Friday, April 5, 2013

A Walk In Little Italy and Getting to Know the x100s

Little Italy in San Diego is an ethnic business and residential community established in the 1920's. Little Italy today represents Downtown San Diego's oldest continuous neighborhood business district. At one time more than 6,000 Italian families lived in Little Italy and toiled to build San Diego into the center of the world's tuna industry. With the decline in the tuna industry and the construction of Interstate 5, Little Italy saw steady decline for almost 30 years. I didn't know it was in decline. As I was growing up my family regularly shopped at the heart of Little Italy in markets on India St. The best Italian cheeses and meats couldn't be found anywhere in San Diego except Little Italy. In the early 90's shop owners decided to rally and make Little Italy stronger. Family run business joined hands with developers to promote the area. Things have changed over the past 20 years. There is still much new construction all around. The streets are bustling with life especially at night. The long time favorites are going strong and the addition of new places are showing Little Italy to be a modern urban neighborhood. It is always a favorite place for me to visit.
The famous sign. I imagine this sign has had more photos taken of it than any other landmark in San Diego
The deli here is where we used to always buy all of our antipasto for all holidays
Mona Lisa has won me over for deli goods now. Very similar place to Filippi's but someone just a notch above these days.


My friend Frank was nice enough to let me steal his idea for this shot. That is Frank holding his Fuji x100

The Burger Lounge has tasty burgers, fries, shakes, beer, and a pretty cool decor.

When you order you take this flag, put it in a gizmo on the table and when your order is ready they know where to deliver.


While I waited for my friends Frank and Heather to arrive I took a walk down to the Embarcadero. I uploaded a couple and more from the Little Italy walk-about. I'm trying to get a handle on this new Fuji x100s. It is completely different than anything I've used in the past. I love the form of the camera, now I just need to learn how to get the best from it. All the above shots were taken with it. Here is the link to more if you'd like to take a look. I don't pretend to know what I'm doing with this camera yet, but hopefully it'll come. Getting to know the Fuji x100s