OP-ED: F*ck You If You Support Flecha Cantina: Why Patronizing A Mark Wahlberg Mexican Restaurant In San Diego Is A Betrayal Of The City

This is one of the most important Mexican food cities in the United States, built by generations of local families, immigrant labor, and deeply rooted cultural tradition, not by Hollywood elites looking to slap their name on a tequila brand and call it authenticity. When Flecha Cantina opened in San Diego's North County, it wasn’t just another restaurant launch. It was a cultural insult hiding behind celebrity branding and polished marketing, so F*ck you if you support a Mark Wahlberg–owned Mexican restaurant in San Diego. 

Let’s get this out of the way up front: if you live in San Diego and you’re excited about eating at Mark Wahlberg’s Flecha Cantina, I genuinely do not understand you.

San Diego is [arguably] the most important Mexican food city in the United States. This region is built on generations of Mexican families, cooks, taqueros, panaderos, and restaurant owners who didn’t arrive here with venture capital, celebrity branding teams, or tequila marketing budgets. They arrived with recipes, grit, and survival instincts. And they built something real.

So when a mega-rich Hollywood actor worth somewhere between $400 and $450 million parachutes into San Diego with a glossy, celebrity-backed “Mexican” restaurant concept, I’m supposed to clap? Support it? Post it on Instagram like it’s a win for the city? Absolutely not.

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Originally published on February 8, 2026.