S1: Hey , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. This week , Michelin stars were awarded to California restaurants. How one intimate , recently opened restaurant in Carlsbad quickly grabbed a new star for San Diego. Some well deserved flowers for our local fine dining scene.
S2: Michelin , James Beard Those national awards have gone a long way to sort of put a little bit more of a spotlight on San Diego and San Diego chefs that we love and that we know are superstars.
S1: Then our panel of food journalists covering San Diego leave us with some great summer dining ideas. All that , plus the news roundup. That's ahead on KPBS roundtable. Earlier this week , the Michelin Guide revealed which California restaurants earned a star. San Diego now has five Michelin starred restaurants. This week on roundtable , we bring together a few journalists covering one of our favorite things about San Diego food. I'm joined now by some of the best food and drink writers covering San Diego. Candice Wu is a freelance food journalist and editor , and Beth Damon writes about the local food and drink scene for San Diego Magazine. And finally , Farley Elliott is here. He's the Southern California bureau chief for SFGate. I want to welcome you all to roundtable food editions , so let's get into it. Candice , these Michelin stars were given out Wednesday.
S2: Last year we didn't have any new stars added to the list , so this year was a little bit of an improvement. Um , and like you said , North County really shined this round. A lilo , a restaurant that just opened in April , already earned its first star , which is pretty incredible. But the owners and the chef already own a restaurant that has a michelin star called Gina Jolie. So I think Michelin was familiar with what they do familiar with their food. So I think that gave them a bit of a advantage or so.
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S3: We anticipated what was coming. It gave us , even though it was a short amount of time , it gave us enough time to be able to go back and do the thorough reviews that it really takes to get that star. So I think if it had been their first restaurant , that would have been a lot more of a shock. But the fact that they are very well known already in the Michelin Guide for June , then I think it I think it made a lot of sense. And , you know , when I spoke to the restaurateur John Resnick and the executive chef , Eric Boast , about Lelo before they opened , when they were explaining their vision , it really sounded like they didn't come out and say it , but their goal was to have that high level of execution , that high level of quality of the food. And I think they were shooting for the stars. They promised , they delivered and it made sense.
S1: Candace , as I understand it , Lilo is a very intimate restaurant. It's very limited seating. Can you tell us more about what that vision. Beth was just talking about what they were trying to hit with Lilo.
S2: You know , I think with Gin and Joli , they do a tasting menu there , which is lovely. Um , and maybe I would say a little bit more traditional leaning towards French cuisine. And I think with Lilo , they really , you know , put their ambitious hats on. They wanted to sort of take both the experience and the cuisine to another level. So there's a lot more sort of modern technique , modern presentation. It's very interactive. You sort of enter into a courtyard and you have a sort of beginning experience there , and then you're led into the dining room and you're sort of in front of a bar , interacting with the chefs as they're plating your food. So I think experientially , it's sort of on another level.
S1: Farley , I want to bring you in here now. We're here in a room in San Diego talking about it. You cover San Diego , but you're also in Los Angeles. Cover other parts of Southern California.
S4: You know , they've been back at it at a statewide level for a few years now. And what you're seeing is that these sort of traditional centers of fine dining are starting to shift. San Francisco held that acclaim for so long , and the city of San Francisco only kind of had one little bit of movement in this year's awards , one restaurant won from a single star up to two stars. Whereas Los Angeles , as you said , Where I'm Based , has now two three Michelin starred restaurants , which is previously unheard of. The only other three Michelin starred restaurant was Addison Down in Del Mar. And so for us in Southern California , it's a really big shift. And I think it also reflects the way that the Michelin Guide is starting to kind of think outside of its traditional , generally French and Japanese boxes , to start to anoint these places with a little bit different flavor profiles.
S1: I mean , that's one question I had. Is there a theme ? So San Diego has five restaurants with some Michelin star rating at this point.
S2: Obviously , they really let a chef shine and they really value sort of a unique take on cuisine. And so parallel to that omakase restaurant. Sushi restaurants have always done really well with Michelin because they are , you know , essentially tasting menu restaurants. And you really get to get a sense of the sushi chef's sensibilities and tastes through it. So , you know , that's reflected. And we have a michelin starred sushi restaurant here. So eat sushi. Um , via the restaurant up in Oceanside is also a tasting menu restaurant. So I think , you know , when I speak to chefs and restaurant owners who are thinking about opening a restaurant and with Michelin star ambitions , um , a tasting menu is usually the way they they want to approach that.
