San Diego Reader Best of 2022

Specialty Produce really is special

There’s no doubt you’ve seen their logo on delivery trucks. They might supply one of your favorite local restaurants. And if your drink is garnished with edible flowers, it probably came fresh from their fridge...

Walled Mexican garden, undersea succulents

The pillars of the San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas are science, conservation, and education, but the things that make it wonderful to me are passion, beauty, and curation...

Bottlecraft gives San Diego access to beers you never thought of

There was good beer in San Diego near the turn of the millennium, back when I was a newly legal drinker, just returned to San Diego from my years at college. But it took some finding...

Zad in Casa de Oro introduced me to quzi

As a longtime food writer, I’d love to pretend that I have tried all the great traditional dishes of the world. But as I eat my way around San Diego every year, I inevitably meet a dish that reminds me I haven’t even tried all the great traditional dishes of the county...

Post-Covid serendipity in East San Diego

As I loiter in the smoking section across the street from D.Z. Akin's, I am sometimes privy to the one-sided conversations, held by people (usually on their phones) who are talking to someone I can’t see while they smoke the cigarette I have given them. But this guy? This guy is different...

The flexible Fortuna Mountain Trail

San Diego is a hiker’s dream. Head east of I-15 and the suburban veneer begins to flake off the landscape as the hills reveal their rugged roots. Travel farther out and the hills swell into scrappy mountains. Many hikers claim that the best hikes lie out here...

Sierra Hubbard has 60 tattoos

When Sierra Hubbard posts up by the Surfhenge art installation at the IB Pier entrance in her red ‘68 Chevy Nova, folks take notice. The 60 tattoos adorning her 5’10” frame play a large part in her allure...

Got custom guitar built by Serra Mesa’s Lennis Laviolette

Having a custom guitar built just for you is every classical guitar player’s dream. As a performer and teacher for over 30 years, I have played (and owned) many fine guitars...

Castle’s Labs has cannabis plants like trees

Kurt Castle, founder and creator of Castle’s Labs, creates products that help with all sorts of flora and fauna management. His Plant Magic is “an organic probiotic spray that promotes bigger, healthier, chemical and pesticide free plants...