(A sentimental epicurean journey by Manual Scan/Lemons Are Yellow veteran Paul Kaufman.)
Regardless of where the show was, chances are the night would end up at Sheldon’s, the Eisenhower-era styled, non-conglomerate “family” restaurant that once loomed large in the all-night dining Pantheon of San Diego. Most memorable for me were items with descriptions like “Large 24 oz. Malted Milkshake, Thick and Creamy, $1.25” and “Demi-loaf of home-baked bread, served here with butter, 75 cents.” Those Thick and Creamies became a significant part of my diet, and one of their original ashtrays still is on the mantle. Also iconic was their placemat, with postwar cartoon depiction of San Diego’s highlights.
My first time was after the first Manual Scan show at the London Tavern. We went there with some of the Roosters, who entertained us with roadie stories of impromptu bottle-rocket fights in graveyards. After some navy bean soup, I rolled home around 4 am, feeling pretty rock ‘n’ roll for a 16-year-old.
Alas, Sheldon’s no longer graces West Mission Bay Drive, where it had been just a few convenient yards from the parking lot of the Headquarters nightclub, site of many of the events documented here. I think in a desperate attempt to update themselves, they changed their décor during the 90s to a horrible Miami Vice-inspired teal and puce, added ferns, and changed their name to “Sheldon’s Café”. Apparently no one was fooled, and it closed a few years after that. Replacing a unique spot with a soulless venue, a McDonald’s has sprung up in its place.
Send in your favorite Sheldon’s memories!
–Paul Kaufman
PS: While I didn’t want to break Paul’s flow, here are some earlier reminiscences on Che Underground: the Blog about this storied eatery — including my own discovery that in the 1940s, Sheldon’s was a node in the police timeline when investigating the Black Dahlia murder.
A few scant yards from the headquarters? Wasn’t it on the other side of Garnet/Balboa, kind of across from the Pacific Drive in? Like Damon Avenue and Albequerque? (I looked those up.)
I was down there a few years back and there was a really seedy Motel that I didn’t remember, and it was all run down and overgrown and people were living in it like apartments. It looked like someplace a Quentin Tarantino character would hide out in. Then there was that apartment complex Dina Pisciotta used to live in my Junior year of high school. I used to go there on the way home and get drunk on screwdrivers.
Lloyd, Joel and I used to go to Sheldons after practice. We’d get that loaf of bread and coffee.
Nah, Sheldon’s was next door to the Headquarters — they purty much shared a parking lot, and you could stroll (or weave, or kinda crawl) from one to the other.
The last time I looked at the Headquarters site (early ’90s), it was a fitness center. Où sont les mods d’antan?
(Here’s a satellite view of 4617 Mission Bay Drive, former site of the Headquarters … Sheldon’s was the next business to the north. Looks like they may have paved paradise and put in a parking lot!)
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Are you kidding me? The holes in my memory actually swallowed up an entire major INTERSECTION between these fine establishments?? God.
Speaking of maps and memory, I urge all our members to study this Lemons Are Yellow CD art (copyright 2005 Grimalkin Design). The LAY team laced the Sheldon’s place-mat art with an assortment of in-jokes intelligible only to regulars of this very blog — enjoy!
I believe it was right behind the gas station on the corner of Garnet/Balboa and Mission Bay drive- or maybe the next lot to the North where Damon street splits off. Wasn’t there a burger king or something just to one side of the headquarters?
OK, putting my OCD to work for you:
I looked up the address of Sheldon’s and found it in this thread on a message board about the Black Dahlia murder. (Lots of awesome forensic geography in this thread.) Sheldon’s was at 4711 Mission Bay Dr. …
… Which, according to Google Maps, puts it right where Toby says it was: on the other side of Garnet from the Headquarters at 4617 Mission Bay Drive. All hail the mental prowess of Messrs. Gibson and Suarez!
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I’m thinking we should develop some sort of Google Maps-driven Che widget to satellite-map every major event of our adolescence …
That would be hot! places and dates! I’ll have my people meet with your people and we’ll GET I.T. ON THAT PRONTO!
But seriously- that would be a very neat map.
“Thick and Creamy, Nice and Dreamy“…
“Waitress, I’ll have the ‘part of San Diego history’…”
I had a sundae here before an Answers show with Renee Ferguson, and we made out in the parking lot for a couple hours. What a fool believes. 😉
Jeremiah: Sheldon’s with Renee Ferguson … Topsy’s with Rhonda Cisneros … Chocolate syrup and trans fats loom large in your romantic legacy, my friend!