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S3: I mean , the , the Michelin reviewers , people do not know who they are. They do not know when they're coming. They don't know how many times they're coming. It is several times. There is no one and done visit to figure it out. I would say it's a minimum of at least three times over a period of time. Probably different times of service , trying different menu items , generally going with at least a guest to get a sense of the larger sense of the menu versus just one person trying one thing , which might kind of give it away a little bit. The anonymity of the of the reviewers is really sacred. And so it's it's no joke and it's it's interesting. I've never actually eaten at a three star restaurant. Addison , this is your hint to invite me. But you know the difference between if you go to a one star restaurant , like a I mean , it's it's stunning. It's breathtaking. It is the design. It's the it is the food quality. It is the service quality is the hospitality. Then if you go to a two star , it's you don't think it can get any better. And it does. So it's it really is a dedication to quality and consistency of execution. That is what is required to even get onto a Bib Gourmand or just Michelin recognized in general. And I think going back to what Candice was saying , tasting menus do tend to give some of these restaurants a bit of an upper leg. But if you want something that is quality or a little bit less traditional , a little bit off the wall , a little bit fun , I really recommend people look at the Bib Gourmand because it's a much larger list and it's a good value , but I think that's where a lot of the fun stuff is happening as well.
S1: So just to clarify , that is , you know , a michelin guide designation , but they don't have the stars , but it's like a separate category. Candice. Right.
S2: Right. It's um , it sort of designates restaurants that have good value. Um , you know , you're able to get a three course meal for a fairly accessible price. And so I think it's enabled a lot of restaurants who maybe don't do , as you know , an elaborate tasting menu to shine , because I think a lot of people look at the Michelin rankings , the ratings , and maybe , you know , they can't necessarily afford to go to a michelin star restaurant every month or. But , you know , Bib Gourmand is a lot more accessible.
S1: And what are some of the the local restaurants with the Bib Gourmand ? I think Atelier Mana , another North County eatery , was recently added. Right.
S3: They might have even been added last year. I don't remember off the top of my head it was.
S2: It was new to this year. I think they were the only Bib Gourmand added. And it is , you know , I'm , I'm , I'm very biased. It's one of my favorite restaurants in San Diego. I think the world of them and you know , they're a daytime restaurant to you know , to call it a brunch restaurant would be a disservice. But they just happened to be doing , you know , incredible food that is served , you know , around the breakfast lunch hour.
S1: And that's in Encinitas , right.
S2: In Leucadia. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Oh , Leucadia. Okay. Great.
S4: I just want to just want to jump in and say to briefly to to piggyback off Beth and Candace's point that like I do want to applaud Michelin Somewhat for trying to kind of rethink their old model a little bit when it comes to California , because we are traditionally such a more casual dining place that you can have these big gourmands that sort of rise to a level of recognition even without the stars , that can be , like Candace said , you know , something that someone might consider a brunch restaurant or something much more casual. And the guide is still meant to indicate like , hey , we think this is really special. And even at June , the one star restaurant , you know , you can go and eat a la carte at the bar and not spend that much money. And it's a really convivial space , sort of bright and beautiful. Everyone's relaxing and having fun. I think they're trying to do away a little bit with the stigma of what those stars usually came with.
S1: So along with , you know , the Michelin awards , the Michelin stars , obviously , it's also about the chefs behind those restaurants. And San Diego has gotten some recognition. Or San Diego chefs , rather have gotten some recognition in recent years. We've saw Chef Tara Mansard , I think , named a finalist as Best Chef in California. Two years in a row. But again , she didn't win that this year.
S2: You know , I think Tara really sort of , um , hit a milestone for us in terms of , you know , the first year that she got nominated , she was the first San Diego chef to reach the finals and then to do it two years in a row. We were all really rooting for her. Um , you know , and there's nothing to say that it won't happen again for her. And maybe third time's the charm. Um , but , you know , it is the chef who ultimately won the California Best Chef award at the James Beard. Um , John Yow. He cooks at a wonderful restaurant called Cato. And there's a lot of , actually collaboration and synergy between Chefs like that and chefs in San Diego. You know , Chef Jon had Chef Travis from Cali up at his restaurant to do a collaboration dinner. He's coming down here to do one with Travis in July. And then in August , Tara's headed up to Kato to do a dinner with him. So it's nice to see our local chef sort of get folded into the larger food world.
