Oct. 20 issue of “San Diego Reader” is the “EAT” issue with lots of restaurant reviews and coupons. Being a burger conniseur, I scoured the relevant section and decided to try out Daddy-O’s — one of those retro 50s type diners. I love those kind of places and am satisfied with plain old burger and fries (well, bacon cheese burgers, medium and no pickle or mustard). Wifey isn’t much on burgers (or meat in general) but loves ice cream — especially milk shakes and malts.
Besides, they had a coupon in the “Reader” — so we braved the rain storm and trundled down to Point Loma for a new burger experience.
Visions of hot rods and the strains of rockabilly music danced in my head. I couldn’t wait to get there.
Daddy-O's Diner -- When People Still Went There
But when I did — it was all dark! We went up and peeked in the windows. All the fixtures were there but nobody was home. Then I noticed a sign on the window.
The restaurant had closed Oct. 30 — ten days after they ran a coupon in the “Reader.” What the sludge
What could we do? I was stoked for burgers and she was stoked for milkshakes, so we diverted our Cruisemobile for the Corvette Diner. Sure, it is over-run with kiddie parties and difficult to get good service at times, but darn it — we were gonna get our Retro on!
The evening turned out OK. The Corvette came through with good grub and good service. I had the “Blues Brothers” burger (a bacon cheeseburger with bleu cheese) and some onion rings, so the evening wasn’t a total loss.
But seriously, folks — the economy is so bad that even a modest little burger restaurant like Daddy-O’s is shutting its doors. It’s enough to make James Dean weep.