Estudillo says rumors of the restaurant’s imminent closure are entirely false. “This news made me a little bit stressed,” she says, gesturing to the line of hungry patrons stretching down the block. “Everybody asks, ‘Are you going to close?’ No, I’m not going to close. Not yet.”

Las Cuatro Milpas is San Diego’s oldest Mexican restaurant and has remained with the Estudillo family since its opening. Its tacos and tortillas are legendary and have been featured in the Netflix series Taco Chronicles, this magazine, and many, many others. 

Today, Estudillo’s sister Margarita Hernandez owns the restaurant, while the property remains in the hands of a shared family trust. Estudillo says that when her sister wants to sell the business, it’ll be her decision, as they are the last generation of descendants who wish to run the restaurant. But, she adds, she doesn’t foresee that happening soon—and not to the church next door, who has made repeated offers to purchase the property over the years. 

The family first heard news of their business closing on Monday when Estudillo’s daughter Beatrix showed her the unsubstantiated story posted on a local blog. “Not true,” she says firmly. But the incorrect story sparked hysteria across social media, inundating the family with calls, media inquiries, and questions from patrons. Beatrix had to create an Instagram account to keep up with the chaos. Even walking down the unusually long (even for them) line to get inside this morning, multiple people said they came to eat specifically because they heard it was closing. It was stressful, says Estudillo. And completely avoidable.

When they do sell—something that Estudillo says will probably happen in the next couple of years—it will be the property only and not the business itself. That day will mark the end of an era, but that day is not today.

The post Las Cuatro Milpas Is Not Closing—We Asked appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Barrio Logan’s population is 80 percent Hispanic. Up until the 1950s, the area was mostly a residential neighborhood housing almost half of the city’s Spanish speakers. But rezoning laws brought in junkyards, and, in 1963, the I-5 was built, bisecting the community. It was in the late ’60s, after the Coronado Bridge opened, that the barrio assumed its character, with residents fighting for the construction of Chicano Park and the maintenance of public green spaces in the area.

Since then, Barrio Logan has remained an activism stronghold, with community groups coming to the mat time and again against threats like gentrification and bad air quality. Today, the area is a hotbed of culture and a growing destination for food and shopping amid lowrider shows and street festivals.

Things to Do in Barrio Logan, San Diego

Eighty-three-year-old Barrio Station Executive Director Rachel Ortiz grew up within a few blocks of Chicano Park, with her parents and sister working in the fish canneries before the I-5 highway arrived. “I remember after work [the employees] had that fish smell on them, and everybody embraced it—people could buy homes or buy a new car. [They could] support their families,” Ortiz says.

At the nonprofit youth center Barrio Station, she provides a physical space where neighborhood kids can gather after school to exercise, box, use computers, and find support and mentorship. “That way, they are not on the street,” Ortiz adds. When she’s not at the center, here’s where she likes to hang out in the neighborhood.

Breakfast with a Side of History at Las Cuatro Milpas

Founded in 1933, Barrio institution Las Cuatro Milpas has “been there since I was a girl,” Ortiz recalls. “My parents would go in there and buy fresh-made corn and harina tortillas.” Nowadays, she orders chorizo with eggs, rice, and beans off the taco shop’s letterboard menu. Counter-serve and cash only, the restaurant has remained immune to the tug of trends and tech in its near-century of operation—but Ortiz isn’t complaining. “I would not want them to change a thing there,” she says.

Fresh Tamales at Northgate Market

Northgate Market is a community hub in Barrio Logan. The supermarket’s hot food stand slings beef, corn, and cheese tamales with beans. “They are always fresh, soft, steamy, and juicy,” Ortiz says. “The flavors are all delicious, but I favor the beef.”

Chow Down Near Chicano Park

Because of the restaurant’s proximity to Chicano Park, Ortiz feels right at home at casual Chinese eatery Imperial Express, located on the corner of Logan Avenue and Cesar E. Chavez Park Way. Her order of choice is the fried fish with vegetables, but “their vegetables with beef and white rice are also excellent,” she says.

Facts About Barrio Logan

• Barrio Logan’s Chicano heritage began with an influx of refugees during the 1910 Mexican Revolution.
• Chicano Park, with its massive murals painted on the Coronado Bridge support pillars, was designated as a historic landmark in 2016.
• The average price of a single-family home in Barrio Logan is $653,488.
• Barrio Logan residents had direct beach access to the bay until World War II, when the San Diego naval base expanded.
• Famous Mexican-American muralist Salvador Torres, who many consider the conceptual father of Chicano Park’s murals, grew up in Barrio Logan.

