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Excavating Golden Hill: The Mansion on the Hill

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By Jim Miller

Coming up Broadway from downtown, it’s the one thing you can’t miss: the Quartermass/Wilde house, the Xanadu of Golden Hill. In the heart of a district of historic homes, this one serves as a monument to the elite status of Golden Hill in the beginning of the last century. One of the biggest of the remaining Victorian mansions in the city, it is also one of San Diego’s most spectacular historic structures.

With its marvelous rococo towers, Doric columns, and stunning domed cupola, the Quartermass/Wilde House looms atop the hill. This gorgeous Queen Anne Victorian mixes in elements of classical revival style as it sits above the street on stone retaining walls amidst a beautifully landscaped yard featuring a huge Star Pine. When one approaches the house from the intersection of Broadway and 24th, the stairway of the unique corner entrance beckons like Gatsby with the promise of unspeakable wonder.

Once inside, one is greeted by an ornately carved stairwell, walls covered with wood paneling and elaborate tapestries, stained glass windows on the landing, a wine cellar, and 8800 square feet of elegant domestic space. Built in 1897 by department store owner Ruben Quartermass, this mansion spoke the status that was the elite enclave of Golden Hill.   [Read more…]

The “Self Appointed Mayor of Golden Hill” Holds Court in the Big Kitchen

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By Jim Miller and Kelly Mayhew

Judy Forman is a Golden Hill institution. Her restaurant, the Big Kitchen Café, has served as a center of community life and activism for many years. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine the neighborhood without her or her place. I first went to the Big Kitchen myself in the eighties when I met with folks involved in the protest movement against Reagan Administration policies in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

More recently, Judy helped Kelly and me out by playing the role of Emma Goldman in the 100-year Anniversary of the San Diego Free Speech Fight when local labor and Occupy folks took over the intersection of 5th and E downtown. Over the years Forman has been active in LGBT politics, helped out with fundraisers for the Center on Policy Initiative’s Students for Economic Justice Internship program, started the New Play Café (a company devoted to helping playwrights develop their work), and offered up her “kitchen,” as she likes to say, to far too many people to name here.

Thus, to make a long story short, Forman has had her hand in much local activism over the past thirty some odd years and the Big Kitchen has always been one of the progressive hubs of San Diego and the heart of the neighborhood. It was our pleasure to interview her for this Golden Hill series.   [Read more…]

Big Food, Big Heart: The Big Kitchen

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The Big Kitchen Café
3003 Grape St.
San Diego, CA 92102
(619) 234-5789
Web: http://bigkitchencafe.com/

Review by Emma Goldman

“Kindness Matters.” The sign tacked above the doorframe leading into the kitchen caught my eye as my 9 year-old and I took a seat at the horseshoe shaped counter that hunkers down in the center of the main dining room of the Big Kitchen Café, a Greater Golden Hill/South Park institution.

As we waited for one of the bevy of young servers to come get our order, we couldn’t keep from scanning the heavily festooned walls—customers’ family photos, progressive bumper stickers, band flyers, necklaces, cartoons, feathers, pastel teapots, mandalas, salt and pepper shakers in funny shapes, kids’ art, magazine covers touting the restaurant, plaques of appreciation, etc.

There is no other place in San Diego like the Big Kitchen, a community center and diner that has anchored Greater Golden Hill since the early-‘70s. And at its helm, of course, is its warm and irrepressible owner, Judy “the Beauty on Duty” Forman, who is the very soul of kindness.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: Giorgino’s

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By Judi Curry

Giorgino’s
1237 28th Street
San Diego, CA 92102
619-234-9141

Giorgino’s is run by three brothers – Mario – who has owned the restaurant for 6 years; Giovanni and Gabriel. In addition, friends and other relatives work there at various times during the week, and it is a truly family run business. Unfortunately, Mario was not there this evening.

The menu is very extensive. They boast of the “Best Cheesesteaks in Town” and they feature Amoroso Rolls – so soft an succulent they melt in your mouth; Dietz and Watson Meats and Cheeses, along with John Taylor’s Pork Roll and Wise Chips and Tastybakes. They also have beer on tap. Because there are so many items on the menu, I would like to mention only a few besides those listed above, there are hot sandwiches, pork rolls, cold sandwiches, wings, tenders, burgers and dogs with salads, antipasto, pasta dishes, and desserts. They also do catering.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: Gloria’s Taco Shop

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Gloria’s Taco Shop
1233  28th St.
San Diego, CA 92102
(619) 239-8093

By Judi Curry

For many months after I joined online dating services, Joe and I went out to try new restaurants in a variety of areas. Although Joe and I have remained good friends, he has another lady friend and I asked the two of them to join me in reviewing  Gloria’s Taco Shop.  

This restaurant is part of the “Golden Hill” area that the San Diego Free Press is highlighting this month.  If you have been reading SDFP this week, you may have noticed that Emma Goldman has also reviewed several restaurants in the area, bordering the same streets as Gloria’s.   [Read more…]

SD For Free: Golden Hill Recreation Center

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By John Patrick Anderson

A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Golden Hill Recreation Center

Address: 2600 Golf Course Dr, San Diego, CA 92102

Date and Time: Monday – Friday 2 PM – 9 PM, Saturday – Sunday 10 AM – 3 PM

Best For: Exercise, relaxation, walking, getting outdoors

Increasingly, when you mention the neighborhood of Golden Hill you will get a reaction that indicates the person you are talking to either knows where it is or has a pretty good idea (e.g. “Somewhere south of Balboa Park, right?”) instead of a blank stare. However, even those who know where the neighborhood is likely don’t know where, or what, the Golden Hill Recreation Center (GHRC) is.

