{"id":437614,"date":"2026-08-19T20:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T20:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/437614\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T20:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T20:30:26","slug":"maximalist-moments-amidst-coastal-calm-in-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/437614\/","title":{"rendered":"Maximalist Moments Amidst Coastal Calm in San Diego\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego is a bit like the middle child between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles \u2014 more spunky and sprawling than genteel old S.B., but not quite so chaotic and crazy as teenage-energy L.A. There\u2019s real big city stuff to do, authentic diversity, and multiple places that stay open later than 10 p.m. But everything, from sandy beaches to distinct neighborhoods, is only about 20 minutes away \u2014 not the near-hour required of going anywhere in L.A. these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Madeline\u2019s first Major League Baseball game<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I surmised after a five-day visit in June, my family\u2019s most extensive S.D. exploration since\u00a0our first family junket way back in 2014.<\/a>\u00a0(I also did a\u00a0solo deep dive back in 2019<\/a>.) I\u2019ve been going to San Diego sporadically my entire life, starting from when my uncle was a Top Gun at Miramar \u2014 a picture of my cousin and I as toddlers dressed up in mini-military whites is burned in my brain \u2014 and then every year or so since my brother went to San Diego State and settled in South Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now even easier from Santa Barbara, as\u00a0Southwest\u00a0<\/a>flies directly into S.D., with roundtrips available for less than $200. And if you ever travel just to eat and drink \u2014 given that you subscribe to this newsletter, I gather you do \u2014 there\u2019s never been a better time to realize that San Diego isn\u2019t just about sun, sand, and seabreeze.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After hitting a dozen restaurants, staying at two totally distinct hotels, and ingesting an array of culture \u2014 from Mission Bay golf and Padres baseball to botanic garden trails and Alicia Keys\u2019s art collection \u2014 I can confidently report that San Diego\u2019s hospitality scene is fully humming right now. If nothing else, it\u2019s a rather easy way to quench your family\u2019s travel thirst when an overseas or extended vacation isn\u2019t in the current budget or schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Major League & Magic Mushrooms<\/p>\n

The trip started at the ballpark, where, as Giants fans, we loosely rooted for the Padres to defeat the diabolical Dodgers. They failed to do so, but we sipped on cocktails and munched curry bao with glee anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We also realized that it may have been teenage daughter Madeline\u2019s first pro baseball game ever, and she crushed it, taking down a hot dog and singing along to \u201cTake Me Out to the Ballgame.\u201d (The stadium was actually Mason\u2019s first baseball experience too, way back in 2010 when he wasn\u2019t even one-year-old, as the Giants beat the Padres to start a late-season streak that ended in a World Series win.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

After wandering the Gaslamp District post-game for a bit, we sat down at the\u00a0Huntress Grill\u00a0<\/a>for an early dinner, our introduction to San Diego\u2019s current culinary culture. Billed as a steakhouse located in the touristy zone of downtown, I was expecting more traditional fare over creative flare \u2014 but I was happily surprised to be wowed with each dish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Bavette frites at the Huntress\"\"Mushroom-ricotta agnolotti at the Huntress\"\"Tuna tartare and bone marrow at the Huntress\"\"The Magic Mushroom dessert at the Huntress Grill<\/p>\n

Out came oysters, whipped labneh with green chili crunch, scallops in calamansi, yellowtail with serrano, airy puffballs of wagyu, bright green pea salad, and tuna tartare floating on bone marrow. The chef du cuisine told us about his ever-changing housemade sausages, and we checked in on the more customary entrees with bavette frites and a mushroom-ricotta agnolotti. \u201cI will remember that forever,\u201d said Madeline of the pasta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dessert veered wild again: horchata-flavored dippin\u2019 dots and, emerging from a smoky glass orb, the \u201cMagic Mushroom\u201d mousse-filled toadstool cake thing. It\u2019s gone viral online for good reason.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meeting Maximalism\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Our downstairs parlor at the Lafayette Hotel<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was in college and my friend took me here,\u201d said Madeline, as we wandered wide-eyed into\u00a0The Lafayette<\/a>\u2019s lobby, \u201cI\u2019d think she was the coolest person ever!\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure why she wouldn\u2019t say the same about her father, who did bring her there, but I was too awestruck by the visual and vibey excess of this North Park property to care. Home to six totally different bar-restaurant concepts on an otherwise gritty stretch of El Cajon Boulevard, the Lafayette was one of the few hotels built anywhere during World War II. That original glitz \u2014 Bob Hope was the first guest! \u2014 only lasted a few years before the property fell into generic hotel-ism for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A $31 million renovation brought back its glory in 2023, and that glory is Wes Anderson\u2013ish maximalism in every corner \u2014 from the intricate wallpaper, maxi-bar, and tiger and snake rugs in our two-story, two-bedroom townhome suite ($750 average nightly) to the atrium-like lobby, Gutter Bar with skee ball and two bowling lanes, and too-cool-for-me pool scene with Monday morning deejays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We missed the live jazz at Lou Lou\u2019s, but laid down some cocktails and slammed some pins after checking in. Then we enjoyed breakfast the next morning in Beginners, the 24-hour diner that serves California comfort classics and feels like its own theater stage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