What’s Next for Barrio Logan

Taco institution ¡Salud! and adjoining Mexican-Japanese restaurant La Bamba Room closed after owner Ernie Becerra’s negotiations to renew the lease failed. The nationally acclaimed ¡Salud! opened in 2015 and anchored a vital corner of Logan Avenue, helping draw visitors to the area. Becerra will continue to offer catering services, but it’s unknown whether he will reopen in another location.

While the shuttering of ¡Salud! will certainly bring changes to Barrio Logan, the community looks to the future with a hopeful new blueprint. Barrio Logan residents had direct beach access to the bay until World War II, when the San Diego naval base expanded.

Concerns over bad air quality and its effects on public health have long plagued Barrio Logan and its residents, who experience one of the highest rates of asthma in California. The area’s new community plan finally passed late last year following approval by local authorities and the California Coastal Commission. Chief among its wins is the sought-after buffer zone between the commercial and residential zones to prevent air pollution.

The document will also help secure increased green spaces, better public transportation, and affordable housing, with the intention of ensuring that longtime residents are able to remain in the neighborhood despite the quickly gentrifying housing market.

But that’s not the only victory of the grassroots Chicano community’s efforts. The Port of San Diego has agreed to double their annual funding for combatting industrial effects within their area of influence, chiefly Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, and National City. A total of $1.5 million per year will be dedicated to environmental justice programs.

Where to Eat in Barrio Logan

Hayes Burger

El Salvadoreño

Fish Guts

Where to Shop in Barrio Logan

Libélula Books & Co

Beat Box Records

Future is Color

More Things to Do in Barrio Logan

Barrio Art Crawl

Garage Collective

Bread & Salt

The post The Local’s Guide to Barrio Logan appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Friends tried to warn Mario Cassineri that he was flirting with career delusion when he decided to open an Italian trattoria in Barrio Logan in 2019. Let alone in a house with its important wood parts black as tires. 

Why not Little Italy, where no one balks at $10 fries that apply truffle oil in the same volume preteens apply Sol de Janeiro? (Sol de J is the Drakkar Noir of Gen Alpha; I had to ask younger editorial staff.) Cassineri has a name, a reputation for quality Italian food that had followed him since he’d opened Bice in Downtown nearly 20 years ago. Why not North Park, San Diego’s urban amusement park, where everyone is a graphic designer and has a side band named after their pet chickens and yet can still somehow can afford food?

But he did it. He built Ciccia Osteria, largely by himself with friends on a Home Depot budget and an Italian’s genetically bestowed instinct for charming design. And it is lovely, in an “I built this” way. What used to be the front yard facing Logan Avenue—that main throb of Barrio, the one lined with lowriders and graffiti and religious talismans both sober and whimsical (like the “piñatas for Christ”)—is now a shaded dining patio, a lovely secret garden, an oxygenated space protecting his from-scratch pastas from the scratchy city air. 

The house, like the food, was built by hand. And it has worked. “Mario is the one who is always there if we need sugar or milk or advice,” a fellow restaurateur told me. 

Try These Dishes from Ciccia Osteria’s Menu

The Mushroom Flan

This dish is why I could go vegetarian, but never vegan. Because cheese and cream are capable of unsurmountable joys. Cassineri soaks porcini mushrooms in milk for 24 hours to make the base for a mornay sauce. It’s solidified into a custard-like texture, given a pecorino butter crust, baked to order, and then—delicious, in a nihilistic way—placed in a small pool of gorgonzola cheese fonduta with a single mint leaf up top (which makes it a salad in creative circles). 

The Pesto Gnocchi

The best gnocchi occupy a textural middle-magic between pasta and puree. Chefs often make wrong turns by adding too much flour, which places the gnocchi between pasta and chewing gum. Cassineri’s are clouds, made even more interesting with the addition of some Asiago cheese, pinched into the middle, nearly raviolo-style. The pesto is strained, not rustic, to match the silky texture of the gnocchi, with roasted pine nuts, tomatoes, and a light rain of Pecorino and Grana. 

Apricot-Habañero Ricotta Cake

First, remember this is not a cheesecake—it’s a ricotta cake. Ricotta cakes are an Italian specialty, less creamy and sweet than the cheesecake most of us know. A bit more savory, just the right amount of sugar and salt, with a texture between dried ricotta and cornbread. Cassineri’s is set on a cookie dough base, then topped with an apricot-habañero glaze, an ode to the Barrio’s deep Chicano culture. 

