Revisiting Cuscatlán San Diego
Plus: Farmers Market News, Ballast Point Tasting Room in LV, Bill Walton Makes Local Appearance, LV Resident Becomes Author, and Potluck Picnic and Water Balloon Contest on August 26
We have been writing the weekly Linda Vista Update for 3 years now. It’s always gratifying to us when someone comes up at the Farmers Market or somewhere else and tells us they tried a restaurant they had never heard of because of one of our articles and how much they appreciate it. We figure it is a win-win situation as we know we have readers who benefit from being more knowledgable, and it is a win for the businesses who have more local residents try their establishment and perhaps become long time customers.
Last weekend something different happened. A neighbor wrote to us and told us he tried a great Salvadoran restaurant and the food was exceptional and we should really think about reviewing it in the Update. The restaurant he mentioned was Cuscatlán San Diego—at 7516 Mesa College Drive—right here in 92111. I wrote back and told him that we had, in fact, reviewed this restaurant very favorably shortly after it opened in August 2021 and sent him a copy of that article. He was raving about the soup and the different pupusas he had gotten and between that and the article, we suddenly became very hungry for Salvadoran food. Accordingly, we recently took the opportunity to ask another neighbor who had never been there if she would like to try it, and the three of us promptly headed there for take-out.
Juan, the owner, remembered us and the previous LV Update article. He greeted us at the counter and was just as friendly as before. He said business was good and we talked about the many vegetarian options he has available. We each ordered different meat free pupusas including shrimp and cheese, zucchini and cheese, spinach and cheese, mushroom and cheese, and bean and cheese. These pupusas are a real bargain. They are large and filling, and cost only $3.75 or $4.95 (shrimp).
For those of you unfamiliar with this dish, pupusas are considered the national food of El Salvador. They are made from cornmeal and stuffed with one or more ingredients. It is usually accompanied by curtido (a spicy fermented cabbage slaw).
The restaurant has a large selection of items starting with breakfast, lunch specials, appetizers, sandwiches, entrees, soups, pasta, drinks and children’s menus. The restaurant is bright and cheerful, the staff friendly, and the food exceptional. What more could you want?
We took our food home and my neighbor told me later that she ate half of each of the two pupusas she bought and loved them. She had enough for another meal. Steve ate both of his, and I ate one and saved the other. Steve said the shrimp and the bean pupusas were great. I ate the zucchini and cheese and it was filling and delicious. The mushroom one served as lunch for the following day.
So we talked about it and since in the beginning of the LV Update when we only had a few readers, till now when we have thousands of readers, we thought we should occasionally revisit some of the places we reviewed two or three years ago and perhaps get some new readers interested in trying these places. I hope that if you haven’t tried Cuscatlán San Diego before, you will soon pay them a visit, and if you have, make sure to go back and tell them you read about them again in the LV Update.
Get Your $5.00 Coupon
Love, Linda Vista Farmers Market News
The Love, Linda Vista Farmers Market, which is held every Thursday afternoon at the Linda Vista Plaza Shopping Center, is extending its closing time from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm during the month of August. The Market will still begin at 2:00 pm.
As explained by Love, Linda Vista Inc. board president Jonathan Widener, “We hope that staying open till 8:00 pm allows more people coming home from work to stop by the Market to purchase a meal, and check out the other vendor booths as well.”
Additionally, $5.00 discount coupons (for $10.00 minimum purchases) will be available for Farmers Market customers during the next few weeks. The coupons can be used at all vendor booths. These coupons will be available for a limited number of customers each Thursday beginning at 3:30 pm (first come, first serve). Just ask for a coupon at the Farmers Market booth (one coupon per individual).
See you today at the Farmers Market!
LV’s Home Brew Ballast Point Tasting Room
One of the great benefits to living here in San Diego county happens to be the fact that a number of craft beer breweries make this area their home. According to one internet website, there are 150 craft beer breweries in our county, making it the so-called “Capital of Craft.” Now, I realize cities like Portland, Oregon or Boulder, Colorado may choose to disagree about San Diego deserving that exclusive title, but we have no interest in squabbling about such matters. We are far more interested in spending our precious time drinking good beer. And that is why we recently paid a visit to Linda Vista’s own Ballast Point Tasting Room, located next to the Ballast Point Home Brew Mart (5401 Linda Vista Road # 406) in the Presidio Plaza.
