The Pacific Beach Coffee Scene
UPDATE, 19-Jan: Everybody, thanks for your patience. I've been traveling all over the place, but lining up interviews with local cafe owners in Pacific Beach. Stay tuned, and learn more about the coffee scene here.Two years ago, I moved to San Diego, California. I only knew one person who lived here, so I decided to live downtown so that I'd be able to meet people. I didn't realize that downtown San Diego isn't close to the beach, and beach is why I wanted to live here. About eight months ago, I finally moved to the beach, specifically Pacific Beach, one of the nicest parts of the greater San Diego area.In a nutshell, San Diego is so far south, it's almost at the border with Mexico. The airport is directly north of the downtown core, closer to downtown than in any other major US city I know. Beyond the airport, the harbor morphs into beach, and eventually meets the Pacific Coast Highway. The Pacific Beach neighborhood is 15 miles north of downtown San Diego. It is a beautiful stretch of beach with a three mile boardwalk for pedestrians, cyclists, and skateboarders.
[ad#Google Adsense - use me]
PB was mainly known for its young residents and college students, but with a rising cost of living, the population has matured and is becoming more professional and affluent. I live seven blocks from the ocean, but a few blocks away from the main street that divides PB east and west. As my landlord says, "the zombies don't come this far from the main street".In the weeks to come, I'll be checking out the coffee scene here in Pacific Beach. PB is becoming known for its bars and eateries, so it should have a good coffee scene. If it doesn't, let's find out why not.To identify the best cafes that PB has to offer, I went to Yelp and searched under "coffee" and my zip code. As I visit and profile these cafes, you should also go to Yelp and carry out the same search. I ranked the results both by how well-rated they are and how close they are to where I live. I made my final list based on who ranked highly on both lists of results. You could build a similar ranking and evaluate the coffee in your area.In each case, I'll try their coffee, and reach out to the owners to find out more about how they started out in coffee, and how they select the coffee that they serve. Stay tuned!