Formerly Shabby Downtown Corner Offers Tasty Tribute to Famed Mariner

By Ian Pike, WDSD Reporter

SAN DIEGO - Spike Africa’s is the new kid on the block in downtown San Diego, a renovated Payless shoe store with a nautical theme and a surprisingly truthful back story.  Restaurant namesake Spike Africa isn’t involved with the restaurant, since it would be hard for him to do so from beyond the grave. 

A quick bit of research indicates there was just such an old salt sailing the Pacific Ocean in the mid-20th century.  He sailed out of the Pacific Northwest for much of his life and had a reputation as an 18th-century seaman trapped in the modern world.  Cool story.

Julia Weiler – WDSD Reporter / James Gambrill – WDSD Photographer

La Jolla - Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and if you're a member of the Bird Rock community, Beaumont's is just that kind of place. This hip hangout on La Jolla Blvd is perfect for gatherings of friends and neighbors over cool cocktails, delicious food and mellow tunes crooned by local musicians. Even the owner can't get enough of the popular venue, and stops in frequently, often to be greeted by a collective "Dave" when he enters.

The Fifth Avenue restaurant moves from fine dining to casual fine dining with a molecular twist

By Ron James | WDSD Columnist

For the last decade or so, fine dining restaurants have been going the way of the bowling alley – that is, they are becoming rare and endangered. Many have shuttered their doors or morphed into casual establishments. This sea change reached San Diego several years ago with Ed Moore’s conversion of a fine French restaurant into the 3^rd Corner, a wildly popular hybrid of French Bistro and wine shop, and the transformation of the venerable Laurel in Banker’s Hill into one of the region’s hottest restaurant properties, Cucina Urbana.

Julia Weiler | WDSD Reporter & Photographer

Carlsbad – Park Hyatt Aviara gave San Diego's chilliest season a warm welcome this year with Masters of Food and Wine, a quarterly series of culinary events which celebrate the seasons. To honor winter, the resort hosted an afternoon of rare tea tastings led by Certified Tea Master Chaz Kroll. Each beverage was paired with gourmet chocolates, of varying cacao content, hand-made by Executive Pastry Chef Franck Riffaud.