Guidebook

Caldo’s Speciality Items on Menu:

Baked Portobello MushroomFilled with scallops, shrimp, roasted peppers, bread crumbs, Italian seasonings, ​and mozzarella cheese.

Side of Jumbo Meatball

Sicilian Style Sauteed Mushroom

Baked Artichoke Hearts

With mozzarella cheese, olive oil, garlic, ​and kalamata olives​.

Fresh Mussels and ClamsRegular or hot and spicy marinara sauce or clear sauce. Additional $2.00 all clams

Eggplant Fritti

Lightly battered and pan-seared, topped with fresh garlic, basil, tomato sauce and parmesan.

Chicken Marsala

Chicken breast in wine and mushroom sauce served with pasta and marinara sauce.

Cajun Chicken Gorgonzola

Chicken breast cubed tossed with cream sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, cajun seasonings, ​and pasta.

Pescatore
Fresh clams, jumbo shrimp, mussels, calamari​ and scallops sauteed in marinara or clear sauce.

11:30am – 9:30pm Sun – Thurs
11:30am – 10pm Fri & Sat

Monday-Saturday 10:00am-6:00pm
Sunday 10:30am-5:00pm

Laura’s vision is to provide our guests a happy and comfortable place to satisfy your need for everything CHOCOLATE. She is very passionate about chocolate! Life is too short not to make occasional indulgences…so invite visit our Chocolate Bar…for yourself or select a gift for someone else.

Just about everyone has a fond memory of selecting a special piece of chocolate or candy at some point of time in their life….Stop by the Carlsbad Chocolate Bar and pick from their large selection today!

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
MON-THURSDAY 9AM-7PM
FRI-SAT 9AM-8PM
SUN 8AM-6PM

In May 2014, Cristina Amoroso was a high-paid financial analyst for a global oil company and Paola Richard was a journalist and international media consultant for Italian ministries moved from Rome directly to Carlsbad to bring the authentic taste of the worldwide renowned Italian gelato.

Their passion and research for the most outstanding traditional gelato brought Chef Cristina to Università dei Sapori in Perugia, Italy (University of Flavors) http://www.universitadeisapori.it, where she attended long term courses in artisanal gelato production, frozen pastries and decoration, working and learning from some of the most famous Italian and Sicilian gelato masters.

Stepping into Gaia Gelato (“gaia” means joyful in Italian) is like taking a trip to Rome. .

Witch Creek Winery is San Diego’s oldest Urban Winery originally founded in 1993 and then relocated to Carlsbad in 1996. They pride ourselves in making easy drinking, high quality wines that range from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to Teroldego and Barbera. At Witch Creek, they aim to bring you a wide variety of outstanding, award-winning wines. In 2016, they were recognized as San Diego’s Best Winery by the San Diego A-list. Come by and enjoy a glass, bottle, or tasting!

Join their wine club! For $37, you will receive 2 bottles of wine and 4 wine tastings a month for you and a friend! Our wine club is exclusively red wines for you red lovers out there!  Included in your membership is also one free veranda rental per year, where you can host an event.

2906 Carlsbad Blvd. Carlsbad, CA 92008

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: (760)720-7499

Tasting Room Hours

Sun-Th: 12-8pm

Fri-Sat: 11am-10:30pm

We put our own twist on Mexican and American favorites creating what we like to call “California Grub”. Our primary focus is Mexican influenced street tacos and an infused breakfast. We have a great variety of craft beers both on draft and in the bottle. Great food & casual atmosphere creating a great experience for everyone to enjoy!

Try their pastor or carnitas tacos all day Tuesday for $1.50 (originally $2.55). Tuesday specials also extend to drinks. Quench your thirst with $3 Mexican draft beers. Have your fill with $2 fish and duck chicharrones.

“Your kitchen away from home” Located in Carlsbad, CA. Gregorio’s Restaurant. Nothing pairs better with this cold weather than a warm creamy pasta. Make yourself at home in their inviting dining room. Be transported to a quaint, Italian villa and enjoy our dedicated hospitality, beloved family recipes and extensive wine list.

Experience their Italian kitchen & Enjoy the outside seating and dine al fresco on the patio or take a peek at our open-kitchen while you eat in their dining room.

Flavorful, five-star sauces fill the menu at Gregorio’s Italian Restaurant, and Carlsbad visitors will say it serves the best Italian fare in town. The menu at Gregorio’s Italian Restaurant features both low-fat and healthy fare with bold flavors. Complement your meal with a beer or wine from this restaurant’s delightful drink menu. Bask in the sun (or moon!) light when you dine on their patio.

Pizza dough made fresh daily. 100% Mozzarella. Toppings (Individual $2 / Large $3): broccoli / onion / green pepper / mushroom / jalapeno / black olive / plum tomato / fresh tomato / garlic / fresh basil / pineapple artichoke / fried eggplant / anchovy / ham / bacon / spicy sausage / meatball / pepperoni / gorgonzola / ricotta

CARLSBAD (CBS 8) – There’s one thing you can say about Larry Himmel — when he goes out to do a story on a cafe, he never comes back empty handed.

Café Topes is a stylish, new, family owned cafe, just a speed bump or two away from downtown Carlsbad on Roosevelt Street, where Joe Barille and his family serve up…

“Big breakfasts, big lunches, hearty, freshly made,” Barille said.

There are humongous fresh veggie burritos and mounds of potatoes, alongside…

“Lots of eggs benedict. Lots of pancakes, different kinds from M&Ms and Oreos, peanut butter and whipped creme and bananas,” Barille said.

