Welcome to Little Italy!

... alright. Hahaha!

*beep*

Welcome to Little Italy!

Hahaha... we always laugh. Sorry.

Oh, am I doing it first? Hahaha!

Yeah.

*beep*

Welcome to Little Italy!

I can't even say "Little Italy" right now.

*beep*

Welcome to Little Italy!

So today we are going to hang out around Little Italy.

Well, actually the weekend. We're spending the weekend here.

And we're in Little Italy, San Diego. I know there's a bunch of Little Italys.

Yeah, the one in San Diego. I live in San Diego and Crystal is visiting from Florida

but I actually have never really checked out Little Italy.

I've been kind of waiting to check it out when Crystal's here

because I want that same experience that she gets like you know, everything's for the first time.

So we're gonna go check out some restaurants and cafes.

I know there's a lot of good pizza places around here.

Obviously, hahaha.

Cafes - there's a ton of cafes.

Oh and gelato!

And I love it here because there's a lot of seating outside

and the weather in San Diego is perfect almost all year round so it's a great place to sit outside.

So nice.

Just enjoy the views - you can see the ocean from here.

So we're gonna go check it out now and you can follow us along on all of our exploration today of Little Italy.

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Someone's sleeping, hahaha

"That Red Chair" hahaha

You did it!

So we just saw the um... what was it called? That Big Red Chair in SD

so gotta take a photo there of course like everybody.

All these store locations always has that big chair that people have to take pictures in

so of course we had to do that.

These are Little Italy's legends.

Rose and Salvatore Cresci

they're cofounders of the Italian-American social event in San Diego

so that's why they're the stars... er, the legends.

So this is a little map here. Where are we, Candy?

Oh, we're right here.

That's where we are. And we're gonna go this way?

Yeah because this is all India Street.

Ok so this is Born and Raised. It's a steak restaurant.

It is amazing in there. I think it took them 3 years to build or a little bit longer.

But the amazing thing is they spent over 6.5 million dollars building this place

and you can tell that it was worth that much because it's very grand in there

and their bar upstairs, it overlooks Little Italy.

Usually they open at 5:00, I think, from what Candy was saying.

I think that's what I saw it online and I'm like 5?

Yeah but we want to be up on the rooftop before the sunset because the sunset's at 4:30

so she just asked the hostess what time they open and she said 4 so we'll definitely go there by 4.

Here's a beer... brewery eatery place.

Awww, hi!

Awww hey cuties.

Oh my goodness, look at that face.

Found another legend. This is Renata and Stefano Brunetto. Let's see what they did.

They look like a happy couple.

Yeah, they look very happy.

Oh. They opened the first Mona Lisa restaurant

this famous place here.

That car is kind of in the way.

So Candy was telling me that the Mona Lisa Italian Foods Restaurant is pretty popular.

Yeah, that's why their legends here because they opened the legendary Mona Lisa restaurant.

Let's go check it out.

Ok.

Are you guys doing like a tour thing or what?

Yes, we are.

That's cool! Of this area?

Yup, of Little Italy.

Are you from here or are you just visiting?

CRYSTAL: I'm visiting my sister.

CANDY: Yeah but I live here.

CRYSTAL: I'm from Florida.

Oh. You're from here?

Well, not from here but I live here now. Yeah, currently.

Oh cool, well, welcome. It's a nice area.

Oh, it's really packed in here.

There's breads and stuff.

Oh yeah, I see the bread. And a deli.

It's very popular.

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So we're inside Mona Lisa Italian Foods and when we pass by with all these people in there

and we also saw - throughout Little Italy they have like these little plaques of Italian legends

and one of them was near this restaurant - or the little market.

So they started Little Italy Foods in 1956 and have been here ever since

and now they are three generations in and it's still family-run

and very popular. Everybody's at the deli getting some stuff.

And they also have a restaurant next door.

And we came walking in here and everybody's super friendly and they're like

Oh hey! What are you guys doing?

So we love the vibe here.

This is made in Italy, this pasta.

I mean all these noodles look really good actually.

They got lots of ricotta cheese

Beer. Lots of beer. They have some wines too that I saw earlier.

But yeah, lots of different kinds of pasta

so if you're looking for Italian ingredients, this is probably the place to go.

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**plane's loud jet engine**

That's why you can't fly drones here.

That was super close!

So close!

It says hashtag Star Wars up there.

Whaaaat!? This is so pretty!

Look at how nice it is in here.

Oh my goodness. They did such a great job with the Christmas decoration.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

Oh wow.

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**plane's loud jet engine**

It really is crazy how close it is.

Yes. Very, very close.

Ok, movin' on.

Here it is. Here's James Coffee.

This is James Coffee. They actually have several locations in San Diego

and this is their Little Italy location.

It's a pretty interesting coffee place because around it are these little boutique shops and a barber shop.

