On the Ground in San Diego

Trip date: November 2018


After a morning of work from my room at the Kimpton Palomar, my brother and I took an Uber to San Diego's Old Town. We started with a great lunch at El Agave.

El Agave is a little nicer and has an amazing tequila collection (they call it the museum) vs. your typical taco joint. My tacos and margarita were great!

We had a nice walk around Old Town; I'd never been or didn't remember. It's touristy but also interesting to see the birthplace of California, and to wander around the old buildings. Mark even struck up a conversation with an actual blacksmith!

We hopped in another Uber and headed up to the UTC shopping center. This may sound like a strange destination, as I'm not much of a mall rat, but I wanted to check out the cocktail bar Raised by Wolves, and this is the location they picked for it!

You enter into a shop which has a nice collection of liquor and cocktail related products. We didn't have too much of a wait after they took our name and party size. And then 2-by-2, you are invited to sit in chairs in front of a fireplace, which then revolves to deliver you inside the "hidden" bar.

Mark and I both got quite a kick out of this. And when the lounge is revealed, whoa! It is very large and extremely opulent.

We sat up at the bar and had a few rounds of very good drinks. We didn't try any of the vintage cocktails; 1960's Very Old Fitzgerald 8yr, sugar, and Ango for $790.00 anyone?

Working our way back to the city, our next stop was George's at The Cove, which our bartender at Fairweather had recommended the day before. We sat up on the ocean terrace and drank black manhattans while having a light dinner of grilled octopus. I wouldn't go out of my way to come to George's but if you are in the area, the casual terrace bar was great.

Our last stop of the day was Grass Skirt, which is not so secretly hidden behind Good Time Poke.

We had both the regular painkiller, and the clarified painkiller, both excellent. I'm always tickled by clarified drinks, and I found these 2 to be amazing, or it could have been that I was just a tad drunk!

The next morning after packing and working, Mark picked me up and we had lunch at Ironside. We had visited this place on my last trip down, and I was looking forward to it again!

Clam chowder, cheddar biscuits, and a halibut sandwich all soooo good! Washed down with a couple of spritzes. Perfect last lunch.

Mark was nice enough to drive me to the airport, a whole 15 minutes away! And I had another very comfortable flight home as I was able to use another MVP Gold upgrade for 1st class on Alaska. While earning my last needed miles to secure another year of MVP Gold. A successful trip I'd say!

All San Diego photos here.

Also from this trip:
High Times in San Diego