(Kristen Tobiason rolls out the red carpet for Che Games for May.)
With the reunion happening at the end of this month, many of you will be trekking back to your original stomping grounds after many years of estrangement. Much like the sweetheart you were squeezing 25 years ago, time has changed the landscape.
I vividly remember the car ride to the grand opening of the Wild Animal Park in 1972. The drive north to Escondido was unfettered with the suburban sprawl that congests it today. There were cows grazing, clusters of eucalyptus trees, a checkered water tower. For years we looked to the north as Los Angeles spread like a virus, choking the groves of Orange County with highways and strip malls. “Thank god for Camp Pendleton,” we’d say.
The government-owned coastal stretch from Oceanside to San Clemente seemed like a fortress, like a desert between Sodom and Paradise. But with the real-estate Gold Rush of the ’90s, we were no longer an oasis. San Diego’s population skyrocketed to over 3 million. Those cows are long gone, and in their place, a Target, a Starbucks and many Olive Garden-type feeding troughs.
So when you come back to San Diego, you may notice some big changes:
- We are the second-largest city in California, and the eighth largest in the US. It is crowded here. Everywhere. Even those tiny side streets in East County. There is no parking anytime. Anywhere.
- Interstate 15, which used to come to a dead end in City Heights, now goes all the way through to the border.
- There is a giant baseball stadium in Logan Heights/Downtown SD.
Here are some things that are still the same:
- Ocean Beach. If you want to get blasted with the past, OB hasn’t changed much in the past 30 years, including the people. There are still drum circles on the grassy area by the life guard tower, the Black has its array of creatively designed “water pipes”, the boardwalk still smells like piss and seaweed. In an odd way, it’s comforting.
- The San Diego Library. The renovation project of our public library lost out to the ball park (which I am still steamed about. I have yet to walk inside “Petco Park”). So the library looks and smells the same. As does the DMV on Normal Street.
- Broadway – between 4th and 16th. I love the melting pot of downtown. On one corner you have an Urban Outfitters; on the other, you have SSI recipients preaching the gospel. Be sure to visit landmarks like Wahrenbrocks bookstore and the Chee Chee Club, which still retain all their former glory. Wig shops, scary greasy-spoon Chinese buffets, discount shoes stores for all of your hip-hop footwear needs. …
- Balboa Park. Be sure to visit the carousel and train ride while you’re here. The only difference is that they’ve replaced the calliope organ with John Williams movie themes.
Enjoy retracing your former footsteps, if you can find them! And bring an autograph pen with you. You’ll find that as a native San Diego, you are a rare and surprising treasure here.
— Kristen Tobiason
More San Diego then and now:
- Then and Now: Ideas as my maps
- Then and Now: Graveyard Park
- Then and Now: New Year’s resolutions
- Then and Now: Saigon Palace
- Then and Now: the Chicken Pie Shop
- Then and Now: Off the Record
- Then and Now: Rock Palace
- Then and Now: The Ken Cinema
- Then and Now: Adams Avenue Theater
- Then and Now: Topsy’s
- Then and Now: Greenwich Village West
- Then and Now: Funland
- Then and Now: Studio 517
- Then and Now: La Posta
- Then and Now: Presidio Park
- Then and Now: El Cajon Blvd. Denny’s
>>Much like the sweetheart you were squeezing 25 years ago, time has changed the landscape.
Kristen: I myself experienced a growth boom in the mid-’90s, when I was rezoned for family occupancy. This rapid expansion has caused a number of infrastructure issues in the intervening years … While I’ve passed numerous resolutions to retrofit these sagging systems, funding and labor issues has slowed the planned overhaul. I’m currently hoping to finalize a lighter-footprint, reduced-emission version of this aging structure by mid-2010.
Hey! Is that same lady still grinding out the tortillas on that stone at the Museum of Man? How big is the stone by now? I’d think it would be wafer-thin after 40 years of masa-making!
