Julian Pie Company

Yay, it’s the first day of Fall! Bring on all of the apples and pumpkins! I must say Fall is my favorite season. The problem is living in San Diego, we don’t really get Fall weather or season changes, but luckily Julian does. Julian is a mountain getaway, an hour northeast of San Diego, located in the Cuyamaca mountains.

San Diego also doesn’t really offer cider donuts like I was always seeing all over my Instagram feed in the Fall, so one year I did an internet search to track down cider donuts in town and found Julian Pie Company offers them. It makes sense that Julian would be the place to find cider donuts since every September they have a two-day Julian Apple Days Festival, not to mention Julian is famous for apple pies.

Julian Pie Company - Santa Ysabel location

Julian Pie Company – Santa Ysabel location

I got my husband on board for taking a day trip to Julian by fitting in some off-roading in his prized Jeep in the Laguna Mountains after. We set off in the morning on a Saturday and decided to drive through Ramona and stop at the Santa Ysabel location because I knew they had a bigger selection of donuts, in my experience than the Julian location. Continue reading

Brunch at Bottega Americano

Every Mother’s Day we go to brunch with my whole family because moms, brunch and mimosas just pair together so well. This Mother’s Day we made a brunch reservation at Bottega Americano located in downtown San Diego’s East Village neighborhood. Bottega Americano is a charming Italian restaurant and marketplace with lots of wood, marble and copper accents, which made it a perfect setting for celebrating us moms.

Bottega Americano

Bottega Americano

Bottega Americano offers brunch every Saturday & Sunday with a seasonal food menu, a full coffee menu and an option of bottomless mimosas for $15 per person. Major selling point for me! Continue reading

Soda & Swine at Liberty Station

Soda & Swine is a creative meatball eatery with lots of small to medium sized bites. We visited the Liberty Station location. It has a gold bar, old-fashioned looking baking area with pies on display, sunroofs adding lots of natural light, wood covered walls, a 20-foot foosball table that works as a community table, plenty of seating, and an outdoor patio with more seating.

You order your food upon entering Soda & Swine, then seat yourself and your food is brought to you. You can also order from their wide selection of sodas. On the other side of the registers are the pies, they have a couple different types of apple pies, seasonal treats and soft serve ice cream. The next stop is the bar, it is a full bar where you can order a cocktail, wine, beer (lots of local crafts), and if you are feeling funky, a champagne slushy.

We got some suggestions on what to order for lunch from the employee at the register. You can check out their menu here for yourself. Soda & Swine has several meatballs to choose from, such as, smoked pork, chorizo, chicken, beef and quinoa meatballs. You can order your meatball as a slider, submarine, spaghetti, or 3 meatballs in a skillet with sauce and cheese.  Once we picked our meatballs, we ordered some sides as well and set off for a table. The food started to arrive quickly, but not everything came out at once. We liked this system since we ordered a bunch of different items to give a try so it was like having appetizers, entrees and dessert.

Fried Pizza Knots

Fried Pizza Knots

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City Tacos

City Tacos is a Taquería located in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood. I would describe City Tacos as true Mexican flavors and traditions with a touch of Southern California influences.

City Tacos in North Park, San Diego

City Tacos in North Park, San Diego

City Tacos offers an array of different tacos, such as chorizo, chili relleno, seafood, pollo & carne asada and much more.  They also have vegan options. This taco loving girl was completely content with their taco filled menu. However, my teenage son (for reasons I do not understand) does not like corn tortillas and was less than thrilled when we first arrived about the prospect of tacos for lunch until we saw City Tacos has flour tortillas in addition to corn tortillas so he was in. Continue reading

Brunch at Brooklyn Girl Eatery

Last weekend I was searching for a brunch spot we hadn’t frequented yet when I stumbled upon a recent article published in the San Diego Union-Tribune titled San Diego’s top 25 brunch spots. #3 on the list was Brooklyn Girl Eatery in Mission Hills, which happened to be a spot that has been on my must-try list for sometime. I made a reservation through Open Table and headed that way.

Brooklyn Girl Eatery

Brooklyn Girl Eatery

I walked in and was immediately smitten with the decor. It was light and bright with really creative artwork and eclectic knick knacks as well as a wall of Barbie dolls encased along a wall leading to the ladies room. Continue reading