(Very soon, we’ll post Lemons Are Yellow’s epic “America’s Finest City,” which raises Sheldon’s iconography to Stonehenge-esque stature.)
Does anyone remember The Carnation ? I think it was around El Cajon Blvd and Ohio? It wasn’t around too long during our time frame to have made much of an impact, but after all the talk of Sheldons’ thick and creamy shakes I just thought I would throw it into the mix, because they had awesome malts.
I remember the Burger King in front of Headquarters in the same parking lot. I think the gym had been next door to Headquarters in that strip mall, then when Headquarters closed they expanded into the extra space.
i was in Chicago this week for weekend and found a place called Margies. A throwback institution of late 60’s decor, jukebox selections at every table and more dust than an allergy research facility.
In other words, a sheldons of the midwest. I had a shake in memory of sheldons. They served ice cream in plastic large conch like shells.
Chicago reminded me alot of SD’s mid city 20 years ago, if it hadn’t been torn down and continued the decay. We stayed in Wicker park.
Tony
Y’know- Black Dahlia aside- I was always pretty partial to Sir George’s Smorgasbord (Where was that? There were more than one, I believe- in San Diego- and I used to beg my dad to take me there when I was a small kid) and the place on Rosecrans with the cowboy on the sign. What was the name of that place. As a kid I liked buffets- Serving myself mountains of food that there was no way I could possibly finish worked well with my control issues.
Joe: A commenter on this blog post of lost San Diego recalls the Carnation: “Remember the Carnation restaurant near Pep Boys on El Cajon and the Hudson Gas station across the street[?]”
I don’t recall this establishment … Was it a chain?
Blue Meanie Records.
And for me, rudfords has always held that special greesy spot in my hart.
Roberto’s, Alberto’s and the rest of the Mexican drivethroughs/walkups deserve a thread of their own … I used to disturb Sergio deeply when I’d order the chorizo torta. (“Do you know what’s in that, Matt?”)
City Deli in Hillcrest was a Noise 292 hangout; it’s where Joanne taught us the proper use of a salad fork and revealed her charm-school education back in Texas!
San Diego food hangouts, now we’re in my bailiwick.
Joe: I remember the Carnation well. It was like a Dairy Queen but with white wrought iron furniture--turn of the century motiff. It’s now a Taco Bell in the Coco’s parking lot.
Toby: The Ghio’s--yeah, I went to Point Loma High with a couple of them. They pretty much owned Little Italy, too. Sir George’s Smorgasbord was on Garnet in PB. There were nine in our family, so as a kid buffets were always a treat. There was one in Kearny Mesa called Perry Boy’s Smorgy, out where the Target is now.
Matt: La Posta de Acapulco in Hillcrest was pretty much my home away from home. I’ve gotten food poisoning there twice, but I can’t keep away from it.
Cole lived near SD State…there was a burger stand near his house called Lucky Boy where you could get a big bag of fried zucchini…which Cole really liked, being a vegetarian at the time.
Jane lived off Adams in North Park and turned us on to Rudfords and DiMille’s Pizza, where we’d get pizza with artichoke hearts and asparagus on it.
I really loved the College Restaurant, a small family restaurant which looked like it had the original decor from the 40s or 50s. If you ordered fried chicken, it was like an entire chicken… plus mashed potatos and fried balls of dough.
When Juanitas in Encinitas opened where the old Kimo’s Hawaiian food was they had the best Carne Asada Torta on the planet. I was living across the railroad tracks up on Sunset at the time and we used to get home from a party or a show or whatever and everyone would go to sleep and I’d hop the back fence and walk down there and feast before bed. At 2 a.m. there were always a bunch of T-flats guys or some Eden Gardens guys and it was always pretty surrealistic, walking through their latino diorama to go get a midnight snack. They largely ignored me but sometimes I got to see a scuffle and one time someone shot in their general direction from a passing car. Never a dull moment. Over the years it went downhill but right at the beginning that Juanitas was the best!
I love Juanita’s, and I love Google Maps … Check out the panoramic street view of the ‘hood that you can navigate:
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Toby’s right about Juanita’s fascinating late-night clientele … Eric Sloan and I were there one night and realized he was being studied (amorously?) by a quasi-Mansonite girl with a crudely cropped head and a bloody X freshly carved into her forehead.
Other Encinitas eateries:
When my family rolled in from Wisconsin to our new home in Leucadia in 1976, the first restaurant I noticed was Capt. Keno’s … I lived there almost 11 years and never ate there once!