In a many-months-ago previous issue of the Linda Vista Update, we gave readers a run-down of the Home Brew Mart part of the business, to include its beer making supplies available for purchase, and the brew classes held there. The Brew Mart seemed like the perfect place for beer making aficionados.
But more recently, we ventured down from the hill to finally explore what is available at the adjoining Tasting Room in terms of the many Ballast Point beers we heard were on tap there. The exploring party consisted of Betty and I, plus the Carnivore Sidekick, who considers himself quite the connoisseur of fine beer (as long as someone is else is paying for the fine beer). Being that it was a hot summer evening, we were mighty thirsty, and hence had no patience for the intricacies of making beer. We sought instead immediate, high quality craft beer drinking gratification, and once we entered the tasting room and saw what was behind the bar, we knew we had come to the right place. It turns out there were over 30 different kinds of Ballast Point beers.
If you want to experiment a bit with different beer varieties, this is the place for you. Unlike your typical bar setting, at this tasting room you can dabble by purchasing small 4 ounce beers, or 8 ounce ones. You are under no obligation to focus on just one specific brew. You can also get “flights” of beer that allow you to taste a quartet of 4 ounce beers for $10.00. And of course, if you do want to indulge on just one beer, you can purchase a 16 ounce one.
During our visit, I bypassed my usual Yellow Tail Pale Ale and Sculpin IPA for a Grunion Pale Ale. The Carnivore Sidekick tried the Pineapple Sculpin IPA. He enjoyed the pineapple taste (he considers himself an adventurous individual). And I had Betty experiment by trying out a 4 ounce Victory at Sea Porter. She is not much of a beer drinker, which was good for me, since she allowed me to have a healthy taste of her dark beer. I thought the Porter was delicious and sweet. I will definitely order a 16 ounce glass of this Porter the next time I return.
The tasting room is a spacious, informal, fun place with plenty of tables and benches. There are colorful, festive murals on the wall which makes for a nice atmosphere. There are also large screen TV’s on the walls for watching sporting events.. On the Tuesday night we visited, we found the room full. It turns out Tuesday night is Trivia Night, and a number of people were there to test their trivia knowledge. The lively crowd was having a good time addressing a wide variety of subjects. We felt good that we were able to answer a few of the trivia questions (as a recent USD grad, the Carnivore considers himself quite the knowledge expert) and look forward to officially competing on our next visit.
The only drawback we encountered was that this Ballast Point Tasting Room, unlike other ones in Southern California, does not have a kitchen, and so food is not available. However, you can buy food at nearby restaurants and bring it inside to eat while drinking beer. In fact, we saw several people with pizza boxes on their tables. We will do that next time.
I enthusiastically recommend this Ballast Point Tasting Room as a place to go to when you feel like stepping outside the box to try different tastes in beer, and if you are also looking for a fun, friendly place to enjoy with friends. And if you think you know a lot, bring your own pizza and pay a visit on Tuesday night.
Bill Walton Works on Getting Out the Vote
UCLA and NBA basketball great Bill Walton made an appearance on basketball courts located at the North Clairemont Recreation Center this past Monday afternoon. He was there at the polling station encouraging voters to cast their ballots for the special election held for the San Diego County 4th District Supervisor position. As a way of getting citizens to vote, Walton—a San Diego resident—promised to participate in a free throw shooting contest with anyone casting their ballot.
While there he also took the time to meet with kids participating in a Recreation Center basketball camp. He was met with a barrage of questions from the youngsters, with the most popular question being “How tall are you?” (According to Wikipedia, he is 6’ 11”)
Linda Vista makes up part of San Diego County’s 4th District.
Voting for the 4th District County Supervisor position ended this Tuesday.
If no candidate attains over 50% of the vote, there will be a run-off of the top two candidates in a November 7 election.
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The LV Update applauds Bill Walton for taking the time to promote one of our most important responsibilities as U.S. citizens.
LV Resident Becomes Author with Self-Published Book
Editor’s note: We at the Linda Vista Update have been fortunate to have a talented summer intern from the Francis Parker School writing for us these past few weeks. Olivia Teates has done a great job with her different articles. This week we gave her the assignment of finding and writing about an interesting Linda Vista resident. She succeeded in finding Flores Bishop, who recently wrote a book about her father.
By Olivia Teates.