You could stay at the Lafayette for at least three days, never leave the property, and feel like you just lived in your favorite movie. More please.<\/p>\n

Family-Style Fun<\/p>\n

\"\"Mason at Mission Bay<\/p>\n

Our scene slipped into more of the expected San Diego vibe for the next three nights at the\u00a0Mission Bay Hyatt Regency<\/a>, which towers over Sea World and the roller coasters of Belmont Park. The pool and its waterslides were packed with families, and we joined in, sipping on pina coladas and cold beers while watching World Cup games at\u00a0Pelican\u2019s by the Bay<\/a>, then tempura shrimp apps and tangerine rickeys as the\u00a0Red Marlin<\/a>\u00a0as the sun started to dip. The property served as our centrally located homebase for enjoying greater San Diego, including visits to see my wife\u2019s aunt in Kearny Mesa and a tour through UC San Diego \u2014 wow, how that place has exploded in size! \u2014 for our college-thinking kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our favorite dinner of the entire trip was at\u00a0Fort Oak<\/a>, where super friendly and truly helpful service matched the flavor-bomb food and drinks. The Mission Hills restaurant was opened in a 1940s Ford dealership seven years ago by chef-owner Brad Wise as the second establishment in an empire that now features six concepts. Most are in San Diego, but\u00a0Rare Society<\/a>\u00a0sports six locations of its own, from Vegas and Seattle to Santa Barbara, which is where\u00a0I met Wise a couple years ago.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Chicken fried quail at Fort Oak<\/p>\n

\"\"Ahi tartare with smoked oyster mayo and capers at Fort Oak<\/p>\n

Fort Oak relies on a massive hearth in the kitchen to pump out wood-fired cuisine, but steak is not the only star. Instead, we devoured seafood (ahi tartare with smoked oyster mayo; kanpachi ceviche with mango and spiced peanuts); veggies (Little Gem and kale with \u201cembered\u201d beets and whipped feat; asparagus and snap peas with aleppo vinaigrette; roasted carrots with Humboldt fog); and non-beef meats (pork chop with black garlic sauce; lamb merguez kefta on cinnamon sticks with harissa garlic crunch.) The banana bread tres leches dessert was brilliant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Ahi tartare with smoked oyster mayo and capers at Fort Oak<\/p>\n

The next morning, my son Mason and I played a quick round at\u00a0Mission Bay Golf Course<\/a>, which is short enough for beginners but challenging enough to keep any golfer entertained. We followed that with lunch at the course\u2019s recently opened\u00a0Harland Clubhouse<\/a>, the fifth outpost of a fast-growing brewing company that was started in 2019 by the founders of Saint Archer. We diligently worked our way through the menu, which was much better than most golf course cuisine: smash burger, fish tacos, Italian sub, pretzel sticks with cheese sauce, and, for dessert (?), a gochujang-slathered hot dog. All washed down, at least for me, with Harland\u2019s finely balanced ales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We traveled to T\u00fcrkiye via Normal Heights that evening, joining the lively crowds at\u00a0Bosforo<\/a>, where meze like spiced-rice-stuffed calamari in apple butter, escabeche-esque sea bass laid out like fine art, and beet salad on ezine cheese led into a pizza-like, roll-it-up flatbread called lahmacun, a woodfired mushroom pizza with truffle oil, multiple kebabs, and a branzino in fennel beurre blanc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A white pizza at Bosforo<\/p>\n