S1: Farley , what's your thought ? I mean , you cover , you know , the dining scene around California. Not just here in San Diego.
S4: I mean , this is all part of a larger shift in San Diego conversations happening nationally , I think. You know , you look at shifting demographics , the population growth there. It all points to San Diego being a real big bolster for California. People are looking to California and San Diego specifically when they come to travel to eat , all that sort of stuff. So I continue to be very , very bullish on San Diego as a dining market and where you're seeing a place like maybe Orange County continues to be sort of sleepier and doesn't want as much notoriety , San Diego is taking up that mantle and really becoming a third place in the state where foodies and people who are really obsessive about restaurants want to go and spend their time. And that's , as we said at the top , particularly true in the North County.
S1: So now , you know , we've been talking about this Michelin Awards and all the kind of fine dining side of it , but I want to I want to turn away from that. And , you know , our food scene is more than just fine dining. And I'm just curious what other dining trends are on your radar right now ? Beth.
S3: It is a carb lover's Paradise right now , as as far as I'm concerned. I think that a couple of things that I'm seeing is a lot of pizza. Pizza is coming out all over the place. We've got Otis that just opened up again in North County. Shout out to everything that's going on in North County. Sonny's just opened right there in University Heights and then bagels for years and years. I mean , we have suffered a bagel drought as long as I have been here , and all of a sudden we just have an abundance of bagels either here or on the way. We have marigold bagels coming to North Park. We have New Wave Bagel coming to Leucadia. We've got a lot of bakeries , we've got a lot of pop ups and collaborations , all kind of really based around bread , pastries. Yeah , pizza , bagels , things like that. And those are , those are two things that I think are really starting to explode in the local scene and are , you know , cheap , easy , fun. Great. It's it's not the fish tacos and beer that San Diego has sort of like made a name on for itself. And it's not the super fine dining stuff either. But it's very , very innovative and it's very exciting.
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S2: So I'm really interested to hear and taste whether it's , you know , about the water or if that New York bagel magic will translates. Yeah. We'll see.
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S4: You know , if you look at the kind of 0809 era of California dining , there was a real focus statewide on going smaller and kind of packing in flavor. And by that I mean the rise of food trucks , uh , pop ups , places that don't have the huge overhead limitations that a michelin starred restaurant might , but can still really offer something unique and delicious. I think carbs play a really , really big part in that to best point , and so people are kind of seeking out alternatives that might be a little bit lower on the price spectrum without having to sacrifice flavor.
S1: Farley , I want I want to bring up , you know , a story you did I think about a year ago , you wrote about the California burrito , looking for the origins of it in San Diego. I think it's , you know , it's a pretty common staple here. Tell us more about what you found. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. I just want to say , you know , I'm a person who's been going to San Diego , lived in California not half my life. I've been going to San Diego quite a bit over those many years. But ultimately , I don't know , San Diego like a local does. And so I was sitting there and kind of thinking about my next trip , and I was struck by the idea that there's kind of no real claimant to the throne of having created these San Diego , California style burrito. And I thought , gosh , all of these other foods , multiple people say , I created it first. You know , you look at the Juicy Lucy in Minneapolis or something like that. And so how is it that San Diego's arguably most famous food for outsiders doesn't have , like one person that says , this is ours ? And so I really fell down the rabbit hole of old newspaper clippings and asking people and trying to figure out where I think it actually originated. And what I settled on ultimately was a small shop named Lolita's in Chula Vista that I believe may be the original claimant to that throne.
S1: It's really interesting because I think actually the last time we had you on , we talked about this last year , I year. I think it was the 100th year anniversary of the Caesar salad , which was born in Tijuana. I've also heard discussions about the , I don't know , the history of the margarita and its connection to Tijuana , but those those stories of how food and new foods come about. Often there are debates about the origin of it. Right , Candice ? Right.
S2: I mean , I just like Farley did. I actually did a deep dive into burritos last year for a couple of features and , um , made my way around taco shops. And I have a favorite , uh , at a place in Point Loma called La Perla. Number three , they do a California burrito , but the base is a cheese quesadilla , sort of sort of gilding the lily.
