Fun and Tasty Dock House for Lunch
Plus: LV News Briefs, Spotlight on Mike Beltran and LV Multi-Cultural Fair/Parade, District 7 Town Hall Announcement, New Athletic Center at Francis Parker, and Fire Emergency Prep Commentary
The Linda Vista Update
In a past issue we mentioned that we sometimes like to pack a lunch and go down to Hospitality Point Park (on the way to Mission Beach on Quivara Way) and sit and watch the water while we eat. This location is a short drive away from Linda Vista. We find it very relaxing to watch the boats, the birds and the fishermen trying to snag a meal. Whenever we drive down Quivera Way, we notice a restaurant called Dock House Grill. We would often say we should stop there for lunch, but then we’d forget and bring a lunch and go to the park. Recently we were looking for a place to review and this establishment sprang to mind. We finally decided to give it a try and learned online they had vegetarian sandwiches and the old standby, tuna. So off we went.
Dock House is located at 1840 Quivara Way. The sign says Dock House Grill but the website says Dock House Deli. I think it is a bit of each. There is ample parking in front of the Dock House as well as seating for dining, but it was pretty chilly, so we went inside. It is a fairly large restaurant with great views of the water and boats tied up. The staff were very friendly and it seemed to be the kind of place you knew the food would be good. The people who were there and the boats and water in the background immediately gave off a Jimmy Buffet vibe. They are open Sunday through Saturday from 7 to 5. They serve breakfast and lunch. The breakfast menu includes breakfast bowls, breakfast burritos and sandwiches, omelets, cilaquiles and griddle breakfast all in the $8 to $10 range. We got there about noon and Steve wanted the Chiliquiles, but they had stopped serving breakfast. Next time we will go earlier and have one of their reasonably priced breakfasts.
They have quite a large lunch selection including soups (i.e., minestrone, butternut squash, chili, cowboy), classic deli sandwiches including ham, turkey, salami, pastrami, roast beef, corned beef, tuna or chicken salad all with macaroni salad. You have your choice of bread, spreads, cheese and condiments. The sandwiches are $9. The also have Dock House Special sandwiches like BLT, Club and veggie wrap all in the $8 to $10 range. From the grill they have burgers, Philly cheese steaks, grilled reuben and more $8.50 to $10. They also have a selection of beverages, including specialty coffees, and pastries and cake.
Steve ordered the veggie sandwich in a spinach wrap and I ordered my favorite, tuna fish. Both of us were very happy with our selections. Steve’s sandwich included spinach, avocado, cucumber, tomato, onion, artichoke, cheese and pickle. I had a tuna sandwich on an onion roll with lettuce, onion, cucumber and pickle. The macaroni salad was very good and the tuna sandwich so filling I only ate half, and Steve had the other half at a later time. We ordered the butternut squash soup to take home for dinner. It was creamy, perfectly seasoned and very smooth. It came with crackers.
Although the restaurant did not look like a diner from the outside, to me it had a diner feel. There were lots of chairs and tables, very casual, and nice to be able to look outside at the boats. We will surely go back there again, and we hope you will give it try. Hard to get those prices today in any casual restaurant and with that view sitting outside on a warm day would be a treat. It is not far from LV, only about 10 minutes, but well worth the drive.
LV News Briefs:
—LV Planning Group: This month’s meeting of the Linda Vista Planning Group will be held on January 27 at 6:00 pm. The meeting will be at the American Legion Post 731 located at 7245 Linda Vista Road. The Linda Vista Planning Group provides citizens with an opportunity for involvement in advising the City Council, the Planning Commission, and other decision-makers on development projects, general or community plan amendments, re-zonings and public facilities.
—Lunar New Year Celebration: Bayside Community Center is teaming up with the Linda Vista Farmers Market to celebrate the 2025 Lunar New Year. Check out the below flyer for details.
Spotlight on LV Resident
Mike Beltran is LV Multi-Cultural Fair/Parade Leader
The Annual Linda Vista Multi-Cultural Fair and Parade is one of Linda Vista’s favorite traditions. Held every April, the Fair/Parade will conduct its 40th version of the event on Saturday April 26. On that day, Linda Vista residents will watch a festive parade that goes down Linda Vista Road and then during the Fair portion of the event enjoy taking in the sights, sounds, and tastes of various vendor booths selling crafts and foods that represent the diversity of our community. They will also be entertained by a number of musical and dance acts that reflect the different cultures comprising our neighborhoods. The kids also get to have fun on amusement rides, while adults can sit back and relax in the beer garden.
Needless to say, putting on such an event takes much work and planning, and the Fair/Parade organization has individuals that use their experience and skills to ensure each year’s festivities go smoothly. People like Lauren Garces, the long-time Fair Coordinator, and Janet Kaye, the founder of the event (and current board member) provide much of that planning. However, another LV resident playing a prominent role is Mike Beltran, this year’s president of the Fair/Parade board of directors. As board president, he coordinates the input of all board members in the organization’s meetings held in the months preceding the event. Beltran, who has resided in the Alcala Knolls neighborhood of Linda Vista since 2016, served as a Fair/Parade board member in recent years. He has at his disposal years of experience coordinating (and co-founding) such big local entertainment events as the San Diego Bayfest Music Festival. He got his start playing in bands, and eventually bought turntables and hired himself out as a DJ (DJ Mikey Beats) at clubs and corporate events. He identifies music as his passion, and so seems a perfect fit for coordinating an event like the LV Multi-Cultural Fair and Parade.