The one thing I like about James coffee which really has nothing to do with coffee

is I really love their logo hahaha

I'm not a fan of owls or anything. I don't know why. There's something about their logo that I really like.

That's the logo there. The owl. Is that it? That's the owl?

There's the owl there too.

Oh ok.

And there's the barber shop right next to it. Urban Shave.

this whole area is the hangout where you can drink your coffee and stuff

and they have glasses here.

If you need some glasses.

And there's a small boutique store here.

It's mainly men's fashion here. It's probably why the vibe is pretty - male type of vibes

kinda dark and grungy hahaha

but I like it!

They do have one that's more female-oriented over here.

And if you go a little bit further down - if you're a coffee connoisseur, they have a shop there

with a bunch of coffee gadgets - I guess if you want to call them gadgets

but I know a lot of men are into their coffee, drip coffee, coffee grinder

cause they got some fancy ones here if you're into that kind of stuff.

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Oh my gosh these are all mug shots of celebrities

it's like Rick James.

And there's Mick Jagger.

yeah Jagger.

♪♪ MUSIC ♪♪

Alright, so we just kind of like hit the end of... what road is this, Candy? India?

India Street.

India Street. It's where El Camino is.

They actually have a cool wall over there so we took some pictures.

I really like the design of this building.

I've never been there and it's closed right now so they must not be open until dinner hours.

Or maybe they're closed for the holidays. Who knows.

Oh, possibly yeah.

But then they have cute little stores like this next door.

I like their clothes and their little...

lots of plants.

I really, really love these creeper glasses.

He he he ha ~~~

Candy suggested I go on a scooter with this. What do you think? Hahaha!

I think we'll be the talk of the town!

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Look at this green gyoza.

What is that?

Vegetable...

Looks like original ramen...

They have a lunch special where you order ramen with a side

and my side is the veggie gyoza which I've never had a veggie gyoza so...

Give this a shot.

It's not bad but I do enjoy regular pork gyoza more.

What's different is that it's not crunchy. And I'm used to a little bit more of a crunch when I have gyoza.

Not bad.

So I got a lunch combo as well.

And I got the original Hakata Tonkotsu ramen and some kara-age

So all this was only like ten bucks.

I usually don't use sauce but I'll try this one.

Hot.

That was some good stuff. It was just so hot.

And that's really spicy sauce. I don't think I need the spicy sauce. The favors are already good enough for me.

This ramen looks really yummy.

Mmmm... really good flavors and the noodles are thick, which I like.

Whooo - just had some lunch at the ramen place.

It was really good. The broth was really, really good.

It was SO good.

Side dishes are average but... I would say skip the side dishes and just get the ramen

cause the ramen is delicious.

Oh my goodness, it was so creamy. I got the tonkotsu one. It was such creamy broth

and they put some kind of citrusy flavor to it too.

It tasted like yuzu to me. It's a Japanese -

it's like a cross between a lime and a lemon but it was very distinct.

Yeah.

But it kind of added a nice light refreshing flavor to it. I really enjoyed it.

I had chicken broth and it was perfect for the chicken broth.

And I had the pork broth and I like the thick noodles too.

Yeah, I liked the thick noodles and they weren't overcooked.

Mhmm.

That's one thing we're picky about.

Yeah, definitely.

So we're making our back to...which area?

Ummm....it's kinda - I don't know what the area is called. It's where the food hall is.

Yeah and the fountain. There's a little fountain there.

We're heading back that way because there's an ice cream shop across the street

that I heard was really good.

And I think it's homemade ice cream.

I think that's what it said. So, we're gonna go check that out now.

Oohh, it smells good.

Oh my goodness.

That smells amazing!

Looks pretty busy in there.

Yeah.

I was like, "Crystal!" and you're walking off.

HAHAHAHA!

Oh, I'm sorry. The smell...

You're like so excited.

I was just like, Oh my god! I'm like a dog. Just smelling.

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We are at the Saturday Farmers Market here in Little Italy.

Yes we are!

Oh, and Little Italy San Diego.

I know. We keep on saying Little Italy like you know where it's at.

Hahaha yeah, San Diego, California.

And uh... we woke up pretty early. We had coffee first

at Frost Me Cafe and Bakery. We sat there for about an hour and had breakfast.

and the farmer's market opens up at 8 so it's perfect timing to have coffee and then come.

And the coffee place is right in the middle of the farmer's market so it's perfect.

You know when everyone's setting up and ready to go.

Yeah right now is the perfect time to come because it's not that busy.

And everything is freshly out and nicely organized.

Yeah, there's like a lot of samples down there so actually, we didn't have to eat breakfast, hahaha

Yeah, I know, that's true. We shouldn't have but whatever. We needed to have that cinnamon... what is it?

The Morning Bun!

That Morning Bun is so good. We had to have it two days in a row.

It's so good.