S1: Roundtable's back after the break. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Today , we're talking with some of the region's best food writers to talk all about San Diego's food and drink scene. I'm joined by San Diego food writers Candice Woo , Beth Demmon , along with Farley Elliott joining us from LA. So I'm going to turn now to learn a little bit more about each of you and how you kind of came to want to become food journalists. I think a lot of us have a passion for food , but to be able to tell the story , to be able to capture the flavors and the experiences is a real challenge. So , Candice , I'm wondering what originally kind of drew you to this line of work.
S2: You know , I started out on the other side of the kitchen door. I wanted to be a chef , and I had been accepted at culinary school in San Francisco , and I had never worked in a restaurant before. So I said , I think I should get some practical experience. So I worked in a restaurant in the Gaslamp for a while , nights and weekends , which was wonderful , but absolutely cured me of that desire to pursue it as a profession. But it did not cure me of my love for food. So I eventually found my way to writing. And I've been doing that in San Diego for about 20 years now.
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S4: I , uh , I came in through the back door. You know , I'm a person who truly thinks story first. Um , I really believe that restaurants are just a way into talking about communities and spaces and people and all of the ways that we want to dissect where we live and why we love where we live. And so restaurants for me , I love food. Obviously , going out to eat is one of the great pleasures in life , but for me , I come at it from a people perspective first. And so that's really been driving me since I was a little kid , wanting to tell stories and jotting them down in my notebooks. Food , in a way , is kind of the vehicle to get there , and thankfully , I think we're in the the best state in the country for eating well , so it makes my job easy.
S1: Well , it really does connect with , you know , different communities , different layers of , you know , how we come together. And you're right , California is a great place to do it. Beth , what about you ? What kind of drew you to. I know you write a lot about beer.
S3: I always loved writing. Even as a kid , I always imagined that I would write a children's book , illustrated children's book. I actually am a total I'm a total fraud. I did not go to journalism school. I have a BFA in painting and printmaking. But throughout that time I always loved writing. And then when I was in college , I was working at restaurants. I was bartending , doing the kind of , you know , college catering thing and things like that. And I started a blog just writing about food with shooting it with my DSLR camera and using terrible filters. But it sort of came to a head when I moved to San Diego in 2008 , and I lived in North Park , and it was sort of right around the same time as the , you know , craft beer revolution was really starting to explode in San Diego. And so City beat at the time , our IP , our local alt weekly that is no longer in print. They put out an ad that they wanted a new beer writer , and I thought , well , what the heck , I could , I could write one article every week , you know , while I'm still doing my 9 to 5 , I submitted something , I got it , and I've been there. You know , I've been writing and freelancing ever since. And so , you know , I've jumped around. I eventually left the marketing job that I was doing and hated almost ten years ago , and I've been full time freelance since then. And yeah , I've been really lucky to , you know , land at places like San Diego Magazine and work for , you know , food and wine , wine enthusiast , good beer hunting , things like that. And like you said , I wrote a book called The Beer Lovers Guide to Cider in 2023 , and that was sort of just a dream come true. So we're lucky. We're lucky to write about something cool and interesting and fun and something that people can really relate to.
S4: You know , we're not all fancy journalists.
S3: I had to learn AP style the hard way.
S1: Well , you know , you mentioned City Beat there. You know , the the weekly that we were all familiar with that's gone. A lot of those free weeklies are gone. The journalism landscape has changed quite a bit. We know local journalism has been shrinking. I think a lot of local newspapers a generation ago might have had a food full time food writer. It's just it's hard to get as much coverage on culture , like food and drinks. I'm wondering if you can talk about how you've seen food journalism change. I mean , Candice , you say you've been in this game quite a while , right ? 20 years ? Absolutely.
S2: And in speaking of City Beat that. That will always I will always have a place in my heart for that because that is actually my first job. It was it was in the very , very early days of City Beat. And , um , they were sort of I heard that they were looking for a restaurant reviewer , and I sent in some spec stories , and they took a chance on me , and I wrote weekly restaurant reviews for them for about three years. And it remains , you know , one of my fondest , um , jobs. And so , you know , over the years , I've worked for everyone from San Diego Magazine to the Union Tribune. And I launched eater here about 12 years ago. Um , and I have to say that it. It has definitely changed. I mean , just media in general in San Diego , I think has has become , um , you know , tighter and smaller. And , um , and I'm , I'm , I'm hoping in terms of the food world , I feel like San Diego is really coming into its own. You know , really making connections , getting attention from sort of the larger world. And I lament a little bit that it seems like are the opportunities for covering food in San Diego are getting less and less at the same time.