The surfer-breakfast place in Encinitas was George’s.
What was the pizza place up near the Self-Realization Fellowship? My dad and I once ran into Charles Bukowski there … He was in town for the races.
And Annie’s Hug was a classic location — employed a variety of North County punk girls in the early ’80s, including IIRC Margarat Nee and Carol Pollard. (Tammy, too?)
And of course the Encinitas Pannikin was a hub of some world-class hijinks. (There was a newspaper article that labeled us the “peaceful Pannikin punks.”)
Like moths to flame. At 2 a.m. Juanitas and the D street or Leucadia blvd Seven Elevens were the only games in town. Upon some serious reflection I remembered the real draw at Juanitas- the hot carrots. For like two bucks you could get rice and beans and then load up on the hot carrots/peppers which were free. I haven’t seen something free in a long while- that was a beautiful thing. They charge for water now.
I ate at Captain Kenos- once. Barf. It took me twenty years to forget the experience. Thanks for reminding me. 😉
Around 84 a hole in the wall opened up a block or so South of Lou’s Records- Harry’s Burgers. It was run by a Korean guy who seemed pretty nice but didn’t speak much English. I used to go in there for the Man Doo. Cultural confusion- basically two menus from two restaurants all mixed together. That’s what happens when you haven’t been programmed to do what everyone else does. He made a damned good burger and rings too.
After all the attorneys are dead we should put some serious thought towards eradicating any trace of Starbucks on the planet Earth.
captain keno’s is still there! there used to be a vintage clothes shop next door which was on the circular thrift store scouring route in the 80’s.
The Carnation was at the corner of Ohio and El Cajon,I work half a block away.It’s now a place called Lipps which is a female impersonator floorshow type thing(what exactly do you call those places).Does anybody remember the name of the place on university near richmond in hillcrest that was I believe san diego’s first female impersonator floorshow type joint?
Juanita’s!!! I remember the Flying Saucer (a large crisp tortilla covered with a tasty mix of sour cream, jalapeños, meats and cheeses) rocking my young world back in the day.
Aesop’s Tables was not only an epicenter of fine Greek dining but (if memory serves) also a source of income for many of our local musicians.
Any time I remember Disco Pizza (on university?) I think of the time we were driving past there and two guys on rollerskates in speed-os were dancing on the sidewalk out front. Total surrealism.
Toby, you used to beg your dad to take you to George’s Smorgasbord? Hahaha I used to beg my dad not to take us there. He made me try liver there and my pallet was scarred for life. Now Juanita’s, that is some of the finest grub in the land…
Who-all went to the Krishna temple in PB for the free vegetarian food? There was a whole contingent of us who’d go there a lot. I know Dave Fleminger, Jerry and I were regulars. I think I even coaxed Dave Ellison in once! … On Krishna’s birthday, they’d serve blue cake. In fact, we were there so often, they finally told us to cool it so other people would have the chance!
(I ended up writing my senior thesis in anthropology on the Krishna Consciousness movement, mostly thanks to those dinners.)
Ray is right on with La Posta. I try to get there each time I go back. The machaca is calling my name…
I definitely dug having cauliflower subjii ladled outta the big white industo buckets at the Krishna temple onto my happy paper plate…along with many other higher tastes that were awash in free ghee. A big scooped slab of oversweetened halwah (not halvah), that translucent cream of wheat dessert, provided enough honey and sugar-starch to induce some kind of elevated state. Honestly I was disappointed to never again find this satisfying yet somewhat bland comfort food variant of Indian cuisine on anybody’s restaurant menu other than Govinda’s (is that place still there?). It was nice of them to share..and I definitely ate my share from the bucket.
Farrels was a great place for gluttony…never had The Trough but I did participate in some San Diego Zoo revelry at elem school birthdays. Perry Boys and Sir George (Kearney Mesa) were on the menu from time to time as a kid…Swanson’s tv trays…Piknik ‘n Chicken…here’s to phood philistonia!
How many pizza places had organs..?..I mean playing music, not on the pizza. Wasn’t there an Organ Power Pizza in PB that had a mechanized set of band instruments playing old-timey stuff suspended on the ceiling (this is pre-Chucky Sleaze)? Seemed like pizza and pipes were the rage for a while, along with the Shakee’s red & white straw hat motif.
