Who serves the greatest weekend brunch in town?
If you’re staying downtown, I’d say Provisional (425 Fifth Ave., Tel: 619-738-7300. www.pendry.com/san-diego/dining/provisional), right here at Pendry San Diego, which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner
using mostly locally sourced, organic ingredients. It’s so nice to be able to genuinely love the food at our own outlets, and it seems like the example that we set is raising the bar in the neighborhood. Our ostrich egg breakfast has become world-famous!
If you’re waking up elsewhere, I like Fort Oak (1011 Fort Stockton Dr., Tel: 619-722- 3398. www.fortoaksd.com) in Mission Hills, where most dishes are wood-fired, and the glass walls slide open for diners to enjoy our city’s year-round great weather. The little jewel box of a front bar is the former showroom of a restored 1940s Ford dealership, so it retains that atomic-age feel.
Cabrillo National Monument
Photo: Steve Heap
And for something with a bigger gay following, I like insideOut (1642 University Ave., Tel: 619-888-8623. www.insideoutsd.com). My friend Matt Ramon’s lively Hillcrest eatery with a California and Mediterranean-inspired menu is set around a shimmering pool in a chic, open-air atrium. The bar is always lively, was expanded into a permanent museum of its own. Orson Welles shot exterior scenes of the tower’s ornate Spanish architecture for his classic “Citizen Kane” in 1940.
Which guided tours do you recommend most often to your guests?
We mostly send our guests on private tours, tailored to their interests, so Another Side of San Diego Tours (300 G St., Tel: 619- 239-2111. www.anothersideofsandiegotours.com) is great for building the perfect experience, whether walking, biking, kayaking, Segways, speedboats, off-roading, or minibuses. They can focus on our guests’ specific needs, with guides specializing in things like architecture, history, culinary tours or adventure sports.
Where can you go to get the best views of the city?
San Diego has no shortage of great city views, from rooftop lounges like The Nolen (453 Sixth Ave., Tel: 619-796-6536, www.thenolenrooftop.com), and 5th and Sky (701 5th Ave., Tel: 619-814-2225. www.theatrebox.com/5th-sky), but the best view in my opinion is looking back at the skyline from across the water, either from Coronado Island (ferries run hourly from the foot of Broadway, or from the 5th Avenue Pier), or from Cabrillo National Monument (1800 Cabrillo Memorial Dr., No phone. www.nps.gov/cabr), at the tip of Point Loma. This mostly undeveloped peninsula, which commemorates the arrival of the first European expedition in 1542, is a great spot to escape the crowds, explore the Old Point Loma Lighthouse (built in 1854), and hike down to the tide pools below.
Where are the best places to workout? FIT (www.fitathletic.com) is an upscale gym with city locations including the East Village, Little Italy, and Mission Beach. The East Village location (350 Tenth Ave., Tel: 619-762-3234) is adjacent to Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres, and the Mission Beach location (3115 Ocean Front Walk, Tel: 858-879-6812) is adjacent to historic Belmont Park. Belmont Park opened as an amusement park in 1925, and you can still ride the almost 100-yearold oceanfront rollercoaster The Giant Dipper, or swim in The Plunge pool, where the locker-room scenes from Top Gun were filmed in 1985.
If you’d prefer to get your cardio in in the great outdoors, a popular spot to run is he stairs that traverse the San Diego Convention Center, (111 W. Harbor Dr., Tel: 619-525-5000. www.visitsandi
ego.com) from the Gaslamp side to the bayfront and back. It’s sort of San Diego’s equivalent of the Rocky Steps in Philadelphia. Or, if you’d rather escape the crowds, you can run the tranquil two-mile stretch of Black’s Beach (accessed from the Torrey Pines Gliderport, 2800 Torrey Pines Scenic Dr.), between La Jolla Shores and Torrey Pines, where swimwear is optional!