S1: Are you noticing similar things in other parts of California in terms of food writing and how it's changed ? Obviously , social media is a big way.
S4: Absolutely. But I mean , just in terms of traditional newsrooms , I think California local newsrooms have shrunk by a third or more just in the past 15 or 20 years. And so , um , this is an industry that is contracting all the time as things do move at a faster pace online , as we continue to see things get gobbled up by giant media corporations and things like that. I started as the Southern California bureau chief for SFGate about a year and a half ago , in part to combat this directly. You know , they are at San Francisco based publication , but they really have this idea of putting journalists in the place where they should be reporting and letting them go out and tell those stories. Our audience is giant. It's about a million people a day. Some of them are from California , but a lot of them are worldwide. And so the opportunity to continue to try to highlight things for a general audience , whether that's in San Diego or Los Angeles or San Francisco or anywhere else , I think is a mission that I want to stand behind for as long as possible. Because to Candace's point , it's really getting more challenging all the time in San Diego deserves more writers , not less.
S1: I want to move on now. You know , along with a good meal. You need a good drink. Beth , you know , you cover beer a lot. We know San Diego is a big beer destination. What trends are we seeing with our local breweries that you've been following.
S3: You know , one one interesting trend that I'm seeing that I think maybe isn't the question you're asking , but I'm going to answer anyway. It's not that I'm seeing certain styles or having a resurgence. Everybody's still drinking IPAs , everybody's still drinking lagers , things of that nature. But one thing I find really interesting , more on kind of the economic end of the industry , is for years , San Diego has really branded itself as a pioneer of the craft beer space. We , you know , we call ourselves the the capital of craft. We have over 150 different breweries and taprooms from , you know , Oceanside to O.T. and we were really leading the charge for a very long time. And I still think that we have numerically and quality wise , we we are still a leader. But , you know , our the trajectory that we saw from 2012 to 2015 , everybody knew it was not sustainable. There was the growth and the explosion that we saw was just not ever going to continue at that same rate. We are starting to see that slowing. You know , I think the pandemic put a lot of brakes on growth of of industries , especially food and drink. Uh , and it's taken a long time for that sector of hospitality to recover. So what I'm seeing now that's really interesting is for a long time , there were no breweries from outside of San Diego that opened a taproom or a brewing facility within county limits , and that has changed significantly in the last two years. You know , we're looking at , you know , Artifacts Brewing opened in Oceanside. They were based in San Clemente. They opened in 2023. Brewery X from Anaheim has a I think they're in the Intercontinental downtown now. Uh , brew brewery from Pico Rivera. They opened in Chula Vista. Green cheek took over the Bagby taproom in Oceanside. And one of the things that I actually noticed today , that I'm not 100% sure , but I saw an application for Asylum Brewing in Anaheim , taking over the Old Ruler and Black Plague Brewing taproom right next to the observatory in North Park. And these are all Los Angeles or Orange County based brewing entities that are now opening with a presence in San Diego. I think they see an opportunity. I think that they see a lot of drinkers who are still out there , but maybe , you know , want something from outside their usual. And so that's that's definitely something I'm keeping an eye on. It's something that we didn't see more than a couple of years ago , and something that I'm curious if it will continue , and what these breweries see as the opportunities to take advantage of the San Diego craft beer scene. Name and reputation.
S1: One thing that may have been a precursor to it is in recent years. I do remember at least like consolidation or big companies buying up some San Diego breweries , right ? Like a few years ago. There's some examples of that.
S3: Like Sapporo and Stone. Yeah , things like that. And acquisitions. I think that was that was I mean , there's only a couple of ways that a brewery owner is going to retire its penniless or pockets bulging because they got the big pay out. I think that sort of peaked with Ballast Point , their billion dollar buyout from Constellation Brands. And I mean we're never going to see the likes of that again. But even so , we can see that outside of San Diego , these businesses still see a lot of opportunity in San Diego craft beer. And if it's not going to be an acquisition , it's going to be entering through , you know , real estate , tap rooms , brewing facilities and things like that. So it's it's interesting. Farley.