The arrival of the Chimichanga (I credit Garcia’s of Scottsdale with teaching SD that the only way to improve a burrito is to deepfry it) coincided or partially inspired, I think, the “chimp” lexicon…something about a malapropism mispronounced “chimpichanga”…
When did DiBaffi/Pernicano’s (in Hillcrest) close down (but still remained to this day)? I don’t recall the metal mustachio’d doors being ajar since the late 70’s..? Vague memory of cartoons being projected on the back wall.
A great Sheldon’s memory: I was among a party of about 8 or 10, we went to Sheldons and got one of the big booths at the back. Just before the waitress came to take our order we all put on our E.T. masks….and on cue in unison we loudly ask for:
“Large 24 ounce malted milk thick and creamy for $1.25!”
So of course the waitress tells us that they don’t have shakes that evening…
again in unison, as if we expected it:
“That’s it, we’re leaving!”
And E.T. went home.
good times!
There was another Sir Georges Smorgasboard on University Ave at about College. Myself and my brother and Tammy West would take the bus there and load up on grub on the way out to Blue Meanie records in El Cajon. We had heard that your brain doesn’t get the message from your stomach that you are full for 20 mins after you started eating, so the move was to get all the grub in one trip to the buffet line and then just head back to the table and tuck in for 20 mins straight. Then we’d pile back on the bus all extra full and make the trip out to Blue Meanie. I have other food and record store stories…but that’s all for now.
I can’t believe I let Toby’s recollection of Juanita’s spicy carrots pass by without comment. These cruncy little delicacies are one of the things I miss most about Southern California. The one place I’ve found them here in New Jersey is as a side to the breakfast burrito at one breakfast place Nancy and I like in Montclair … I’ve been tempted to tell them to skip the burrito and just give me the carrots!
Whenever I land in that part of the country, I try to connect with some of those carrots within the first two hours.
I’ve had them all over but usually they are too soft, bordering on pre-cast babyfood carrots. Juanita’s were crisp.
Amen on the crisp carrots, Toby. You come out to New Jersey, we’ll fix you up real nice at Raymond’s — I don’t know who their carrot supplier is, but I think they have some sort of back-channel connection to Juanita’s. Fuggedaboutit! Badda-boom, badda-bing!
I think Dave F was the first person to take me to Sheldon’s a year or so after I had been spending so much time at the Headquarters. Demi Loaves! I remember there being a Carl’s Junior that shared the parking lot with the Headquarters where we used to go to buy speed pills from other Mod-ish types.
I was totally there for the Krishna fests, both at UCSD and at the temple. We were there so often we were getting increasing attention from the Krishnas. Like, when are you guys just gonna join us? Probably cause we were so willing to happily chant away for an hour in order to score the excellent food. Remember the brief reign of the Govinda’s in Leucadia? Just last year I had an older student in a drawing class who looked oh so familiar. I finally determined that he was a Krishna. I probably remembered him from the days.
JUanita’s! I remember once in, say 1985, going there with Nancy Kersgard (Cocaine dealer to the punks) and Janie Osborne and a few others. We were very drunk and Nancy, who was trying to be a vegetarian, went on a rampage in the Kitchen trying to determine if the beans had lard, screaming, “El Lardo in Beanos? El Lardo in Beanos?” I very distinctly remember the very confused look on the faces of the cooks as they tried to get the hell out of her way. Good times.
I went to La Posta first with Matthew and others. I live right around the corner from there now and I have to say it has gone way down hill. Used to be the best Carne Asada, but just dowsn’t hack it anymore. I think too busy catering to the drunk bar crowd.
Oh, and Cap’n Keno’s. Didn’t that place single handedly give Leucadia the nomicker “Queludia”? (OK, as a local I realize that its well within Encinitas) But I think it was in the 70’s and still is now the place to go to get yer crystal meth.
What about Vesuvius pizza on El Cajon Boulevard? Wasn’t that a TTH staple? Who was responsible for that? Anyone?
Matt,
You’ve got your Italian volcanoes mixed up. It was Etna’s, and the culpable party was Ron Silva, who insisted on eating there because he loved the sugary sweet pizza. This is a guy who would breakfast on donuts and Pepsi, and eat straight jelly out the jar.
Speaking of Ron, the two of us were beaten up by Marines at Angelo’s (I think that’s the name) in Oceanside. Ron, Bill Calhoun and I were eating there, and a couple of gigantic Marines began to look at us menacingly. In a total lapse of common sense, Ron decided to use the restroom, which was outside and around the corner. It got real quiet in the restaurant for a couple of minutes, until Ron came crawling back in, and having assumed the phalanx position, was being kicked and punched in the head and back. I ran to “help” and was promptly dispatch with a couple of hooks. The funny thing is, they were calling us punks (because of course, black leather=punk rock).
