Is Perry's Cafe Best Breakfast in Town?
Plus: Bayside 90th anniversary celebration, LV News Briefs, New playground along Mission Bay, and a quirky substitute for LV Padres Mural
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Are you about tired of being stuck in the kitchen, cooking, baking, basting, tasting, cleaning, washing/drying dishes, being charming to all your guests mode? Tired of turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, and pumpkin pie? Or have you been one of the millions who traveled for the holidays by car, plane, train, whatever, and are now just happy to be back in Linda Vista? Do you need a break from all that travel? Do you long for the days when a trip to a neighborhood diner would have been a welcome respite from all the hustle and bustle? Well, we are happy to say that you have that old time diner feel right in your own back yard. Well, not really your back yard, but right down the hill on the outskirts of Linda Vista. What am I talking about? That iconic San Diego landmark known and loved by all – Perry’s Café, located at 4610 Pacific Highway. The best breakfast in town!
Although our Thanksgiving dinner was without turkey of course – not even tofu turkey – we were ready for something that would require no more on our part than getting in the car and driving a mile or two for a great breakfast. So off we went to Perry’s Café at the corner of Pacific Highway across from Old Town.
Perry’s has been a landmark restaurant as long as I can remember. It was opened in about 1985 by Greek immigrants, Constantine and Margaret Georgakopoulos, and is still in the family. They serve Italian and Mexican breakfasts as well as traditional breakfasts and you will never leave hungry. Lunch is also available.
Perry’s has a very loyal staff and, according to the website, some of them have been there for over 25 years. I know they are the friendliest bunch of people I have ever seen in San Diego, and they all seem to really enjoy serving their customers. The classic retro interior decor enhances the friendly atmosphere.
The Carnivore Sidekick did not join us for breakfast, but no need to have a review of bacon, ham and sausage. You all know how those items taste. Steve, of course, ordered a Mexican breakfast -called Huevos Revueltos which was eggs scrambled with diced onions, green chilies, tomato and included beans and four tortillas and salsa. It looked like it could feed two, but he managed it all on his own. He said it effectively reminded him of his Mexican roots. Since I was hungry for Eggs Benedict which I can’t have, I instead ordered two poached eggs, an English muffin, and home fried potatoes. It closely resembled a Canadian bacon-less and Hollandaise sauce-less Eggs Benedict. Of course, I had hot steaming coffee which hit the spot. It was all so good.
The food was served quickly and my coffee was refilled often. The home fries were crunchy and the best I’ve had in a long while, and I told our server so. Steve really enjoyed his breakfast and we commented that we really need to frequent Perry’s more often.
Perry’s is open from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm. Takeout is available except on weekends and holidays. So, take a trip down the hill and enjoy a breakfast at Perry’s. You will be glad you did. And, it happens to be so conveniently close—almost in Linda Vista.
Bayside Celebrates 90th Anniversary
Mark the date and event on your calendar! Bayside Community Center, one of Linda Vista’s most valuable and popular institutions, will celebrate its 90th anniversary on Thursday December 8. The celebration will be held in conjunction with the Love, Linda Vista Farmers Market, which operates every Thursday at the Linda Vista Plaza Shopping Center.
The celebration will recognize Bayside’s origins in Little Italy as the the Bayside Settlement House, (established to empower and meet the needs of lower income immigrants and native-born residents in urban settings), its time in City Heights, and and its many years of service in Linda Vista.
Bayside’s current mission is “to empower our diverse community to improve its quality of life through services, education, and advocacy.”
Festivities for the Bayside celebration will begin on December 8 at 4:00 pm and run until 7:00 pm. During this time, Bayside will feature a series of performers to include Ballet Folklorico El Tapatio, Genbu Daiko (a local Taiko drumming group), Daniel Moceri (original Bayside participant and long-time Little Italy resident) singing Doo Wop, and the Fern Street Circus.
Bayside will also show its documentary titled “Bayside: 90 Years of Empowerment." You can see a trailer of the documentary by clicking here.
Click here to read an overview of all the 90th anniversary activities that Bayside has conducted this year.
LV News Briefs:
—Farmers Market: The Love, Linda Vista Farmers Market will be held today December 1 between 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm at the Linda Vista Plaza Shopping Center. Come out and check out all the vendors, and see your fellow community members.
—USD Women’s Volleyball: The University of San Diego Toreros Women’s Volleyball team finished the regular season ranked number two in the country with a 27-1 record. As a result of their successful season, the team will be hosting a post season NCAA Tournament this week, while opening up with a first round tournament match against Northern Colorado. The USD match will be played tonight at 7:30 in the Jenny Craig Pavilion. Click here for ticket information. Should the team win its first match, they will play a second round match Friday night.
