Best Place to Buy Original Art Without Needing a Tiny Paddle Goblin Shark Emporium Almost everything in this Oceanside shop is made by local artists and independent weirdos, and almost none of it requires a gallerist’s budget. Goblin Shark Emporium rotates a new featured artist every month between t

Best We Named It What for Why Oh Dear Cush-pii For thousands of years, the Kumeyaay who lived in this area called a mountain south of Julian Cush-pii, meaning “sharp peak.” Then, after the Civil War, Confederate sympathizers saw that same mountain and decided to rename it Stonewall Peak—after Genera

Best Trunk Show San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Elephant Valley If you can’t quite swing the cost of a trip to the African outback, the Safari Park’s new Elephant Valley is a pretty convincing Plan B. The 13-acre immersive habitat—the largest project in the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s 109-year his

Best Statewide Arts Flex Arts District Liberty Station Arts District Liberty Station officially became one of the state’s designated cultural districts, joining a list reserved for places with thriving creative communities. Considering the campus is home to more than 100 galleries, artist studios, m

Best Original Gods of SD Soccer San Diego Sockers As soccer mania hit full tilt the last few years, the OG team continued their habit of winning excessively. In April, the San Diego Sockers won their 17th Major Arena Soccer League championship trophy in front of a home crowd at Frontwave Arena—defea

Best Addition to the Pho-niverse Pho Gà Go Most San Diego spots serve phở bò—the dark-brothed, beef-boned Southern Vietnamese specialty, loaded with the loud spices (star anise, cloves, cardamom, etc.). But Kim Pham, one of the sisters behind Crab Hut and perennial best-restaurants list-maker Kingfi

Drawing inspiration from the whitewashed farmhouses of South Africa’s Cape Dutch tradition—a graceful reimagining of 18th-century Dutch Baroque design suited to the region’s warm, sun-drenched climate—interior designer Patrick Printy‘s extraordinary Glen Ellen home hit the market this week. The beau

In April, Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys climbed onto the rooftop of Arts-Rec in Barrio Logan. Beatz, who has produced some of the biggest artists of the last few decades (DMX, Beyoncé, Lil Wayne), lugged up his turntables and flipped the switch. Keys stood nearby, absolutely grooving. Then she launche

Full of framed views, visual surprises and hovering above a pool deck—this recently completed home by the Borneo-born and L.A.-based architect Elyse Alam came on the market this week. The 3-level, 4-bed, 3-bath home sits at the edge of a hillside overlooking the city, with a very private street fron

In Mexico for a wedding, a friend got a tourist-level sunburn. One of San Diego’s top restaurateurs—Arturo Kassel, founder of Catania and Gravity Heights—was on hand. He made a joke about how basic sunscreen literacy seems to be a male-pattern blindness. “I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to start a

San Diego has always worshipped at the altar of good skin. Equal parts surf town, biotech hub, and wellness capital, it’s a city where lunch breaks become beach walks and sunscreen sits beside car keys by the front door. The products that get used here earn their place. With 266 sunny days a year an

Captain Keno’s No. 8 special—pancakes, sausage, toast, home fries, and eggs for $2.99—was the fuel that powered Benji Weatherley for surf competitions as a teenage pro. A couple decades later, tears were shed when the Coast Highway dive-slash-eatery called it a day after 54 years. Usually, the guts

Siblings make better music. That’s the hot take, and there’s some logic and science behind it. The Bee Gees, Jackson 5, Billie Eilish and Finneas, AC/DC, Van Halen, The Allman Brothers—heck, even the Hanson brothers, why not? Beyond just a shared sense of taste and nonverbal communication developed

Let’s start with his name. No, not his birth name, Craig McKenzie Haskett. Scrojo. When he was in high school, he and his friends were trying to come up with the perfect name for their punk band that would encapsulate all their personas. Nicaragua. The Freds. June 30, 2026An Emo-Themed Bar & Pizza J

The inland North County community of Rancho Santa Fe is often associated with wealth. It’s one of San Diego’s most expensive residential markets and is consistently ranked one of the highest-income zip codes in California and the U.S. Rancho Santa Fe is known for its large equestrian community inclu

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been planning your wedding your entire life. The impromptu daydreaming usually comes at the most inconvenient times: during a meeting or right as you’re falling asleep after watching too many episodes of TLC’s Four Weddings. In those imagined scenes, there

Los Feliz is one of L.A.’s most evocative neighborhoods, with a selection of residential properties ranging from early 20th Century Spanish Revival to the ground-breaking Modernism of the past seven decades. This handsome white, classic stucco from the 1920s is the home and office of Emmy Ellison, t

Front yards. They used to be the most controlled part of a home—or not. They could be tidy with manicured lawns, have raised vegetable beds with food for sharing, or act as an overflow of things that didn’t quite make it inside. Thank you, capitalism, and the American habit of endless consumption. I

Back when Enrique Espinoza was a student at Southwest High and San Ysidro High, his mom couldn’t afford to buy him the school yearbook. So he made his own. Every spring, he brought a new marbled composition book to pass around, collecting signatures, photos, and messages from friends. By senior year

Growing up in Carlsbad, I never quite understood why people vacationed there. What, so you want to check out the field where I have soccer practice? Pay my orthodontist a visit? Carlsbad just felt like a town by the beach, no better or worse than any other in the country. It took going to college ou