Has anyone heard from Ron? Last time I saw him was when I was still living in the Bay Area. He’s a Berkeley librarian by day, rock ‘n’ roll legend by night. I saw him do a _great_ show at the Ivy Room in Albany, under the moniker Black Diamonds (no, no KISS covers, folks). In fact, Dave, Kristen, didn’t we see this act also open for the Shambles at the Plough and Stars in Berkeley…say around …2000?
Oh, and anyone interested in visiting Central Massachusetts…
regarding DaveFlem’s post: the Udupi Vegetarian Indian place here in Shrewsbury serves an almond halwah dessert that transports me back to the temple on Grand Ave. every time. Chant and be happy!
Paul: Yes, we did in fact dig the wondrous Black Diamonds opening for the Shambles at P&S back around 2000.
Ron rocks and amazes whether he’s fronting a band on vocals, playing guitar, or on drums…or any combination thereof. The Crawdaddies at The Roxy in PB were one of the first shows I ever saw and it was a profound experience.
Ray: So sorry to hear about that incident involving you and Ron at Angelo’s..
I went to the Krishna temple in New Orleans, too, Bobby. Probably around the same time, maybe a year or two later. Funny, there’s a Pernicano’s in El Centro now. We play there pretty often. Anyone know if there’s any connection to the S.D. one? No wonder it sounded so familiar when it opened.
P.S. There was a Sir George’s in Chula Vista, too. I never went.
The Chicken Pie Shop, holy shit loved that place, it was like stepping back in time, Coffee and a Pot Pie was like a $1.50, it was very drab inside gotta love it….now a Starbucks, does not surpise me.
Captain Kenos!!! All you can spangetti tuesday nights? Great place, once my family ate our Thanksgiving dinner there, very cool. Seemed like a place Jimmy Buffet would have hung out at.
And yes Juanitas!!!!!!
Dylan , the chicken pie shop’s new location isn’t as ” cool ” but the pie diners are just as good now as they were then .
$4.99 pie diner is still the best deal in town .
Scott: Sheldon’s was always a great spot to woo the ladies. Those individual loaves of bread positively cooed, “I care about your needs.” And the thick ‘n’ creamies … Have mercy!
Oh my gosh, Sheldon’s! I grew up in that place. It was a favorite of my mom’s and we were there ALL the time! Wow. Great memories.
Sheryl,
Welcome. Sheldon’s was really our cult. “Thick and Creamy”.
Waitress, I’ll have TWO!
Said it before, I’ll say it again, verbatim from menu:
“One large 24 ounce malted milk, thick and creamy, for a dollar twenty-five”
please.
ok, make it two for me also. And a demi-loaf. I’m gonna be here for a while..
>>ok, make it two for me also. And a demi-loaf. I’m gonna be here for a while..
I’ll just have the “extra shrimp”!
I forget- how much was the demi-loaf of home baked bread, served here with butter? 75¢?
Sign of the times- I had to look up how to make the ¢ symbol. Haven’t used that for a while.
Does anybody else remember the lighting at the center of Sheldon’s ceiling? It was a grid of identical transparencies of a leafy tree branch, blue sky behind it … Backlit, it made this kind of trippy, “Blue Velvet” trompe l’oeil.
My Mom worked at Sheldon’s for (I think?) 32 years, so she probably waited on you at some point! My mom (Liz) was super cool and she’d always call me when tour buses pulled up just in case I’d wanna run over there. (We lived a few blocks away behind Der Wienerschnitzel) One time, she made Paul Young and his band wait until I got there because I had gone to his concert at SDSU/OAT and was going the next day in Irvine, so she told them I was a big fan. Haha. And oddly enough, both of my sisters were involved with Roosters…one married Orrick and the other dated Jimmie for many moons.
Hi Miss Trish: my family owned Sheldon’s. I’m Ray’s granddaughter. I was feeling nostalgic and decided to google Sheldon’s. I found your post and I remember your mom, I think. Tall and skinny?? I was about 10 when he sold it…so my memory is a little fuzzy. I’m banking on my childhood memory here. But if I’m wrong on her physical appearance, I can for sure say I remember “Liz” being a household name growing up!
Yep, that was my Mom! She passed away in 2001; her birthday was just the other day. She would’ve been 82. I do remember your grandfather. And the host named Manny-he was always very nice to me. (I think he was also a cook sometimes too.) My oldest sister worked there for a bit too.