Join the Line for Breakfast Bliss in Hillcrest   By David Nelson | WDSD Restaurant Critic   SAN DIEGO – Rob Butterfield and his fun-loving staff rise daily before dawn to create breakfast bliss for…

Celebrity chef and restaurateur takes the kitchen heat as he turns around his troubled Point Loma seafood house   Story & Photos By Ron James | WDSD Columnist | Wine and Food Guy   San…

Chef Chris Sayer Opens a Winner in Hillcrest   Story and Photos By Denise E. Jones, WDSD Reporter   SAN DIEGO – Literally within hours of opening a small eatery called Taco Bahn, which he…

Luxury Cars and Fine Dining Mingle at Vintana Julia Weiler | WDSD Reporter / James Gambrill WDSD Photographer   Escondido – At first glance Vintana Wine + Dine, the Cohn Restaurant Group's latest dining venture,…

By David Nelson | WDSD Reporter   In the 1970s, white wine pretty well pushed cocktails aside in the role of pre-dinner aperitif. Booze took a while to battle back but triumphs mightily today, especially…

Brazen BBQ Smokes Brisket the Texas Way   By Julie Goldberg | WDSD Reporter   SAN DIEGO - Barbeque. The term means different things to different people and varies by region. I grew up in…

By Ian Pike, WDSD Reporter   SAN DIEGO - Wang's North Park is neither a shrine to kitsch nor a gaudy palace. While the decor hints casually at the Imperial and a discrete Buddha keeps…

By David Nelson, WDSD Executive Editor   North Park – At lunch the other day, Sara Stroud noted that Carnitas, the pet pig she owns jointly with husband Hanis Cavin, was "home, in bed and…

By David Nelson | WDSD Executive Editor   SAN DIEGO - What makes it instantly obvious that Kemar Durfield, chef and general manager of Gaslamp's deluxe Donovan's Prime Seafood, is a graduate of the kitchen…

By David Nelson, WDSD Executive Editor   Red Light District, a Dining Room & Social House   If your ship truly has come in – or if, lucky you, grandpa left you a whole fleet…

It's not just table linen that's going missing, either - even the toilet flushers have been vanishing. Have you ever liberated a little memento from a restaurant?   From The Guardian   You might think that, along with fish forks, silver chargers and butlers, the demand for napkins would have dropped considerably over the past century. But you'd be wrong. Jamie Oliver is today complaining that each month 30,000 napkins are pinched from his restaurants.   This is a staggering number. And it's not just the napkins. Oliver had installed Thomas Crapper toilets on account of them looking "wicked", but since the flushers started going walkies he's had to weld them on. READ MORE

Love them or fear them, here's an ironic round-up of some of the world's foulest, tastiest - and yes, stinkiest - cheese varieties   BY JAMES BRENNAN | Fine Dining Lovers   Some are banned from public transport, while others could awaken the dead, but smelly cheese is loved by many for its nutty, buttery and often mild flavour. The smelliest are often white, soft washed-rind cheeses, which are brushed with liquids or smeared with bacteria as they ripen. The foul-smelling organism that makes them reek like a cesspool is called brevibacterium linens, which also causes foot-odour in humans.   Love them or fear them, here's a round-up of some of the world's foulest. READ MORE

S.F. civil grand jury slams restaurant health care surcharges     By Barbara Grady | SF Public Press   UPDATED 6:53 p.m. with response from the mayor.   San Francisco's civil grand jury on Thursday chastised many of the city's restaurants for profiting from surcharges they add to customers' bills under the name of paying for health care and recommended that the city ban the practice. READ MORE

High noise levels have become an issue for more diners of late, and restaurants are heeding the clamor for some quiet.   By Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times   Los Angele -- You can count on the hippest restaurants to have dazzling menus, stylish servers and an attractive clientele. And increasingly, there's a featured side dish: noise.   As restaurateurs strive to attract a younger crowd, they've ditched the pile carpets, soft tablecloths and plush velvet booths for crowded communal tables, clattering open kitchens and pounding Rihanna music. And it's all amplified by cavernous ceilings, spartan walls and bare floors. READ MORE

California Chefs Mount a Repeal of Foie Gras Ban Set for July 1   By JESSE McKINLEY | New York Times   THE countdown to foie-mageddon has begun.   With less than a month until California's first-in-the nation ban on foie gras takes effect, fans of the fattened duck and goose liver are buying out stocks of the delicacy, searching for legal loopholes and sating themselves at a series of foie-heavy goodbyes. READ MORE

By Brandon Hernández |SD Reader   Kimpton's big renovation of Hotel La Jolla is in the midst of wrapping up. When complete, the building will house a new restaurant called Cusp Dining & Drinks. The restaurant will takeover the space previously occupied by Clay's La Jolla, a spot that had good food but struggled to bring in clientele. Its replacement is reminiscent of how Saltbox supplanted the similarly challenged Suite and Tender at Hotel Palomar when Kimpton took over the downtown property last year. READ MORE

Share Euro plates with friends as you sip wines at happening new Lahaina Gateway hot spot   By CARLA TRACY - Dining Editor |The Maui News   The Cohn Restaurant Group, based out of San Diego, has created a winner and a half with its latest Maui venture.   In fact, I can't wait to get back there again to sip a nice Italian Sangiovese and dive into perfectly ripe and room-t emperature cheeses such as Saint Andre.   READ MORE