Located on the south-east portion of Balboa Park (just east of Golden Hill Park), the GHRC is nestled between 26th Street and the Balboa Park Golf Course, just north of Russ Boulevard.
  [Read more…]

The Golden Hill Vibe: Over Forty Years of Grit, Grace, and Gentrification

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By Jim Miller

This week I move from interviewing a recent arrival to Golden Hill to a longtime resident.

Peter Zschiesche and his wife Pam Clark have lived in the Greater Golden Hill community since 1971 and have seen the neighborhood change quite a bit over the years. Peter was involved in anti-war movement politics in the early seventies and later became a leader in the Machinists Union and played a key part in the strikes at NASSCO in the 1980s. He is the Founding Director of the Employee Rights Center, which began in 1999, and he currently serves as Vice President of the Board of Trustees for the San Diego Community College District. Thus most of Peter’s adult life has been spent fighting for social justice in the service of workers, students, immigrants, and others in Golden Hill and San Diego at large.   [Read more…]

Eating 25th Street in Golden Hill

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Part I: Breakfast

By Emma Goldman

“MOM! I’m hungryyyyy!”

It was 9:00 AM on a Sunday morning. I was still in my Wonder Woman jammies finishing my coffee.

I looked at my nine year-old who was lounging on our couch watching cartoons, clutching his belly, and said: “Golden Hill Café or Los Reyes?

Eggs, bacon, and hash browns? Or a breakfast burrito? Or donuts and pastries at Panchitas? A Wonchi with bacon at Krakatoa? Or we could wait for lunch and get a slice of pizza at Luigi’s or a falafel wrap at the Kabob House….”

You see, we are surrounded by food places where we live in Golden Hill. And more places have been opening up to keep things interesting. Later on, as my son was devouring his massive egg, bacon, potato, and cheese burrito from one of our taco stands, I decided to do a three part series on eating in Golden Hill with a special focus on 25th Street, as that has the greatest concentration of places to go in this historic neighborhood.   [Read more…]

Field of View: Golden Hill

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By Annie Lane

Among other amenities, the historic Golden Hill neighborhood boasts a community garden on Russ Boulevard, which was started in 2004 and now has 26 plots tended to by individual gardeners. There’s also the 25th Street Musical Bridge, a piece of public art hidden in plain sight that can be found where 25th Street crosses over the Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway, or SR-94.

Designed by artist Roman de Salvo and funded by a $39,000 grant from the City of San Diego Arts and Culture program, the Musical Bridge is a series of chromatic bells that plays Crab Carillon when struck with a pipe or stick while walking the length of the bridge.

But various works of art can be found in nearly every direction of Golden Hill, from the brightly painted flower shops to the rich and extravagant architecture — much of which predates the 1900s. Even with its steep inclines, wandering around Golden Hill is worth every minute.   [Read more…]

On a Slow Ride from Golden Hill to South Park

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By Ernie McCray

Often when I tell someone I live in Golden Hill they say “Oh, yeah? Where?” 30th and Cedar is my reply and then they say “That’s South Park.”

“No, Golden Hill,” I say and they, like we’re in a debate competition, and they’ve got me on this one, start quoting passages from a map to prove that I’m not a Golden Hillian. And then I have to explain to them, in a nice friendly “home is where the heart is,” kind of way, that no matter what some chart has to say, I live in Golden Hill.

And I don’t say that out of any animosity towards them or South Park. Not at all. It will be a slow ride if it happens but I might claim to live there some day since I do “officially.” It’s just that I’m a Golden Hill O.G.   [Read more…]

Book Review: In Praise of Tomatoes A Year in the Life of a Home Tomato Grower

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A Golden Hill Vegetable Chain Letter that Knits the Neighborhood Together

By Anna Daniels

…It is Shepherd’s passion for growing tomatoes, resulting in his tomato patch close to the sidewalk in one of San Diego’s mid-city neighborhoods, that provides the framing “story” for his book. The story encompasses numerous connections that begin with soil and seeds and soon include family, neighbors, friends, a neighborhood and strangers past and present whose interests have also been ignited by the tomato.   [Read more…]

The Greater Golden Hill Community Development Corporation: Striving to Emphasize Community over Corporation

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By Jim Miller

When we at the San Diego Free Press decided to turn our focus to the community of Golden Hill, one of the first people I thought it would be good to talk to was my friend, neighbor, union brother, and colleague Judd Curran.  Judd and his wife Victoria both teach at Grossmont College, live in Golden Hill, and sit on the board of the Greater Golden Hill Community Development Corporation Board  and are quite active in the community.  I know Judd and his wife as smart, progressive, compassionate people who want the best for their community.  Thus Judd is uniquely suited to speak to the issues of community identity, gentrification, and the past, present, and future of Golden Hill.    [Read more…]

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