S1: Farley. I mean , I know you recently wrote about nonalcoholic beers kind of having a moment as well.
S4: First , let me just say Beth is an absolute star in this space already , and we're kind of following her lead and knowing what's going on on the ground. Um , to her last point , I think what you are seeing is people coming in , gobbling up physical spaces , because there have been these small and in some cases rather large craters left behind from whether it's acquisitions or closures and things like that. The story that I did on Athletic Brewing , you know , this is a company that started on the East Coast , has grown really rapidly to become the world's largest nonalcoholic brewer. And now they have about 200,000ft² of space in San Diego , which was and has been for decades , the center of the craft beer universe for America. And so I do think that San Diego still carries that mantle. But seeing these people kind of creep in and take in some of that space that has been left empty has been a shock to the system. And I'm very curious to see how San Diego kind of redefines itself , as the beer scene also changes.
S1: So as we wrap up here , I do want to get some final food and drink predictions. I mean , what each what are each of you following ? What are you seeing on the horizon ? Um , yeah. Candace , I'll start with you.
S2: You know , I think , you know , talking about Michelin , I think there will still be restaurants opening that have that goal in mind that want to bring that style of dining to San Diego. I think we will see more of it. You know , in fact , July 15th is the opening date for a new restaurant in La Jolla called Lucien. The two chefs met working at the kitchen of Per SE in New York Michelin starred restaurant. And so I think there's a lot of anticipation to see what they will do , to see if their style of dining will connect with San Diego. But I know that they have , you know , great ambitions. I went to a preview dinner that they did at kingfisher a few months ago , and so I think we'll continue to see , you know , ambitious restaurants like that. But then also , I'm also hoping that we'll continue to see , you know , more casual options. Um , Beca , a cafe and Normal Heights is one of my current favorite restaurants. They do excellent food , but it's , you know , very simple. They use great local ingredients. And , um , you know , it shows that you can , you know , dine out. Well , uh , you know , for not too much money. Beth.
S1: Beth.
S3: I totally echo what she's saying. I think that there are plenty of very big name projects that are still in the works that are going to be , you know , we're going to be looking at the second half of 2025 going into 2026. You know , we've got Chef Brad Wise with the Trust Restaurant Group taking over that really I mean just iconic corner of 30th and university in North Park. That has been nothing for so long. Uh we've got Travis Schweikert from Cali opening Florette in UTC. Uh , we've got the folks behind Corey in North Park opening Dora also in the La Jolla UTC area. Uh , you know , Chicken Hawk , that's that's not one of the fine dining restaurants that they've got planned. But we've the the team behind Atelier Mana and Tony Hawk , of course , the iconic skateboarder that's been coming for a long time , the the revamped Zion market , food court and rooftop bar and things like that. There's a lot of things that have been in the work for a long time. Some of them. Many of them are these really big dollar price tag like projects that are coming in. So I don't think we're going to see any slowdown on the food dining scene or on the on the other end of like , casual fun , but still very ambitious projects.
S1:
S4: That sounds great. And I'm already adding it to my list for my next trip down there. I'll speak a little more broadly. You know , I continue to be really , really worried about everyday neighborhood restaurants in San Diego and Southern California at large. Those kind of places that maybe have , you know , 50 to 75 seats. They've been around 5 or 6 years. They're getting squeezed at both ends , increasing prices , and they don't have the square footage to kind of do the volume that you need , or necessarily the deep pocketed investors to stay afloat. But if we're looking at a positive angle , I do think that I'm seeing a lot more people return to a sense of nostalgia , revisiting super old places , looking for places that offer a little bit of comfort to go and be in person and a little bit offline with your friends and share more snacky food. Like I said earlier , more flavorful food without all of the fuss and pomp and circumstances. There's always going to be room for that , especially in places like Southern California where there's enough money to go around. But I'm really looking forward to seeing people continue to kind of rediscover old gems that have been hiding in plain sight for decades.
S1: So before I let you go , you guys just ran through a lot of great options. But I did want to get one quick , uh , final recommendation from each of you. One local bar , one local restaurant. Could be something you already mentioned , but something you know folks might want to check out this summer. Candace , I'll start with you.
