San Diego Magazine

San Diego Magazine From beaches to breweries, mountaintops to museums, we seek and share the best of San Diego. linkin.bio/sandiegomag

From beaches to breweries, mountaintops to museums, we seek and share the best plates, pours, faces, and places in San Diego. With a curious spirit and a deep love for our city, we give you all you need to experience the best of San Diego life.

09/18/2026

Most people would say printmaking’s about the press: the ink stains, the steel rollers, the limestone slabs. Kelvin Lopez would argue it’s about the people gathered around them. Kelvin Lopez

Founder of the San Diego Printmaking Society (SDPS; San Diego Printmaking Society), Lopez is turning a once hard-to-access art form into something community-driven. In two years, he’s brought printmakers from across the globe to San Diego, and created opportunities for local artists through exhibitions, workshops, and a permanent studio with classes and open print days.

“I want this space accessible to everyone,” Lopez says, noting scholarships are central to the mission.
Printmaking wasn’t an obvious home for Lopez at first. The tools were unfamiliar, the process intimidating, the work spaces out of reach. That changed at Cal State Long Beach, where mentors and fellow printmakers—Kimiko Miyoshi, Tava Tedesco, and Jennifer Chen—encouraged him to explore the medium and showed him the power of a creative collective. He earned an MFA in printmaking at Rhode Island School of Design.

That became the foundation for SDPS, connecting creative pockets from Barrio Logan to Tijuana. “If I had a superpower, it’d be building community,” Lopez says.

SDPS is proof: Heritage isn’t left untouched behind glass, but reimagined and passed from hand to hand.

Lopez is one of 31 San Diegans we profiled in The Arts Issue—the people shaping the city’s creative scene. Read more with the link in our bio, or pick up a copy on newsstands now.

Video by Katie Gardner
Profile by Isabella Dallas
Portraits by Matt Furman

The Faces of Gardening: Walter Anderson NurseryAfter nearly a century in business, the independent and family-owned Walt...
09/17/2026

The Faces of Gardening: Walter Anderson Nursery

After nearly a century in business, the independent and family-owned Walter Andersen Nursery is proud to be one of San Diego’s oldest continuously operating companies. President and CEO of Nursery Operations Kenneth Andersen and Vice President and CFO Karen Andersen-Thatcher are honored to carry forward the legacy established by their grandfather and father of helping San Diego’s gardens and the community that tends them flourish.

The nursery’s success has always rested on three enduring principles: offering only the highest-quality plants, providing an exceptional and unmatched selection, and sharing deep horticultural expertise—all delivered with a level of customer service that has defined the family business for generations. Just as importantly, Walter Andersen Nursery remains deeply rooted in the community it serves, supporting local organizations, schools, and gardeners, and continuing to be a trusted neighbor and resource for generations of San Diegans.

Learn more at walterandersen.com.

09/16/2026

“People in San Diego have stopped complaining about what we don’t have, and they started doing it here,” says .

Behind a secret(ish) door on Logan Avenue, curator Bilal Bikile welcomes visitors to his exhibition and gathering space, , where he hosts “Salon de Deixis” every Tuesday. Here, community members circle up and hash out a weekly topic.

Some nights, it’s art. Children’s literature, Bikile says, sparked a more heated conversation than the one about how society would function without a police force. Other evenings bring surprise guests, like a chef. Bikile curates these conversations as much as exhibitions. “Some people call it group therapy; others call it a cult,” he laughs.

Any given Tuesday, there’s a breakthrough. “My nervous system has regulated,” a participant told Bikile once. Building spaces to deepen connections between creatives is Bikile’s goal: He met Art Power Equity founder Kamaal Martin at the now-closed Swish Projects, which led to both a CreativeMornings talk and a friendship.

Raised in Paradise Hills, Bikile finds happiness easily in San Diego and thinks the city will soon be known for creative collaboration, adding that it’s underrated that San Diegans smile and make eye contact. “Everyone’s welcome in every neighborhood,” he says.

Bikile is one of 31 San Diegans we profiled in The Arts Issue—the people shaping the city’s creative scene. Read more with the link in our bio, or pick up a copy—on newsstands now.

Video by Katie Gardner
Profile by Leorah Gavidor
Portraits by Matt Furman

09/15/2026

Thirty years ago, the first-ever keg of Stone Brewing b**r took a very glamorous trip: into the back of Pizza Port co-owner Vince Marsaglia’s truck and down to Solana Beach. And for Stone’s 30th, we figured it deserved an anniversary lap. So Troy Johnson climbed in with Vince and Gina Marsaglia (Vince’s sister and Pizza Port co-owner) to retrace the fateful route of that very first keg.