The post The Perfect Order at Ciccia Osteria appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Today, thanks to a wealth of colorful murals and locally owned shops, restaurants, bars, and cafés, walking down Logan Avenue resembles strolling through a neighborhood in any big Latin-American city.

Including almost everything south of Imperial Avenue and west of the I-15 until you hit the naval base, this part of town has been experiencing a cultural and culinary boom in the past few years, but good food has always been at the foundation of the neighborhood. Las Cuatro Milpas, one of the area’s most well-known spots, has been there since 1933 and is considered the oldest Mexican restaurant in San Diego.

Next time you stop by, check out unique landmarks like community hub Bread & Salt, independent bookstore Libélula Books, art café Por Vida, upcycled fashion boutique Sew Loka, and women-centered craft beer purveyor Mujeres Brewhouse before hitting one of these five delicious spots for a bite.

Quesabirria

¡Salud! Tacos

The quesabirria—an indulgent marriage between a quesadilla and a birria taco—originated in Tijuana, inspired by the traditional birria of Jalisco. To create his satiating version, ¡Salud! owner Ernie Becerra dips a slightly crispy corn tortilla in consomé before griddling it and stuffing it with melted jack cheese, braised pork birria, onion, and cilantro. Pair with their red salsa to break a sweat. Go between meal times to skip the line that usually rounds the corner and stay to enjoy Latin music and colorful murals.

Vampiro Al Pastor

Tacos Del Barrio

Presented by Turys Tacos, this small business on the back patio of popular brewery Border X offers tacos, mulitas, vampiros, burritos, pizzas, fries, and nachos—bar food, made Mexican-style. Their al pastor vampiro is a tostada topped with tender al pastor pork, plus radishes and onions for crunchiness. Soft, salty pinto beans balance it all out. Wash it down with a crisp, cold Jumbx hazy IPA from Border X.

Ubriaca

Ciccia Osteria

Few might expect to find an Italian restaurant on Logan Avenue. But it’s there—and it’s a 2021 Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand Award winner. They have a handwritten selection of specials that changes constantly, but among their permanent homemade fresh pastas is the ubriaca, a red wine–infused gemelli with mild hot Italian sausage, ricotta, and shallots. Also try their mushroom flan, the creamiest dessert-shaped appetizer, to go along your glass of vino rosso. Brush up on your Italian if you want to practice it with chef Mario Cassineri, who runs the place alongside his wife, chef Francesca Penoncelli.

Chilaquiles Divorciados

El Carrito

Located one block away from Chicano Park, this restaurant fashioned out of a 1930s cable car is busy breakfast through lunch with their ample offerings of Mexican antojitos. El Carrito‘s chilaquiles divorciados are the best of two worlds in one plate: On one side sits tortilla chips doused in green salsa, corn, and crema, light and subtly spiced. The chips perched across from it are bathed in red sauce, onion, cilantro, and cheese, imparting a deeper and more spicy flavor. In the middle, your choice of meat—the restaurant recommends carne de res (pulled beef), which complements both sauces nicely.

Pozole

La Fachada

La Fachada on 25th street is a hole-in-the-wall place, but the sort where the magic happens. Their menu is packed with homemade, traditional Mexican fare, but the pozole shines when accompanied with either tortillas or tostadas. The hearty, brothy soup is loaded with hominy and pork and comes garnished with shredded lettuce or cabbage, chili peppers, onion, garlic, radishes, avocado, and limes. Add in spicy red salsa for a kick that warms you from the inside out.

The post 5 of the Best Barrio Logan Dishes to Try Right Now appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Barrio Logan Restaurants and Bars

Las Cuatro Milpas

Run by the Estudillo family since the 1930s, Las Cuatro Milpas supplies the San Diego community with locally famous tortillas, tamales, and tacos. Make sure to bring cash and keep in mind that they’re closed on Sundays.

1857 Logan Avenue

Border X Brewing

Mexican craft beer for the win, and there are plenty of pours to choose from at Border X Brewing. The Horchata Golden Stout has notes of vanilla bean and cinnamon, while the Tarantula Stout is brewed with three different types of chocolate malt. Bonus: It’s a dog-friendly environment.

2181 Logan Avenue

Por Vida

There are lots of ways to quench your thirst at Por Vida, but, whatever you do, don’t walk out without a spicy lemonade or limonada made with chamoy and Tajín. Lick the rim for a blast of salt and spice, then take a swig to quell the flames.

