{"id":245593,"date":"2026-03-31T20:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/245593\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T20:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:37:09","slug":"restaurant-review-tobeys-19th-hole-cafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/245593\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Review: Tobey’s 19th Hole Cafe"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ancient man walks across the back patio like he doesn\u2019t want to break his own merchandise. His are bones made of heirloom calcium and galvanized steel by an older god who didn\u2019t cut corners or outsource the work to Taskrabbit gods. There\u2019s an unofficial mayoralness to his arrival. You can tell he\u2019s come here through many iterations of America, many presidents and their varying levels of sanity and impulse control. By now, the sacrament of his body is at least 10 percent Tobey\u2019s corned beef hash, his DNA a genetic Slinky of skillet bacon. <\/p>\n

He appears to have been military, probably served in the Vietnam War or the Civil War. The young woman patiently helping him to his table (she\u2019s at least 60) loudly tells the server\u2014and all of us\u2014that he is 102 years old. We nod and smile in respect. He successfully sits (hero knee bones do it again!) and looks happy as a man who outlived his enemies. My 4-year-old son throws something on the floor\u2014a toy, a pancake, my will to go on\u2014and playfully barks something managerial (\u201cDad! Pick it up!\u201d\u2014which he always says with a Brooklyn patois, I have no idea why or how). The man smiles and laughs at our little scene like it\u2019s the best 37,254th day of his life.<\/p>\n

Perched on a mesa, Tobey\u2019s 19th Hole<\/a> is his kinda place. From here, the grass spills forever until it collides with distant trees and frames San Diego\u2019s majestic, underfunded Downtown skyline. A jumbo jet slows on descent directly overhead, like a movie scene that\u2019s trying too hard. This place\u2014his place\u2014with its unmatched view is one of the last affordable eateries in one of the least affordable cities in America. <\/p>\n

\"\"Photo Credit: Kimberly Motos<\/p>\n

To understand Tobey\u2019s, you have to understand the historic everyperson charm of Balboa Golf Course<\/a>. World War I ended in 1919. Flappers were dipping the chiffon of gender norms in kerosene. Jazz was carbonating the culture\u2019s bloodstream. The war\u2019s need for better machines funded the assembly lines of the auto industry, so horses\u2019 time on roads came to a rapid end. With new car-based freedom came the untethering of Americans to their homes. Exploring the city and returning at a reasonable time was no longer a huge pain in the ass. Day trips<\/a> were not only easier, but a new hobby. And so we got the rise and feasibility of large places to gather as a group (parks, museums<\/a>, concert halls, auditoriums, golf courses<\/a>). More than anything, though, after four years of war we had some pent-up play in us.<\/p>\n

Professional sports<\/a> weren\u2019t really a thing in the US yet, but they were teeing up. The first dreams of \u201cgoing pro\u201d were being hatched. And golf, at least back then, was a sport for people of a more common musculature. A sport where drinking highballs and smoking Chesterfields and socializing about Amos \u2019n\u2019 Andy and \u201ccommies\u201d were part of the rule book. The PGA was formed in 1916, and the postwar economic boom funded golf courses all over the US. Between 1920 and 1930, the number of golfers in the country doubled to 500,000.<\/p>\n

By the time Balboa opened in 1919, San Diego had three courses: San Diego Country Club (founded in 1897, near the modern-day site of the Old Globe), Coronado Country Club (1906), and Point Loma Golf Club (1914). Balboa, however, was the first city-owned, municipal course open to the public. Built for $1,845 (about $35,000 in today\u2019s money), it wasn\u2019t pretty to start\u2014called \u201cthe rock pile,\u201d the fairways were made of dirt, and greens were oiled sand. But it broke open the local floodgates on the sport. Slammin\u2019 Sam Snead, renowned for the most technically perfect golf swing in history, would eventually set the course record here in 1943: a 60 (12 under par), which still stands. <\/p>\n

He probably celebrated with a beer and a club sandwich at Tobey\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo Credit: Kimberly Motos<\/p>\n

In 1934, the city granted its first food concession permit to Chester and Lois Tobey, who opened a hot dog stand here on top of the mesa, about 100 feet above the course\u2019s two most crucial holes\u2014the first and the 18th. Ninety-two years later, the place looks and feels like it\u2019s been here that long. <\/p>\n

The adjacent clubhouse, lined with photos of club champions and icons, wooden curios filled with old trophies, has a historical ghost-townness to it. Through the double doors lies Tobey\u2019s\u2014now owned by the fourth generation family member, Chris Tobey, a great grandson. The day-to-day soul of the place is Dalia Parsley, who\u2019s worked here for 30 years and runs the joint. <\/p>\n