Places to eat that have not changed much-
La Posta on Washington St. they did just get new concrete tables and benchs thow-
Rudfords on El Cajon Blvd
The Big Kitchen in Golden Hills
Pomas’ Deli Ocean Beach
City Deli Hillcrest
El Indio
Gelto Vero is still kicking and the coffee is still good, that place has been a coffe house forever even before it became GV, in the late 70’s it was a middle eatsern type coffee house with chess tables, used to go there with mom so she could meet Cat Stevens look alikes:)…
Ocean Beach changed in some ways, more bars and party people it was a bit sleeper as a kid, now theres more of a Haight St. vibe lots of gutter punk kids and that kind of stuff, Ho-Dads always has a line out the door, I grew up there and have never eaten at the place. The people food store sure has changed, it went from a shack to a modern building and no freebox behind it. No more Nappys, Mayfair, Homers, Strand or Coronets….but still the O.B. vibe is there it’s just more hip maybe.
No more Buffords or O.B. Spaceman either, I have not spied one O.B. spaceman bumper sticker, back in the day almost every car had one. And I did see the Trek Trike once in O.B. so it is still around……..
Oh man- no Buford’s? Where’m I gonna get Black Jack and Abba Zabba? They must have run out of stock. I asked Buford Jr. where they got it once. He said, “I liked collecting all kinds of candy when I was young. I ate a lot. But I saved some in a closet. It got really full. And now we have a store.”
Hey- Is Rudford’s still “always open, always good”? Man, I miss those waitresses. Nothing could temper a bad trip like a Rudford’s waitress and a slice of pie.
despite all the external changes
when the sun goes down
st. diego becomes more visible
lots of late nite weekend fun
little bars lining up adams ave
and 30th st
most cafes have extended hours fri and sat
downtown is really a people watching trip
and the coastline of beach communities
remain very meditative
>> It is crowded here. Everywhere. Even those tiny side streets in East County. There is no parking anytime. Anywhere.
I guess it all depends on your point of reference. I left S.D. for L.A. more than 10 years ago…every time I come back, it seems exactly the same…so quiet and relaxed, with no traffic anywhere and plenty of parking everywhere. When I was there in January, I drove from Balboa Ave. in Kearny Mesa to Hillcrest in exactly 7 minutes. You can’t do that in L.A.
Yeah Rudfords is 24/7, great late nite diner, it’s not Topsy but it does the job, plus they play good music when ever I am there The Everly Brothers, The Seeds good 1960’s am radio stuff.
Yeah! What Louie said. Many changes are positive. I live in the heart of North Park and it is now safe to stroll up University Avenue in the evening. Not only is Off the Record located here, but the North Park Theater has reopened, and there are many new restaurants, cafes, bars, clothing boutiques and art galleries. North Park was a scary place in the 90’s, so I’m grateful the district has been gentrified.
I only listed the wide-eyed “wtf” differences, but the city has changed -or not changed all over….perhaps I was unfair…
Another BIG nice thing that hasn’t changed -- I totally forgot to mention -- THE WEATHER. We still enjoy sunshine the majority of the year, and tho’ in my youth I complained that it was “boring” here, my aging joints appreciate it now.
Yes the sun still shines in San Diego and I must say it’s a beautiful day today, I left here for 19 years ago and thought I would never return but I gotta say, I love it here.
There are other things — State Route 56 (connecting I-15 and I-5) wasn’t even a concept 25 years ago. The entire Carmel Valley community it cuts through was all trails and backwoods. Was there even a single house there? I’d be shocked if any of the houses there are more than 15 years old, and those would be at the far western end.
When I was living in Coronado a plane crashed into the North Park area I think. Anyone else remember this?? Maybe ’77??
I was 18…that was a terrible day. We watched from North Island in disbelief.
Does any remember how many years INJECTIONS was spray painted on that overpass on University, I think??
If you guys go to the “then and now Ken theater” thread, it’s under hot threads, there a much written on the PSA 182 crash, good read.
Yo Dylan, you wanna go get some rolled tacos on Wednesday before the show with Matt Johnson and me?
Yeah David always up for rolled tacos & the company good people.
I”d even eat rolled tacos alone
>>I”d even eat rolled tacos alone
MadMike: Buddy, that’s a serious warning sign that your rolled-taco consumption isn’t just recreational.
Put the guacamole DOWN. I smell the salsa verde on your breath from here, pal.
Listen, I’ve been there. I remember when the Tijuana police stopped me on Revolucion. They made me get off the zebra-striped donkey, walk a line of melted cheese and touch two chimichangas to my nose with my eyes closed.
