I am proud to say this is the primero year that our annual Best of San Diego issue includes a Best of Tijuana section. After all, no matter what may come to pass, I think of ours as a megaregion.
Our assistant production designer Richie Gonzalez commutes every day from Tijuana, and in fact, he became instrumental in helping us collect items to photograph. Our writers had turned in their copy, but our art department still had to picture the products we considered “best,” and all of our shoots were scheduled to happen on this side of the border. Naturally, there were a few snags. For example, you can only bring over one liter of alcohol per person every thirty days. That didn’t leave us a lot of wine bottle options. And the beautiful fruit that topped the cake? Probably should’ve declared the fruit. But each cake was boxed and buckled in its own seat of Richie’s silver Jetta as he waited 45 minutes in the SENTRI lane. As for requesting supplied art, our emails largely went unanswered for five weeks—an eternity in the US publishing world. That’s about how long it takes to send a postcard from Punta Mita to Point Loma.
This issue travels north, too, albeit within national borders. For “The Oceanside Revolution,” editor Troy Johnson spent multiple days digging into the North County coastal town. With native O’sider and uber-buzzy chef Davin Waite as his Sherpa of sorts, Troy got to meet the people, places, and history behind the city’s renaissance. It’s a soulful, artistic place, and Troy tells us why—along with everything you have to see, eat, and drink while you’re there.
That’s the beauty of living in San Diego. We have the breadth of the county to explore varying landscapes, cultures, and personalities, not to mention the privilege of living by Mexico, where just a 20-minute drive from downtown can take us to a whole other country. We’re a megaregion, and proud of it.
You can toast to many of the winners from our cover story on August 18 during our annual Best of San Diego shindig at Liberty Station. See you at the fiesta!
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CEO Jim Fitzpatrick, Erin Glenny, and Senior Editor Kim Cunningham at the Best of San Diego party 2016 | Photo by E3 Photography
