I felt I could fill in some gaps (Been here since 97).
The big grocery store competition is between Ralphs and Albertsons/Vons. Both are awful for produce in my opinion but the problem Is they’re often the only store around. You feel very lucky if you have a Trader Joes around you.
What wasn’t mentioned on the pod was Sprout’s aka Henry’s. Probably the best choice for produce, meats/fish, and bulk goods. Also both San Diego Whole Foods locations (Del Mar and La Jolla) have the worst parking situations in the entire county and I refuse to go there for that reason.
Everyone eats In-n-out here. Even if you’re a vegetarian, you’re eating their fries and grilled cheese.
In terms of beer, San Diego is THE craft brewery city. Nobody even comes close.
The juggernaut Stone Brewery is in Escondido (Great restaurant bar), Ballast Point has a few locations but their main brewery is in Miramar.
A bunch of other notable mentions: Modern Times, Green Flash, Mission, Coronado, Karl Strauss, Lost Abbey, Pizza Port, Alesmith.
The Little Italy scene is indeed the most up and coming area of San Diego proper. It used to be rundown warehouses 15-20 years ago but now it’s thriving. Kettner Exchange has amazing cocktails and where I go take people if they want to get fancy drunk. Xander is spot on.
Richard Blais: Crackshack is a hit or miss favorite in San Diego. Pretty solid/creative chicken sandwich variety and quality. Juniper and Ivy is okay, I liked it but it’s definitely up there in trying to be pretentious. The atmosphere is great and laid back, the food is pretentious. San Diego just isn’t a fancy-food foodie city. We’re a meat and potato burritos city, speaking of which…
Mexican food is all about the burrito in San Diego, not tacos. Tacos is LA. And the California Burrito is the historic landmark of San Diego. Everyone needs to have one if they visit. I spent many years in the bay area trying to eat those “Mission Burritos” but another hallmark of San Diego is we marinate our meat which as I found out isn’t always a thing outside of San Diego. The Carne Asada is always properly marinated before it hits the grill. For tacos you want a fish taco in San Diego because of the Baja. For Mexican street tacos the answer is Tacos El Gordo whether you go to Chula Vista or Escondido. But in general any taco shop with a salsa bar will do, everyone has their local favorite.
The Chargers are a very sore subject to us non-transplants. We had to deal with Ryan Leaf and the absolute garbage that was pre-LdT Chargers.
The only thing that kept people together was Seau (shoutout Seau’s restaurant in Mission Valley). Once Marty, Brees, LdT, and Gates came the entire city rallied them and we actually felt like a football city. That continued when Rivers took over, and the team was supported even with all of the horrible playoff losses. But the city didn’t want to be hoodwinked into paying for the stadium and because we have so many transplants, lots of San Diegans didn’t care if the Chargers left. With Rivers retiring the last remaining soul of San Diego Chargers is gone, I personally still support them though. Also Harbaugh was at USD, not to be confused with SDSU Aztecs which is what most of the city supports and feels is the hometown team. And not to be confused with UCSD.
Also, Dr. Seuss is massive here. He wrote all of his classics while living in La Jolla and the main library at UCSD is named after him. Great infrastructure.
I will also share these two maps that have lived in San Diego internet infamy. They cover the rest of the city/county. San Diego city limits is actually Del Mar along the 5, and Rancho Bernardo along the 15. What most people would refer to as “San Diego” is just downtown to the rest of us.
I’ll finish by saying I drive through Rancho Santa Fe from time and time and you will not be surprised to see Phil driving his golf cart on the city streets between The Bridges, his favorite cafe, and his house. I’ve sat behind him in traffic, his cart can move.