I thought I was home free until they found the suede boda bag I’d just scored … full of high-grade mole sauce direct from Oaxaca.
You can guess what happened next. “Midnight Express” meets Cinco de Mayo, baby — fully loaded carne asada burritos don’t leave a mark, but those psychic scars don’t heal.
Sorry … I can’t really talk about this. I need a spicy carrot.
PS: MadMike, do you remember a Mexican restaurant near the Oriental Theater on North Farwell in Milwaukee? That was, like, the one place I could get a fix when I lived in Wisconsin.
Lots more Mexican brown (a k a frijoles) making its way into the Midwest nowadays … I’ve scored some pretty potent stuff in Michigan. Not so sure about the Southeast, though: Last summer in Virginia, we had a frightening run-in with a guy dealing pot-roast “burritos” swimming in brown gravy. Nancy slipped out and started the car, and I dove through the window and peeled out before the deal went bad.
matt r
did you forget to mention
the bricks of queso fresca?
>>did you forget to mention
the bricks of queso fresca?
Louie: Dude, when la policia pulled the corn-husk wrapper off my chest, I thought I’d die! My “guy” in Chula Vista never told me about the cheese-sniffing dogs.
Do you know what a tortilla press can do to soft tissue if there’s enough hate behind it? I do.
matthew, your freaking posts need to come with a warning. i just choked on my queso…
Once I ate so many Rolled Tacos I blacked out and woke up in Chudys House of Beer and I could not find my pants!
“I’m Waiting for My Flan”
running pollo asada
Of course, even in New Jersey we’ve been reading about the battles in all those border towns among the various carnitas cartels. Lots of salsa fresca spilled on both sides, you know what I’m saying?
But I’m Joseing pretty bad for the quality stuff … If I can still buy bolillos in TJ without a prescription, it’s going to be hard to stay away.
“PS: MadMike, do you remember a Mexican restaurant near the Oriental Theater on North Farwell in Milwaukee? That was, like, the one place I could get a fix when I lived in Wisconsin.”
Yes Matt, we have eaten there before..there is also a couple of good mexican restaurants on the south side of Milwaukee
yeah..the place next to the Oriental theater was pretty good…
I havent been up there in a few years, but I think the place is still there
“Lots more Mexican brown (a k a frijoles) making its way into the Midwest nowadays … I’ve scored some pretty potent stuff in Michigan. Not so sure about the Southeast, though: Last summer in Virginia, we had a frightening run-in with a guy dealing pot-roast “burritos” swimming in brown gravy. Nancy slipped out and started the car, and I dove through the window and peeled out before the deal went bad.”
lol
honestly I have a friend here who’s mother makes empenadas and sells them maybe once a month…
I”m on the waiting list to score a couple dozen sometime this week…
oh what I’d do for a rolled taco and guacamole
Chicago has good Mexican food and lots of Mexican folks, had some(food)near the Wicker Park area, If for some reason you ever find yourself in Cincinnati Ohio theres a bar there called the Comet they have a great jukebox and the burritos are pretty good also.
>>Does any remember how many years INJECTIONS was spray painted on that overpass on University, I think??
No, but I remember seeing it on the outside wall of the North Park Lions Club.
Dylan, I never got around to trying Mexican food in the four or five times I’ve been to Chicago. So much hot dogs, Italian beef, pizza, and German food to distract me!
Dean, I was just throwing that out there for any ex-San Diego folks out in the midwest in need of the best food ever, Mexican……
Back to the thread, Sherman Heights has not changed much.
Ok Dean you really got to me….. Why would you fly to Chicago for a hot dog, when you could walk over to the “Pampered Pup”?
And by the way I can get better Schnitzel in La Mesa than Chicago.
Been to Pampered Pup, Top Dog, Royal Frankfurter in San Rafael (was OK, now closed), and none come even close to a char dog at Wiener’s Circle, or a classic Chicago dog at Superdawg. Main problems: dogs are barely warm and don’t “snap”when you bite ém, and the buns are stale.
We do have good German food in Alameda at Speisekammer, but I miss Berghoff’s in the Loop (RIP). The food wasn’t the best in town, but I loved the atmosphere. Milwaukee also has some great German restaurants!