Vince and Gina were already part of San Diego’s small but growing craft b**r world when Stone co-founder Greg Koch (Greg Koch) started showing up at Pizza Port Brewing Company with questions about opening a brewery.

Vince made him a simple offer: “Call me when you have your b**r ready and I’ll come get a keg.”

And in 1996, he did.

That keg traveled from Stone’s original San Marcos warehouse to Pizza Port in Solana Beach. Greg showed up to watch people drink it. He looked, Vince says, unusually nervous.

Gina remembers Stone wanting to come out swinging with an aggressive, “let’s make our statement” kind of b**r.

Safe to say, the statement stuck.

Retracing the route of that very first keg felt like a fitting finale to our series A Stone’s Throw. Over the last few months, we’ve met the brewers, collectors, collaborators, designers, superfans, and tattooed true believers who shaped Stone over 30 years.

Because the story’s always been bigger than b**r.

Video by Jeremy Sazon Sazon

Okonomiyaki is one of Japan’s greatest comfort foods, a savory pancake that’s about the size of a DVD (if you aren’t too...
09/14/2026

Okonomiyaki is one of Japan’s greatest comfort foods, a savory pancake that’s about the size of a DVD (if you aren’t too young to know what that is). And Kumi Alexander is bringing her version of it around San Diego with Surf’n Slaw.

Alexander grew up in Osaka, Japan, where okonomiyaki was one of her mother’s go-to lunches. After moving to San Diego seven years ago, she wanted to bring a part of her culture with her—not just a product, but a feeling.

She launched Surf’n Slaw as a mobile pop-up in August 2025, serving what she calls Japanese-meets-California okonomiyaki. The full Surf’n Slaw includes cabbage, noodles, umami dough, beef, shrimp, and vegetables, while the Green Wave Slaw is an Osaka-style version that can be made vegan and gluten-free.

Alexander hopes okonomiyaki will someday be as familiar to American diners as ramen or sushi. Until then, San Diegans can find hers at farmers markets in North Park, Scripps Ranch, Hillcrest, La Jolla, and La Mesa, plus other local markets and community events.

Read more by food reporter Beth Demmon at the link in bio.

Videos + photos courtesy of Surf’n Slaw

The Face of Movie Theater Entertainment: UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas“Everyone has a formative movie memory—whether ...
09/14/2026

The Face of Movie Theater Entertainment: UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas

“Everyone has a formative movie memory—whether it’s your first time going to a theater or that time a movie made you laugh uncontrollably or scream out loud,” says Julie Bravo, president and CEO of UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas. “I’m incredibly proud to provide a space where people can create these memories.”

For over 25 years, the locally owned and operated UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas has provided
San Diegans with a comfortable, clean, and affordable space to enjoy movies together. The community-oriented theater loves working with local artists, filmmakers, and film festivals, always aiming to provide customers with the best possible experience. “Our guests have many choices on where they can see a movie,” Bravo says, “so we truly appreciate them choosing UltraStar.”

Bravo is a longtime supporter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society—under her leadership, $1 from every concession combo purchased at UltraStar goes to the MS Society—and she’s currently the only female board member of the Cinema Association of California.

Buy a ticket now at ultrastarmovies.com.

Making friends is an entirely different beast as an adult. You’re trying to balance your health, work, finances, family,...
09/13/2026

Making friends is an entirely different beast as an adult. You’re trying to balance your health, work, finances, family, and your sanity. And on top of that, a social life?

For men, there can be another layer to it: Close friendships—and the emotional intimacy that comes with them—are increasingly hard to come by.

Being a part of a bigger community helps, but we all need something more—witnesses to the exciting, mundane, shameful parts of our lives. Roughly 1 in 6 men say they have no close friendships, according to a 2021 American Perspectives Survey. And major life changes like fatherhood, retirement, losing a spouse, or simply moving to a new city can make maintaining those relationships even harder.

Across San Diego, several groups are creating places for those connections to form—not by forcing friendship, but by giving men something to gather around.

In Carlsbad, Men’s Shed helps older men build friendships while contributing to construction projects across North County. Dads Corps offers classes, resources, and supportive services to fathers, plus fishing trips, barbecues, and community service events. And the Mission Hills-Hillcrest Gay Men’s Book Club brings men together every month to discuss authors like James Baldwin and Edmund White.