2146 Logan Avenue

Barrio Dogg

The longtime little bro of the burger at the backyard cookout, the humble hot dog is the main act at Barrio Dogg. The franks at this joint are dialed up to 11 with a mountain of toppings: El Chihuahua, for example, comes covered in slow-braised pork, poblano and serrano peppers, and the house-made salsa verde. Get it wrapped in bacon or on top of an entire pound of fries. Your move, cheeseburger.

2234 Logan Avenue

Ryan Bros Coffee

Located right next to the sign declaring the neighborhood’s name, Ryan Bros Coffee can sweeten your morning with fluffy croissants or a sweet bear claw. Wash down a pastry with the Funky Monkey smoothie, made with chocolate, peanut butter, and bananas.

1894 Main Street

Things to Do in Barrio Logan

Chicano Park

A U.S. National Historic Landmark, Chicano Park is the country’s largest collection of outdoor murals, with many paying tribute to the neighborhood’s Mexican heritage. Make time for a stroll, as the experience will give you a greater appreciation for the Barrio and its inhabitants. Chicano Park Day is held annually in April to celebrate the park’s takeover by the community in 1970.

1993 Logan Avenue

Bread and Salt

A 45,000-square-foot space, Bread and Salt houses multiple independent galleries. Artwork from both local and international artists can be discovered inside, and the building regularly hosts affordable concerts and food pop-ups.

1955 Julian Avenue

Barrio Art Crawl

Held every second Saturday from 12 to 8 p.m., the Barrio Art Crawl features local Chicano artists, open studios, music, and food. Stay up to date with all the happenings by following @barrioartcrawl on Instagram.

Every 2nd Saturday along Logan Avenue

Neveria Los Mochis & Logan Ave Galeria de Arte

Any toppings on your ice cream? How about a sprinkling of culture? Order a cone (for dairy-free folks, there’s a generous selection of sorbets) and slurp away as you take in a collection of local art curated by Armando Nunez at this shared shop. 

2168 Logan Avenue

Garage Collective

You take the subway in New York and the train in Chicago, but, in California, you drive. Garage Collective is a space dedicated to everything that goes fast on two-to-four wheels. Members of the collective’s club can take advantage of perks like track days and cars and coffee events. Those not interested in a membership can always settle for a free tour. 

1827 Main Street, Unit B

The iN Gallery

Owner Irina Negulescu hangs her colorful works on the walls of The iN Gallery. Many of the paintings incorporate her favorite colors (red, blue and green), and several pieces are set in or under the water. The gallery is open by appointment or by chance. (I was lucky enough to stumble in without making any arrangements.)

1878 Main Street, Unit D

Barrio Logan Shopping & Boutiques

arts-rec

Founded in 2018 by pro skater Kellen James, arts-rec is a cool, clean space specializing in skateboards and streetwear. That includes plenty of shoes, and the store offers sneakerheads lots of Vans and Nikes to choose from. You’ll leave looking ready for the ramp—even if you have no idea how to ollie.

2161 Logan Avenue

Sew Loka

Growing up, Claudia Biezunski-Rodríguez’s father was a denim distributor. Her mother sewed clothing for all six kids. At Sew Loka, the Chicana designer honors their legacy, creating one-of-a-kind wearable masterpieces with upcycled materials and vintage fabrics. A major win for slow fashion (and your wardrobe).

2113 Logan Avenue

Beatbox Records

Arguably the kookiest shop in the Barrio, Beatbox Records is a music lover’s paradise. The small store is packed floor-to-ceiling with CDs, concert posters, figurines, and, of course, tons of records. Almost everything inside is for sale, so if you see something you like, ask about it.

2148 Logan Avenue

Libélula Books & Co.

It’s the inclusive atmosphere and wide-ranging selection of literature that make Libélula Books & Co. a special spot. There’s everything from LGBTQ reads to cookbooks, and even a section of books “hecho a mano,” or “made by hand.” Make sure to say hi to the resident polydactyl cat, Billie.

950 South 26th Street

HOLA Swim

Founded by besties Aida Soria and Syncletica Maestas, HOLA Swim vends suits designed and produced entirely in America’s Finest City. You’ll have to book an appointment to shop chic bikinis and one-pieces, plus sweatshirts and shorts perfect for tossing on after a long day chasing waves.

2159 Logan Avenue

The post San Diego Neighborhood Guide: Barrio Logan appeared first on San Diego Magazine.