so what’s happenin’, mama? (10 feb)

thursday, february 10

6pm – 10pm.  Valentines gift bazaar at El Take It Easy.  Free tosti locos and all night happy hour – eat and drink while supporting local businesses by buying crafty gifts for your sweetie!

friday, february 11

10am – 1pm.  Alchemy of the Hearth presents “Start a Food-Based Business.”  $65. 

saturday, february 12

11am – 4pm.  Six contestants compete in a live cooking challenge for a spot as an instructor at Great News! Cooking School.  $10.

12pm-5pm.  Pizza Port Carlsbad Brewbies Festival!  20 local handcrafted beers plus a special edition Pizza Port pink beer. 100% of the proceeds go directly to Keep a Breast to support their efforts to increase breast cancer awareness among young people.

1pm-5pm.  For the Love of Chocolate.  Downtown Escondido festival will include vendors, chocolate pairings by local breweries and wineries, champagne garden with live music, and beer & wine bar.  Tasting tickets are $20 for 10 tastes.

sunday, february 13

10am – 5pm.  Celebrate the Year of the Rabbit with San Diego Chinese Historical Society & Museum in downtown San Diego’s Asian Pacific Historic District.   Why not make a day of it and also hit up the Third Ave Certified Farmers’ Market and Asian Bazaar between Island Avenue and J Street from 9am to 1pm?   Check out the San Diego Farm Bureau for a complete daily listing of farmers’ markets around town.

monday, february 14

Well, it’s Valentines’ Day.  Seriously, this is a made up holiday and all the restaurants will be slammed, which means your food will cost more, take longer, and not be as good as it usually is.  This is not romantic.  Do yourself and your sweetie a favor and make a romantic dinner at home tonight.  Not sure what to make?  All thumbs and no knife skills?  Check out tomorrow’s post for a no-fail, super easy, romantic dinner roadmap!

No sweetie?  No problem!  Make a beeline for Proper Gastropub’s “Anti-Valentine’s Day” Party starting at 4pm and enjoy their specially priced “Kiss-Off!” cocktail list.  Dress in black or bring a pic of your former flame and get a Screw U Driver off the special cocktail menu for just $1 (and isn’t that cheaper than therapy?). 

tuesday, february 15

730pm – 8pm.  Stop by O’Brien’s Pub and catch Three Sheets with Zane Lamprey, a half hour tv show featuring drinks and drinking customs around the world.  If you’re lucky, they’ll have some Dogfish Head left over from this week’s Dogfish Head night!

 wednesday, february 16

7pm – 11pm.  It’s DRINKABOUT time!  Hop on the free bus and do a loop of some of the best craft beer bars in San Diego (or beyond!) with stops at the Blind Lady Ale House, Small Bar, Live Wire, Toronado, Hamilton’s and more.  Complete schedule and map here.

some late-night ish

As discussed in the Tajima post, after midnight can be a ghost town when it comes to trying to find a place to eat in San Diego that doesn’t end in –berto’s  or –in-the-box.  Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of interesting spots around town with kitchens open past midnight.  

food until 1am

Alchemy, South Park.  1am.  Great food and drink menu emphasizing local/seasonal fare.  Late night happy hour nightly 10pm-close.

3^rd Corner, Ocean Beach, Encinitas.  1am, tues-sun.   Owned by Ed Moore, the original owner of the (much missed) Thee Bungalow Restaurant, this is a wine shop that also happens to have bistro food.

The Tractor Room, Hillcrest. 1am fri-sat, 12am sun.  Lots of game meat and “creative” cocktails, as well as the (self-proclaimed) largest bourbon, rye, scotch, and whiskey selection in town.

food until 2am

West Coast Tavern, North Park.  2am.  Set in a historic building (built in 1929) and attached to the lovely recently restored Birch North Park Theater.  Great daily deals, including happy hours, Wednesday bourbon night, and drinks & a movie in the Birch theater.

Red Fox Room, North Park.  2am.   Maybe not the best steaks in the world, but you must go here at least once for a late night steak dinner with garlic toast and fried shrimp – This place is small, red, dark; full of aging North Park octogenarians and young(ish) whippersnappers, with a tiny bar and an equally tiny piano lounge.  Truly, it’s a unique and relatively little-known piece of Old Hollywood in San Diego that can’t be duplicated once its doors finally close for good.

food until 3am

Tajima Japanese Noodle House, Convoy. 3am thurs-sat.  Cheap, hot, fast and open until 3 am.   What else is there to say?  (plenty, apparently).

food 24 hours (you animal!) 

Brian’s American Eatery, Hillcrest. Open 24 hours fri/sat.  Diner food that’s not that cheap and not always even that good, but hey, it’s 24 hours and the people-watching can’t be beat.

Studio Diner, Kearny Mesa.   24/7.  Traditional diner sitting on the lot of a working movie and TV studio in Kearny Mesa  (What?  Yep, there is a studio lot smack in the middle of Kearny Mesa.  Who knew?).

It’s a Taco Shop – Point Loma.  24/7.   Yes, there are a million 24/7 taco joints in San Diego.  Yes, this is a building that looks like a giant yellow and red cheese wheel.  And yes, not everything here is stellar.  But please do yourself a favor and order the carnitas tacos some late night – hot, greasy delicious mounds of pork, a bit of pico and a bit of guac, and lots of hot sauce.  Thank you, sir, may I have another?

Feel free to add your favorite after-hours place in the comments.