San DiEgo
Wearing a sweatshirt I picked up from Shop Good. More about it later in the post.
EATS
Certain nights we ended up ordering in once Eleanor went to bed. I’m a huge fan of fried chicken and Crack Shack came highly recommended. It was WORTH it. Dan and I split the Firebird sandwich and the 5 piece fried chicken.
Another amazing recommendation we got for brunch is The Great Maple. The decor in here was on point and so was everything we ordered. Try not to salivate while scrolling through the next few photos.
Our waitress steered us in the direction of these maple bacon doughnuts. We didn’t realize that it came with three! It ended up working out as we had the remaining two for breakfast the next morning.
Fresh blueberry pancakes FTW! Also had a few leftover for breakfast the next AM.
The California Chorizo Scramble Melt hit the savory spot. We substituted the grilled bread for the popover and it was worth the up-charge.
I know this seems a bit random that we ate at a cajun and creole joint. We were walking around a few different neighborhoods and Dan did a quick yelp search and we landed on Bud & Rob’s. We ended up getting seated right before they were going to close (which we didn’t realize) but the manager (who we think might be one of the owners) didn’t rush us. He even hung around to chat with us! Dan went with the shrimp po’ boy and I the blackened catfish plate.
Another dine-in night called for poke bowls from Poke Chopped. Dan customized his bowl while I went for a specialty bowl (The Chopper). The proportions were generous - neither one of us finished our bowl!
I would have to say our best meal in SD was at Juniper & Ivy. We made a 5PM reservation so that E could come with us. When we walked in, we had had a bit of an uh-oh moment as it looked like a fine dining establishment and here we are totting a 7 month old with us. It turns out we were totally fine. They were super friendly and we were able to get a high chair for her. E did so good. Didn’t make a (loud) peep or have a melt down. Dan and I shared a bunch of things. It was so hard to choose since everything sounded amazing.
This seared piece of salmon with pancetta was divine. We savored every morsel, short of licking the plate clean!
How pretty is this plated dish?! I can’t remember which pate this was but the fruit and relish added a nice sweet to balance out the savory.
This dish was (literally) cool. Oysters with Meyer lemon pearls. They were like dip’n dots! You can see more of what we had on my SD IG highlights reel. These are just a sampling of what we ordered!
COFFEE, ETC.
Communal Coffee was definitely one of the cutest (and tastiest) coffee shops we popped into. You could order coffee, buy fresh flowers and pick up gifts all in one place! I highly recommend the lavender honey latte (so so good). Dan got one of their specialty drinks of the day. If I recall correctly, he got an iced cold brew mojito.
Couldn’t you just see yourself hanging out here all day?
Talk about another cute coffee place: Parakeet Cafe (in little Italy). We stopped in for our usual early afternoon coffee and feed Eleanor her lunch. Everybody wins!
I was obsessed with the glassware they used - mine is the pink one, of course.
Dan and I were obsessed with Salt & Straw ice cream when we did our PNW trip. So when we spotted one while out and about, we had to stop for some ice cream (plus, Eleanor was napping in the car so it was perfect timing). I went with an interesting sounding flavor and it worked out well in my favor (thank goodness): strawberry, cracked black pepper and balsamic.
Places
As I captioned in the picture that kicked off this post, I stopped by Shop Good, a clean beauty store. The ladies who worked there was super nice and helpful. I didn’t need to restock on anything in particular but did leave with that cute pink sweatshirt!
Dan’s cousin, who has young children, recommended that we take E to The New Children’s Museum. It was definitely a great place for young kids to explore and play. E’s a bit too young for it but we still enjoyed it nonetheless. She just loved looking at everything. We plan on taking her back when she’s older!