San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
I told you last time we convened that I was moving to the San Carlos area from Ocean Beach to pursue the lofty dreams (and the blood-curdling nightmares) associated with home ownership. In fact, by the time you read this, I’m sure I’ll have sealed at least part of the deal. Leaving O.B. will be hard, but I can always rent out my house and come back, if the ’hood will have me; the area’s beachside environ isn’t one of my new neighborhood’s qualities. Nearby Lake Murray is real pretty and stuff, but its 3.2 square miles is a literal drop in the bucket compared with the Pacific Ocean’s 64 million and all the juicy stories in each one.
But hark; take due notice and heed! We easterners also boast Cosmos Coffee Cafe, which belongs on O.B.’s Newport Avenue as much as it does anywhere else. Like so many Newport businesses, this La Mesa eatery is as local as you are—it gets its bread from San Diego’s acclaimed Bread & Cie, and Downtown’s Cafe Moto supplies its organic coffee beans. It’s got free music on Fridays and Saturdays (when’s the last time you picked up on some live jazz at 3 in the afternoon?), and the art on the walls is courtesy of some of the area’s best painters. It all looks and sounds better from behind a gimoundous albacore tuna sandwich ($6.25) and chai latte ($3.50 for a big one). If your tastes tend toward morning fare, Cosmos serves breakfast all day. Suddenly, East County never looked so—well, so O.B.!
Cosmos Coffee Cafe is located at 8278 La Mesa Blvd. and is open from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays (for more information, call 619-698-4217 or see cosmoscoffeecafe.com). I don’t know about the rest of you transplants, but I’m relieved and delighted to indulge this place and the memories it manages to dredge up. You can take the boy out of Ocean Beach, but—.
—Martin Jones Westlin
But hark; take due notice and heed! We easterners also boast Cosmos Coffee Cafe, which belongs on O.B.’s Newport Avenue as much as it does anywhere else. Like so many Newport businesses, this La Mesa eatery is as local as you are—it gets its bread from San Diego’s acclaimed Bread & Cie, and Downtown’s Cafe Moto supplies its organic coffee beans. It’s got free music on Fridays and Saturdays (when’s the last time you picked up on some live jazz at 3 in the afternoon?), and the art on the walls is courtesy of some of the area’s best painters. It all looks and sounds better from behind a gimoundous albacore tuna sandwich ($6.25) and chai latte ($3.50 for a big one). If your tastes tend toward morning fare, Cosmos serves breakfast all day. Suddenly, East County never looked so—well, so O.B.!
Cosmos Coffee Cafe is located at 8278 La Mesa Blvd. and is open from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays (for more information, call 619-698-4217 or see cosmoscoffeecafe.com). I don’t know about the rest of you transplants, but I’m relieved and delighted to indulge this place and the memories it manages to dredge up. You can take the boy out of Ocean Beach, but—.
—Martin Jones Westlin