\"\"Bosforo\u2019s meze spread<\/p>\n

Rivaling the cuisine in the dance between custom and creativity were cocktails like the smoky-sour signature Toros, with raki, hibiscus, mezcal, and sumac. Of all the places we ate, this felt like the one you\u2019d hit up regularly, whether for quick meals at the bar alone or birthday parties with all your friends.<\/p>\n

Jewels & Crowns\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The Giants exhibit at MCA San Diego in La Jolla<\/p>\n

Upon buying a cliffside mansion above Black\u2019s Beach called the Razor House in 2019, superstar songstress Alicia Keys and her producer husband Swizz Beatz began integrating into San Diego\u2019s art scene in a meaningful manner. There\u2019s a production of her musical\u00a0Hell\u2019s Kitchen\u00a0staging there right now, and their collection of Black art was still hanging at the\u00a0Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego\u00a0<\/a>in La Jolla when we visited. Called\u00a0Giants, the many-roomed, massive-piece exhibit was both visually and socially provocative, causing us all to linger in awe before three-dimensional installments by Ebony Patterson, fuzzy costume-sculptures by Gordon Parks, and numerous pieces that recast the African diaspora experience in perception-evolving ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We headed south for dinner, driving over the stomach-dropping Coronado Bridge to reach the poshy island that some locals call Crown City. Our destination was\u00a0Night Hawk<\/a>, the just-opened al fresco restaurant within the\u00a0Baby Grand Hotel<\/a>. This remodel of a basic motel into a multi-venue, movie set-ish compound \u2014 complete with speakeasy, lagoon-pool, and mirror-walled bathrooms \u2014 is the work of\u00a0CH Projects<\/a>, the same outfit behind the new Lafayette.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The bar at Night Hawk on Coronado Island<\/p>\n

\"\"Night Hawk on Coronado Island<\/p>\n

The loud, Disneyland-ish scene \u2014 full of statuary, torches, and standing lamps \u2014 was bubbling, with a particular concentration of female groups dressed in their tightest, flashiest duds. The servers sported pink velvet jackets, the bar looked like something out of\u00a0Arabian Nights, and Greek-inspired dishes like saganaki were set ablaze tableside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The maximalism was so maximized that it felt like more style than substance, but give them time to dial it in. It\u2019s certainly worth a meal, if for nothing than the spectacle of it all.<\/p>\n

Plants & Pies<\/p>\n

Pacific Beach holds a special place in my wife\u2019s heart, as her grandmother \u2014 a former skiptracer from the Bronx \u2014 lived in a tiny apartment one block from the sand there for her last decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We found the everyday brunch hotspot\u00a0Madi PB<\/a>\u00a0not far away, starting our final day by dipping waffle churro sticks in jalapeno-blackberry sauce and maple cream cheese while sipping on a blue spirulina mimosa. My carnitas shakshuka hit the spot, but not as well as my son\u2019s crispy breakfast burrito. Even the nearby crow agreed, perched next to ground graffiti that read, \u201cI\u00a0\u2764\ufe0f bacon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Waffle sticks at Madi PB<\/p>\n

\"\"Fermented snacks at allmine<\/p>\n

We needed to walk, so cruised the continents represented at the\u00a0San Diego Botanic Garden<\/a>. Located on about 40 acres a mile from the sea in Encinitas, the garden features more than 5,000 plants in distinct gardens up and down the hills that surprise with ocean views. It\u2019s a good way to spend an hour, and quite tempting not to sample the rare bananas and wax jambus in the subtropical fruit garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our last stop was, you guessed it, another meal, and the most charming lunch of the trip. After decades in the hospitality industry across the country, Romanian-born Roxana Pavel opened\u00a0allmine<\/a>\u00a0in Oceanside in 2022, intending to show how kindness and conscious sourcing can turn a pizza-beer-wine spot into the model of a neighborhood joint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Salad at allmine<\/p>\n

\"\"Pizza at allmine in Oceanside<\/p>\n

Everything was spectacular, from the market salad with fried olives and pickled veggies to dishes we didn\u2019t even order, like the brie involtini (a garlic knot creation dipped in honey) and lasagna that melts like a bolognese-mornay sauce volcano all over the plate. The pizzas were honestly some of the best I\u2019ve ever had, the natural wines were clean, and the citrusy cannoli to close was somehow still devoured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At one point of the allmine meal, Madeline exclaimed, \u201cThat might have been our best dish of the trip.\u201d It\u2019s lost in my notes as to which one she meant, but it doesn\u2019t matter. It could have applied to any of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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