SanDiegoVille

Dave’s Hot Chicken Ready To Heat Up Solana Beach With New North County San Diego Location

After years of steady expansion across San Diego County, Dave’s Hot Chicken is bringing its fiery Nashville-style fried chicken to Solana Beach. The fast-growing chain is preparing to open in the former Our Green Affair Café space in the Loma Santa Fe Plaza.

At this point, it’s almost become a running joke in San Diego’s restaurant scene: Chick & Hawk - the endlessly delayed fried chicken concept from skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and chef Andrew Bachelier - may actually be opening this week.

After more than a decade serving as a cherished neighborhood hub for wine lovers, Village Vino has announced it will permanently close its doors, marking the end of a 13-year run in the heart of San Diego’s Kensington community.

Waymo, the self-driving technology company under Google parent Alphabet Inc., has officially announced plans to launch its autonomous robotaxi service in San Diego next year, marking a major expansion of its driverless ride-hailing network across the United States.

After three decades selling paletas on the streets of South San Diego, Francisco Duarte was deported to Mexico. The longtime community favorite spent his final weekend giving away ice pops as a thank-you to neighbors who had become family. Duarte and his wife raised four children in the U.S. - including two who attended Stanford University - before losing an eight-year immigration battle.

San Diego’s beautifully renovated Jacobs Music Center was the star before the first note. The century-old hall - fresh off a $125 million transformation that tightened its acoustics, angled its sightlines, and trimmed capacity with a new choral terrace - played host on Sunday night to the opening North American date of Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós’s orchestral tour. It was a sellout, and the room gleamed like a restored postcard from the 1900s, now finally tuned for what it was always meant to be: music first.

One of San Diego’s most storied dive bars is taking a short break to freshen up. The Aero Club, the historic whiskey haven in Middletown, has announced a temporary closure to make way for interior cleaning and renovations - a little mid-century tune-up for a local institution that’s been pouring drinks since 1947.

Pacific Beach is grieving the loss of one of its most loved bartenders and community fixtures, Natalie Wharton-Lake, who passed away unexpectedly in October. A familiar face behind the bar for nearly two decades, Natalie was a cornerstone of PB’s tight-knit nightlife scene - known for her big laugh, bigger heart, and the uncanny ability to make everyone feel like an old friend.

San Diego’s biggest Christmas-themed festival is back - and bigger than ever. SantaCon returns to completely take over Belmont Park on Saturday, December 13, transforming the historic Mission Beach amusement park into a massive Winter Wonderland filled with live music, thrill rides, and thousands of Santas spreading cheer (and maybe a little mischief). Readers can save on tickets with promo code SDVILLE at checkout.

A weekend visit to Gossip Grill in Hillcrest turned into an unexpected confrontation for a group of five straight friends - and the incident has sparked broader discussion online about safe spaces, community expectations and hospitality in LGBTQ-era venues.

The international coffee and juice chain Joe & The Juice is making another go at San Diego growth, this time setting its sights on Mission Valley. The Danish-born brand is preparing to open a new outpost within the same retail plaza that houses Trader Joe’s, joining a busy corridor of eateries and national retailers.

This is the weekly list of San Diego County restaurants and food facilities that have faced temporary closures and downgraded status due to health inspections from October 24 - 30, 2025.

After months of uncertainty and miscommunication, The Local Eatery & Drinking Hole is now officially listed as closed in downtown San Diego. The long-running pub, once a staple of the Fourth Avenue nightlife scene, has quietly shuttered without any public announcement as the space transitions to become a Modern Times Pub. Despite assurances of a forthcoming East Village reopening, The Local’s website now leads only to a generic server placeholder, marking an unceremonious end to the decades-old downtown bar.

San Diego’s coffee scene just got a sophisticated new addition. Saint Cocó Coffee Bar, a specialty coffee brand born in Tijuana, has officially opened its first U.S. location in the heart of North Park, blending brutalist design with cutting-edge brewing technology and a menu of inventive drinks served both fresh and canned.

San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood just gained a fresh, vibrant food-stop with the opening of Taco Centro on Kettner Boulevard. The modern Mexican street-food concept, which originated in the Gaslamp Quarter in 2022, is now firmly planted in one of the city’s most dynamic dining districts.

A growing hunger crisis is unfolding across San Diego County as the ongoing federal government shutdown, now stretching into its fifth week, has halted the distribution of CalFresh food benefits to nearly 400,000 residents. The county confirmed that no benefits will be reloaded on November 1, leaving families across the region without access to essential grocery funds.

City Heights’ beloved burger bar Key & Cleaver is heading to North San Diego County, with plans to open a second location in downtown Oceanside.

A widely celebrated Korean dining concept is making its U.S. debut in San Diego’s Convoy Street culinary corridor. Seoul-based Hongdae Dakgalbi - known for its fiery stir-fried chicken drenched in gochujang sauce and layered with melted cheese - will open its first American outpost in Kearny Mesa.

A popular South Bay San Diego brunch restaurant abruptly closed this week after a section of its ceiling reportedly collapsed on diners during lunch service, frightening some patrons and prompting an unplanned shutdown.