Times Flies....When You're Eating Well

What’s it like to ‘eat for a living’?

 

Today’s edition of The La Jolla Light features my story about becoming its first restaurant critic 30 years ago, and watching the dining scene evolve over the years from margaritas-and-nachos territory to a sophisticated, trend-setting celebration of terrific  food.

 

San Diego residents and visitors alike will laugh at the vintage photos (at left, in 1981, a super cool Bertrand Hug watches chef Andre Mena do his stuff) and cry over the tarte tatin and confit de canard that they’ll never get to taste again.

Check it out.

Comments

[Lew Goodman of New York City]

What a wonderful article, Maureen! I lived in la Jolla from 1981-'84, and have visited three times since then, most recently two years ago this week.

Ocean Fresh in Bird Rock! Wasn't that the restaurant whose young owner died from a brain tumor? If so, that was the first place my first wife and I ate at in La Jolla, when we were looking for a place to live in San Diego. It was a Saturday night--March 28, 1981 to be precise--and we didn't see La Jolla's immense beauty till the following morning, when we drove on La Jolla Blvd. till its northern end. Seeing downtown La Jolla was love at first sight!

I loved your reviews in the Union, by the way, as I'm assuming you were there by 1981. Of course, I subscribed to the Light as well, so maybe I was reading you there.