding into the space next door...

arrividerci is coming to la boheme within the next year. good to see some of that retail space filling up.

thanks north park news!

biggest padre series of season?

the boston red sox roll into petco park on friday for a big-time series against the padres. tickets are going for top dollar on craigslist, as all 3 games are sold out. i was only able to get some fairly crappy tix for the final game; my brother paid extra for decent seats along the first base line on friday night, so we should have a good view of projected red sox starter daisuke matsuzaka.

both teams are in first place in their respective divisions and have played well as of late. as a big red sox and padres fan, it's going to be tough to pick whom to root for, but the sheer buzz of the first red sox visit to san diego in several years should be thrill enough. downtown will be packed this weekend, and expect to see plenty of red sox fans from boston and southern california.

low-income condo construction

today's ut had a nice summary of affordable housing projects in san diego. it's good to see a few hundred low-cost units going in, considering the thousands of high-end condos that now exist (or soon will) downtown. it remains to be seen whether a project like 16th and market, pictured above, can help transform the crack epicenter that exists there and further south on market.

bree walker rules

city beat has an article this week about former san diego anchorwoman bree walker's purchase of cindy sheehan's texas property. when i moved to san diego in 1997, my brother, who had lived here for a year, said i had to check out this tv newswoman who had fused hands. i was hooked - where else could you stare at these wild fused hands on the anchor desk while getting your news fix? later i found out they used to make her wear gloves, which is pretty sad.

bree eventually left the tv news scene (it's tough once you hit 50 in that biz if you're a woman), married and divorced sportscaster jim lampley, highlighted her fused hands on a carnival tv show, and got pulled over by my cop brother for sitting at a green light in rancho santa fe recently (he said she was very nice). but buying cindy sheehan's ranch to keep it out of the hands of the pro-war folks (yes, these people still exist, and you're still un-american to them if you dare to question why we're fighting this unjust war) puts the icing on the cake. she's a big old liberal! i guess i should have known, given her air america gig, but i stopped listening after chimpy won again in 2004 - too depressing. anyway, way to go bree, you're still my fused-hands hero.

now bring on the wingnut hate mail!

dinner at modus

finally got around to having dinner at modus in banker's hill last night. we had the steak burger, which was delicious, and the sloppy joe sliders, which were enjoyable, but not quite as good. both plates came with frites, which were the best fries i've had in a long time. top it off with bread served with sea salt, and an appetizer of dumplings, and it was a satisfying 10:30 pm dinner.

i like that there are more and more dining choices at this hour, which was good, since we had just left the ray at night gallery stroll in north park, which takes place the second saturday of each month. lots of people on ray street this weekend... hadn't been to this in a couple of years and it's really grown - there's even a gyro stand now. our friend david bought a wood piece from one of the galleries. we also stopped by a great new clothing store, mesh, which is in one of the ground-floor retail slots of the new opera building garage. stop by and pick up some cool new duds.

pinkberry coming to hillcrest

the signs outside the old p.b. hardware (or is it garden? i already forgot) building at 4th and robinson say pinkberry is coming to san diego. this korean-owned yogurt (or is it?) chain has been a big hit in LA. i stopped into the one in weho to get change for the meter, and really like the hip design they use. can't vouch for the yogurt since i can't eat it, but it must be good if it's so popular. and this one should be a hit given its proximity to all those fun restaurants in hillcrest.

commonwealth cafe open in np

picked up a menu for the new commonwealth cafe, and it looked almost open when we drove by last week on our way to a great dinner at zensei sushi. the cafe menu is really basic - a few breakfast dishes (mostly eggs), burgers, chili, and not too much else. but what else do you need at 3 in the morning?

i like the 50's look to the menu and the restaurant (at least from the street). they seem to be going for a classic diner approach with the menu items too. nice to know there'a a new late night dining option in north park.

ivy hotel: too sexy!

the la times had an article this weekend about how provocative the new ivy hotel downtown is. it also touches on just how upscale downtown is getting, with bottle service at many bars really changing the clientele in the gaslamp.

as long as there are options for those of us who can't afford to buy $600 bottles to entertain our friends (or blow 10K in a few minutes), it's good to see san diego growing up and offering these kinds of options. there's no reason this city can't start to offer some of the higher-end amenities that draw the big spenders to vegas and nyc.