S2: Well , I'm a martini girl , and so I'm really loving the sort of advent of cocktail bars that are really sort of going back to the classics. Um , perfecting the martini , perfecting their ratios , what gins they use , what vermouth they use. Uh , I just did a feature about a new restaurant that just opened in University Heights called vulture , which is a vegan fine dining restaurant. But they also have excellent cocktails. A lot of their cocktails are sort of martini or martini adjacent , so I have a feeling I'm going to be spending some time there this summer also. Um. Dec 30 , 131 , in North Park. Um , Drew Dickman. He's a chef who has several restaurants in the Guadalupe Valley. Um , one of his restaurants in the Villa de Guadalupe has a michelin star. His restaurant in North Park has a rooftop bar that's a bit tucked away and hidden , I think a little secret gem. And they recently just launched a new cocktail menu and sort of a new program. You can order anything off the food menu and eat it at the rooftop bar.
S1: Sounds great.
S3: I just turned 40. 40 is the new 30. So thank you. I actually judged a rum competition at Happy Medium on Monday. Don't know how I got roped into that , but it was a great time and the theme was slushies. I had a lot of different slushy drinks , and I'm really committing to the blended drink revolution of 2025. So I will be going to Happy Medium and checking that out. And then I have been to Liberty Station Wildflower Delicatessen a couple of times for breakfast , but I have not been for lunch or dinner. And so I actually am going to try to do that this week. And then one one more that I'm excited to check out is bus Foro just opened on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights. Uh , it's it's woodfired Turkish cuisine , and I cannot wait to go check that out because it sounds absolutely phenomenal. Amazing.
S1: Amazing. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. There on Tuesday I can't wait. The menu looks. Great.
S3: Great. Maybe I'll go on Tuesday. See you there. Farley.
S1: Farley.
S4: I'm leaning a little bit. Pizza. Uh. Truly. Pizza. They've got locations in Dana Point and Laguna Beach , so not that far. A little bit of a schlep , but go hang out on the coastline and have a nice time. Truly was just named in the top 50 of , like , worldwide pizzas at the Best Pizza Awards in Milan. It's really remarkable to have a place doing this kind of quality , just hanging out in a neighborhood in Southern California. And so they're definitely going to be my next stop when I'm heading down to San Diego. And I think it's a worthwhile destination for anybody who's doing that usual move between Orange County and San Diego.
S1: So we're going to try to compile all or as many of these recommendations as we can. We'll put it on our website at npr.org. And I'll try to mark off as many as I can this summer , including the rum slushy place. I've been speaking with Candace Wu , San Diego based food writer and editor. Along with Beth Damon. She covers food and drinks a variety of places in San Diego and can read her latest in San Diego magazine. Farley Elliott's also been joining us. He's the Southern California bureau chief for SFGate. I want to thank you all so much. It's been so much fun.
S3: Thank you. Thank you.
S4: Thank you.
S1: When we come back , our look at some other stories in our weekly roundup. This is KPBS roundtable. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. It's time now for the roundup of some other stories from this week. And joining me to do that is KPBS producer Ashley Rush. Hey , Ashley.
S5: Hey , Andrew.
S1: All right , so a lot of news out of the Supreme Court today , right ? Is that that's where we're going to start. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. So that's really the big news of the day today. In a 6 to 3 decision , the Supreme Court ruled that individual judges cannot grant nationwide injunctions. And a nationwide injunction is basically a court order by a federal judge blocking the government from enforcing a law or policy all across the US. And the center of this case is really about how lower courts should handle Trump's executive order denying birthright citizenship to children of parents who enter the U.S. illegally. And to be clear , this case didn't rule on whether Trump's order violates the 14th Amendment or the Nationality Act. So the status of birthright citizenship itself is really still unclear. But Trump called today's ruling limiting injunctions a monumental victory. The opinion also said Trump's birthright citizenship order can't take effect for 30 days from today's opinion. So that really opens the door for a lot more legal challenges.
