Holsem + a new mural & other forms of street art in North Park

The morning was still young...

before heading home, we made a stop at one of my favorite coffee shops in San Diego...

I noticed that the old Heaven Sent Desserts space was now called "Encontro" (after looking it up online at home, saw that it opened this very afternoon). Interesting to see how things have changed over the past half year.

Christmas wreaths are still on the North Park sign but it was the bright pop of color on the side of the building that got me excited. More on that later.

The beauty supply shop a few doors down from Holsem had an awesome colored wig display.



This reminded me of the now defunct Granada Wigs (corner of F and Park in downtown SD). They used to have amazing displays of these fantastical wigs (the kind the drag queens would wear) of all colors. Very Marie Antoinettesque.

But first coffee...

I was quite amused with these coffee bean filled ornaments...

I still dig their Eames chairs.

I noticed that they took out the tall painting that you used to see at the back wall (as you walked in). On the left, they added bench seating and moved the napkins, stirrers, sugars, etc to the counter.

Our trio of drinks plus a sweet treat:

Their pastries are now supplied by BakeSale once again (thank goodness):

Bert's The Woods:

TC's Coconut Cream tea:

My Cubano:


Compare to this:

(photo from my "Holsem revisits or trying to go through their whole menu" post, June 2015)

This isn't the best photo since we'd already taken a few sips of it, but the mint leaf had already sunk to the bottom.

Brown butter espresso muffin:


We only had a few bites of the edges.  It had a great coffee taste but was just too much to eat in one sitting.

We enjoyed all of our drinks. The Cubano was pretty potent but the Madagascar whipped vanilla was a nice frothy and cool topper for this drink.

Now back to that mural that we saw from afar earlier. I HAD to take some snaps of it, along with this aluminum Christmas tree at a nearby shop window.

We had to cross the street first. Poor TC.

Before we see the mural, let's look at this yelp photo of Safe House circa July 2015.

(photo from Nathan H on yelp)

And now this is what the north facing side of the building looks like. I was so excited to see this!



I wanted to take more photos of it from the left corner but there was a big truck and the driver was sitting there and just watching. I didn't feel comfortable and he was in my way so, sigh....These were the only shots I got that morning.  I am not sure who the artist is (didn't see any signatures) but plan to research online and post it once I find out.

Update - the artist is @maurodonate (his name on IG). He is the same artist who painted the lettered North Park mural on the side of a furniture store  on University. Judging from the hash tagged pix on IG, the Safehouse mural was put up 12 weeks ago.

A utility box on 29th near the Beauty Supply Warehouse, across from the Observatory and the other side of it:


More painted utility boxes along 29th...


Not as pretty as the previous one, but since it was a "set of three"...

Across from these painted utility boxes was a historic building which houses the North Park Theatre and the music venue The Observatory (since 2011):

I love the architecture. It reminds me of Arabian Nights with the finials and the arched door (the decorative one at the top).

I can't believe that Morissey performed here!  Shows here are also pretty affordable, as in $20 or less! That's what I used to remember paying for concerts back in the 80's. Nowadays, they're close to $100 and that's for the crappy seats too.

Around the corner from Starbucks is West Coast Tavern, where we had our 18th anniversary dinner a few years ago.

Even though it was only 9:30, TC needed to elevate her foot to reduce any residual swelling.

Who else went to Holsem:
Here is Kirbie's epic roundup from November 2015. She's tried almost all of the food/pastry items and specialty drinks.

Previous visit to Holsem:
"Coffee 'n ice cream @ Holsem and Hammond's for D" August 2015 (this post also links Mary's visit)

Previous post which features West Coast Tavern (housed in this same building):
"Anniversary dinner @ West Coast Tavern" July 2013

More info on The Observatory:
www.observatorysd.com + their fb page
+ article from SD Reader, Observatory, North Park, Jan. 6, 2015 (it has a great night time view of the front of the venue)

I wonder if Holsem will change up any of their drinks this year? They do have a great selection and I have to keep reminding myself that they can make any of their specialty drinks cold as well (you just won't get the latte art).  This is one of the few coffee shops that I know of that makes such imaginative drinks without any frou frou fake syrups. Anyhow, it was great to start of the year with excellent drinks from Holsem...