Just this April, a Linda Vista resident, Flores Bishop, along with several family members and her late father’s military colleagues, wrote and self-published a book to commemorate her father’s remarkable career and life.
Louis Cunningham Webb, Sr. (1921- 2011) was the first African-American officer in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and served our country for over 22 years in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), as well as the US Air Force (USAF), followed by another 20 years of Civil Service with the NCIS. Webb, Sr. received a plethora of military awards and served in both Japan and Korea throughout his tenure with the USAF. Beyond his impressive and lengthy career, Webb Sr. was a lively, passionate man who lived life to the fullest with his large family.
The passion that distinguished Webb, Sr.’s life was contagious to those around him, so much so that those closest to him felt compelled to share the story of this extraordinary man’s life in a small book, complete with dozens of photographs, notes, and letters from/about Webb, Sr. The foreward of the book perfectly describes the book as “a compilation of remembrances” about Webb, Sr.
Ms. Bishop explained that the idea for this book came from one of her father’s former colleagues, Vic McPherson, who encouraged her family to share the story of Webb, Sr.’s impactful life and was the “catalyst” for the writing of this book.
Before deciding to write a book in commemoration of her father, Ms. Bishop and her co-authors were presented with a challenging decision: whether to tell Webb, Sr.’s story themselves or let others do it for them. The popular NCIS television show on CBS reached out to Ms. Bishop and her co-authors hoping to learn more about Webb, Sr. as a way of creating a new NCIS character. In addition, a collection of books were being written about historical NCIS figures and Webb, Sr. was one figure that interested these authors.
Ms. Bishop explained, “We were dealing with this potential television series and the book, and we decided that we did not want to participate in that. We wanted to maintain control over the story.”
After deciding to pen their own book, the group collaborated virtually from cities across the country, each focusing on their individual chapters. In only a matter of months, the group was ready to self-publish. Ms. Bishop described the process of writing and publishing the book with her family and others determined to commemorate her father as “incredible.”
The resulting publication is a collection of fond memories of Webb, Sr. expressed through the eyes of his daughter, grandchildren, close friends, and colleagues that celebrate both his personal and professional life.
When asked what she believes is her father’s greatest accomplishment, Ms. Bishop fondly remembered her father’s drive and ambition. “I look up to the fact that my father wasn’t limited by his background. They say it is not so much what you come into life with, it’s what you do with what you’ve been given. He got a lot of joy out of his life because he knew what he wanted and he went after it.”
Ms. Bishop noted that her father’s successful career was greatly helped by the opportunities that military service provided. She urges young people in the community to explore the career opportunities and pathways that military service offers and use her father’s story as inspiration.
As of now, Ms. Bishop’s book is not being sold, however, she said that making the book commercially available is certainly a next step that is being considered.
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The Linda Vista Update wishes to thank Ms. Bishop for sharing her book with us, as well as for her willingness to be interviewed.
Community Potluck Picnic Planned
Local realtor, Bree Partington, a resident of the Mission Heights neighborhood of Linda Vista, is hosting another of her popular community events on Saturday August 26. She will be hosting a Picnic Potluck and Water Balloon Toss for local families at the Linda Vista Community Park (7064 Levant Street) from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. She encourages local families to grab a dish (or bag of chips!) and join your neighbors for an end of summer get together!
As explained by Bree, “I've met a couple families in the neighborhood who are looking for other kids in the area that their kids could meet and play with. I think this would be a great opportunity for them all to meet and get to know one another.”
If you and your family plan to attend, she advises to please text 858-762-9338 with what dish you will be providing or if you have any questions.
If you are a regular reader of the Linda Vista Update, you know Bree has sponsored other popular community events like a Valentine Day Arts and Craft event and an Easter Egg Roll for local families.
We at the LV Update commend her for her noteworthy community spirit.
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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. Readers can go back and read all previous issues of the Linda Vista Update by going to the newsletter archive here.
I want to start by saying how valuable I find this newsletter. I learn so much from your writings.
At the risk of sounding overly editorial, I want to share something that I have seen repeatedly in the newsletter. The diet described as vegetarian here in the newsletter often includes fish and shellfish. This is an inaccurate description of the diet. Vegetarians don’t eat fish or shellfish, however, pescatarians do eat fish and shellfish. Perhaps, consideration of a more accurate definition in future newsletters could be considered.