The activities are different. The idea underneath them is remarkably simple: Friendship needs somewhere to happen.

Throughout the county, because of these groups, people are reading books (its own win, these days) and creating community. Dads and their children are getting invited to birthday parties from their fellow fathers. And in Carlsbad, some Men’s Shed meetings are taking place at Hennessey’s Tavern down the road over brunch. As friends.

Read the full story by Matt Eisenberg at the link in bio.

With photography by Hospitality / Food & Bev / Events

Hawaiian shirts hang from the ceiling like Jimmy Buffett chandeliers. Shelves of Waterford Crystal, uranium glass, and 1...
09/13/2026

Hawaiian shirts hang from the ceiling like Jimmy Buffett chandeliers. Shelves of Waterford Crystal, uranium glass, and 1930s Depression-era glass line the narrow walkways. There’s enough to pour a mai tai for every San Diegan within 20 miles. Tiki memorabilia bumps shoulders with 25-cent vintage photographs and a hundred teeny tiny trinkets the size of shelled peanuts.

Welcome to Zac’s Attic, the last antique store remaining on Antique Row in Normal Heights. Owner Dave McPheeters remembers up to 24 antique shops lining the neighborhood in the ’70s and ’80s. As a teenager attending Herbert Hoover High School, he would wander the row after classes, asking shop owners questions and absorbing the craft. By the time he opened Zac’s Attic in 1999, only six to eight shops remained. The year he opened, three more closed.

His saving grace? He bought the property—a 1920s craftsman home destined to be torn down. But even without a landlord raising the rent, he’s still navigating an inflated economy and an e-commerce world with no website, no email, and no social media.

“I’m an antique in the antique business,” he says. “I like to do things the old way.”

Writer Lili Kim (Lili Kim) steps inside Zac’s Attic to meet the last man standing on Antique Row, where the questions are the same as they were in his teenage years. Only now, they come from the other side of the counter. Read the full story at the link in bio.

09/12/2026

Burritos are a pretty super important love language. So is tequila. And we want to deliver both of ’em to your doorstep.

Like Publishers Clearing House. Except no giant check. Just a forearm-sized burrito and a beautiful bottle of joven tequila.

Here’s the deal. Troy Johnson (San Diego Mag’s Content Chief and longtime Food Network judge) and Preston Caffrey (co-founder of Bebemos Tequila) had a wild idea recently. (Can’t confirm or deny whether a hefty pour of Bebemos was involved.) What if they rounded up their favorite burritos in San Diego—the tortilla-wrapped treasures that dance through their dreams—and then hit the road to bestow them upon San Diegans?

So that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Order Bebemos by September 21 using code “BURRITOS” (link in bio)and you could be part of Bebemos Delivers. A limited number of qualifying orders will receive a second bottle of Bebemos and a burrito personally delivered by Preston and Troy in October.

Best case, you’ll hear a knock at your door in a few weeks. Worst case, you now have the best tequila in town on your bar cart.

Today’s spotlighted burrito: the tripa from Tacos El Panson in City Heights. Tripa is basically working man’s sweetbread or rancher calamari. It’s boiled tender, then grilled for crunch. Crispy outside, silky inside. Food texture ASMR.

Stay tuned for more of the best burritos in town. And go grab your bottle. Link in bio.

Video by chloe rand

The Face of Divorce Law: Sunnen Family LawSunnen Family Law recognizes that divorce is far more than a legal process—it ...
09/10/2026

The Face of Divorce Law: Sunnen Family Law

Sunnen Family Law recognizes that divorce is far more than a legal process—it is a deeply personal transition that reshapes the lives of parents, children, and entire families. That’s why the law firm is committed to providing compassionate, highly skilled representation that brings stability, clarity, and hope to clients during their most vulnerable moments.

With a reputation for excellence across San Diego, this expert team handles the full spectrum of family-law matters, including complex custody disputes, high-asset property division, support matters, and post-judgment enforcement. It is comprised of trusted advocates in domestic violence restraining order cases, offering protective, evidence-driven guidance to safeguard clients and their families. As dedicated minors’ counsel, the firm ensures children have a meaningful, independent voice throughout the court process.

Sunnen Family Law’s approach blends empathy with elite legal precision—prioritizing thoughtful resolution while remaining trial-ready when litigation is necessary. The team stands beside families with dignity, strength, and unwavering commitment, helping them transition toward safety, stability, and a stronger future.

Learn more at sunnen-law.com.

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