Beltran initially got involved with the Fair/Parade while serving as a member of the Linda Vista Planning Board, which led to his meeting Fair/Parade co-founder Janet Kaye, who he considers “a great community asset. So full of energy.” As a fellow Alcala Knolls resident, she encouraged him to serve on the Fair/Parade board of directors. Considering himself a community-oriented person, he saw this volunteer opportunity as a chance to use all of his skills. It is a “mix of everything I’ve done,” he said.
Beltran says what he most enjoys about the Fair/Parade is “getting to see the diversity of the community,” and seeing “everyone participate in a multi-generational event involving eating, drinking and dancing.”
In regard to this year’s Fair/Parade, Beltran says he wants to work on bringing in more special entertainment acts. “Each year we want to get bigger acts to get the community dancing in the streets. Groups that have lots of energy.” Two years ago he introduced the Fair/Parade’s first beer garden, which was a big hit with attendees. This year the beer garden is going by the name “Views and Brews” and is expected to be even more popular. “The lush green grass at John Baca Park,” he said, “provides a great setting for the beer garden.”
The theme for this year’s Fair/Parade is “Food From the Heart,” which appeals directly to the great variety of ethnic foods available in the Linda Vista community.
Beltran encourages all LV residents to come out on April 26 and “enjoy the food, the sunshine, and the culture. Come and hang out.” He considers himself “so honored to be a part of the event.” And he expects the event “to get bigger and better.” Mark the date on your calendar!
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If you are interested in participating in this year’s Fair/Parade in whatever manner (i.e. vendor, parade participant, booth participant, sponsor or volunteer) please go to the Fair/Parade website HERE to get sign-up information.
District 7 Town Hall on February 6
District 7 Councilmember Raul Campillo will hold a Town Hall for residents of Mission Valley and Linda Vista on February 6 (6:00 pm) at the Bayside Community Center. Please read the below flyer for further details. This is a great opportunity to express your concerns to the Councilmember. Please RSVP for the Town Hall HERE.
New Athletic Complex at Francis Parker
The highly ranked Francis Parker School boy’s basketball team played La Jolla Country Day School last Friday. The game was exciting with lots of accurate shooting and tough defensive play, and though the Lancers lost to the Torreys the game was still worth attending if only to check out the school’s new Vassiliadis Athletic Center. The recently opened 48,770 square foot Center, which LV daily commuters on Linda Vista Road have seen being constructed the past couple years, is an impressive venue that includes the gym, the John Herman Court, an aquatics center, locker rooms, classrooms, meeting rooms, storage rooms, offices, and an attractive lobby area.
The Center was built on top of a still new underground parking structure and adjacent to the Silberman Family Student Life Center. The gym has a seating capacity of 1,100.
The gym has an impressive scoreboard and an additional digital screen that serves to feature past Francis Parker varsity team accomplishments in the form of digital banners. There is also a second level passage way/area on two sides that allow access to some of the offices/classrooms and outdoor exits, and allows space for the school’s Pep Band to play during timeouts/halftime.
Behind the gym is the Douglas Aquatics Center that overlooks a segment of Mission Valley.
Both the Francis Parker School boys and girls basketball teams are exciting teams to watch, and if you are a prep basketball fan you will enjoy seeing them in action, but checking out the school’s beautiful new Athletic Center is another good reason for attending the games this season.
Commentary
Thinking about Fire Preparation
Watching news of the fires up in Los Angeles County recently prompted me to start thinking of how to best prepare for a fire here in San Diego. Living in a townhouse development on the rim of Mission Valley and with our complex surrounded by acres of dry brush, I had very good reason to do some planning on how to react under threat of a fire and an evacuation order. However, my planning suddenly gained an immediacy a couple days ago when a fire broke out on the slope below our Fashion Hills complex. The circumstances got a bit scary as the fire approached very near the first row of townhouses, and the heat reached the roof top of a condo in the adjacent development and ended up causing damage. Fortunately, the SDFD did a great job of fighting the fire. Thank goodness it wasn’t a windy day.
The dryness of our winter had previously motivated several of the homeowners residing on our complex’s rim to request attention on brush abatement from our HOA and the City in anticipation of such a dangerous event occurring. These people were thinking ahead. So were those people who had previously bothered to check their property insurance requirements. They refused to be lulled into complacency, even though a major fire had not occurred at our development in recent history.
During the fire, however, we homeowners were surprised by several things we may not have given much thought to ahead of time such as: being unable to open automatic garage doors when SDGE turned off the power and evacuation orders were issued, and garage door keys for using manual devices could not be found; the need to keep our cellphones powered in order to receive updates and communicate with fellow residents; what essential items we needed to take with us in the event of evacuation; making arrangements for getting pets evacuated if a homeowner was at work; and figuring out who had the keys to open the gates to an emergency street exit from the complex. I am sure homeowners will now get busy working out solutions to these kind of problems.
District 7 Councilmember Raul Campillo’s office recently provided informative sources in his weekly newsletter of January 10, 2025 that focused on: Preparing families for a fire emergency, how to sign up for emergency alert notifications: CalFire information on how to prepare your home for a fire emergency, as well as an article on how to report overgrown vegetation, You can read that newsletter and the accompanying references/article by clicking here. It’s all worth taking the time to read.
Since all of Linda Vista lies near a dry slope or some other kind of dry terrain comprised of thick brush, it is in all of our best interests to be ready in case we have to again deal with a fire emergency. Once it happens, you’ll be surprised at how confusing the situation can get—the way to reduce that confusion is to rely on prior planning. By thinking ahead on what might happen, you can prevent some of those surprises we encountered.
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The Linda Vista Update is a weekly digital newsletter that publishes informative, interesting and fun news about Linda Vista and its neighboring communities. We welcome ideas for stories. Let us know about any interesting people, places, or upcoming events.
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