It took favorable reports from friends to prompt me to visit 25 Forty Bistro & Bakehouse, which opened six months ago on one of Old Town’s main drags.

If you’re visiting from out of town, welcome. And, if you eat something good in San Diego, please go back home and tell your friends. If you’re a local and tend to avoid the Gaslamp, don’t be scared. Come on down, find a sidewalk patio seat and watch the weird and wonderful world go by.

I feel bad denying the mariachis. They look great in their studded charro suits and wide-brimmed hats as they come up to our table with expectant looks in their eyes, ready to entertain. I want to say yes, but we end up shaking our heads no; our crew of eaters is too deep in food and conversation to take in a musical interlude.

When in a wine bar, drink the wine. I’m tempted not to, since I’ve got beer-tunnel vision, and because Enoteca Style, like more and more wine bars, offers a decent beer selection—two taps and a good bottle list of mostly imports, some locals. But when the server came to take our order and my friends wanted to share a bottle of French red, I was in. Wednesdays are half-price bottle night, and I can’t argue with that.
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On initial impression, the surroundings at Kearny Mesas Halmouny didnt really inspire rapture, but I hoped that the food would. Not much had changed since the previous tenant, a Rice King, had closed shop.

Dedicated burger joints are the new black, rivaling frozen-yogurt and cupcakes dispensaries as the most ubiquitous, possibly over-saturated, food shops. But while cupcakes and frozen yogurt could be considered transitory food trends, burgers are practically a national foodstuff, on menus of dive bars and fine-dining rooms alike.

For when you can leave the flesh but can’t give up the taco