I recently drove down to Hayward for an Italian Beef as I’m always on the lookout for a real taste of Chicago. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t Mr. Beef either.
Back to San Diego, lets put together a list of places to go on Che weekend. My faves:
Imperial House
Red Fox Room
Albie’s Beef Inn and Adam’s Steak and Eggs
Hob Nob Hill
La Posta is OK late at night but I like the food better down the street at Los Panchos, especially their Carne Asada burritos and rolled tacos!
(bring on the Mexican food debate!)
But I really need to go to the Riviera Supper Club, Tim Mays’ new steakhouse in La Mesa!
Last December when I was in SD for the Nashville Ramblers we had lunch at Salazar’s on Market Street. That place hasn’t changed at all! Still has the orange naugahyde booths!
I was hoping we’d get arguing about Mexican food, thanks Dylan for obliging my whim. 🙂
It sure beats an argument about religion!
It’s been some time since I had La Posta’s carne asada, so it may be better now. But the last two times I had a carne asada burrito was at Los Panchos and it was perfect. The meat was in fairly large chunks, juicy, and no gristle. Here in the bay area Carne Asada is served practically minced, I think to compensate for cheap tough meat.
Not a big torta fan, I just don’t like the rolls most places use. But I will try the one at La Posta.
where i live, in southern oregon, we have a few tight spots for good mexican food. in fact, the trucks that roam the valley here are amazing.
but there is not one thing in the world like a carne asada burrito from la posta. nothing. just meat, guac and a flour tortilla. side of salsa, please.
damn.
german tube steak sounds perverted
“Tim Mays’ new steakhouse in La Mesa!”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That just sounds so weird……………….
I’m going to El Cuervo from the airport.
Well, in keeping with the original theme, here, there is a relatively new chain of Mexican restaurants in San Diego. Santana’s. Not brand new, definitely, as I recall eating at one at least a decade ago, but new shops seem to be sprouting up all over the place in the last year or two. And they’re very, very good.
Deano, La Posta can be hit and miss, although I have had good luck lately my Carna Asada has been crispy just the way I like it, like it’s off the grill…. the first time I had a Torta was at La Posta in 1980 and it was great, every time I’ve had a Torta else where they have sucked, anyways I had a Torta at La Posta a few weeks ago and it was just as good as the one I ate in 1980.
Theres a place in Spring Valley I think it’s called Hermons, I hear from my co-workers Hermons is the best right now, we will see…..
The “Mexican food” in the bay area has it’s own taste, nothing like down here, I hear it’s more central american really.
I still need to try Santana’s, never eat’n mexican food in oregon either…
I usually just order “street” tacos in the Bay Area. And I get lengua, al pastor, or cabeza because I’ve been disappointed too many times with the carne asada and carnitas here. And I hate burritos filled with rice and whole beans like they serve in the Mission. They also steam the tortillas here which makes ’em soggy, while in SD they grill them so they have a blistery texture. Yum.
Kristen,
This post made me tear up. Thank you!
Q
may i politely inquire as to how the math works for a “25-year reunion” that is taking place 29 years after the che first opened, and for a scene that is about 32 years old? hadn’t everyone already grown their hair back out by ’84 and started listening to their old styx records again?
>>may i politely inquire as to how the math works for a “25-year reunion” that is taking place 29 years after the che first opened, and for a scene that is about 32 years old? hadn’t everyone already grown their hair back out by ‘84 and started listening to their old styx records again?
Sluggo: Obviously, every day is a 25th anniversary — it certainly depends on where you started counting! 🙂
This particular site was founded to focus on a closely knit group of bands that played its formative gigs at a variety of venues, including the Che Cafe, around 1983-’84. (And we were among the first bands to use that space for harder-edged rock ‘n’ roll … Probably the first.)
For you, the scene is 32 years old. For followers of the Brain Police, the scene is more than 40 years old. Jerry Rainey was playing with the Glory Band in the early ’70s … Claude Coma was playing the Cinnamon Cinder with the Spectacles in 1965.
Which scene do you mean? In this case, the “scene” is 25 years old (actually, more like 26 by this time).