Tobey\u2019s is not a diner, but it\u2019s got big diner energy. Diners<\/a> are open all hours of the day and night, whereas Tobey\u2019s is only open for breakfast and lunch. It closes somewhere between 5 and 6 p.m. (the city requires they close when the golf course does)\u2014which is a light crime against humanity. With that epic view\u2014the sun setting over the skyline\u2014I propose a city charter requiring Tobey\u2019s stay open for an hour after sundown. And that we\u2019re all mandated to gather here at designated intervals. <\/p>\n

\"\"Photo Credit: Kimberly Motos<\/p>\n

The tables here are formica. No artisan was burdened in the making of them. The d\u00e9cor wasn\u2019t made by a designer who studied under the designer who designed that famous restaurant with the emu-feathered lamp and tables made of recycled Priuses. The chairs are the metal-boned, vinyl- cushioned stalwarts of every illicit card room and bingo hall. Any modernization efforts seem to stop at adding a couple TVs. Tendrils of a plant wind their way across the overhang between the bar counter and the dining room. A wall of framed photos depicts generations of Tobeys through the ages. <\/p>\n

A round of golf at Balboa is only $39.50 for locals with a resident card ($29 for seniors), which makes it one of the most affordable and accessible courses in history. And so the crowd at Tobey\u2019s tends to be a grand mix of people who have not yet upended the earth and shaken all its money free\u2014college kids, entry-level workers, people from industries not properly appreciated (teachers, nonprofiters, off-duty cooks, military, childcare heroes), people who are smart with their money, and long-timers navigating the disbursement of their life savings while trying to have a little fun. <\/p>\n

\"\"Photo Credit: Kimberly Motos<\/p>\n

People like those at the table near us, who give off a hard days\u2019 work vibe as they share a decent amount of light beer\u2014served in police siren-blue Bud Light pitchers (Tobey\u2019s does have some local craft beers<\/a> like Stone and AleSmith). People like the elderly couple by the window sharing a Suntide mimosa, staring at the view, giving the impression that a good portion of their love was conjured in those seats. Tobey\u2019s also has cocktails, like a bloody mary and a vodka cran. <\/p>\n

For breakfast, the corned beef hash and eggs is a good choice, the cured meat minced and crisped and tossed with the tater shreds\u2014next to the ever-dependable two eggs over easy. White-bread toast arrives with that perfect light-brown sandpaper crisp. No one knows how to toast white bread like a diner (or diner relative). It\u2019s not house baked rye or ciabatta or brioche evenly spread with a compound butter of thyme, citrus zest, and activated charcoal that\u2019s been blessed by Nancy Silverton. It\u2019s the thin supermarket toast that built America, with the delicious yellow stain where a pre-cut pad of butter clearly lived its utilitarian life before it melted and left a shadow, like a butter beauty mark. <\/p>\n

\"\"Photo Credit: Kimberly Motos<\/p>\n

Chicken-fried steak, and biscuits and gravy are breakfast staples. The chili has those large-format shredded cheddar pieces grated and hermetically sealed before arrival at the place of business. For lunch, the club sandwich is just about perfect. I\u2019d argue that artisanal bread has no place in the club sandwich arts; the architecture requires thin-sliced white bread with ample squish for proper mouth-cramming. No one wants your rosemary sourdough in this. <\/p>\n

PARTNER CONTENT<\/p>\n


\n \"Liberty
\n Liberty Public Market Celebrates 10 Years
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\n \"Chef
\n Chef Aidan Owens Thinks Your Fish is Boring
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Is there some wrongheaded instinct in us that looks at Tobey\u2019s and thinks, \u201cOh, man, if only we could add some badass wallpaper and tassels and statement art, and turn that patio into a fern circus listening bar with fire features and negronis\u2014something to do justice to that view?\u201d Or, \u201cIf only they had central air conditioning or the desire to use it, or a fan or two?\u201d Or, \u201cMaybe just some mood lighting and a single negroni?\u201d <\/p>\n

There is. And that would ruin everything. The magic of Tobey\u2019s is the family, the Dalia, the socioeconomic welcome mat of an honest club sandwich<\/a> on humble white bread and the only reasonably priced drink within 600 miles. A place where an ancient man can feel at home and enjoy the view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ancient man walks across the back patio like he doesn\u2019t want to break his own merchandise. His…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1339,2707,74,84660,76,75,8419],"class_list":{"0":"post-245593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-food-drink","9":"tag-food-news","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-food-reviews","12":"tag-san-diego-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego-news","14":"tag-things-to-do-in-san-diego"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}