—Community Clean-Up: The next monthly Bayside Community Clean-Up will be held this Sunday December 4 at 10:00 am. Volunteers are welcome. They will meet in the Linda Vista Library parking lot. This is a great community service opportunity.
—Kearny Boy’s Varsity Basketball: The Komets just opened their new season. They play their next home game Tuesday December 6 at 6:00 pm against O’Farrell Charter. They will play another home game on Thursday December 8 at 6:00 pm against Escondido Charter, followed by a Saturday afternoon (2:00 pm) December 10 home game against Calvin Christian.
— Holiday Concert: The Kearny Mesa Concert Band will conduct a free Holiday Concert on Thursday December 8 at 7:00 pm. The concert will be held at Madison High School. Information about the Concert Band can be found here.
New Playground at Tecolote Shores North
A new upgraded playground recently opened in the Tecolote Shores North area of Mission Bay Park, just across the I-5 Freeway from the Linda Vista/Bay Park borders. The upgrades, which cost 3.8 million dollars, include playground equipment for children and exercise equipment for adults. The area housing the playground is 34,000 square feet in size. The colorful equipment incorporates many of the items seen in most playgrounds, to include climbing, sliding and hanging activities, but does so by taking advantage of new/fresh equipment designs. The equipment also includes equipment that swivels, contains clever obstacles, and emphasizes sensory activity. In addition, instead of a sandy or hard asphalt flooring, the park uses a soft, spongy surface to cushion the inevitable falls that will occur in the course of playing or exercising. The adult part of the playground includes elliptical machines and pull up bars and rope-climbing.
The upgraded playground also includes a new shaded picnic area. The design of the playground also incorporates the theme of kite flying, since the breezy area has long been a popular place for kite flyers. Of course, the colorful playground is set against the beautiful backdrop of Mission Bay and Fiesta Island.
Work on the nearby Tecolote Shores South playground area will commence soon and is expected to be re-open in May of next year. Work on both parks will involve a total cost of 8.38 million dollars. Funding for these playground renovations came from the Mission Bay Park Improvement Fund, which receives money from Mission Bay Park tenants like Sea World, and various hotels and restaurants.
Being able to see the new, impressive playground upgrades should provide encouraging news for Linda Vista residents since John Baca Park (along Linda Vista Road) has been approved for a 3 million dollar plan involving new playground equipment/renovation (the plan is awaiting funding from the City), and the City’s Parks and Recreation Department is currently formulating plans for upgrading Kelly Street Park based on Linda Vista community input. If the new playground at Tecolote Shores North is any indication, both John Baca Park and Kelly Street Park are in store for some great upgrades.
Commentary
A Worthy Substitute for LV Padres Mural?
Sometimes we just have to settle for what we can get. That’s the thought that ran through our minds upon seeing the whimsical street art posters recently installed (illegally) on the electrical boxes near the intersection of Friars Road and Fashion Valley Road. It’s not exactly what I had in mind for a full-fledged, expansive SD Padres mural, but it will apparently have to do for now.
Regular readers of the Linda Vista Update are well aware of our editorial staff’s frequent efforts to advocate for the installation of an attractive San Diego Padres mural in the Linda Vista area. In previous issues we have noted how other San Diego communities, with the official support of the Padres organization, have enjoyed the installation of large, colorful murals depicting different Padres star players. Padres murals have popped up in such communities as Ocean Beach, City Heights, Chula Vista and even in nearby Kearny Mesa. We’ve even gone so far as to recommend potential sites for such a mural (i.e. the big wall facing the Linda Vista Library parking lot).
Why still no mural? Who knows? Perhaps the SD Padres executives don’t think Linda Vista is worthy of such a work of art? No community leaders have bothered to organize any fundraising campaign to pay for our own Padres mural. And no wealthy LV benefactor has stepped up to chip in for such a mural.
However, we recently noticed that an anonymous street artist has taken things into his/her own hands and installed a quirky version of a Padres mural-like art project along the Linda Vista side of Friars Road. The work depicts a strange little haloed green devil in a Padres uniform. No, the posters don’t bear any resemblance to Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis, Yu Darvish, or Joe Musgrove, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. Perhaps this is as close as our community is going to get to having its own Padres mural—at least for now. It’s not as big, and it’s not as colorful as official Padres murals throughout the San Diego area, but we still think it’s a fun addition to the Linda Vista landscape. Its understated and yet a bit edgy, which is, in fact, a worthy description aspiration for Linda Vista itself.
As we wait on our own SD Padres mural, we commend the efforts of the anonymous street artist—however illegal those efforts might be—for giving us an interim solution to Linda Vista’s Padres mural void.
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