S1: So yeah , it's kind of a lot to unpack. Just to reiterate , it's sort of a temporary impact right now at this point on birthright citizenship , as you mentioned , it is mentioned in the Constitution. But I guess I'm just curious what impact it will have on on maybe Trump policies going forward , as he's definitely relied a lot on these kind of executive orders to to put policies in place without , you know , going through Congress , things like that. So a lot more to follow up on. And the Supreme Court did announce some other pretty important decisions , too , that we'll be talking about in the coming weeks. I want to turn now locally here , the special election for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors , district one race in South Bay. That's coming to a close this Tuesday. I know , you know , July is a is a not a familiar month always for elections. But voters have until Tuesday at 8 p.m. to to cast their ballots. They can drop off mail in the ballots , drop those off as well. There's a lot of information. Dotcom that's the San Diego registrar of voters. And again , just to put a kind of , you know , special focus on this election , it's pretty important. There's a kind of struggle for balance of power between some Democrats and Republicans. These are , you know , non-party seats. The county Board of Supervisors aren't partisan officially , but there are. It is balanced evenly between the Democrats and Republicans. So this race will be kind of , I don't know , have a pretty big impact potentially for the , you know , the county going forward. And again , the final , um , two candidates , Democrat Paloma Aguirre , the mayor of Imperial Beach , is up against Republican John McCain , who is another South Bay mayor of Chula Vista. So we should know next week the results and who the next board of supervisor will be. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. And of course , there's plenty of materials on our website , KPBS , on both of the candidates. So definitely check that out. Um , this next story I have is from Lori Weisberg for the Union Tribune. She reports that earlier this week , the San Diego City Council passed a proposal to raise the minimum wage for San Diego tourism workers to $25 an hour. So if that goes into effect , the wage mandate would affect thousands of workers in San Diego. You know , those are the folks keeping our hotel rooms clean , scanning our tickets at Padres games. You know , the people that really keep our city running in a lot of ways. And right now , the city's current minimum wage is 1725 an hour. And , you know , on midday edition , on roundtable , we're always reporting on the rising cost of living in San Diego. And MIT's living wage calculator finds that in San Diego. A single person needs to earn 3071 an hour to support themselves while working full time just to make ends meet here. So this proposal , which would raise that minimum wage again to $25 an hour. It has a lot of support from local labor unions , but the business community has really been fighting it. They're citing possible job losses and business closures. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. You know , you mentioned the high cost of living there. And I think Los Angeles itself is kind of considering a similar increase to its minimum wage , looking at a $30 minimum wage proposal. So definitely something , you know , kind of going around in Southern California. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. And Council member Shawn Rivera , who chairs the council's select Committee on Addressing the Cost of Living. He's really been pushing for this proposal. And he said , San Diego has made great because of these workers who are , quote , the foundation of our local economy. And too many of them are working full time and still living in poverty , end quote. So L.A. Rivera's office said they're hoping that a final draft of the ordinance could be ready by September. So we'll follow that and see what happens next.
S1: And speaking of the city council there , you were talking about Shawna Rivera. Um , San Diego passed its city budget this week. It's been kind of contentious more than in past years , I think it's fair to say. But the city council did override some of the mayor's latest vetoes. Some library hours have been restored , hours to rec centers as well. Um , and again , there was a lot of back and forth between the mayor and the council. But one thing I noticed that did get cut. I saw this in Fox five San Diego. There's a neighborhood shuttle service in downtown called Fred the Fred Service. It's sort of like this electric , um , shuttle , but it kind of , I don't know. It's sort of cool. These shorter trips , um , where , you know , it might be , might end up using a car. It kind of eliminates that. It was a free service , but that's scheduled to end July 1st on Tuesday. So that is something that was impacted by the cuts. So there's a lot to dig into what the budget's going to look like. And you know how it's going to fare through the next year. But that budget got passed just in time because July 1st is the beginning of the next fiscal year for the city. So that's all the time we have today. I've been speaking with KPBS producer Ashley Rush. Ashley , thanks.
S5: Thanks , Andrew.
S1: That'll do it for this edition of KPBS PBS roundtable. Thanks so much for listening. You can listen to the show anytime as a podcast. KPBS roundtable airs on KPBS FM. Noon on Fridays again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any ideas for future show any thoughts on today's show ? You can email us at roundtable at KPBS or leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables. Technical producers this week were Brandon Tufa and Rebecca Chacon. The show was produced by Ashley Rush. Brooke Ruth is roundtable senior producer. I'm your host , Andrew Bracken. Thanks again for listening and have a great weekend.