Café Topes even has an uber-omelette on the menu that they dare you to eat.

“The dirty dozen challenge, 12 eggs with plenty of potatoes and you got two hours and (if) you finish it, it’s free,” Barille said.

And even though they only opened their doors four weeks ago, their dirty little secret about mom’s righteous cinnamon rolls is out.

“The big cinnamon rolls have been going out the door. By 11 o’clock, we’ve been selling out, making double batches on the weekends,” Barille said.

For mom, Jacqui, it’s just like home.

“I used to make them all the time for the boys. We used to have four or five boys at our house, after surfing, that would be starving. So I wanted to make something inexpensive and something yummy that would fill them up,” she said.

When it comes to loading on the rich creme cheese frosting, you’ve got choices.

“You can get them normal style or we also do it dirty and that’s where it’s slathered in frosting,” she said.

Tucked away in a Carlsbad cafe, a dirty little family secret, is the sweet taste of success.

The best authentic Mexican food. It is always so fresh and so good!! Everything is made from scratch.The family is so caring and friendly. It is definitely a local favorite.

Lola’s Mexican Deli is in the heart of Barrio Carlsbad.

Barrio Carlsbad endures
“People stay here if they can, because it’s a walkable neighborhood with little crime.”
San Diego Reader: By Candice Reed, March 8, 2017

From the beach, walk inland up Carlsbad Village Drive. Pass the beach bungalows that rent for $4000 a month and beach mansions listed for sale at $7 million. Check out the pricey condominiums with floor-to-ceiling windows that sell for a million and a half. Cross the railroad tracks and go another four blocks through the shopping district of town. Take a right at Pizza Port — Roosevelt Street — and after a couple of blocks you’ll find yourself in a neighborhood of tiny clapboard houses, where signs written in English and Spanish hang on the outside of El Torito Market. You’ve found Barrio Carlsbad.

The heart of the neighborhood
Barrio Carlsbad’s houses are tiny, but still expensive. In 2015, a two-bedroom, one bath house of 676 square feet sold for $770,000.

The City of Carlsbad is 39.1 square miles and has seven miles of coastline. The barrio is near downtown Carlsbad bordered by Carlsbad Village Drive to the north, Tamarack Avenue to the south, Interstate 5 to the east, and the railroad tracks to the west.

In 1994, in the prologue to his photographic history of the City of Carlsbad, author Charles Wesley Orton wrote of the “ineffable sense of purpose and peace among the residents of the city.” Orton believed that, “Nowhere within the city’s boundaries is it more evident than in Barrio Carlsbad. Here is an enclave of largely Mexican-American citizens whose families moved into that neighborhood as far back as the late 1800s. With the help of caring residents such as Kathleen Apodaca-Marquez, Ofie Escobedo, and Connie Trejo this area is a model for the preservation of positive core values and mores.”

Ofie Escobedo and her sister run Lola’s 7-Up store since the 1980s.

Two of the women he mentions — Ofie Escobedo, and Connie Trejo — are sisters who along with their sister Frances Jauregui Moreno were born to Mexican immigrants, Reyes and Dolores “Lola” Jauregui, who came to Carlsbad in the 1920s. Escobedo and Trejo have run Lola’s 7-Up store since their parents died and the store fell into disrepair in the ’80s. They remodeled the store and re-opened it in 1986 with the name Lola’s 7-Up Market & Mexican Deli. At 3292 Roosevelt Street, Lola’s is an icon in the barrio. The store is stocked with a few groceries, but the biggest draw is the deli, where Escobedo and Trejo’s family members cook and manage the busy counter.

“I wish they would fire me,” Escobedo laughed, her eyes twinkling as she stood behind the counter. “I’m hoping the next generation will take over the store and I can retire.” Escobedo is 88 years old. “I’ve been here since the beginning; I was practically born in this store,” she said. “The barrio has managed to maintain its charm and its culture. However, there are major changes coming.”

Carlsbad’s unfinished master plan may propel those changes. Two drafts have been issued — in November of 2015 and April of 2016. Both were heavily criticized by many of the city’s 112,000 residents.

“They’ve been very accommodating and have some good ideas,” Escobedo said. “But I hate to see big changes that will raise housing prices. If you do that, the people who were born here in their parents’ houses and even their grandparents’ houses won’t be able to afford it anymore.”

Lola’s, a small store and delicatessen located in the center of the barrio at the northeast corner of Roosevelt Street and Walnut Avenue, serves as an unofficial meeting house. It’s a place to visit neighbors and share stories while eating Mexican food. Older barrio residents come in regularly for a cup of coffee and to socialize with others, while high school students pour through the doors at noon for tacos and burritos.

“My parents came to the area in the ’20s and opened their first store in the ’40s catering to people who had come to the area fleeing the Mexican Revolution,” Escobedo said. “The neighborhood is changing as far as the diversity of the people. Which I think is good: there’s nothing wrong with new ideas and families in the barrio, which by the way means ‘neighborhood’ in Spanish. That’s what we are, a very close-knit neighborhood.”

The taco selection is small but mighty. And we love the simplicity of the carne asada taco. Inside a hard shell (a novelty!) is a handful of freshly grilled beef with tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. On top is a hefty dollop of sour cream. You can devour it on Lola’s small outdoor patio, but we prefer eating indoors where the action happens.

Lola’s is the oldest consecutive business in Carlsbad and you don’t stay in business that long without having great food. My favorite is the bean and cheese burrito, yum! The beans come for heaven, they are so smooth.

Hours

Mon – Fri: 7:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sat: 7:00 am – 5:00 pm