Cococabana Rooftop Bar in Oceanside, Union Kitchen & Tap in Encinitas and Monarch Ocean Pub in Del Mar are among 21 San Diego County bars and restaurants facing off in the inaugural San Diego Cocktail Championship through the end of April. Patrons can visit participating establishments and vote on their drink creations now through April 28, when the competition culminates in a block party, hosted by Rustic Root, Swing Social and Tiki Annex, in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter along Fifth Avenue from Market Street to Island Avenue. Cococabana’s cocktail for the San Diego Cocktail Championship is ..read more

A historic local surf shop, community garden nonprofit, doctor and student were the recipients of Encinitas environmental stewardship awards on Wednesday, April 17. The awards, presented annually by the city’s Environmental Commission, were presented at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. Excellence in Environmental Stewardship Awards for 2023 went to Hansen Surfboards and the Encinitas Community Garden as local business and nonprofit recipients. City officials noted Hansen’s affiliation with nonprofit Plastic Beach’s recycling program to encourage responsible recycling of plastic wrap waste. “I ..read more

Oceanside and Vista joined other North San Diego County cities this month in an alternative network to supply energy to their residents. The Clean Energy Alliance — which now includes Oceanside and Vista in addition to Carlsbad, Solana Beach, Del Mar, San Marcos and Escondido — supplies energy using alternative resources while still utilzing SDG&E lines. Oceanside and Vista joined CEA as of April 1, with the cities’ residents automatically enrolled in the public entity’s Clean Impact Plus option, which offers 50% renewable and 75% carbon-free power, according to CEA’s website. “We’re honor ..read more

I can’t recall if she went by “Lizard” or “Lizzard.” It doesn’t really matter at the moment. What matters is what I recall about Elizabeth, a student colleague who was a year ahead of me at San Dieguito High School when we were on The Mustang student newspaper staff. I recall her having a dry sense of humor and a no-nonsense approach to doing things. I remember snippets like how she signed her nickname on a news staff planning document, something I believe I still have in storage somewhere among my old high school paperwork. Or the time we had an end-of-semester gathering, and the dinner host ..read more

A recent uptick in fatal train collisions in San Diego County is raising alarm bells for city and law enforcement officials. The number of deadly incidents along the rails has spiked this year, renewing concerns over access to mental health services for people at risk of suicide. In the first three months of 2024, there were 10 fatal collisions in San Diego County. Eight of these were on the stretch of coastal tracks from Del Mar up to Oceanside. Four of them were in Encinitas and Carlsbad. For comparison, there were a total of 12 fatal collisions in 2023, according to data from the North Coun ..read more

Rite Aid drugstores will leave Encinitas entirely in the coming weeks, according to an updated closures list filed in an ongoing bankruptcy case. The store, at 439 Santa Fe Drive in Cardiff across the street from Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, is closing its pharmacy by April 17, according to a Rite Aid employee. A liquidation sale is underway through May 16. The first closure occurred at the end of last August when the Rite Aid location on Manchester Avenue in Olivenhain was shuttered. It preceded the closures of several locations in the region, and more nationwide, as Rite Aid entered ..read more

Spring enters full bloom with two of coastal North San Diego County’s biggest events of the season, the Encinitas Spring Street Fair and Carlsbad Village Street Faire. In keeping with the street fairs’ opportunities for community connections, local business support, live entertainment and food, the region’s local farmers markets look to sunnier days with their offerings this spring as well. Early spring also offers a fresh album launch from Oceanside singer-songwriter Kimmi Bitter. Click the links embedded in this story’s text for more information about the events covered. Information for this ..read more

The Easter weekend storm moving through North San Diego County wasn’t the only event bringing thundering rumbles to the area. A 3.5-magnitude earthquake near Lake Henshaw, northeast of Escondido, rattled North County at 4:12 p.m. Sunday, March 31, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of damage, but residents reported feeling it in part of Escondido west through San Marcos, Oceanside and Vista. Few reported feeling it in Carlsbad and Encinitas. The quake was also felt as far north as Temecula east to Cathedral City and Indio in Riverside County and south to S ..read more

ENCINITAS — The city of Encinitas’ spring egg hunt has taken a bit of a detour this year as an early spring storm approaches for Saturday, March 30. The renamed Spring Egg Drive-Thru takes place from 10 a.m. to noon at the Encinitas Community Park baseball field parking lot, 425 Santa Fe Drive. Participants can stay cozy in their cars while event volunteers fill baskets with eggs and springtime cheer. For more information, go to the city of Encinitas’ event page. The North Coast Current and OsideNews welcome your community news. Submit event announcements, stories and photos to currentevents[a ..read more

The city of Encinitas recently completed a pedestrian crossing on El Camino Real between two shopping centers just north of Encinitas Boulevard. The Z-style crossing, which stretches between Encinitas Village shopping center to the east and Encinitas Marketplace to the west, was placed across a median where pedestrians frequently jaywalked to get to North County Transit District bus stops in the area. Work on the project, which was approved in June 2022, started last September and was completed in mid-March. The city received a $517,600 Caltrans Local Highway Safety Improvement Program grant f ..read more