But hopefully, other scenes can follow suit.
Which scene are you? Chime in!
PS: Styx must’ve been someone else’s scene. LOL
just wondering how you define *your* scene since right now i’m looking at your blog roll--and clearly there are people on it with a lot more experience than me.
as for my scene, i think i summed it up pretty well already.
The Scene has always centered on me, Sluggo. Karate Jesus and I have made a deal that involves my continuing to live yet never aging beyond The Big 4-0. One effect of that deal is that there will be no anniversaries greater than 25.
We’re on for another 25th in 2012, right Matt?
>>as for my scene, i think i summed it up pretty well already.
Sluggo: To sum up, your scene started in 1977 and included short-haired people who eschewed Styx.
Were you a member of the PB Krishna Temple? 🙂
EVERYONE in ’77 went to the PB Temple for yummy food and slam dancing.
Hare Rumba
omg… the temple. i totally forgot about that place.
Nothing like a big plate heaping with cauliflower subji scooped out of a 5 gallon plastic bucket….seriously I loved the food at the PB temple.
Coincidence or not, within a couple years I became a veggie..
>>omg… the temple. i totally forgot about that place.
Ava: Lots of Krishna temple memories in this thread; as I mentioned there, I wrote my anthro thesis on the Krishna Consciousness movement, inspired by all that subji with Messrs. Fleminger, Cornelius, Goddard et al.
The beginning of American slam dancing?? The Krishnas danced up and down and we danced side to side. A beautiful mayhem…I had that Bhaghavad Gita forever…maybe still do!
I think a lot of us got turned on to vegetarians this way. This, and a little “whole foods” type store in OB. Anyone remember Rayads(sp)?
Falafel??
Pogo, Goddess of Dancing for your Supper, was Vishnu’s niece. In pre-20th century depictions she wore traditional bangled saris and silver toe rings. Latter 20th century paintings and sculptures show this deity banging a tambourine and jumping up and down in Doc Marten boots and army surplus garb.
don’t forget the nose ring and manic panic hair!
I liked the blue cake for Krishna’s birthday! That Krishna chow was NOT low-fat. The halvah (not Middle Eastern style — more like a buttery pudding) … Whoa, mama!
Alas, after SOME time on Google, found no reference to POGO! How cool that would have been!
Did find a review of PB Temple though…love the Genesis album note. “low-fat” dressing MATT!
San Diego, CA
4 star rating
12/27/2007
I love this place! I used to live in Mission Beach and was ALWAYS broke. Seriously, music trader in PB knew me by name, as I was in there almost every-other-day selling CD’s to eat. Luckily, the $2 or $3 I’d make from an old Genesis album was enough to eat like a KING at the Hare Krishna Temple on Grand Avenue.
They used to do an all-you-can-eat, buffet-style dinner every evening from 6:00-8:00 p.m for just 5 bucks. Now, they only do dinner on Friday night for the same two-hour span at $6 a pop. It saved my life as an 18/19 year old.
Fast forward 5 years, they have different hours, but the same great, home cooking!
They specialize in authentic Indian food. It’s typically spicy and always delish! It comes with 3 full courses: Soup/salad, dinner and dessert. They make homemade, low-fat dressing for their salads, extremely tasty soups (usually a bean or lentil concoction), great curries and a rather unique dessert called “halva” made from Cream of Wheat. It’s REALLY good.
If you decide to check this place out, keep in mind that it’s a temple. Like Maxwell H., I’m not a follower of the Krishna faith, but I’ve got an open mind and the setting doesn’t scare me. It’s actually quite peaceful if you can allow yourself to feel comfortable. Nobody will bug you about converting, they’re just stoked you’re helping their cause.
You only live once, why not give it a try? I promise the Krishna’s won’t bite.
Wow, food memories are so profound, i would lose all my food convictions for some good Mexican and/or Krishna. Of course it was the company too that really got me high not just those late night rolled joints- i mean places. i loved the Krishna feasts they just floored me- cross legged or lounging but i couldn’t kiss my girlfriend there.
Terrific vintage pics of the California Theater interior in this issue of Boxoffice Magazine -- sher an offbeat place for punk shows! http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_102163-1/97
Meeeeeeeeeeeeemories …