Unexpected Conversations

Sometimes things work out better than expected.

I flew into San Diego to visit Addison and put a little bow on that particular quest but if I’m flying from one side of the continent to the other, I might as well spend a few days exploring.

Over a decade earlier, I had spoken at a conference in San Diego but I barely remember that trip. I vaguely recall the conference centre and presenting on stage but I couldn’t remember the city itself, with the exception of driving by an aircraft carrier. Sure enough, as I take the taxi to my hotel in the Gaslamp neighbourhood, there’s the aircraft carrier. At least I remembered that correctly.

I’ve travelled alone quite a bit and as such, I have my routines: find things to do and find places to eat.

For things to do, I generally like to do the tourist traps. Museums and art galleries and I’ll even do the bus tours. On this trip, I hit up the pier, I did the zoo, and walked around Balboa Park.

For food, I have my fine dining options picked, of course, but I’ll also check sites like Eater to see if there are possibly more casual options available.

I also like to hit up a different coffee shop every day. This takes me into different neighbourhoods and helps me explore a bit more, as I tend to do this on foot. Here, I went to Cafe Moto in Barrio Logan, Bird Rock in Downtown, and James Coffee Co in Little Italy. All were a 30 to 45 minute walk from my hotel. All of the coffee shops were okay, but not amazing. James Coffee is situated in a neat place with a handful of retail stores surrounding them and airplanes heard overhead every few minutes as they come in for landing.

The night after I went to Addison, I went to Youngblood—a speakeasy tucked away in the back of the Neighborhood bar. (There’s also another place called Noble Experiment in there.) It was on North America’s 50 Best Bars last year and for good reason. The collection of unusual spirits alone are worth a visit but the service was also top notch as the bartenders really engage in conversation. What took me by surprise was how conversational everybody else was at the bar. When I mentioned having gone to Addison, the two tech bros to my left were engaged to know more about my restaurant adventures. The woman to my right told me all about Soichi Sushi which I had conveniently already booked for the following night. I was surprised and delighted by the entire experience. I went in thinking I’d sit quietly at a bar enjoying a couple cocktails and walked out having a lively conversation with a half dozen folks and some bonus pours from the bartender after I expressed interest in their unique selection of liqueurs.

Soichi Sushi is the only other Michelin-starred restaurant in San Diego and what I booked for my last night in the city. (Unless you consider Carlsbad part of San Diego as every San Diegan insisted that the city had four Michelin-starred restaurants. Although I did get stories of the Kardashians enjoying some well-to-do restaurant up there.)

Again, I’m going in expecting a quiet omakase experience with hopefully some delicious sushi. I’m sat at the corner of the chef’s counter with 4 seats to my left and 7 seats to my right. Only two of the four seats are taken and I hear them chattering about how late—nearly an hour—their mates were. Once they arrive, the four middle-aged dudes are loud and boisterous and frequently making jokes with Chef Soichi who seemed to reluctantly play along. It’s clear that at least a couple of the guys had frequented this place before.

The three people to my right mostly spoke a different language but they spoke quietly enough that I couldn’t really hear what was being spoken. It was a couple courses in when the woman immediately to my right struck up a conversation. It turned out she was there with her husband and her brother, whose birthday they were there to celebrate. Turns out, they frequent this place often, too, remarking that it was more difficult to get a seat since they got their Michelin star.

Rounds of sake from everybody was being shared with the chefs, then the three to my right—who turned out to be from Brazil originally—shared their sake with me. Then I shared mine with them. Then the guys to my right were running low so I shared my sake with them. Then the hostess shared her favourite sake with me.

And then Chef Soichi pulled out a guitar and sang happy birthday to the birthday boy.

The evening ended up more delightfully surreal than expected.

I came back from San Diego with an appreciation for how friendly the people were and also an appreciation for why I enjoy travelling, even if travelling alone: to be present and have a story to tell.

I somewhat miss my days of speaking at and attending conferences, as it was an opportunity to meet people with common interests. I have many memories of after-conference parties running until the wee hours of the morning filled with great conversation. It was nice to get a taste of that once again with this trip.